Math Day 2022 was today, and all went according to plan. The turnout was not as much as I expected (maybe the past 3 years of nostalgia set in), but we did have a steady flow of students throughout the day. I took a lot of pictures, but here just some. Got to have some good discussions with a couple of students about 6502 stuff.

I set them up next to my homemade video games. I had a Tetris clone and a Gradius clone, and then another game that would sorta like an adventure game. I would have had more, but I didn't have enough working computers!

So, when I say "build a computer" apparently most people think "get parts off NewEgg and stick them into the slots on the PC motherboard". I had one student tell me he 'built' this Quad Core blah blah with 16 GB blah blah RAM with a nVidia blah blah video card, and I was... confused. But whatever, there was some interest at least.

Special thanks to Bill (plasmo) for lending me some extra hardware to show off! And special thanks to Sheep64 the large amount of extra printed boards to show off. And thank you, everyone, for your help these past months. This all started back last August, with me wanting to build a calculator using water for this very Math Day. Eight months later, I'm *building* 6502 computers with VGA capability!

Thanks everyone! My latest printed board just arrived, and I hope to be posting updates on that within a week's time.

Chad

Chad,
Very cool and very impressive. You are a very talented instructor and a very fast learner. Your students are lucky to have such motivated and passionate instructor. We in 6502.org should take pride in coaching an eager beginner from scratch to this level of accomplishment in 8 months.
Bill

Absolutely - looks great to me!

Good point about the difference between the ancient and modern meanings of "build" - it shows the need for an extra little bit of communication. I suspect we often see a phrase like "from scratch" used, to try to indicate that there's something deeper going on, in our sense.

Indeed! I could not have done it without y'all. Bill, you in particular were very helpful, especially with debugging V1. That moment was the pivot point for me. From there on, I had a working model, and have followed it ever since.

I have had much encouragement from the folks here on the forum, and lots of learning along the way. I am y'all's apprentice, I still am, but I hope to become a journeyman some day. And who knows, I might eventually rise to master status. Shoot for the stars to hit the moon.



It is a hard saying. I have tried different approaches. Build a computer: "from little chips", "from scratch", "by hand". "Homemade computer". I've tried "retro computer" but that is a vague term as well and sometimes makes it seem like it is not as difficult. The most questions I got from students yesterday actually were "how did you make that green board". I told them I had it printed, but they think 3D printing and that I myself had a machine that did that sort of thing. When I told them someone else printed it, they thought I didn't design it or something.

Communication is very strange, it is hard to talk to folks who are so far removed from the field. I guess that is similar to math sometimes. "How did you solve that algebra problem?" You can say things like "combine like terms" or "common denominator" or "quadratic formula" but those are phrases outsiders don't know much about. You can show them every step to solve for x, but because it gets so lengthy, people turn off quickly. Same thing in every field I suppose.

Thanks again, everyone!

Chad

These are great examples - those of us not in teaching, or not actively teaching, may not realise the challenge, of how to express what it is we're doing.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

It's an interesting discussion. Words like "design", "architect", "develop", and "create" are maybe closer to the distinctive part of what we do.

And will done Chad, you persevered and achieved so much, and I have a lot of respect for people who use their experience to educate and inspire others, especially in this niche field!

>And well done Chad, you persevered and achieved so much, and I have a lot of respect for people who use their experience to educate and inspire others, especially in this niche field!

Well said - seconded!

Hear, hear! This is absolutely fantastic. Congrats, Chad!

Thank you everyone, but this was not a single person effort!

Next Math Day I hope to present one of my boards running a game. Preferably a Tetris clone, that is a big hit with nearly anyone who can push a button. THEN it will get more attention. I've got one year from yesterday, and well, I'd say that is plenty of time

I've been thinking over the 'titles', and I think "homebrew" is my new favorite, thank you BDD. I'll be trying that out with random students and strangers, and see if that helps.

Thank you again everyone!

Chad

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!