VinceH's Miscellany – Random gibberings

‘Tis the season to watch horror

November 30, 2024November 30, 2024 VinceH

Tra-lala-lala… lala-la-la If you know me well, you’ll know I don’t ‘do’ Christmas – and you’ll know why. If you don’t, it’s because Christmas is a religious festival and I’m not just a non-believer, I also have a very strong dislike of religion in general, with a particular distaste for Christianity and its variations – the very religion that Christmas is a key part of. As such, for me Christmas is a period where the society in which I live becomes very annoying, and I like to switch off from…

Updating Drop Rock part 3 – a long overdue catch up

September 1, 2024September 1, 2024 VinceH

Having commented back in December 2022 that I was about to start updating one of my old games, Drop Rock, and a few days later about the first changes I made as part of that process… I have completely failed to write further on the topic, even though more changes have been made.

Putting on the old walking boots again

August 10, 2024August 10, 2024 VinceH

Or, in fact, forgetting to put them on. Something I used to do on a semi-regular basis was to wander off for a short hike – usually somewhere within a reasonably easy drive of home, such as the Brecon Beacons or down towards Wiltshire. If I was heading off for the weekend, I’d go somewhere further such as Dartmoor, and if I was off for a little longer I’d likely head towards the Cornish coast or to the Lake District.

The Eurovision 2024 tweets – raw and not annotated

May 12, 2024May 12, 2024 VinceH

It was Eurovision 2024 yesterday, and as has now become something of a tradition for me, I watched it with Twitter open and a ready supply of cider – thus becoming increasingly under the influence of cider as the evening rolled on and commenting on Twitter.

Things that get thumped in the night

March 23, 2024March 23, 2024 VinceH

Well, almost, anyway. I’ve previously mentioned that I’m a keen reader and watcher of science fiction and horror. The horror box in particular can cover a wide range of subject matter, and encompasses good old supernatural shenanigans. And this post is about just that – the supernatural.

Kitchen sink chaos

January 28, 2024January 28, 2024 VinceH

I had a few things I needed to get done this weekend, and one thing (or a set of things, time permitting) I particularly wanted to do. That was to export the new draft graphics for Drop Rock as bitmaps, and convert them to RISC OS sprites. That in turn would have allowed me to update the game code in order to try it out with the new (larger) tiles, take some screen grabs and post an update about that.

The good, the bad, and the annoying

January 1, 2024January 1, 2024 VinceH

Not for the first time – and probably not for the last – I’ve allowed my personal blog to gather dust for a while. It’s been a little over a year since my last post, on 21st December 2022, the second post in which I talk about what I’m doing with Drop Rock, one of my old games.

Updating Drop Rock part 2 – the change to 1920×1080

December 21, 2022December 21, 2022 VinceH

In part one of this series, I gave a little background on Drop Rock, one of the games I wrote for RISC OS back in the early 1990s. The game saw a mid-1990s update for the RiscPC, and I am now looking at it again for newer systems. Today I’m going to quickly look at the first step in the process – probably the easiest step; getting it running at 1920×1080.

Updating Drop Rock part 1 – some background

December 18, 2022December 18, 2022 VinceH

Back in the early 1990s, one of the games I wrote and sold through Soft Rock Software was called Drop Rock. I’ve recently decided to look at the game and see what I can do to update it and give it a new lease of life on newer RISC OS computers. I’ve also decided to write about the changes as I go, but before embarking on that here’s a little background on the game itself.