It's not about business (or being bought). It's about my hobby. This is the email they sent me:
---
Your BurgerDisk project is an ingenious way to modernize Apple II storage, showcasing your expertise.
This is Emily from PCBWay. I'd like to sponsor your projects with free PCB prototyping.
A brief review would be appreciated in return.
Would you be interested?
---
This is my reply:
---
OK, why not, as long as my review is my own and honest :) What is the budget ?
---
I then published my post without them pre-screening it. It's a honest, factual review about how it goes to have PCBWay make an assembled PCB. They didn't even ask me to share it on any social media.
What I got out of it is a few hours of fun (because this is my hobby) routing a (rather simple) PCB, and a batch of twenty modules that I didn't have to use my pocket money for.
This is all. Don't overthink it.
I do sell my device. It's mostly as a service to the community members who don't have the equipment, time or skill to assemble it themselves, as it is a free software, open hardware project; it's not going to replace my salaried job in any foreseeable timeframe, and it's not the goal.
When implementing my version, I have noticed that the original Shufflepuck (with no anthropomorphized opponents) also did use the EOR trick on the player's paddle.
Shufflepuck Cafe, on the other hand, draws it "cleanly". I suppose it was purely for performance too.
Yes, Princess Bejin's telekinesis sound effect is different depending on which side she'll serve, which helps a lot. This is universal as far as I know.
Oh yes the dithering takes 10 seconds all to itself. The Quicktake 100 format is much more simple (4-bits nibbles) and it still needs 22 seconds to decode 640x480.
(Decoding and dithering are done in two passes for memory reasons and space on floppy disk reasons but it brings auto-levelling)
It's about 450 cycles per pixel for decoding QT100 (1200 for QT150), and 230 cycles per pixel for dithering.
To be fair, starting with the Apple IIe, the $C019 softswitch is a good, light way of syncing to VBL.
Doing it with the mouse IRQ has an advantage when one requires a mouse, though: it works the same way on the whole line of Apple II computers, starting with the II+.
Without the mouse IRQ, if one wants to support the whole line of Apple II computers, one has to vapor lock on the II+, remember that the IIgs's $C019 high bit means the inverse than the IIe, and the //c requires more trickery around it. (cf https://github.com/cc65/cc65/blob/master/libsrc/apple2/waitv...)
It's not about business (or being bought). It's about my hobby. This is the email they sent me:
--- Your BurgerDisk project is an ingenious way to modernize Apple II storage, showcasing your expertise.
This is Emily from PCBWay. I'd like to sponsor your projects with free PCB prototyping. A brief review would be appreciated in return.
Would you be interested? ---
This is my reply:
--- OK, why not, as long as my review is my own and honest :) What is the budget ? ---
I then published my post without them pre-screening it. It's a honest, factual review about how it goes to have PCBWay make an assembled PCB. They didn't even ask me to share it on any social media.
What I got out of it is a few hours of fun (because this is my hobby) routing a (rather simple) PCB, and a batch of twenty modules that I didn't have to use my pocket money for.
This is all. Don't overthink it.
I do sell my device. It's mostly as a service to the community members who don't have the equipment, time or skill to assemble it themselves, as it is a free software, open hardware project; it's not going to replace my salaried job in any foreseeable timeframe, and it's not the goal.
Hope that clears things up,
Colin