Protracktor
Due to a quite sticky cold and some other responsibilities progress on Retracktor has been a bit slower than before. I did spend some more time learning rust, so it wasn't completely lost.
One thing I realised is that coming up with a tracker engine from scratch is probably a bit of a large ask. I have rough ideas about what I want the engine to do, but it is a lot. One piece of code that I come back to regularly to figure out how to structure the code is ct2, which is a web based partial replica of Protracker, the famous AMIGA tracker from the 1990s. It is based on TinyMod by legendary kebby/farbrausch.
So here's my new plan: Re-Implementing tinymod (or, rather, the ct2 player code) in Rust and then gradually adding UI to it to be able to use it as a game controller controlled protracker clone. This is a much smaller target than what I have in mind for Retracktor and should be easy-ish in terms of the sound code and doable in terms of the UI in a relatively short time frame.
It gives me enough surface to really dig deep into how Rust works and how to build something like this in Rust. It also is enough UI to learn a lot about how a controller based interface could work without directly copying LSDJ/M8.
A usable Protracker that works on any retro handheld would also be a really nice thing in it self.
I'll have some time next week and will try to get cracking with this.