2^x bits on Imapenguin

Matrix fundamentals from the ground up.

Reservoir computing says don’t train the dynamics, just train the readout.

Eight CPUs from the 1970s and 1980s, sharing one 64K bus, an Apple-1 style monitor on the front, and a paper tape station.

Where the famous 43 quintillion comes from, why a C64 can’t print it the easy way, and a tiny multi-precision multiplier in BASIC that gets every digit right.

I picked up a boxed Timex Sinclair 2068 that wouldn’t boot.

The fruit fly has a brain structure that acts like a hash function.

The Bombe needs a crib.

John Wallis found an infinite product for pi in 1655.

Ring settings multiply Enigma’s keyspace by 17,576.

The Commodore 64 searches nearly six million Enigma M3 configurations to find the one that matches a known plaintext crib.

A working Enigma M3 emulator on the Commodore 64.

Bringing 10PRINT to the Apple II with Applesoft BASIC and Lo-Res graphics, exploring both text-mode and graphical approaches to this iconic one-liner.

Why German cryptographers believed Enigma was unbreakable, and why Allied codebreakers ultimately proved them wrong.

Visualizing sorting algorithms in real-time on the Commodore 64 using PETSCII characters.

Vibe coding with AI feels productive until it isn’t.

When IBM machines threatened to make her job obsolete, Dorothy Vaughan didn’t retreat—she learned FORTRAN and taught her entire team.

Exploring three different maze generation algorithms on the Commodore 64: Depth-First Search, Randomized Prim’s, and the classic 1981 algorithm from Compute!

Implementing 16-bit unsigned AND operations in Commodore BASIC using two’s complement to work around the signed integer limitation.

Celebrating the gloriously absurd cover of ‘FORTH on the Atari’—possibly the greatest unintentionally funny book cover ever created.

Implementing 10PRINT on a KIM-1 clone (PAL-II) in both Microsoft BASIC and 6502 assembly, displaying the maze on the 7-segment LED display.

Running 10PRINT and 100 Doors on the Clockwork Pi PicoCalc, a retro-inspired Raspberry Pi Pico handheld running PicoMite BASIC.

A visual exploration of the classic 100 Doors programming problem implemented in PICO-8, featuring animated circles that show the door-toggling pattern in action.

Continuing the exploration of 10PRINT, we look at how to implement the 10 Print algorithm on the Pico-8 platform.

We draw some dragon curves with Logo on the Commodore 64 inspired by Jurassic Park

A head-to-head performance comparison of the classic 10PRINT maze algorithm implemented in Rust and C, with benchmarks measuring millions of iterations.

Exploring wAx, a native assembler for the VIC-20 that integrates with BASIC.

Implementing the classic 10PRINT maze algorithm on the HP-42s calculator using RPN programming.

Solving the classic McNuggets Problem in Commodore BASIC: what’s the largest number of nuggets you can’t buy with 6, 9, and 20 packs?

Why your algorithm choice matters: comparing linear search O(n) vs binary search O(log n) with implementations in Commodore BASIC and Python.

Optimizing a simple counting loop on the 6502, progressing from slow BASIC to increasingly faster assembly implementations.

Building and verifying the Commodore 64 SID chip’s 23-bit LFSR in hardware on a breadboard and comparing the output against the actual SID chip.

An introduction to Linear Feedback Shift Registers: how they work, building one on a breadboard with shift registers and XOR gates, and implementing them in Python and Rust.

Commodore BASIC 2.0 A lot of fun with binary numbers can be had by printing them to the screen.

Implementing 10PRINT on the TI-92 calculator using TI-BASIC.

Understanding two’s complement: how computers represent negative numbers, why it simplifies hardware design, and how to work with signed integers in assembly and high-level languages.

Solving the classic N-Queens puzzle using backtracking.

Implementing the Rail Fence Cipher on the Commodore 64 and TI 99/4A.

Drawing grids for screen layout planning on the Commodore 64 and VIC-20.

Rockwell International was a powerhouse of the 1970s and 80s.

Modern and retro mix One of my favorite peices of retro clone hardware is Bob Corsham’s KIM-1 Clone.

Driving LEDs from the VIC-20 and KIM-1 USR ports.

Exploring the elegant maze generator from Compute!

Writing code to validate Pilish text—prose where word lengths match the digits of Pi.

Evaluating vintage computers for NaNoWriMo 2022: VIC-20, Plus/4, Commodore 64, and PET.

Adding integers with hundreds of digits using string manipulation in Commodore BASIC.

Understanding the MOS paper tape format used by the KIM-1 and other 6502 systems.

Optimizing 6502 memory transfers beyond the general-purpose approach.

Testing real-world memory transfer speeds on 6502 machines.

Finding k-almost-primes using TinyBASIC on a KIM-1 clone.

Starting a year-long project to reverse engineer and create a drop-in FPGA replacement for the VIC-20’s 6560/6561 video chip.