2022 was a busy year for me.  I didn't have free time or  mental energy to do much homebrewing on Atari XE or 5200,  which I had wanted to.    On the personal real-life front, 2022 took everything I had.    Full-time job.  Family obligations, of course.  After a year of searching and looking at houses,  I successfully found and bought what we wanted  (many other properties I was outbid on,  or the property sold before I had a chance to make an offer. The real estate market was crazy in 2021-2022 ).     I had to coordinate and hire contractors for various home improvement projects before moving into the house in April.    All the projects were more expensive and took more time than expected, all had snafu's.  Remember the worldwide shipping problems last winter?  But also, can't people do their jobs accurately?   Can't companies ship what I ordered and not some other thing that I will have to ship back and wait more weeks?     I also did some light repairs and sold the old house, which sold in 1 day.  We had lived there for over 25 years but due to ever-increasing traffic and noise and more houses being built where trees used to be - we got out of that location.     Then the wife and I spent the last half of the year organizing, going through boxes,  and pitching/selling lots of our stuff from the old house.    

I had surgeries on both hands, one in May and one in November.    My left hand was most recent and I'm still not fully recovered from that.  The right hand was worse though, it took months before I didn't notice aches in it.  You'd be surprised at how much typing and using a mouse , or using a pen, uses your hand.  When your hand still aches, you realize even typing can hurt.  But, I needed these surgeries and it appears I no longer have to suffer from serious numbness from carpal tunnel syndrome.  Which is good!  

HOMEBREW 2022!  Reviewing my notes, I had time in February and then a bit in the 4th quarter, that's all.   Oh, I did have free time in the evenings, but those are not peak brain cell usage hours for me.   Only in the past month have I returned to organizing, brushing up on ASM / Antic / Pokey skills, and started to tinker again.  I took a few scans and pictures of older notebooks just so I can return here in the future and remember.  I have about a dozen different folders for ideas.  One idea I've held onto is an attempt at how I'd do a 2600 Knight Rider game. It may be too much hard work.   

Ok, now it is picture time! Pic-ture tiiiime! 

Atari 5200/XE project folders and a sample of Adventure II XE testing notes from around 2020. 

My most active project is for Detective Powers.  Next in line, I made a 2-player simultaneous 5200 version of Koffi: Yellow Kopter, but it isn't playable yet.   Then in time I really need to sit down and make common 64K 5200 and A8 engines so I can develop for both at the same time.   

Concerning DP,   @Thelen made a wonderful new Antic4 tool called Mode4 in Feb 2022, which is pretty nice to use on a windows laptop.   Here is a preview of what I got going so far for country manors which Holmes must visit.   I am not a skilled artist, but using the tool I'm trying to see what I can accomplish. It is a lot of trial and error. 

Looking at project notebooks, I am reminded that my goal in hand writing notes is speed, not neatness.  I used my i-phone's Notes app and its Document Scan feature for these pictures.  Not sure these are any better than just taking a picture of the page though. 

I was always recording Memory Checks.  It is easy to fill up.  

2022 was the '20th anniversary' for the Atari 5200, but I wasn't able to complete anything this year.   Bring on 2023.   

c(_)