Rob Caporetto

@robcap

Australian, 40-something (he/him) coder of Games & Stuff until the Industry took an Arrow to the Knee. Looking for what's next, whilst making vids on old games & more. Here for connections, not shitposts. Check it all out: linktr.ee/hellfire64

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Rob Caporetto@robcap· 21d

It’s not a real cab, just a MiSTer hooked up to a TV, but managed to get my all-time best in Robotron at games group’s arcade night. Guess I’ve been playing enough twin-sticks to finally survive the grand-parent of ‘em all!

A photo of the high scores screen to Robotron: 2084, as played from a MiSTer console connected to a TV. The control panel is a replica of the original panel, with its dual control sticks.

Of note is my top score: 181375

Rob Caporetto@robcap· 24d

Another track for the roster - one of a few I put together today (did a second earlier, and hoping to do a third to round out the day). Enjoying making these courses (at least for the easier class) quite a bit! #ScreenshotSaturday #Godot #GodotEngine #IndieDev #SoloDev #GameDev

Rob Caporetto@robcap· 26d

Did some widening of a recent track I created - which meant preparing a bunch of new assets (and a bunch of tedious import work which I hope I won't need to redo). Happy with how it for now, other than more visuals, but that's for later. #indiedev #godot #gamedev

A screen of a racing game I'm creating. It's played from an overhead view, with small F1-style cars racing on a simple, closed circuit.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Jul 12

Nothing is better to reawaken the existential dread than returning to the job search and seeing so many fucking roles requiring AI bullshit. Can't wait for these fuckers to have to pull back their token spends and go back to using real engineers.

A snippet of text covering one of the requirements from a job advert - "Demonstratable experience with AI-assisted development - you've made these tools a real part of your workflow and can speak to how you direct them and check their output"

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Jul 11

After building out my tool to create corner graphics, it's time to put them to the test with the first track designed using them. Going to need to go back to extend the tool, but very happy with the results. Looking forward to building more. #ScreenshotSaturday #godotengine #godot

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Jul 8

Going back to the thing I had been pondering about better handling curve art - ended up rolling out my own little tool instead. Lets me handle what I need - variable arc sizes, widths, plus draw inset lines and outer curbs before saving a texture to disk.

A screen of a curve creation tool I coded in Godot. This lets you select a curve's angle, radius, colour and width to plot a curve on screen. It also lets you configure some embellishments - inset lines, and outer curbing.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Jun 29

This is a rough example of what I want to achieve, basically corners under 90 degrees - I basically want to have those arcs for the outer and inner angles (which I guess I'd be able to fill). In an ideal world, I'd just pay someone, but gotta DIY it, and want to learn regardless!

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Jun 17

It me. oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

The "I'm in this photo and I don't like it" meme, which asks "What's going on", with a series of responses - "It's annoying or not interesting", "I'm in this photo and don't like it", "I think it shouldn't be on Facebook" and "it's spam", with the "I'm in this photo and don't like it" one selected.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Jun 13

Had a little time to do some visual tweaking - namely improving various bits of particle fx. Also added in some walls, got plenty more to add on that front, but hopefully starts to give the courses a little extra life. At least when done. #ScreenshotSaturday #GodotEngine

A screenshot from my as untitled racing game. The screen shows an aerial view of a race course, with several F1-style cars racing about.

Of particular focus is some particle effects - skid marks laid down over tight corners, and a puff of dirt from when the player went off course.

Another screenshot of the same course from my racing game. Here the focus is on slipstreaming particles - triggered when cars are closely following one another with a stream of white trails over the cars.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Jun 10

At that size, probably pins to be honest. Kind of love something which acts like a tribute - like the sets Penny Arcade did with Nintendo for the Mario/Zelda 30th anniversaries. The link one has been part of my jacket for aaages!

Me holding a pin of NES-era Link in the palm of my hand.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 22

Had to grab some b-roll this afternoon, so while my PSTV was out, I played some TxK, which I’d not done in ages. Not a bad effort in reaching level 35 after so long. Now waiting for test render to finish before I proof it. (Trying to wrap this up tonight as I’ve homework to take care of!)

My desk setup, featuring a PlayStation TV micro console running the game TxK, displaying its Game Over screen.

Ny run ended on level 35, and a score of about 1.9 million points.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 16

Went to some shelves and pulled out Super Cars II for today’s #RandomGameSaturday. A big improvement on the first, it adds split screen play, new weapons and some devious tracks to race on.

Holding up a copy of “Super Cars II” for the Amiga.

The cover illustration features a pair of cars, need and the other blue racing towards the viewer firing a bunch of weapons (missiles,and guns) towards something off canvas.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 16

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MONTY-FUCKING-BURNS.

A still from Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns", featuring Mr. Burns & Smithers looking at a model of Springfield with a giant discs (the Sun Blocker) being extended over it, putting the model town into endless shadow.

Titled over the image is the text "I will do the next best thing -- block it out", as spoken around this scene by Burns as he relays his scheme.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 14

More adventures. Want to do little things, and also having a bit of a stuck brain finishing up next vid script (which isn’t helped by stuff going in at home…) (…or having a little bad brain morning as a treat…)

It’s me. Wearing a mask. Waiting for a bus. Wearing headphones, too.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 14

Space Giraffe told me I'm "Super Good" today, so that's a compliment I need to hold onto. (I've never really found myself to be that good at it compared to other Llamasoft titles, but I seem to have managed to finally get a few good runs in of late)

A screenshot from the end of level sequence from a level of Llamasoft's "Space Giraffe".

The main text states "Congraturation! You Success! A winner is you! But our Giraffe is in Another Castle! You Are Super Good" with a bunch of scoring bonuses for "Early Giraffe Bonus", "Pod Diligence Bonus" and "Giraffe Preservation Bonus" applied under that.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 9

Went through a tub of C64 tapes for #RandomGameSaturday with Slicks, a late-ish overhead racer which offer some impressive overhead racing, and a neat tram upgrade scheme where you challenge (or get challenged by) a rival for their car. Only real complaint is that there’s only six tracks!

It’s a copy of “Slicks” for the Commodore 64.

The cover illustration features a pair of unlicensed F1 cars - a Williams in front, with a McLaren behind.

Behind those two is a fire caused by a third vehicle (which we can’t see).

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 9

When you only get a limited time for working on the game, you try to chip off some fun tasks - like having one's rivals show skid trails when they brake for corners (seeing they can't spin out like the player). #gamedev #godot #indiedev

A screengrab of my racing game - the main addition is activating skid trails for the computer-controlled drivers when they slow down for corners, so the track how has a bunch of long, black streaks leading up to several of the tight corners.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· May 2

Meant to throw this up yesterday, but it’s my pick for #RandomGameSaturday - Hellgate for the VIC 20! Hellgate builds upon the ideas from Laser Zone, with 4 blasters instead of two. But it’s a far more frantic game as you don’t want to overheat them!

Holding a copy of Llamasoft’s Hellgate for the Commodore VIC 20.

The cover illustration featured a group of space craft chasing a green, threee-headed beastie.

Up top is the slogan “All Hell Has Brolen Loose”.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 27

Having to do one of Amazon's AWS courses as part of my cert, and oh boy, the fact that the introductionary section is titled "Trends in Cloud Computing" and opens with this little paragraph about the slop machine is doubly hilarious knowing what happened to them not so long ago! *whomp whomp*

A screengrab from the introduction piece to Amazon's AWS Academy Cloud Foundations course.

It states "Generative AI is changing the way that organisations do work. AWS has infrastructure, tools and applications to help customers use Generative AI in their businesses."

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 22

The inspiration came from a few sources - looking at what games did on the Amiga (eg. Super Cars), but also wanted to get the vibe of what 90s sims were doing - IndyCar Racing and Grand Prix 3 being a few examples. It's not 100%, but I'm real happy with where it's sitting atm.

A screen of "Super Cars" for the Amiga (Magnetic Fields/Gremlin 1990) - the particular focus for me here is the status bar in the lower area of the screen, with its wooden background, and details for speed, position, laps and state of various car systems.

A screen from "IndyCar Racing" (Papyrus/Virgin, 1993) - particular interest is on the main part of the dashboard, which is implemented looking like a giant LCD Screen with the speed, revs, fuel, engine temp et al implemented with digital numbers, alongside a bar for the revs.

A screen from "Grand Prix 3" (Microprose, 2000), with the focus also on the digital screen in the centre of the player's steering wheel.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 22

Had been pondering some stuff around the Player's HUD being a little too small, so I ended up redesigning it to take up the full lower area I had on screen. I had intended to reclaim this as track area once I redid the UI, but I feel like this also lets me get rid of that notification bit too.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 17

Not shared anything from the game for a while (the whole not having time to work it stunts that), but got some neat things in which add character - slipstreaming and spinning out. #gamedev #indiegames #indiedev #godot #godotengine.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 11

I've been digging Cleared Hot of late, and man, if it wasn't such a rad update to the Desert Strike formula, then flying a tribute to The Lady certainly would be a cool reason to checking it out. (And sorry not sorry if the Airwolf theme has wormed its way into your head!)

A screengrab from the game "Cleared Hot". It's inside the Hangar you can access between missions, with the selected helicopter being a Bell 222 (named Sky Wolf) - which serves as a tribute to 80s series Airwolf.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 11

Pick for #RandomGameSaturday is Infiltrator on the C64. Specifically the PAL disk release. As you'd expect from an '80s computer game, there's a genre blend here between a light helicopter-sim, and stealthing about for missions. (Only downside is the manual being squeezed onto a single page...)

Holding up a copy of Infilitrator for the Commodore 64 (based on US Gold's PAL disk release).

The cover features an illustration of our hero "Jimbo" McGibbits seated in his chopper (which is presented underneath flying away from an explosion).

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 4

Another one (been a bit) for #RandomGameSaturday, with NES Elite. At first glance, it’s a conversion you think wouldn’t work, but it happens to surprisingly well. So if you’re up for flying a Cobra Mk III through space, you’ll have as solid an experience here, once you adapt to the controls!

It a copy of Elite on the (PAL) NES. Its cover features the Elite “crest” flying forwards in space, with the title above it.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Apr 2

Last assessment submitted, and now looking at two weeks of normality. Also freedom. Horrible, horrible freedom.

A still from The Simpsons episode “Deep Space Homer”, showing a bunch of ants and debris (glass, crumbs, dirt) floating about in zero-gravity whilst they’re chittering - with the subtitles “Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!” overlaid on took

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Mar 30

Deffo a crank up some shmup OST for the commute to class this morning. *yawn*

A screen of my phone’s Lock Screen, showing the music player playing the Stage 4 music to Devil Engine.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Mar 25

Unsurprisingly, Ed’s latest freebie is fucking amazing. Especially the last section. As someone who refuses to touch AI “tools” at any level, I really do feel like a developer who is out of place these days.

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Mar 19

Having a little Lisa moment after having to do a class task with another student who when right to the slop machine to get answers.

A scene from The Simpsons where Lisa is getting a little concerned over receding a less than optimal grade.

She’s commenting “I feel so dirty. The dirt’s not coming off.”

Rob Caporetto@robcap· Mar 13

I’ve been playing it a bunch this week, so it’s only apt I dug up my copy of “Revs Plus 4 Tracks” for the BBC Micro. It’s the best edition (at least official release wise) of Geoff Crammond’s groundbreaking F3 sim with Computer Aided Steering which seriously helps newbies master it!