Awesome Video of Errata

August 8, 2008

Now, I realize that the "system specs" spewed forth in the above video were probably intentionally skewed so as to follow the whacky, 80s style zaniness, but as an uber nerd and somebody who's intimately familiar with NES hardware, I feel compelled to correct their errors.

Claim #1: 3.58Mhz video core clock speed
The NES video processor, a Ricoh 2C02 "Picture Processing Unit", or PPU, is actually clocked at 5.37Mhz. The CPU is exactly one third of this, or 1.79Mhz. The figure they're quoting is the timing of a color NTSC signal.

Claim #2: 240x226 resolution
The PPU actually worked with an internal resolution 256x240, though most old TVs did not display the first and last eight scanlines effectively making the resolution 256x224. This was the same for both NTSC and PAL models.

Claim #3: 16 sprite pixel depth
I don't even know where to begin on this one. Firstly, the NES had enough sprite RAM (object attribute memory, or OAM) for 64, 8x8 or 8x16 sprites. Secondly, every sprite could have three colors (four if you include transparency) from a palette of 53 colors. Every scanline could hae a maximum of eight sprites, and when this limit was exceeded some sprites were not drawn causing the infamous flicker. Finally, you could have a total of 25 colors per scanline. What the hell they were talking about to begin with baffles me, but there were no 16s involved there at all. Except maybe that internal 16-bit PPU register that could be written to through dual writes to address $2006....

Claim #4: NES has a Zilog Z80 processor
This one's easy. The NES did not have a Z80. It had a Ricoh 2A03, which was a 6502 without decimal mode and a set of sound instructions. The Gameboy, however, had a Z80 and the Sega Genesis used one as its sound processor.

Claim #5 It's an 8-bit system
Well, that's about the only thing they got right. Though, the system did have a 16-bit address bus....

Well, I'm finished. I'm sure somewhere God has smote a kitten for my nerdy rantingness, but it had to be said and I said it. Caio.

Holy crap!

August 11, 2007

As you may recall a few months back Ireleased unto the world my envisioning of an NES Guitar Hero commercial. If I recall correctly I complained about directing my younger brothers in the video. Well, I guess I can quit complaining... because now they're international movie stars!



This is taken from the pages of Ngamer Magazine (Brazil Edition) and was kindly sent in by YouTuber, muzinfa (thanks, bro). It's quite awesome that somebody was tickled enough to put it in their publication but the fact that it also crossed the language barrier is doubley sweet.

Guitar Hero for the NES

May 9, 2007

This is the subject of my new faux commercial. Joe and Steve are the stars this time and it thrilled them to death. However, I can see where directing little kids in movies can be a pain in the ass. If you notice they're constantly looking at the camera. Ugh. I tried to caputre the feel of a standard commercial you'd see on Nickelodeon, but the flow feels a little off. However, on the whole, I'm definitely pleased with the effects shots (I did all of them, including the last one). One thing that'll be good about Full Sail will be all the professional tools at my disposal. But, enough banter, here's the video:

Vwaooo!

July 18, 2006

50 points for the person (who is not related to me) that can say where "vwaooo" comes from.

Anyways, I have good news! And, no, I didn't save a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. No, it seems that my laptop has FINALLY been repaired (going on over a month now, I believe). From the repair center: "repaired- replaced fl inverter, fixed latch,and cleaned heatsink,very". It seems I got everything I asked for and thensome, though the heatsink was very what? Very big? Very sexy? Very... whatever?! I dunno.

Over the weekend I finally managed to snag that which I have been seeking my entire life. The very purpose of man's existance. The driving force of all creatures... a Super Nintendo Entertainment System!! (in box, even). Of course, no SNES is complete without the greatest game ever made... FINAL FANTASY VI!!! Ah, the sweet, sweet days of care free gaming, when all was right in the world.... it's a pity those days are gone.

Ah, well. I shall be off with sweet dreams of snes's and laptops in my head :-)

It's been a while

June 9, 2006

Save the comic posts and podcast it's been a little bit since I've written anything. So I guess I'll start by dropping this bomb: Hi.

Yesterday, as many know, I turned the magical 20. I can't even be called a teenager anymore, so basically all my ties with kiddom have been severed. Though, that hasn't stopped me from watching a cartoon I used to tune in to religously every morning: The Super Mario Super Show. The show itself actually isn't all the bad once you get past the fact that Bowser was named King Koopa back then and that the live action stuff oozes 80s. *sniff* It was a golden age.

Back to the present, however, I've been considering selling off my old NES collection and buying a used Xbox off eBay. The way I see it, not only would I be able to play Halo 2, but I'd probably soft-mod the thing and then I could run the stuff on emulator (of games I own, mind you). Also, I could use the all powerful Xbox Media Center (XBMC). The more I read about the thing the more I drool. It'll play basically any video/audio file you feed from anywhere (including the network). Talk about sweet justice.

In work related news, not much new. However, I believe I am going to become a lowly cart pusher. Now I know there are some questions on your mind, namely: But isn't that cut in pay? Won't you bake out in the sun? I wonder if this candy bar I found under the couch is still edible? The answers are yes, yes and you'll probably die if you eat it. Actually, three little words sum things up: shorts and free gatorade (wait, that's four...) But, I digress. I've always had more fun outside than inside and being stuck behind the register drives me insane (mainly the not moving part). I need to be moving and doing something. Take now for instance. My fingers are moving all over the place whilst my lazy butt relaxes in bed.

Well, I suppose I'll get to bed now. I'll try to have the comic finished and posted before I go to work tomorrow, otherwise look for it in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Latest Entries

• I've been killed!
• Building a Web-based Media Player - Part 1
• We bring you... dxprog media!
• From the Orlando Anime Festival
• Speed Cubing
• Awesome Video of Errata
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