Top all-time · #8467
James Mackenzie
Personal blog · jamesfmackenzie.comprogramminghardwaregames
James Mackenzie's personal blog at jamesfmackenzie.com covers programming, hardware and games. Since 2022, 9 different Hacker News readers have linked it 11 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-26, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for posts on retro gaming hardware, such as SNES VGA adapters, Atari ST games with MIDI music, and WebAssembly with SDL and web graphing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I fix (and break) old computers on the internet! This is where I share all the behind-the-scenes bits — project files, fixes, quirks, and technical notes. Take whatever helps, and enjoy your own retro adventures!
Most-linked posts?
- /2019/12/01/webassembly-graphics-with-sdl/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-06-19
What Hacker News says?
Also I remember the game magazines had advertistements in the back for VGA adapters for the SNES. My neighbor had one and we all agreed that the sharper picture looked better. https://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/2026/09/06/plugging-a-snes-d... While the Sonic waterfall is probably deliberate, I find it more likely that people have always preferred the highest resolution and the crispest graphics they can afford.
Comment linking /2026/09/06/plugging-a-snes-directly-into-a-vga-monitor/
on “The Effect of CRTs on Pixel Art (2024)”Submitted I love software rendering as a story · 386 points
HN discussionWASM has support for SDL for a long time: https://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/2019/12/01/webassembly-graph...
Comment linking /2019/12/01/webassembly-graphics-with-sdl/
on “Downfall Attacks”Submitted How to Install Half-Life 2 on Raspberry Pi as a story · 5 points
HN discussionNot specifically - there are lists online and the games I remember playing a lot aren't on them, so my memory must have gone fuzzy over the last 35 years. Here's a neat example, though the video on the page uses the MT-32 for music: https://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/2019/06/19/atari-st-games-wi...
Comment linking /2019/06/19/atari-st-games-with-roland-mt-32-midi-support/
on “In praise of MIDI, tech’s hidden gift to humanity”Submitted The Ugly Dell That Became My Dream Retro Gaming PC (2025) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionhttps://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/03/svg-generators/ https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/03/accessible-svgs-inc... https://gist.github.com/dmnsgn/76878ba6903cf15789b712464875c... https://skia.org/docs/user/modules/canvaskit/ https://rustwasm.github.io/wasm-bindgen/examples/2d-canvas.h... https://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/2019/12/01/webassembly-graph... https://silvia-odwyer.github.io/gdl/
Comment linking /2019/12/01/webassembly-graphics-with-sdl/
on “Ask HN: Are there any web graphing libraries that don't rely on JavaScript?”Submitted WebAssembly Lesson 2: Graphics with SDL as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted I made 3Dfx Voodoo2 work on a modern PC as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Commander Keen in a web browser? (2019) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Disassembly vs. Decomp vs. Recomp vs. Port: What's the Difference? as a story · 1 points
HN discussion