AI: The Rise of the Machines... Or Just a Lot of Overhyped Chatbots?

ShakyJake

ShakyJake

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ShakyJake said:
I'm experimenting with how well current coding agents can handle a demanding homebrew arcade conversion. Specifically, I'm working on a Commodore VIC-20 Pac-Man port that aims for a true one-to-one recreation: gameplay that matches the arcade as closely as possible, along with graphics and audio that stay as faithful as the hardware allows.

The VIC-20 is quite limited -- it has no sprite or bitmap support, so everything must be done with character graphics. To prepare, I ran a deep research report in ChatGPT focused on writing optimized 6502 assembly for the VIC-20 and on known techniques for extracting the most performance from the machine. A few Pac-Man conversions already exist (some of them quite good), so this should make for an interesting side-by-side comparison.
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First pass, took about a day. Frustratingly, Claude REFUSED to work on this. Had to use Codex / GPT-6.1 Sol on xHigh. Video below is gameplay up to the first intermission.



I think the results are pretty damn good. It starts from Mark Burkley's C translation of the arcade program, adapted and compiled to native 6502 with LLVM-MOS, and uses a software renderer made from programmable characters (no hardware sprites). The full portrait display fits in 112×216 pixels; white maze walls and pellets keep the shared 8×16 color cells from turning into a patchwork. Original ghost rules, scoring, sounds, and the three intermissions are all retained. It currently holds about 48 FPS in normal play and 54 FPS when the ghosts are frightened, though flicker is still visible and is the next thing to tackle.
 
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Kharzette

Kharzette

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I've got some coding stuff that I want to do that I'm not particularly interested in doing myself (most game stuff I'd rather do on my own). Friend suggested Muse. Anyone signed up for that? I've been trying the last two days but it seems like it can't even send a goddamn signup mail.
 
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ShakyJake

ShakyJake

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Kharzette said:
I've got some coding stuff that I want to do that I'm not particularly interested in doing myself (most game stuff I'd rather do on my own). Friend suggested Muse. Anyone signed up for that? I've been trying the last two days but it seems like it can't even send a goddamn signup mail.
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Not sure if there's a particular use case for Muse. It's pretty mediocre from what I've heard. Claude Opus 5.5 is the de-facto best for coding. ChatGPT Images 2.5 does some banger artwork, though.
 
TomServo

TomServo

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ShakyJake said:
First pass, took about a day. Frustratingly, Claude REFUSED to work on this. Had to use Codex / GPT-6.1 Sol on xHigh. Video below is gameplay up to the first intermission.



I think the results are pretty damn good. It starts from Mark Burkley's C translation of the arcade program, adapted and compiled to native 6502 with LLVM-MOS, and uses a software renderer made from programmable characters (no hardware sprites). The full portrait display fits in 112×216 pixels; white maze walls and pellets keep the shared 8×16 color cells from turning into a patchwork. Original ghost rules, scoring, sounds, and the three intermissions are all retained. It currently holds about 48 FPS in normal play and 54 FPS when the ghosts are frightened, though flicker is still visible and is the next thing to tackle.
Click to expand...

Hey 8 bit guy!
 
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