U - L - T - R - A r e a l i t y . info
What's new?
| 08-02-22 | Yet more of the site is done -- the News and About pages are done, and now the Getting Started section is started on. |
| 08-01-22 | Filling out more of the site -- currently Contact is the other page in full operation but the next page to flesh out is the Links page. |
| 08-01-22 | Site launch! This won't be the final version, just a test run so I can finally put the domain to use. |
On the ground
Libraries and Utilities --strat has been developing an SD card reader library for flash cartridges as part of libcart. There's video of the library streaming in Super Mario 64 here, effectively making games as theoretically large as an SD card can be. Personally, I think that's a very exciting development, but I also wonder how complex a game can realistically be to take advantage of all the extra space. Especially with single developer projects. Still, I'd definitely be fine being proven wrong, I'd definitely love to see a 30 or 40 hour game be released on the console. I think the greatest single thing that this allows for though is much easier and faster development thanks to not needing to recompile for every single change.
You can find it here (HTTPS).
UNFLoader has been receiving plenty of love and attention recently, with maintainer Buu342 readying it for a new, updated 1.1 release. Improvements include scrolling the debug window for a thousand lines with the page keys, fixing the fake debug_printf in debug.h, adding automatic save detection for EverDrive ROM headers, and hitting the escape key to close the program.
New releases and demonstrations -- New! -- Updates to the Commander Keen ports by Ryzee119, using LibDragon's new rdpq rendering technique. You can find that here (HTTPS). Also, a port for Cosmo as well (HTTPS). These look like some pretty good DOS classics, now playable on your TV. If you're the kind of person not to use composite mode for your DOS games, that is. Seem very competently ported, with a smooth framerate (you'd hope so, they're 16-bit games!) and accurate looking physics.
New! -- Yoshi Commits Tax Fraud has gotten its final trailer. Link is here (HTTPS); it looks awesome! It's surprisingly feature-packed for a joke game, to the point I'm very excited to play it myself. Goes far beyond the base Super Mario 64 experience, it's the perfect example of a game that can only come out in these post-decompilation times.
James Lambert's Portal port is going well, with the portal visual effect coming through well on the hardware. It's looking to be shaping up to be a very competent version of Portal. Link here (HTTPS). Longer-form gameplay footage here (HTTPS).
Arthur Carvalho has made one of the most impressive demonstrations of the Ultra 64's sheer hardware potential I've ever seen by faking refraction convincingly, even the chromatic aberration of light through a lens. Highly recommended you check the video out here (HTTPS). This is a truly stunning display of the hardware's capabilities and I have to give a round of applause.
Remute has released a record on an Ultra 64 cartridge. The link to buy it is here (HTTPS). Seems to be pretty technoey stuff. This is pretty typical for Remute's style -- prior to this, there were records released on other cartridge formats -- like SNES and Game Boy.
Did you know?
| There are two pins on the cartridge that will directly mix into the audio stream, left and right channel. This has so far never been used. |
| Development on Turok began as early as 1993! |
| A 64DD disk has twelve randomly-placed blank sectors. Writing a disk without them doesn't seem to do anything, and so far nobody has been able to discern a purpose. Certainly, Yakumono, one of the foremost experts on the 64DD, doesn't so far have any ideas. |
