CPSC 86: Schedule

teaching

CPSC 86

Games Systems: Platforms, Programs & Power (F2026)

week	date	topics	readings	pattern	work assigned
1 PLATFORM STUDIES (listen ahead)	8/31/2026	course introduction	syllabus; RtB and 10P forewards		10 PRINT
	9/1/2026	hello TIC-80; 10 PRINT; snake	TIC-80 tutorials; Pippin Barr's snakisms; 1D Games		hello tic 80
	9/3/2026	platform study: `10: PRINT`	10P 1–242; VIC20 and C64 emulators		REMAKE: reimagine an early game
2 HACKING SYSTEMS "Programming as Forgetting" by Parrish	9/7/2026	LABOR DAY
	9/8/2026	hacking; remaking; demaking	"Hacker" by Coleman; read about, download & play a demake of Halo; "Searching Internet Archive"; TIC-80 memory map and file format
	9/10/2026	before atari: arcade & mainframe: Tennis for Two; Pong; Breakout; OXO; SpaceWar [src]	RtB 1–11; A Video Game by Any Other Name; Pixels in Print part 1 and part 2; "The Gender Binary of Computing: Challenging Sexism in Technology" by Zalkikar	component (keith)
3 GAMES AT HOME "Jerry Lawson: The Engineer Who Changed the Game"	9/14/2026	collision detection	vectors & driving tutorials; map		TIC-80 mini-lab
	9/15/2026	combat [src] & video olympics	RtB 12–42; "Untold Story of the Game Cartridge"; Atari ch 2–5
	9/17/2026	mos 6502; hardware; adventure [src]	RtB Ch. 3; "Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture"; Atari Ch. 6	game loop ()
4 ATARI 2600 "High Score 1"	9/21/2026	6502 ASM & stella	6502 tutorial; how to hack a rom (battlezone) tutorial; 10P 195–242; run it!; Atari Ch. 1		stella/6502
	9/22/2026	pac-man; sprites	RtB Ch. 4; Atari Ch. 7-9; distellamap	double buffer()	HACK: modify an existing 2600 game
	9/24/2026	REMAKE W_I_P POSTER			play-testing
5 ATARI 2600 II "High Score 2"	9/28/2026	HACK/REMAKE Workshop
	2/29/2026	yars revenge; asteroids; input	RtB Ch. 5; Atari Ch. 10-13	update method ()
	10/1/2026	pitfall [src]; procedural graphics; river raid [src]	RtB Ch. 6; Atari Ch. 29 & 30	state ()
6 SIMULATION & EMULATION I "Atari Game Over"	10/5/2026	E.T.; bank switching	"Was E.T. Really the 'Worst Game Ever'?" & fixing E.T. Atari Ch. 35 & 17		fixing E.T.
	10/6/2026	star wars; pressure cooker; sound	RtB Ch. 7; Atari Ch. 31 –33; scene management tutorial	singleton ()
	10/7/2026	emulation; timers	"Use of a Game Over: Emulation and the Video"; RtB Ch. 8; particles	flyweight ()
7 BREAK	10/12/2026	FALL BREAK
	10/13/2026
	10/14/2026
7 HACK THE MAGIC CIRCLE "American Hysteria #Gamergate"	10/19/2026	HACK WORKSHOP
	10/20/2026	entombed (mazes); wabbit;	"Pioneer Rediscovered: The Woman who Brought Female Representation to Games"; "Entombed: An archaeological examination of an Atari 2600 game"	command ()
	10/21/2026	slack
9 NES/FAMICOM I "Story Behind Super Mario Bros. 3"	10/26/2026	pattern & name table	NES 1–53		10 print NES remake
	10/27/2026	nintendo; donkey kong	Error 1–79	prototype ()
	10/29/2026	NES	Error 81–115; NES 55–62; signal	lazy initialization ()	DEMAKE: back-port a current game to the NES
10 NES/FAMICOM II Tetris Movie	11/2/2026	pattern & name table	NES 1–53; Super Mario Clouds & I Shot Andy Warhol; "NES Memory Visualization" and plots		10 print NES remake
	11/3/2026	SMB [src]; scrolling	Error 116–162; NES 63–68; 75–82	observer ()
	11/4/2026	storage; vram buffers; zelda [src]	Error 163–196	event queue ()
11 SOUND Reliving Nintendo Soundtracks with the Brickster	11/9/2026	sprites & sound	NES 69–73; sound tutorial		pong NES remake
	11/10/2026	2A03; mega man	Error 249–288; "The Women Who Invented Video Game Music"; NES 93–108;	object pool ()
	11/12/2026	scrolling; climber	NES 117–156;	thread pool ()
12 EXPANSION archiving & game genie	11/16/2026	DEMAKE WORKSHOP
	11/17/2026	emulation II; expansion; mappers	dragon quest; game genie; Error 197–248; NES 147-162	dirty flag ()	MAKE: create a new 8-bit game (2600/NES/TIC80)
	11/19/2026	tetris; 6502 ASM reprised; interrupts	tetris AI; NES 163-223; "34 years later, a 13-year-old hits the NES Tetris 'kill screen'"	spatial partition ()
13 SIMULATION & EMULATION II "The Turing Problem"	11/23/2026	DEMAKE WORKSHOP
	11/24/2026	simulation; civilization; simcity	"Modeling Indigenous Peoples: Unpacking Ideology in Sid Meier's Colonization"; "Model Metroplis"; "Recovering Nintendo's Lost Simcity for the NES"	service locator ()
	11/26/2026	THANKSGIVING
13 SIMULATION & EMULATION II "American Hysteria #Gamergate"	11/30/2026	DEMAKE WORKSHOP
	12/1/2026	DEMAKE W_I_P POSTER			play-testing
	12/3/2026	randomizers; TAS	"How 'randomizers' are breathing new life into old games"; Error 289–324	bytecode ()
15 NEW DIRECTIONS "Dr. Gladys West: The Mathematician Who Reshaped Our World"	12/7/2026	MAKE WORKSHOP
	12/8/2026	proto-VR	"Unraveling The Enigma Of Nintendo's Virtual Boy"; "The Story of the Power Glove"; "Sega VR Revived"; course evals; mediator	data locality (keith)
16 FINAL	12/TBD/2026	FINAL MAKE PRESENTATIONS

Keith J. O'Hara

teaching

Games Systems: Platforms, Programs & Power (F2026)