This 0x10c thingie, is it going to be as hardcore as say the X series?

Not sure!

Link: Twitter

Is there a LLVM back-end for the CPU yet?

Personnaly I wrote my own little assembler for it. It has quirks, but I like it anyway. But some people start to work on a back-end, you check the progress of the back-end on github.

Links: Twitter, Twitter

If I'm reading this correctly, DCPU doesn't have [SP+literal]? :(

Not yet, it doesn't.

Link: Twitter

Will you be keeping the polycounts around the same as back then or will that be one area you take liberty with?

As long as it looks low-poly, I'm happy.

Link: Twitter

Honestly... Frontier - Elite II aesthetically looks pretty ugly. Not exactly the strongest argument.

It does NOW, but it was beautiful back in the day.

Link: Twitter

I played Elite back in the mid 80s on a BBCB computer, will 0x10c be a 3D wireframe game??

I am ACTUALLY considering having a wireframe mode. ;)

Link: Twitter

You give as reference for a texture free game Frontier - Elite II, but there was texture on the planets and ship surfaces (Low res, ok).

there were a few textures on the planets, yes. I'm going to combat that with MORE POLYGONS.

Link: Twitter

So no stripes or patterns painted on the ships? And no names printed on the sides?! :0

OF COURSE stripes and names on the sides. But they will be polygons!

Link: Twitter

But you're using textures for the virtual screens, right?

Yes, and I might use it for some additional effects. But the main look will be "untextured".

Link: Twitter

Is that an aesthetic or technical decision?

aesthetic. I want to capture a "this is what we thought the future would be like in the 80's"-look. Also, frontier did it.

Links: Twitter, Twitter

What kind of game is 0x10c?

0x10^c is an Elite-like space simulation game. You will be able to fight, trade, loot, mine, etc, in an universe close to extinction.

Link: 0x10c.com

What the pitch?

In a parallel universe where the space race never ended, space travel was gaining popularity amongst corporations and rich individuals.
In 1988, a brand new deep sleep cell was released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 years.
It's now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.

Link: 0x10c.com

What will I be able to do?

• Lots of engineering.
• Fully working computer system.
• Space battles against the AI or other players.
• Abandoned ships full of loot.
• Duct tape!
• Seamlessly landing on planets.
• Advanced economy system.
• Random encounters.
• Mining, trading, and looting.
• Single and multi player connected via the multiverse.

Link: 0x10c.com

What will be the price?

No price decided yet. A solo mode should be avaible, and there will certainly be a monthly fee for playing on the multiverse (MMO fashion) since even when you will not be connected trajectory and your ship's computer will still be simulated.

Link: 0x10c.com

Whaaaaaaaat ? Monthly fee ? But, but, but, free 2 play is the futur dude !

f2p is a scam.

Link: Twitter

Why did you annonce the monthly fee so soon? :'( I would have prefered to stay in my dream of a everything-is-free-world :'(

To get the bad news out as soon as possible.

Link: Twitter

Will there be an alpha cycle à la Minecraft?

Yes.

Link: Twitter

What about the logo?

The logo is rendered ingame by the current prototype engine.

Link: Twitter

Will it be possible to have your own servers in 0x10c or is it just one big server?

I do not know yet!

Link: Twitter

Can we have build-your-own-ships?

Yes

Link: Twitter

Can me and my buddies all crew up on one ship?

Yes

Link: Twitter

Will the game be suitable for learning?

I hope so.

Link: Twitter

Will there be different races in the game? If so, can they 'interact in an intimate manner'?

ummm.. evolutionarily speaking, that's highly unlikely.

Link: Twitter

Thoughts on the engineering apsect as of yet? Repairs to hull, engines, etc. Will mechanical maintenance have a steep learning curve?

I hope so. For gameplay reasons, I will make duct tape fix ANYTHING for a shorter period of time.

Link: Twitter

But what about planet gameplay?

There will be planet gameplay.

Link: Twitter

Will #0x10c support Unicode?

Yes, but the DCPU doesn't.

Link: Twitter

Can you elaborate on the whole free-to-play is a scam thingy?

Yes, the scam is RIGHT THERE in the name. It's not free. Developers are making MORE money off "free to play".

Link: Twitter

What about death in the game?

Dying in the game means you (and the ship) respawn. Quantum Immortality! You live on in a parallel universe that's exactly the same (other than you never dying).

Links: Twitter, Twitter

This 0x10c thingie, is it going to be as hardcore as say the X series?

Not sure!

Link: Twitter

Will the game be from the perspective of first person inside the ship or will it be zoomed out?

First person inside the ship.

Link: Twitter

What do you plan for graphics ? Realistics à la EVE ?

Simple graphics. Very simple. The game will have no textures. Flat colored polygons with modern lighting, but no textures. None. (except a few)

Links: Twitter, Twitter

So no pretty stars and planets? :(

Very pretty stars and planets

Link: Twitter

Is that an aesthetic or technical decision?

aesthetic. I want to capture a "this is what we thought the future would be like in the 80's"-look. Also, frontier did it.

Links: Twitter, Twitter

But you're using textures for the virtual screens, right?

Yes, and I might use it for some additional effects. But the main look will be "untextured".

Link: Twitter

So no stripes or patterns painted on the ships? And no names printed on the sides?! :0

OF COURSE stripes and names on the sides. But they will be polygons!

Link: Twitter

You give as reference for a texture free game Frontier - Elite II, but there was texture on the planets and ship surfaces (Low res, ok).

there were a few textures on the planets, yes. I'm going to combat that with MORE POLYGONS.

Link: Twitter

I played Elite back in the mid 80s on a BBCB computer, will 0x10c be a 3D wireframe game??

I am ACTUALLY considering having a wireframe mode. ;)

Link: Twitter

Honestly... Frontier - Elite II aesthetically looks pretty ugly. Not exactly the strongest argument.

It does NOW, but it was beautiful back in the day.

Link: Twitter

Will you be keeping the polycounts around the same as back then or will that be one area you take liberty with?

As long as it looks low-poly, I'm happy.

Link: Twitter

What about the computer of the ship?

In this game the ship's computer will be fully simulated and fully programmable using an assembly language. The specification of the computer is avaible here.

Link: 0x10c.com

What about the cpu?

The cpu is named DCPU-16, and it is a 16 bits processor.

Link: 0x10c.com

Sound like a really nerdy game, will it be enjoyable to mere mortal? (i.e. people that do not know how to code)

I certainly hope so. :)

Link: Twitter

Will people be able to use someone else program?

Yes

Link: Twitter

Will there be only the DCPU-16 in the game?

The DCPU is the only cpu right now.

Link: Twitter

How will you stop malicious viruses etc?

I won't stop viruses, the players will have to do that themselves.

Link: Twitter

Is the virtual computer going to be a large part of it? Or are less programming savvy people not going to be able to play?

Once there's software available in the game, people can use their computers like normal computers

Link: Twitter

Can the DCPU control comms? Imagining DCPU distributed processing, p2p or centralized nets, remote ship control, cyber warfare, etc

That's the idea!

Link: Twitter

Will there be more then one CPU per Ship?

Yes. Aiming at three computers being a reasonable amount.

Link: Twitter

What's the density of the floppies in 0x10c?

Aiming at 1.44MB 3½inch

Link: Twitter

What the speed of the CPU?

I'm aiming at 100 khz at the moment

Link: Twitter

With your 16-bit processor, will I be able to program a GUI in basic that can trace IPs?

Sure!

Link: Twitter

Will these CPUs be able to connect to each other in-game via some network?

Yes

Link: Twitter

Will other OS exist with a higher level coding?

People will have to write their own OS's for it. ;)

Link: Twitter

Is it possible for players to give malicious code that negatively affects their ship?

Yes. It's a fully functioning computer.

Link: Twitter

How will programs be loaded into DCPU-16's memory? Or in the game for that matter?

Someone will have to write a loader. ;) There will be floppy disks in the game if you like artifacts, or a radio array.

Link: Twitter

Do you think about doing something like, a shopping system for programs ?

Absolutely. People can set up their own as well.

Link: Twitter

Would it allow me to play Doom on it while I'm mining those big floaty rock thingys?

Well, kind of, yes.

Link: Twitter

Will we be seeing realtime light physics? Accurate light physics will be required for a Hard SciFi game.

If you mean gravitational lensing from black holes, then I hope so. If it fits the visual style.

Link: Twitter

I meant the lag-time between the light hitting a ship and hitting your sensors.

I am going to make concessions for gameplay. I mean hard science as in no hand-wavey science, not as in 100% correct.

Link: Twitter

So, a 2 or 3 of 10 in the Hardness scale?

Depends on which scale. On this one, about a 4.

Link: Twitter

Do we get to orbit planets and drift if we cut our engines?

That's the plan.

Link: Twitter

Will 0x10c feature stuff like gravity, relativity calculations, planetary ecologies?

Yes to the first one, and I MIGHT make time non-relative for game play reasons. Ecologies, maybe.. most life will be dead.

Link: Twitter

To clarify, "seamlessly landing on planets" means from space to a planet's surface without a loading screen?

Yes

Link: Twitter

Why no interrupts? Or am I missing something?

I don't like interrupts! Trying to think of a cute little message queue instead.

Link: Twitter

Is there a compiler yet?

No.

Link: Twitter

For the instructions that take multiple cycles, is it safe to assume they don't modify values until their final cycle?

For emulation efficiency I actually made them modify the value before deducting any cycles. They're just a postfix.

Link: Twitter

What are I/O specs?

I haven't gotten that far yet. Thinking memory mapped message queue, maybe.

Link: Twitter

You don't have an 'ADD with Carry' instruction -- or at least, you should call 'ADD', 'ADC' since it does it implicitly

ADD just stores the carry in O, it doesn't use it. You have to apply it manually by doing ADD <dest>, O

Link: Twitter

When the emulator encounters an instruction like "x: set pc, x" does it loop infinitely or is it optimized to stop emulating?

It loops infinitely. It does not try to solve the halting problem. ;)

Link: Twitter

No pipelining in the cpu?

Nope, making some sacrifices for emulation speed to be as fast as possible.

Link: Twitter

What is O after DIV x, 0, when it is equivalent to /0x10000 and /anything larger? I'd say either x (/0x10000) or 0 (/infinity).

0

Link: Twitter

0x10c lore states the DCPU-16 calls for little endian, but your specification file describes a call for big endian.

Well, oops! :D

Link: Twitter

What is the dcpu-16 boot process? registers have certain values? you sort of imply that sp is 0xffff...

SP starts at 0. The first PUSH is to --SP, which is 0xFFFF. And everything else start at 0

Link: Twitter

DCPU-16 specifying the number of cycles per OP means that no optimising interpreters are allowed?

You're free to do that, but the ones in the game will adhere to the cycle counts.

Link: Twitter

If I'm reading this correctly, DCPU doesn't have [SP+literal]? :(

Not yet, it doesn't.

Link: Twitter

Is there a LLVM back-end for the CPU yet?

Personnaly I wrote my own little assembler for it. It has quirks, but I like it anyway. But some people start to work on a back-end, you check the progress of the back-end on github.

Links: Twitter, Twitter