Agon Light on NCoT Tech

Agon Light Joystick Interface

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 09:30:06 +0000

I’ve built a joystick interface for my Agon Light, using a PCB I found online. This is an improvement on the last time I did this and just stuck wires in the GPIO ports.

Agon Light C Development

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 23:02:43 +0000

How to write code for the Agon Light (and Console8) using C instead of BASIC, under Linux. It might work with WSL2 in Windows, and it might work on a Mac.

Tilemap Game Engine Development - Agon Light C Programming

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:32:42 +0000

In this video, I’ll show you how I built a tilemap system from scratch in C for the Agon Light, and integrated it into my existing game engine. Getting the physics engine to handle collisions with the tilemap was no easy task, but I’ll walk you through how I made it work. On top of that, I explore some game design, sketching out ideas for where the game is heading.

Writing a game the hard way - from scratch using C - Part 2

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 18:54:09 +0000

Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this second episode I figure out how to make a very basic 2D rigid body physics system work.

Writing a game the hard way - from scratch using C - Part 1

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this first episode I figure out what kind of game to make, look at some shareware games of the past and get a basic game engine working, using nothing but C code – no external game engines or modern development tools.

Gamedev the hard way - doing it all myself

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 09:39:40 +0000

Writing games is hard enough by itself, requiring a lot of different skills. So how can I make this even harder? How about I do literally everything myself, starting with nothing but a blank source file and write all the code by hand. No game engines or libraries. If I need something, I need to write it myself. And since we’re doing this the hard way, let’s write games for an embedded microcontroller based around a Z80 CPU.

Stealing the Secrets of the NES - Agon Light Tilemaps in C

Mon, 27 May 2024 15:19:47 +0000

Early computers weren’t powerful enough to draw full-screen moving graphics, so they had to use clever tricks. Let’s explore how Nintendo’s techniques for creating tile-based games on the NES can be applied to modern hardware. Using these methods, I built a scrolling tilemap system for the Agon Light using C programming.

Programming Bitmap Graphics - Agon Light using C

Sun, 12 May 2024 08:22:13 +0000

The end result is a fairly pretty scrolling text routine that demonstrates how to draw multiple bitmaps to the Agon Light’s display using VDP commands.

This builds on my previous Agon Light C Programming video where I explained how the Agon Light’s screen works, and how to draw lines and shapes.

Programming Windows Screensavers - Agon Light Graphics Programming

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 22:30:02 +0000

My aim is not to simply program the Agon Light by cloning the Windows 3.11 screensavers, but to learn how to program the Agon Light at all. Ultimately I want to learn how to program games for the Agon Light.

Agon Light Graphics Tests

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:30:06 +0000

It’s the Easter holidays and I’ve got two weeks off work. Amongst highly exciting things like weeding the garden and waiting for a new washing machine to be delivered, I’m doing some programming.

Learning how to draw things on the Agon Light

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 15:21:29 +0000

I’ve been having a bit of a play around with my Agon Light, trying to come up with some ideas for a future video. I’ve discovered it has quite a nice 320×240 64 colour video mode that has just enough pixels to be interesting.

Exploring Hardware Hacks: Joystick Integration, Keyboard Inputs, and Debugging with the Agon Light

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 15:13:25 +0000

Dive into the exciting world of DIY hardware hacking. Join in as I explore joystick integration, keyboard inputs, and serial debugging using the versatile Agon Light platform. Delve into the technical intricacies of GPIO pins, assembly language programming, and C compiler usage for low-level development. Discover the power of computational thinking, boolean logic, and UART serial communication as we navigate through hardware interfacing challenges.

Agon Light Joystick Test 1

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 20:54:18 +0000

I’m working on getting a joystick port working on my Agon Light. They don’t come with joystick ports, but there is a set of GPIO pins that can be read through assembly.

Agon Light C Programming - An Introduction

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:15:42 +0000

Instead of bashing away in BASIC, it’s possible to do some coding in C on the Agon Light. Let’s find out how in this introduction to an ongoing series where I figure out the Agon hardware and work on a game. I have no idea what game I want to make, and I’m not entirely sure how to achieve some of the necessary functions, but it’ll be fun figuring it out and I hope you come along for the ride!

FORTH - Better than BASIC?

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:33:40 +0000

Let’s look at FORTH, the obscure stack based programming language that nobody seems to use. Or do they?