http://www.zipplet.co.uk/ News articles from Zipplet's Stuff en-gb Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:12:24 +0000 Copyright: (c) Michael Nixon 2006 http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=25zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)my low-cost 60MHz 8-digit frequency counter a welcome addition to the hobbyist lab. It is cheap and easy to build, and gives good accuracy even without calibration!



I know the writeup is not finished yet, I need to draw a schematic and such but for now, enjoy.

Edited by zipplet on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 at 22:35 UTC]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=25&fromrssThu, 19 Nov 2009 22:18:02 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=24zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)USB powered headphone amplifer to the electronics projects section.



This is a good amplifier that can be built at a very reasonable cost. You can easily adapt it to run from batteries or a different power supply if you want to use it for a different purpose. Enjoy

Edited by zipplet on Thu, 19th Nov 2009 at 23:30 UTC]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=24&fromrssTue, 10 Nov 2009 18:55:20 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=23zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)

• Sega Megadrive (Version 1) Digital Multi-region Switch
  
• Megadrive 1 PAL 60 modification
  

After applying both, not only will your megadrive play games from all regions but it will be able to output a valid PAL signal in 60hz modes through composite and RF, so you do not need an expensive RGB cable! I did not find instructions for that anywhere on the Internet so I believe I may be the first for the PAL 60 composite mod.

Please give it a try and let me know what you think.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=23&fromrssFri, 30 Oct 2009 07:48:10 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=22zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
This also solves a problem some TVs have with modified PAL megadrives running in 60hz mode with RGB cables due to the bad composite signal that is also being fed into the TV.

Details coming soon once I write it up!]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=22&fromrssWed, 28 Oct 2009 21:13:26 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=20zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)


I am rewriting it for high accuracy right now using new knowledge I have of how the NES works. Once I'm done accuracy should be among the best of all NES emulators.

That's too long to wait for you say? What about the old version that worked even though it wasn't perfect?
You can download it here!

Make sure you check the zipNES project page for updates, and my blog.

Edited by zipplet on Sat, 28th Mar 2009 at 03:02 UTC

Edited by zipplet on Sun, 29th Mar 2009 at 16:26 BST]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=20&fromrssSat, 28 Mar 2009 03:00:58 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=19zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)

FTDIclass is an FTDI class library for delphi - providing easy access to the FTDI chip D2XX driver. Easy to use classes are provided to create applications rapidly, and there is even built-in support for asynchronous events (D2XX does not implement them but FTDIclass does). All control signals and FTDI features will be supported eventually.

Currently windows only and only tested with the FT232R (USB to serial) as this is an early project.

The currently included example works with the UM232R evaluation module and even demonstrates basic asynchronous comms!

See the project page on google code.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=19&fromrssSun, 08 Mar 2009 13:14:03 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=18zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
(hides something he wants to put on this site) ]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=18&fromrssTue, 01 Jul 2008 12:12:54 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=17zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)http://home.dataforce.org.uk/ ) deserves a huge thank you for hosting my website for the past few years, and for paying for my domain when I was unable to do so before I had a job.

A big thank you to Dataforce who continues to host this site even today with much better uptime + service than I could have ever expected. His server will also be running the ZSIC system when it goes live (which wont be until the PPC project progresses a lot more). Without his support this would be impossible as I would be unable to run a system like this with a normal webhost. Now to make something good of it and push on with PPC!

Cheers!

His AuthGate system deserves another mention as it now supports OpenID. As Zipplet's Stuff supports AuthGate authentication, you can now login to Zipplet's Stuff using OpenID! This is mostly pointless now as there is nothing to do once you login but it will be useful later on.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=17&fromrssSat, 10 May 2008 11:29:37 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=15zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
I've been doing a lot of work with PIC microcontrollers recently and I'm currently working on my universal memory programmer, which is a precursor to a lot of other projects I want to work on. This, work and a social life are taking quite a bit of my time so I'm afraid I don't have much to update this site with for a little while.

It'll be worth it when I do, though

I will be releasing the designs for my electronics projects openly so others can reproduce them. However, the software might not be open, I'm not sure yet.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=15&fromrssSat, 08 Mar 2008 12:42:16 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=14zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
Not only is Pokemon a very difficult game to clone perfectly, it also contains an immense amount of data for the maps and such. This is not trivial to put in quickly for me, remember PPC is mostly a one-guy project (me) so I'm doing the programming, the majority of the design, the map editing, all of the debugging, tool programming (e.g. map editors) and I am even using my own multimedia API.

I will be looking out for some serious testers, probably by the end of Q2 2008. Game freak have an entire team of people working on their own games, and it still takes them a couple years.

Remember deadlines CAN STILL SLIP as I have personal commitments, I'll try my best though. I may also have to make adjustments to my LightX multimedia API as the project progresses, as this will be the first real use it has (other than the PTA engine demo).

• November 2007: Basic map editing functions complete, map engine work started, game core drawn up.
  
• December 2007: Player can navigate maps to some extent. First video to youtube.
  
• Q1, 2008: Script compiler, interpreter - script functions for world map. Full engine state keeping. Battle engine work. Full night/day transitions and weather effects anywhere on the map with the dynamic weather system. Second video to youtube.
  
• Q2, 2008: Well under way - battle system working properly with many attacks, gyms and suchlike too. 33-50% of the first region data complete. Battle animations may be missing. An early test version may be released.
  
• Q3, 2008: 75%-80% of first region data complete. Main storyline complete. Early beta version to testers invited. ZSIC service working; allowing trading and chat atleast.
  
• Q4, 2008: First region complete including first ending. Public version released of the first part of the game. ZSIC service fully operational.
  

When the project is further I'll put up a page for it on this site and keep an up to date milestone/deadline list there.

To keep up to date with major announcements about PPC, I suggest subscribing to the site news RSS feed, and perhaps the blog feed too. If you use Opera or Firefox, you should see an RSS subscription alert in your browser. I will be setting up a site especially for PPC when it's nearing completion.

Edit: Pokemon PC on the Pokemon Fan Game Wiki

Edited by zipplet on Thu, 11th Oct 2007 at 12:33 BST]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=14&fromrssThu, 11 Oct 2007 10:52:31 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=13zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
What happened to PTA? Some have asked. It's currently paused so that I can work on PPC. Why? PPC is something I've wanted to do for a very long time, since back when the original Pokemon blue/red versions were released for the Gameboy. So it holds more interest for me, and a higher priority.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=13&fromrssFri, 05 Oct 2007 09:14:36 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=12zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
As the URLs for the permalinks have changed, your RSS reader may show many feed items again even though you have already read them. This should not happen again in the future.

Edited by zipplet on Tue, 12th Jun 2007 at 12:33 BST]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=12&fromrssTue, 12 Jun 2007 11:33:24 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=11zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)Check out this video of a little something I'm working on as an intermediate to PPC.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=11&fromrssMon, 04 Jun 2007 19:19:59 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=10zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)Here is such a review (warning: NSFW). Anyway, Medal of honour: Underground (the GBA version!) is far worse. So bad, that I want to give it my own harsh video review.

Do you have a copy of this horrible game (remember, the GBA version) that you'd like to get rid of? I promise I'll destroy it in a fun way and record the video - and put it at the end of my review. It will be put up on youtube (and the link put on my site). Please get in contact with me if you do (see the Contact page for details).]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=10&fromrssSat, 26 May 2007 23:43:00 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=9zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=9&fromrssThu, 05 Apr 2007 14:53:00 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=8zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)

I've decided to open up my own file formats, including new ones. For those programmers interested, head on over to Open formats for the documentation. It's not polished, but it should be a lot better than reverse engineering the formats yourself As of now, those formats aren't very useful, but they will be once I release some games.

LightX (my eventually cross platform game library) is under development again. PPLI used a very very early version which, to put it bluntly, sucked. It's being rewritten and will finally support hardware acceleration. The new design for LightX also specifies a framework for creating a game window and controlling it in a cross platform way, so games written using LightX should just compile right away on any of the supported platforms with no modification. Once it's working I'll finally be able to get PPC (pokemon PC) to do something interesting!

On another note, I've been asked to be the programmer for a very interesting project alongside PPC - which is smaller than PPC - I'll release more details once it actually works. Some people have gotten sick of me announcing stuff I have no screenshots or demos of so I'm not providing more details until then.

Edited by zipplet on Fri, 2nd Mar 2007 at 10:32 GMT]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=8&fromrssFri, 02 Mar 2007 10:26:33 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=7zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)Neutron NMS page for more information.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=7&fromrssFri, 29 Dec 2006 11:34:20 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=6zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)

• Tetris XP - this was originally a test program but I decided to release it for fun.
  
• PPLI final alpha - this was going to be a full featured puyo clone. I've released a demo of the first engine (the bad one) for fun.
  

There you go.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=6&fromrssSat, 04 Nov 2006 14:12:01 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=5zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
I am pleased to announce that I am working on a pokemon fan game. It's not going to be like the other attempts that I've seen which are usually made using tools such as RPG maker. Although some of them do look playable, in my opinion none of them are faithful enough, and none of them capture Satoshi's spirit of game design. For those of you that are interested, check out the Pokemon Fan Game Wiki to look at some other peoples attempts at pokemon fangames.

This fan game is being written 100% from scratch in Delphi - so yes I'm also writing the game engine and editing/resource tools. It's a very large project and it will take a considerable amount of effort to pull off, so don't expect anything too quickly. As I said before in my blog, I aim to have something within 12 months.

Details I will reveal now:

• 2 game variations to play (just like the original games are red/blue, gold/silver, ruby/sapphire).
  
• Realtime night/day transitions.
  
• Realtime weather effects, anywhere on the map.
  
• 4 regions. One new region which I will not reveal yet, Hoenn, Johto and Kanto.
  
• Very large map designs are possible in this engine. Expect the new region to be quite large.
  
• Authentic battle engine, including 2on2 battles.
  
• Plenty of surprises and new features never before seen in any official pokemon game - revealing these later.
  
• Online trading and battling.
  

And last but not least: I am inviting you to help me improve this project. How? If you have any ideas - things you'd really like to see in a pokemon game including possible storyline twists, then please email me them. However I will NOT be adding in fan made pokemon, so don't ask. I'll also accept sprite sheets - and even new graphics if you'd like to give it a try. If I use any of your ideas or graphics you will be credited in the game. Thanks

I have a lot more ideas and plans than I have revealed here so don't be alarmed if you submit an idea and I've already thought of it!

If you do email me, please include "Pokemon PC" in the subject - this will help to prevent it being filtered as spam.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=5&fromrssFri, 13 Oct 2006 17:30:15 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=4zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=4&fromrssTue, 10 Oct 2006 12:35:00 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=3zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)projects of the past continued - another boring installment!

Now to work on some real content...]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=3&fromrssMon, 11 Sep 2006 13:08:10 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=2zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)YES, I am actually updating my site often now. I finished the first of a multi-part (there will be more) series of articles called Projects of the past - where I write about old projects that have been abandoned or slipped into inactivity.

I think it might be interesting for someone, and it means atleast someone other than me will know about them.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=2&fromrssWed, 06 Sep 2006 22:18:56 +0000http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=1zipplet@zipplet.co.uk (zipplet)
You can sign up for user accounts but they don't yet have much of a use - so you might want to wait. They are mainly for use with the ZSIC service which is currently not operational.

There is a new blog section, for me to post rantings and sillyness that should not really go on the front page. Take a look if you feel like it but don't blame me for any stupidity you find there!

RSS feeds are now available for both the news and blog pages - firefox and opera will show RSS feed icons and allow you to subscribe. For those of you who want to use the feeds with a seperate reader, the URLs are as follows:

http://www.zipplet.co.uk/rssnews.php - news RSS feed
http://www.zipplet.co.uk/rssblog.php - blog RSS feed

I will try to keep the site live while I add features in the future.]]>http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/news/?id=1&fromrssMon, 04 Sep 2006 19:17:05 +0000