teaching
CPSC 91S
Games Systems: Platforms, Programs & Power (F2024)
overview | logistics | schedule | edstem | assignments | resourcesTentative Schedule (changes frequently)
| week | date | topics | readings | pattern | work assigned |
| 1 PLATFORM STUDIES (listen ahead) |
9/03/2024 | course introduction | syllabus; RtB and 10P forewards | 10 PRINT | |
| 9/05/2024 | platform study: 10: PRINT | 10P 1–242; VIC20 and C64 emulators | |||
| 2 HACKING SYSTEMS "Programming as Forgetting" by Parrish |
9/09/2024 | hello TIC-80; 10 PRINT; snake | TIC-80 tutorials; Pippin Barr's snakisms; 1D Games | tic 80 platform study | |
| 9/10/2024 | hacking; remaking; demaking | "Hacker" by Coleman; read about, download & play a demake of Halo; "Searching Internet Archive"; TIC-80 memory map and file format | REMAKE: reimagine an early game | ||
| 9/12/2024 | before atari: arcade & mainframe: Tennis for Two; Pong; Breakout; OXO; SpaceWar (source) | 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) | HACK: modify an existing 2600 game | |
| 3 GAMES AT HOME "Jerry Lawson: The Engineer Who Changed the Game" |
9/16/2024 | 6502 ASM & stella | 6502 tutorial; how to hack a rom (battlezone) tutorial; Atari 1–31; 10P 195–242; run it! | stella/snake | |
| 9/17/2024 | combat [src] & video olympics | RtB 12–42; "Untold Story of the Game Cartridge" | game loop (kboonko1) | ||
| 9/19/2024 | mos 6502; hardware; adventure | RtB 43-63; "Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture" | double buffer (cdawes1, relkon1) | ||
| 4 ATARI 2600 "High Score 1" |
9/23/2024 | collision detection | vectors & driving tutorials | TIC-80 mini-lab | |
| 9/24/2024 | pac-man; sprites | RtB 65–79; Atari 31–53; distellamap | update method (rrajama1, lsuresh1) | ||
| 9/26/2024 | yars revenge; asteroids; input | RtB 82–97; Atari 71–98 | command (schai1, idiaz1) | ||
| 5 ATARI 2600 II "High Score 2" |
09/30/2024 | E.T.; bank switching | "Was E.T. Really the 'Worst Game Ever'?" & fixing E.T. Atari 195–201 | fixing E.T. | |
| 10/01/2024 | pitfall; procedural graphics; river raid | RtB 99-117; Atari 155–164 | state (nbaldev1, nbrobbe1) | ||
| 10/03/2024 | star wars; pressure cooker; sound | RtB 119–135; Atari 171–184 | singleton (aobiora1, okhan1) | ||
| 6 SIMULATION & EMULATION I "Atari Game Over" |
10/07/2024 | HACK/REMAKE WORKSHOP | |||
| 10/8/2024 | emulation; state; particles | scene management tutorial; "Use of a Game Over: Emulation and the Video"; RtB 137–150 | flyweight (psharma1, sxi1) | ||
| 10/10/2024 | entombed (mazes); wabbit; timers | "Pioneer Rediscovered: The Woman who Brought Female Representation to Games"; "Entombed: An archaeological examination of an Atari 2600 game"; timers | prototype (sbyun1, skim9) | ||
| 7 | 10/14/2024 | FALL BREAK | |||
| 10/15/2024 | |||||
| 10/16/2024 | |||||
| 8 HACK THE MAGIC CIRCLE "American Hysteria #Gamergate" |
10/21/2024 | REMAKE/HACK WORKSHOP | |||
| 10/22/2024 | REMAKE W_I_P POSTER | play-testing | |||
| 10/24/2024 | nintendo; donkey kong | Error 1–79 | lazy initialization (kjuarez1, lloisea1, zamjad1) | ||
| 9 NES/FAMICOM I "Story Behind Super Mario Bros. 3" |
10/28/2024 | HACK/REMAKE | |||
| 10/29/2024 | NES | Error 81–115; NES 55–62; signal | observer (kasakaw1, thaeger1, tsallie1) | DEMAKE: back-port a current game to the NES | |
| 10/31/2024 | SMB [src]; scrolling | Error 116–162; NES 63–68; 75–82 | dirty flag (jliss1, mmartin5) | ||
| 10 NES/FAMICOM II Tetris Movie |
11/04/2024 | pattern & name table | NES 1–53; Super Mario Clouds & I Shot Andy Warhol; "NES Memory Visualization" and plots | 10 print NES remake | |
| 11/05/2024 | storage; vram buffers; zelda [src] | Error 163–196 | event queue (zcrawfo1, jmchenr1) | ||
| 11/07/2024 | controls | NES 69–84 | |||
| 11 SOUND Reliving Nintendo Soundtracks with the Brickster |
11/11/2024 | sprites & sound | NES 83–116; sound tutorial | pong NES remake | |
| 11/12/2024 | 2A03; mega man | Error 249–288; "The Women Who Invented Video Game Music"; | thread pool (jgallar1, vsumano1) | ||
| 11/14/2024 | climber | NES 117–146 | object pool (dburger1, jstump2) | ||
| 12 EXPANSION archiving & game genie |
11/18/2024 | mappers and interrupts | NES 147-167 | ||
| 11/19/2024 | emulation II; expansion | dragon quest; game genie; Error 197–248 | spatial partition (dchong1, mfeseha1) | MAKE: create a new 8-bit game (2600/NES/TIC80) | |
| 11/20/2024 | randomizers; TAS | "How 'randomizers' are breathing new life into old games"; Error 289–324 | bytecode (bgottli1, kwang4) | ||
| 13 SIMULATION & EMULATION II "The Turing Problem" |
11/25/2024 | tetris; 6502 ASM reprised | tetris AI; NES 171-223; "34 years later, a 13-year-old hits the NES Tetris 'kill screen'" | tetris | |
| 11/26/2024 | 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(zyao1, zyou1) | ||
| 11/28/2024 | THANKSGIVING | ||||
| 14 NEW DIRECTIONS "Dr. Gladys West: The Mathematician Who Reshaped Our World" |
12/02/2024 | DEMAKE WORKSHOP | |||
| 12/03/2024 | DEMAKE W_I_P POSTER | play-testing | |||
| 12/05/2024 | mobile; pokemon | "Mobile Frontiers" by Fickle; Error 325–331 | type object (mkumbon1, kmavera1) | ||
| 15 PATTERNS REPRISE |
12/09/2024 | advanced lua; turmites; game of life | lua objects; wireworld; Game of Life; Turmites | data locality (keith) | make workshop |
| 12/10/2024 | proto-VR | "Sega VR Revived"; "Unraveling The Enigma Of Nintendo's Virtual Boy"; "The Story of the Power Glove"; early presentations; course evals; mediator | publish/subscribe (fcantor1, nphilli2) | ||
| 16 FINAL |
12/17/2024 | FINAL MAKE PRESENTATIONS (7-10PM) | |||