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Christian Hammond

@chipx86@mastodon.online

mastodon 4.7.0-nightly.2026-08-14

Hi!  

I work on the Review Board code review software (https://reviewboard.org — @reviewboard@mastodon.online) at Beanbag (https://beanbaginc.com). CEO, developer, sales, support, janitor. I work with #Python, #JavaScript, #Django a lot.

I do COVID reporting for Butte County, CA at https://bc19.live / https://twitter.com/bc19live.

  In a previous life I was a developer in the Linux space, working on GAIM/Pidgin, GNOME, and on Workstation/Player/WSX at VMware.

I sometimes post pics of squirrels and bees.

362 Followers

192 Following

15 Posts

Joined November 04, 2022

GitHub:

https://github.com/chipx86

Blog:

https://blog.chipx86.com

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/chipx86

Beanbag, Inc.:

https://beanbaginc.com

Posts

Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · May 03, 2026

Replying to @chipx86@mastodon.online

And the first mod to use IScripts for gameplay elements. Faxanadu: Beer Run! These are also shown off in the blog post, with some write-ups about how they work.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · May 03, 2026

Replying to @chipx86@mastodon.online

A demo of using IScripts to produce the fastest-ever game of Faxanadu.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · May 03, 2026

The first in a series of #blog posts deep-diving into #Faxanadu for #NES, going over how it all works.

We're starting with IScripts (Interaction Scripts). These compact binary scripts are run whenever you interact with an NPC or item.

https://chipx86.blog/2026/05/03/inside-faxanadu-part-1-interaction-scripts-and-shops/

#retro #games #gamedev

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · May 03, 2026

Replying to @mconley@fosstodon.org

@mconley@fosstodon.org Let’s sync up! I have sooo much to say on the subject now 🙂

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · May 03, 2026

Replying to @chipx86@mastodon.online

My work's been done with #Ghidra, and I've written custom #Python tools to do it. Including a custom exporter for an annotated HTML disassembly (https://chipx86.com/faxanadu/) #Mesen labels files, and source code that can be compiled with the ca65 compiler. I've open sourced all that today: https://github.com/chipx86/retro-tinkertoys #projects #retro

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · May 03, 2026

Replying to @chipx86@mastodon.online

From that work, someone built an editor, and from that, new Faxanadu games are now being built (see https://bsky.app/profile/okimpala.bsky.social/post/3mks74567bs2t) The engine's well-designed, but I can tell it was rushed at the end. But it offers a lot. Bytecode scripts dictating enemy behavior. Scripts dictating interactions with NPCs and items. An advanced music engine. And things left out of the game. Including additional special effects for magic.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · May 03, 2026

Last year, as a fun side project, I began disassembling and documenting #Faxanadu for #NES.

I love this game and wanted to know how it works internally. And it's fascinating. 3 built-in scripting languages, a level select code, and signs of an older game. Just some of the things I found.

https://chipx86.com/faxanadu/

#retro #gamedev #games #projects

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Jun 04, 2025

Replying to @JordiGH@mathstodon.xyz

@JordiGH@mathstodon.xyz Me. Too. Git does a couple things right, but makes no attempt at so much of what we used to expect from SCMs (access control, fine-grained remote communication, metadata storage, just to name a few critical things for integrations). There are a handful of specialized SCMs in use in some industries (Keysight SOS, Plastic, ClearCase) and a few newer things in the works for more typical projects right now (Jujutsu, and a couple of newer SCMs quietly in development). Hoping to see more.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Jun 04, 2025

Replying to @JordiGH@mathstodon.xyz

@JordiGH@mathstodon.xyz Yep, still alive! They put out releases pretty frequently it turns out. It's somewhat rebranded as Unity Version Control now, but still offers the on-prem Plastic.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Jun 04, 2025

Replying to @chipx86@mastodon.online

Spec (with some examples of how diffs are a mess today) and Python reference implementation can be found at https://diffx.org I really want to get implementations for Rust and other languages out. In all my copious spare time :P

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Jun 04, 2025

Replying to @chipx86@mastodon.online

We've been using this more and more in @reviewboard@mastodon.online, including in the upcoming PlasticSCM implementation we're hoping to release soon. As dev tools evolve, I'd really like to push this format more. It solves a lot of actual problems with diffs, without fully reinventing the wheel.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Jun 04, 2025

Replying to @chipx86@mastodon.online

The general idea is that we do what other diff formats do — storing data in the "garbage" areas of Unified Diffs — but standardize the metadata formats, parsing rules, and file encodings. Patch tools will still apply it, and they can wrap or be converted to/from bespoke formats. It supports multiple commits in a file, binary diffs (via VCDiff and Git Literal and Delta diffs), preamble texts, and arbitrary metadata.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Jun 04, 2025

One of the things we've built that I think we really got right is DiffX.org.

There really isn't any standard for diffs. Every tool has their own format. We've built a spec and implementation for a universal format retaining backwards-compatibility.

The general idea is that we do what other diff formats do — storing data in the "garbage" areas of Unified Diffs — but standardize the metadata formats, parsing rules, and file encodings.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Mar 13, 2025

Replying to @aram@aoir.social

@aram@aoir.social @zak@infosec.exchange Maybe knowing we need education was the real education we needed.

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Christian Hammond @chipx86@mastodon.online · Jul 16, 2024

We just released Typelets for #Python. 🥳

This is a small utility library collection for better type hinting, value management, and API design, based on code in @reviewboard@mastodon.online.

Docs: https://typelets.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

GitHub: https://github.com/beanbaginc/python-typelets

Some highlights:

▶︎ New #Django types to supplement django-stubs

▶︎ #JSON types, and utilities for building types for data that can be serialized to JSON.

▶︎ Symbols/types for differentiating unset/unsettable arguments/attributes/variables from None values.

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