I've been very busy lately with the development of a generic chiptune player for our beloved Atari ST. And when I say develop, I don't mean that I developed it like I did in the old days. Actually, all the code was written by Opus 5 under my 'guidance'.
Now, does that make me feel proud? How does this actually make me feel? But more importantly, how does that make you feel? I know that there are sceners out there who don't want to touch AI, or anything that is 'tainted' by it. Or at least, they draw the line right at retro computing. I hope you still want to speak to me.
What's the point in using AI, some say: the whole fun of retro computing is living it like the good old days, you know, by writing all the code yourself.
Yes, writing code is great fun - I get that - but I also happen to like chiptunes. But I suck at writing chiptunes.
Don't get me wrong though, code can be a beautiful thing in itself. But nobody cares to see my beautifully crafted code (or wants to). They also cannot hear my code, or feel it, or anything like that. I've also had managers in the past say hurtful things about my work. Like, who cares about code? If it works, ship it! (for some definition of 'it works')
Does code really matter? Did it ever? Does it matter now?
I do strongly believe code does matter. Actually, I deeply care about it - as a means to an end.
Here is a bit of an anecdote: some of you sceners may know me as Rapido. I am the author of the so-called '3D delta polygon' routines. I had this idea when I was waiting for the last train that never came, so I had a lot of thinking time. But as they say, ideas are cheap, execution is what matters. And oh boy, the development of delta polygons was a real time sink.
Looking back, I've done maybe six productions in my entire demo 'career', and that's not a lot. I did have a lot of ideas (really!) that never came to fruition, because... wait... this idea is a three-month project - let's just drop it.
But now, with AI, I can finally execute all those ideas cheaply! And that is great, right?
Right? (AI psychosis kicking in.)
OK, which ideas should I spend my precious tokens on? And does it actually matter? Because nobody cares, nobody cares about code.
And then it hit me. What if I put my skills (and +200 hours of 'prompting') to good use? And by good use I mean: create tools for artists, so they can create their beautiful art.
The bottom line:
Are you a chiptune artist? Then you may like what I've built. Coming soon....
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Comments
you need to drive the horse :)
again treenious, hilarious - and i mean that. please share your prompt!
I think it's a great move to openly share your ideas and approach. Not everyone has the same story and perspectives differ, so your contribution may be helpful to learn living well with all of them (especially for guys like me stuck in the "let's do it like in the good old days" camp).
Please consider contributing a serious article about your views instead and send it to info