Retro gaming fans display transmission of C64 video games by way of YouTube — information charges seem like round 30 bits per second

Retro laptop hobbyist Rod Hull from The Future Was 8-bit (TFW8b) and Dave Curran from Tynemouth Software program have give you a strategy to make retro-gaming streams more interactive. Their newest venture lets viewers obtain the sport being performed straight onto their unique Commodore 64 whereas watching the stream on YouTube.

The thought began to take form after Curran constructed a Commodore PET serial interface and was discussing it with Hull. Hull described an thought alongside comparable traces he’d been engaged on to inject information into YouTube movies within the type of flashing symbols within the nook of the video. The thought was to have the ability to obtain a recreation the streamer was enjoying whereas watching the video, however not bothering with fashionable downloads, cartridges, or diskettes.

Again within the Nineteen Eighties, the BBC did one thing comparable utilizing a DIY tuner viewers connected to their TV display. Throughout episodes of the short-lived sequence 4 Pc Buffs, a flashing mild may transmit the code for an software to the Commodore 64, Sinclair, or BBC Micro.

Jelly Load is predicated on that very same easy idea. By flashing part of the display on and off, you’ll be able to ship binary information — zeroes and ones. A set of photo-resistors related to the serial port of a Commodore 64, VIC-20, or different classic laptop can learn this information and switch it into an executable program. Whereas the concept isn’t solely new, there’s a problem: It has to work on YouTube, which is understood for compressing movies and forcing sure body charges.

Curran, who dealt with the software program growth for this system to ship and acquired the info, outlined the requirements he confronted. “It should be included within the video and survive no matter submit processing YouTube applies; it should be quick sufficient to slot in a standard video, 5-10 minutes perhaps; it should be acquired by a VIC20 (different machines will observe) utilizing minimal easy {hardware} that might have been out there on the time.”

To permit for sooner information transmission, the pair determined to make use of a 3 x 3 grid of flashing lights. This might, in idea, improve the info switch pace ninefold. When connected to the monitor in the proper spot — and with the video window sized so the flashing lights, created by filming a 3 x 3 matrix of LEDs, align with the photo-resistors — the system can seize the info encoded within the video and retailer it in reminiscence. They efficiently demonstrated this by transmitting a 3.5kB recreation known as Snake Pit solely by way of a YouTube video.

After all, that is an extremely inefficient and gradual strategy to switch information, particularly given the truth that YouTube permits you to add obtain hyperlinks within the description of your video. Hull jokes about that, asking “Why load your 8bit issues by way of the comfort of cassette, disk, or cartridge when you’ll be able to load issues by way of YouTube video?

His reply is easy: “As a result of it’s horribly gradual, that’s why. However it’s quite cool! And if like me you’ve obtained one million ins and outs mendacity round the home, it’s possible you’ll even have sufficient digital buy left-overs to begin making your personal Jelly Load interface proper now!”

Simply how gradual are we speaking? That is determined by the YouTube video framerate and what number of frames every 3×3 bit sample wants to seem. A 30 fps video transmitting 9 bits per body would prime out at round 2kB per minute. That is fairly near matching the expertise of utilizing a 300 baud modem… however the check video seems to indicate every sample in a 60 fps video for 18 frames, which means it is solely sending 30 bits per second. Hopefully that was merely a check quite than the ultimate information charge.