teaching
CMSC 335
Games Systems: Platforms, Programs & Power (S2021)
overview | logistics | schedule | assignments | github | resourcesTentative Schedule (changes frequently)
| week | date | topics | readings | work assigned |
| 1 HACKING SYSTEMS "Programming as Forgetting" by Parrish | 2/2/2021 | course introduction | syllabus | TIC-80 Github "Hello World!" |
| 2/5/2021 | hacking; remaking; demaking | "Hacker" by Coleman; read about & play a demake of Halo; TIC-80 Tutorial | TIC-80 10 PRINT | |
| 2 POWERFUL BASIC PROGRAMS "The Real World of Technology" by Franklin | 2/9/2021 | platform study: 10: PRINT | 10P pp. 1–155; vic-20 emulator | Oregon Trail/Eliza Hack/Remake |
| 2/12/2021 | BASIC games | 10P pp. 157–195; 209–242; 261–270; ELIZA by Weizenbuam (lisp); BASIC ELIZA (source); Oregon Trail (source); Apple II version & backstory; "The Gender Binary of Computing: Challenging Sexism in Technology" by Zalkikar | ||
| 3 TURING'S MACHINES "The Turing Problem" | 2/16/2021 | simulation; emulation; automata I | Excel Turing Machines; Game of Life; snowflakes | Turing/Turmite |
| 2/19/2021 | computers | wireworld & computers | ||
| 4 VIDEO GAMES @ HOME "Jerry Lawson: The Engineer Who Changed the Game" | 2/23/2021 | before atari | SpaceWar (source); A Video Game by Any Other Name; Pixels in Print part 1 and part 2 | Atari hack/remake/demake |
| 2/26/2021 | platform study: Atari 2600 | RtB pp. 1–42; "Untold Story of the Game Cartridge"; 10P pp. 158–208; run it! | ||
| 5 6502 "High Score 1 & 2" | 3/2/2021 | assembly | easy 6502 tutorial | snake |
| 3/5/2021 | chips | 6502 visualization; "Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture" by Nakamura; "The story of the team behind the chip that launched a revolution" by Wil Mathys and Sydney Anne Holt | ||
| 3/5/2021 | guest speaker @ 7PM | |||
| 6 ATARI PLATFORM STUDIES "Atari Game Over" | 3/9/2021 | E.T. | "Was E.T. Really the 'Worst Game Ever'?" & fixing ET; stella debugger | |
| 3/12/2021 | Adventure; Pacman; Pitfall; Donkey King; Bezerk; Yars Revenge; Missile Command; Grand Prix; Hangman; Montezuma's Revenge | |||
| 7 | 3/16/2021 | RESPITE DAYS | ||
| 3/19/2021 | ||||
| 8 MAKING GAMES "American Hysteria #Gamergate" |
3/23/2021 | memory; guest speaker | "See No Evil" by Posner; "NES Memory Visualization" and plots; distellamap; TIC-80 memory map and file format | poke challenge |
| 3/26/2021 | maps | "Game Workers of the World Unite: an Interview with an Anonymous; tilings; TIC-80 maps; TIC-80 camera | ||
| 9 ART Reliving Nintendo Soundtracks with the Brickster |
3/30/2021 | graphics | Super Mario Clouds & I Shot Andy Warhol; Arcangel Interview; Blit Segment; BITBLT | |
| 4/2/2021 | sound; guest speaker | "The Women Who Invented Video Game Music"; sound tutorial | ||
| 10 EMULATION & ARCHIVING archiving & game genie |
4/6/2021 | emulators | "Use of a Game Over: Emulation and the Video"; "Searching Internet Archive" | final project |
| 4/9/2021 | randomizers | "How 'randomizers' are breathing new life into old game" | ||
| 11 SIMULATION "A Rant About 'Technology'" |
4/13/2021 | sim city | "Model Metroplis"; Recovering Nintendo's Lost Simcity for the NES" | bardtroplis systems dynamics |
| 4/16/2021 | modeling | "Modeling Indigenous Peoples: Unpacking Ideology in Sid Meier's Colonization" | design pattern poster | |
| 12 ARCHITECTURE |
4/20/2021 | entity-component system | Game Patterns; Component; Data Locality | |
| 4/23/2021 | design pattern poster: Command; Flyweight; Observer; Protoype; Singleton; State; Double Buffer; Game Loop; Update Method; Bytecode; Subclass Sandbox; Type Object; Event Queue; Service Locator; Dirty Flag; Object Pool; Spatial Partition | |||
| 13 WORKSHOP |
4/27/2021 | project days | ||
| 4/30/2021 | ||||
| 14 WIP |
5/4/2021 | ADVISING DAY | ||
| 5/7/2021 | works in progress | |||
| 15 NEW DIRECTIONS "Dr. Gladys West: The Mathematician Who Reshaped Our World" |
5/11/2021 | mobile | "Mobile Frontiers" by Fickle | |
| 5/14/2021 | proto-VR | "Sega VR Revived"; "The Story of the Power Glove" | ||
| 16 PLATFORM STUDIES |
5/18/2021 | FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS | ||
| 5/21/2021 | COMPLETION WEEK | |||
| 17 | 5/25/2021 | |||