#320x240

I'll start with my white computer. An Acer Aspire V13. Windows 8. I played on it at the beginning of the year. Then I took it to the dacha. And I played literally very little there.

I'll mention games: Quake 3, Colin McRae Rally 3, Doom 64. I played most of my games at the beginning of the year. While it was winter. On a winter weekend morning. Or on Saturday or Sunday evenings – I played all evening. I played racing games. Then, when I started studying, my focus on video games dropped. In favor of studying. Naturally, I'm studying computer technology. As Gosha says. And I love music. I took it up on that. But overall, it's playable. Especially if everything worked out.

Q3 is an online shooter. I ran around with bots. I even beat it on one or two easy difficulty levels. It was so much fun. The arenas are varied. Gothic and sci-fi. Different themes. Lots of bots. All different too. It's fun! I remember the game. It was so much fun. You run around the arena. The only thing is that I'm not that good at competitive games. And that's why I sometimes got tense. That I can't do it. My aim is lacking. Something else. I think slowly.

Then there's the racing game Colin Mc Rae Rally 3. It's a great race. It's different from the first and second games. It has a beautiful arcade menu. I remember it. And the tracks are different. Each track has several stages. Different weather. And there are different views. I played more for fun and relaxation. More like an arcade game. You drive and look at the views.

I remember that there was a track. Straight through the forest. There are trees. And sometimes it's even hard to tell where the road leads. Trees all around. In all sorts of corners of the world. A great time. So let's go for a spin. On a white computer. With a white keyboard. It's just beautiful. You just keep going and going somewhere. A couple of races at a time. You have to unlock tracks as you go. A very good racing game.

And this is Doom 64. The game surprisingly hooked me. It's a retro shooter. But modernized. Like, there are pixels. And everything is drawn from them. And the levels go on. Overall, this game is very different from what I've seen. This is Doom 1, 2. I thought it would be something similar. But it's completely different. Such cosmic horror. Real horror.

Creepy atmosphere. This is a very creepy little shooter. And well-made. Pixel graphics. It's style. Monsters, hellish ones. A rusty base. Dangling somewhere in space. Demons. Portals. And the levels are also terrible. They're not easy. You have to think about where to turn, what to press. Hellish riddles, really.

The palette is dark. I remember it as a reddish hue. I played through several levels. I was even surprised at myself. For me, the labyrinths there are quite confusing. It's not even about the monsters. That's it. And the labyrinth itself is a hellish riddle. And everything is so atmospheric. An abandoned station, silence. Monsters. And you have to figure out what to do next.

I played all of these, you could say, until the second half of spring. Then I started studying. I took the computer to the dacha in the summer. And I played little. There I played the first Heroes of Might and Magic. I launched Warcraft 3 for the first time. I tried other games. I played Need For Speed ​​2 SE, but not much.

Then we'll move on to the retro computer. The new product of 2025. I restored a retro laptop. And played on it. This is Iru Combo. I just restored it. And again, I played mostly until spring. I was playing Quake for Windows. That's the game version. I have a Windows 2000 computer. And I played without sound. I couldn't get the sound to work.

I played at 320x240. It's the creepiest setting. And I'd say Quake looks the creepiest and most horror-like game in this setting. Darkness and pixels. Rust and brown. That's the color palette.

I played through a few levels. I got lost in a few places at first. Then I breezed through a couple of levels. It's an interesting, creepy retro shooter at 320x240.

And on my modern Atlas H376 computer. I tried a theme called RetroBat for the first time. It's a bunch of consoles in a beautiful skin. Dendy, PlayStation. Dreamcast. Sega. I played it for a bit, just to get acquainted. I discovered a whole new universe, so to speak.

It didn't turn out that great. To be honest, it's true. But playing is fun. And the impressions. The gaming experience. Racing, a space base. Pixels, smooth graphics. All this will form the basis of personality and gaming experiences. For developing your own games. Probably. That's what I'd like to do. So playing is interesting! Computer games are fun! As John Lennon said, time spent enjoying yourself is not time wasted.

Playing little games. From time to time i like to play videogames. And write about it. Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.

There are datasheets available for modules with similar part numbers. Based on the circuitry in the above picture, this looks like the closest pinout:

B&W LCD modules usually have a built-in charge pump to generate their needed voltages. Unfortunately, the datasheet also says this module needs those voltages supplied externally, and they’re a bit weird.

VDH: +8.3–+8.7 V @ 3.3 mA

VGH: +16.2–+17.0 V @ 0.23 mA

VGL: −8.35–−8.0 V @ 0.17 mA

VCC: +2.5–+3.3 V @ 0.22 mA (this is actually a normal voltage)

Fortunately, I don’t have to design and build a boost circuit myself; you can Just Buy voltage boost modules easily from many places. Getting a module to generate that negative voltage, however, is a lot harder. But it turns out that charge pump chips are A Thing you can Just Buy on Digikey. Sadly, charge pump chips tend to have fairly low output current capability, so while charge pumps could produce the high voltage for the backlight, it would require several and be kind of awkward.

So last week and this week, I finally sat down and learned enough about PIO on the Pi Pico to produce suitable timing signals for the module.

It has whole two games. Well, by some terms, they are rather huge. This is Free Linear Space. And Vi Aliens. Two games with genre of space shooter. Top down view. But they are rather difference as a games. And they have same a program base part. First, I write Free Linear space and base on it I made Vi Aliens. But code there, anyway, it is new and lots of new! Mainly, Free Linear Space someway was made as base for shooters about space.

Free Linear Space – it is shooter with top down view. There are space bugs there! Vertical screen. And at the middle black strip, line – this is space. And everything is going on there. All the action is there. Space bugs! And they are friends! It is such a funny little game! Fantastic romp little game. With style of 8 bit retro. Well, it is everything about me, all the time I do these kind of things. I am about 8 bit. And shooter about space.

You select who you will play for. 15 types of characters. Something like space ship there something like type rocket. And different bugs. And you play. Level by level.

Lots of enemies. Something this way. These are bugs. Big and small of different size. There are bosses. These are especially huge bugs. And total it is about 70 types of sprites for enemies.

Good and kind game about bugs. There are ants there. And ladybug. Such a bug with a dots. And different most different. Different forms. Game is not hard. And maybe it reminds something for NES. Not so hard. But well to walkthrough the game with several levels. It is something like 8 levels should to be. This is some routine. But this is not hard! Every new levels shows their own bugs. Which are simply fly by their own things, as a real things. Shooter – this is for action.

Vi Aliens – this is one more space shooter. With visual style. So, it is everything here is with white style. Black space. And white style. Aliens are like white something about a color. With their space ships.

Part of style – this is white color. And with my imagination something like 8 bit computers. As MSX1,2. Something like MS DOS. And tv serials from 80s about aliens. Such a tv series, there it was a big white ships as UFO sausages above the big city. They are hanging in the air. Almost like Star Wars.

There in game also a several levels. There are bosses. With their own strategy for behavior on screen. So also, you can to lose with some places. But it is possible to complete the game. Some routine to go from one level to another. And style. Also, I draw lots of aliens space ships. Based on tv serials. Like Star Gate SG-1. It is such a pay for respect for my fav tv series after Star Trek 80s, to the tv serial.

There are bonuses here. Which fly at the level. You can easily to pick up bonus and restore health. You can take this into account. And, of course, there are additional weapons, except standard laser. Main here it is design. And aliens. White color.

It is so serious science fiction flying shooting game. With aliens. And everything is so mysterious. Vi. So, these are title for aliens. Nothing more to know about them. Aliens Vi. Such a artistic element.

As a real point these two games are very different one from another one. Well of course when you take part of the already made code as a complete code. It is already easier. You can concentrate at the another kind of things. To think about some details.

With this plan. Linear. It is two games. Shooters with top down view. About space.

Basic Pascal version 1.19 "Frozen" – most newest version. In this version there are 8 new games! Free Linear Space, Vi Aliens, B Ball, BC Row, Near the Shore, Frozen Arctic Station, Basic Maze, BufColor. And even more retro games! It is a pack of retro games with modern versions of Basic and Pascal.

So, I start it sad. I stuck in very beginning, for he first attempt. And I was doing circle after circle. I am playing without sound right now. Yes, I, also, had thought, that Quake without sound - it is boring. Well, maybe, it is not enough of music and sounds. But, well, you know, it is a retro effect. And without sound it is, also, good way to play. It is rather good game process. It is, also, interesting!

And, I was walking a long time at the start levels. I remember, that Cthulhu big door. Which is bigger than you about several times. And, I, always, return to big hall. I never get it where to go. So, I do not understand, that point. I am playing with exciting cool trash format 320 x 240. I think that this way you need to play Quake as a real thing.

Without any smooth effects or high definition. Maybe, it is a thing about a resolution? Dark! And, well, you know, you cannot understand anything. Often little walls are made with pixels. I am, already, forget that pixel horror. About a good ideas about these words. Someplace, something Quake it is like a horror movie. Or atmosphere is such gothic. Cthulhu is about this.

So, this is a trick, there are two passages there. And you need to go to small one. So, I did not notice it, all the time. As I understand now. So, I enter it. And next, I easy to go without problems somewhere up to level 5. And I remember level number 3. This is necropolis or this way something. I write it by memory. As a gamer. And so artistic way.

And this level it is so creepy. And I was interested into this. About a point, that to do my own trash small game based on this level. Something short. As a little demo. But now I do not have skills yet.

This is like castle. And swamp. Brick walls. And swamp. There are lots of dead walkers there. Full creep. As a real thing. All these dead they scream. I play without sound. But memory just like makes a sound for me, sometimes. And you cannot kill them at all. They fall. And later they rise again. And it adds more of scary points.

And next one or two levels. I run them fast. Even do not notice. And take into account, that I was lost at the second level. So, I am very exciting about this point. One of the levels. Dark castle is a title. And yes, I also remember a knights, they attack you. Dark castle – it is such a style, I say. For several levels.

And I am at the stage. Where you enter the mirror. Yes, these are connected with dark magic, I am sure. And it is a big room there. And such a white monster. As a snowman. This is like a boss. So, I stopped there. I catch a key there. And run from this monster. With claws. And yes, as idea, I have a rocket launcher in my hands. But I, already, try to destroy it, several attempts. But, I failed! Well, at least, I can run. And it is a circle style of level. Always it is possible to return to this room with monster.

What can I say. I like a lot to play with resolution 320 x 240. And with my Windows 2000 computer. With such huge pixels graphics. And everything so dark there. This is exciting game! Which you can play cool with 320 x 240. I even do not see the reason to change the resolution. It is possible to rise it up to 640 x 480.

Or even up to 1024 x 768. I guess, it has even this. But it is everything so small to become. All menus. Well, graphics, yes. It changes a little. So again it looks as a new. But I like really a lot these 320 x 240. And I will play with this format.

Atmosphere of black magic or dark magic. And very such pixelated walls. How nice to remember all of these again. Many years ago, I played certain this kind of Quake. And so, i think it is a horror and atmosphere this game has. Some kind of mystics! With 320 x 240.

Playing little games. From time to time i like to play videogames. And write about it. Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.

And, by the way, for now, I have played at Win Quake. Quake for windows, this is a full title. Such a long and loud name. Quake under the windows. So, in a short. OpenGl version not works for me, because of I do not have installed open GL. So, Windows version. Ms Dos version for Win2000, also, cannot start.

So, there is one interesting thing. That in Quake for windows it is a resolution. 320 x 240. 640 x 480 and 1024 x 768 as max. By the way, 320 x 240 is looking very good! Very pixelated and creep! And, it is going good for Quake! Industrial kind! Dark kind! Gothic! Creep. Such a gray pixels. Darkness. With a higher resolution it, someway, adds something like sharpness. And it is, already, not so big atmosphere. So, it is find out, a point, that to play Quake it is cool with 320 x 240.

I play it with keyboards. Mouse with this version is not very useful. And it, almost, does nothing. Short, this is like Doom for MS DOS, control is here. With keyboard everything. Saying the truth I have little issue. With my computer, there is no sound driver yet. Well, you know. To play Quake without sound. Well, this is scary! A little loss of atmosphere. Well, what can I do!

I am without sound, at all. I go to the second level only now. Well, I was lost there. At the second level. I cannot, there is a big door there, to open it. Such dark and gothic hall. And it has a passage to underwater. Water is so muddy. Yellow or green. Everything is floats before they eyes. Cool exciting effect.

And, this version of Quake, I see as a something new! I am playing! Well, maybe, to try another episode. I start from the beginning. So, it has several episodes. You can select any of them. You are running to the special little rooms. And select episode. Such a starting hub. This is, also, a cool theme.

And, also, I remember about something additional disks, with addon, there were lots of them for Quake. Like Quake after shock. Aftershock. So, I want to try to play too! It should to have a new levels!

Quake for windows – it is interesting game solution for old systems. And resolution at 320 x 240 – this is exciting! So, these are amazing results! And sorry I cannot go far. But, I run different episodes for a while.

Playing little games. From time to time i like to play videogames. And write about it. Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.