Jeffrey Bouchard Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I will be also. Hopefully its not overkill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 You could just "follow" the topic and AA will email you when something happens here. I'm plodding along implementing and polishing the firmware. The specific details are fairly boring unless you're a total propeller-head. (I count myself in that category, but I know few folks do...) I will say that stress tests have really beat on the board, and have given me extreme confidence that the design is stable and the low level firmware is solid. I just need to finish the remaining top level features and a few other things. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 You could just "follow" the topic and AA will email you when something happens here. I can already see him every time grab his credit card when he gets an email from AA regarding a post in wich someone wrote: "where can I buy it?". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 You could just "follow" the topic and AA will email you when something happens here. I'm plodding along implementing and polishing the firmware. The specific details are fairly boring unless you're a total propeller-head. (I count myself in that category, but I know few folks do...) I will say that stress tests have really beat on the board, and have given me extreme confidence that the design is stable and the low level firmware is solid. I just need to finish the remaining top level features and a few other things. Great work and take your time! Live and enjoy your everyday life as you should and whenever it gets to anyone else is a bonus to us as well. Thank you for making this cool Intellivision Item! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Great work and take your time! Live and enjoy your everyday life as you should and whenever it gets to anyone else is a bonus to us as well. Thank you for making this cool Intellivision Item! Wolfy, Joe has no intention of rushing out the product before it is ready. However, he isn't taking his time on anything. We wanted this out at CGE but work realities hit both Steve and Joe at the same time. Rest assured, that the goal is to have this out THIS winter and at worst, early spring. I am sure that Joe enjoys his part time work very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Rest assured, that the goal is to have this out THIS winter [Q4 2015] and at worst, early spring [Q1 2016]. ...how I initially read this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Rest assured, that the goal is to have this out THIS winter [Q4 2015] and at worst, early spring [Q1 2016]. ...how I initially read this Oh HECK no. If it stretches out that far, I'll go mad. Great work and take your time! Live and enjoy your everyday life as you should and whenever it gets to anyone else is a bonus to us as well. You mean engineering all day long every day isn't "everyday life"? Oh, wait, there's beer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I am sure that Joe enjoys his part time work very much. You may have heard the one about how writers hate writing, but love having written. That's pretty much how engineering and programming are for me. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Oh HECK no. If it stretches out that far, I'll go mad. You mean engineering all day long every day isn't "everyday life"? Oh, wait, there's beer. Yea......beer! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Wolfy, Joe has no intention of rushing out the product before it is ready. However, he isn't taking his time on anything. We wanted this out at CGE but work realities hit both Steve and Joe at the same time. Rest assured, that the goal is to have this out THIS winter and at worst, early spring. I am sure that Joe enjoys his part time work very much. It is all good, and i would not want him to rush it I am a big fan of his programming talents! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 You may have heard the one about how writers hate writing, but love having written. That's pretty much how engineering and programming are for me. ;) I'm the opposite with beer. I love drinking, but oft regret having been drunk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I'm the opposite with beer. I love drinking, but oft regret having been drunk Maybe that's why so many writers drink. It's the yin and yang of creativity. Me, I'm continually seeking the Ballmer Peak. It is all good, and i would not want him to rush it I am a big fan of his programming talents! Well I certainly hope LTO Flash! doesn't disappoint. In my day job, I'm responsible for microprocessor and system-on-a-chip architecture, as well as developing non-traditional verification strategies for stress-testing the complex chips we build. I'm applying some of the same techniques on a much smaller and more informal scale on my own board. The stress testing has exposed various issues that I've since addressed. It takes longer to get it all right, but when it's right, it's right. intvsteve can attest to the brutality I have toward my own work. I've got one board I've put a label on so I don't accidentally give it to anyone else. (I may've mentioned this upthread; I forget.) This board has seen millions upon millions of commands thrown at it, and by the time I'm done, I expect its flash to be totally trashed. It's currently being thrashed with the latest firmware. The latest firmware has many, many improvements that were directly inspired by pathological behavior I spotted in response to the wave after wave of evil I've inflicted upon this poor board. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Maybe that's why so many writers drink. It's the yin and yang of creativity. Me, I'm continually seeking the Ballmer Peak. Well I certainly hope LTO Flash! doesn't disappoint. In my day job, I'm responsible for microprocessor and system-on-a-chip architecture, as well as developing non-traditional verification strategies for stress-testing the complex chips we build. I'm applying some of the same techniques on a much smaller and more informal scale on my own board. The stress testing has exposed various issues that I've since addressed. It takes longer to get it all right, but when it's right, it's right. intvsteve can attest to the brutality I have toward my own work. I've got one board I've put a label on so I don't accidentally give it to anyone else. (I may've mentioned this upthread; I forget.) This board has seen millions upon millions of commands thrown at it, and by the time I'm done, I expect its flash to be totally trashed. It's currently being thrashed with the latest firmware. The latest firmware has many, many improvements that were directly inspired by pathological behavior I spotted in response to the wave after wave of evil I've inflicted upon this poor board. That one board with the label on it that may not work......that is the one I want! Just for collecting purposes of course! Give it to me accidentally and by coincidence. At full release price certainly. I would love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 (edited) That one board with the label on it that may not work......that is the one I want! Just for collecting purposes of course! Give it to me accidentally and by coincidence. At full release price certainly. I would love it! And then there's the Rev 1 boards with blue-wires.... EDIT: These boards really did turn out pretty, didn't they? Edited January 29, 2015 by intvnut 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 They are amazing......damn those are beautiful! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I don't understand why you'd only be able to turn left if it meant you're going the wrong way down a one way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 (edited) I don't understand why you'd only be able to turn left if it meant you're going the wrong way down a one way. That was an actual roadsign here in Dallas. Fittingly, it was at the corner of Loop 12 and Loop 12. I thought it was so ridiculous, that when it came time to come up with a company name and logo, I couldn't resist using it. :-) That's also why the splash screen for Space Patrol and 4-Tris (LTO) involves a car crash. (I guess that splash/crash screen isn't on the teaser...) Edited January 29, 2015 by intvnut 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+5-11under Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 That was an actual roadsign here in Dallas. Fittingly, it was at the corner of Loop 12 and Loop 12. I thought it was so ridiculous, that when it came time to come up with a company name and logo, I couldn't resist using it. :-) I never would have guessed it was real. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnPCAE Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 From what I've read, the LTO Flash has the ability to display the game's manual from the cart menu. What is the format of the manual files? I know they're text files but how long are each of the lines of text? The CC3 was limited to 21 chars. If this the same limitation on the LTO Flash? It would be amazing if the LTO Flash could put the manual on-screen using the video overlay pin that the original Keyboard Component would have used. Oh, and I'm *so* in for at least one! It's only a shame that the Inty doesn't have a way to tap into the STIC bus. I've been giving the RAM, STIC, and GROM chips another look and it sure looks like there are enough address lines to support quadrupling GRAM memory. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 (edited) It would be amazing if the LTO Flash could put the manual on-screen using the video overlay pin that the original Keyboard Component would have used. Unfortunately, that trick would only work on an unmodified Intellivision 1. Oh, and I'm *so* in for at least one! I'm working on getting this out as soon as I can. I'm ticking off checkboxes on the TO-DO list one at a time. It's only a shame that the Inty doesn't have a way to tap into the STIC bus. I've been giving the RAM, STIC, and GROM chips another look and it sure looks like there are enough address lines to support quadrupling GRAM memory. Yep, you can up the GRAM to 256 cards trivially by using all of the address lines captured by the GROM. I've verified that it works for 128, and there's no reason to believe it won't work for 256. But, FGBG mode would still be limited to 64 cards, and you need a mechanism to limit GRAM to 64 cards for games that use those two bits for status flags. Also, if you build an appropriate state machine outside the STIC, you can double the vertical resolution of the machine by tracking whether you're on an odd or even scanline within a field. (Search the archives; I posted some rather impressive results.) The double vertical res will do some strange things with MOBs, though, unless the state machine you build knows how to distinguish MOB fetch from card fetch. Edited January 29, 2015 by intvnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnPCAE Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 (edited) Unfortunately, that trick would only work on an unmodified Intellivision 1. I'm working on getting this out as soon as I can. I'm ticking off checkboxes on the TO-DO list one at a time. Yep, you can up the GRAM to 256 cards trivially by using all of the address lines captured by the GROM. I've verified that it works for 128, and there's no reason to believe it won't work for 256. But, FGBG mode would still be limited to 64 cards, and you need a mechanism to limit GRAM to 64 cards for games that use those two bits for status flags. Also, if you build an appropriate state machine outside the STIC, you can double the vertical resolution of the machine by tracking whether you're on an odd or even scanline within a field. (Search the archives; I posted some rather impressive results.) The double vertical res will do some strange things with MOBs, though, unless the state machine you build knows how to distinguish MOB fetch from card fetch. I was thinking about it yesterday and you'd have to have some sort of small state machine that defaulted the use of the address lines to the factory standard, but with perhaps a write to a certain memory location to change how they functioned. I'm looking for your archived post, but so far no dice. Edited January 29, 2015 by JohnPCAE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intvnut Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I was thinking about it yesterday and you'd have to have some sort of small state machine that defaulted the use of the address lines to the factory standard, but with perhaps a write to a certain memory location to change how they functioned. I'm looking for your archived post, but so far no dice. It was on INTVPROG: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/intvprog/conversations/messages/5884 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/intvprog/conversations/messages/5930 And yes, I implemented a really simple state machine to flip between modes with the second hack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I don't understand why you'd only be able to turn left if it meant you're going the wrong way down a one way. Exactly! That is what makes it a hilarious sign! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 That was an actual roadsign here in Dallas. Fittingly, it was at the corner of Loop 12 and Loop 12. I thought it was so ridiculous, that when it came time to come up with a company name and logo, I couldn't resist using it. :-) original_lto_roadsign.jpg That's also why the splash screen for Space Patrol and 4-Tris (LTO) involves a car crash. (I guess that splash/crash screen isn't on the teaser...) i never put two and two together with the car tires squealing and the car crash when the sign shakes. I must be slow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 i never put two and two together with the car tires squealing and the car crash when the sign shakes. I must be slow... I can haz derp, too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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