Wickeycolumbus Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Many people on this forum hate the mattel HyperScan, and thought homebrew would not be possible on it. For the past few months, a guy named 'ppcasm' and I have been figuring out how the thing works, and released a few demos here an there. I am not sure if anyone here is interested, but here is a scrolling color demo I just made for it. Written 100% in SPG290 Assembly language. In order to run it, you must have a real HyperScan (no emulator exists yet), and a CD-R. All you have to do is burn the HYPER.EXE file to the CD-R and put in into an un-modded HyperScan, wait about a minute, and the screen pops up with fabulous colors Scrolling_Color_Demo.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Never heard of the Mattel HyperScan. Thanks for the enlightenment . Did it make it to the UK's shores? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 (edited) Never heard of the Mattel HyperScan. Thanks for the enlightenment . Did it make it to the UK's shores? I don't think so. They are pretty hard to come by, but you can find them new at some liquidation stores for only $9.99 (in the US) You could probably find a cheep one on Ebay. I predict that soon these will be worth a lot of money. Edited April 14, 2009 by Wickeycolumbus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Could someone make a video of that for the non-Hyperscan owners like me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Got the zip file Wickey, I missed it in my PM back. The Hyperscan was a failed attempt at a main stream game console by Mattel. The main reason that it failed was the games-- they were made hastily and tried to use limited hardware (which is still not bad) to do 3D stuff and the results were terrible. That said, there is still lots of possibility in the little thing. It has a strong processor, zero copy protection and very generic parts (save for a couple that are not very prone to fail). So it's a homebrewer's dream. A console that out of the box needs no special treatment to make games for. No diskjuggler, weird settings on your burner program, nothing like that. The language is proprietary and it has been studied by many great minds to crack it. Lot of progress has been made, lots has been determined. More and more has been found out since 2006 when it was released. The HS's day is coming! We will see a Harry Potter vs. Star Wars game! The Force vs. Magic! Speederbikes vs. Firebolts! Okay, maybe Pong for now But it'll still rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I have done a demo, here: to youtube demo The file is in Wickey's post above. Not bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tears of Ash Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Nice! I tried the Hello! World demo, but I never got around to doing the scrolling colours demo. (Running out of CD-Rs, must conserve!). I like all these demos. I can't wait to see where they go from here, speaking as a Hyperscan owner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I've found some specs about the system: CPU - SCore (162 MHz Sunplus mMedia 32-bit RISC processor)Video - Composite, 2D graphic engine, 640x480 resolution, MPEG4 codec Audio - MP3 codec, 24 PCM sound channels Memory - 16 MB SDRAM ODD - 4x CD-Rom drive IO - 1x USB 1.1 port, RFID Scanner RFID Scanner - 13.56 MHz RFID Storage - 110 bytes (96 bytes of user memory 8 bytes unique ID 6 bytes of one time programmable memory) Could be nice for emulation. @Wickey, is the video of this machine interlaced or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Nice! I tried the Hello! World demo, but I never got around to doing the scrolling colours demo. (Running out of CD-Rs, must conserve!). I like all these demos. I can't wait to see where they go from here, speaking as a Hyperscan owner. Same here! I don't think there's been a better homebrew platform outside the Dreamcast for this kind of stuff. More must be done! You know all about that stuff, though, been on the HS Scene since day 1 I think Welcome to Atariage. I've found some specs about the system:CPU - SCore (162 MHz Sunplus mMedia 32-bit RISC processor)Video - Composite, 2D graphic engine, 640x480 resolution, MPEG4 codec Audio - MP3 codec, 24 PCM sound channels Memory - 16 MB SDRAM ODD - 4x CD-Rom drive IO - 1x USB 1.1 port, RFID Scanner RFID Scanner - 13.56 MHz RFID Storage - 110 bytes (96 bytes of user memory 8 bytes unique ID 6 bytes of one time programmable memory) Could be nice for emulation. @Wickey, is the video of this machine interlaced or not? Very good for emulation. These things have a lot of potential. The only gripe I have is that the CD mech is cheap and likes to go out-- I have four of them, and one died on me. It boots up, but it won't spin a disk. Well, that and the language is really weird and you have to almost take speed to understand it. I've been told it's really a weird way of doing things. Lots of workarounds, but it's coming soon. Us people working on it have to make money, so personally I can't spend as much time as I'd like to on the Project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Well, that and the language is really weird and you have to almost take speed to understand it. I've been told it's really a weird way of doing things. Lots of workarounds, but it's coming soon. Us people working on it have to make money, so personally I can't spend as much time as I'd like to on the Project. Weird language? You mean the manual, or the processor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 The language that the HS is programmed in. Thankfully the manual is pretty easy to understand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 The language that the HS is programmed in. Thankfully the manual is pretty easy to understand Manual as is programming manual? SoC manual? I haven't seen any kind of documentation yet on the HyperScan, so can you give a bit more information? Thanks. --Selgus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland p Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 (edited) Some techie info: http://w3.sunplusmm.com/products/game/g290.asp Edited April 23, 2009 by roland p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Some techie info: http://w3.sunplusmm.com/products/game/g290.asp I've seen that, but does anyone have any real docs on this thing? I admit, I got one with the thought of hacking it one day, but wanted to see detailed info on the hardware besides bulletpoints. --Selgus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 (edited) So far as I know, there aren't any real docs on it. SunPlus and Mattel are very tight-lipped about it. Everything that is known has had to be determined. If you look at one of the hyper.exe files on the disk it looks like a really weird form of OS because the way it's written. Not programming manual, that doesn't exist yet. I meant owner's manual. No official development kit is available afaik. Selgus, are you a programmer? Nathan Edited April 23, 2009 by nathanallan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 OK, thanks for the video! How many colors exactly are there appearing on screen? I have done a demo, here: to youtube demo The file is in Wickey's post above. Not bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Selgus, are you a programmer? Yup, and have worked on pretty much every game console produced. --Selgus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Selgus, are you a programmer? Yup, and have worked on pretty much every game console produced. --Selgus This gives me hope. PM sent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 (edited) @Wickey,is the video of this machine interlaced or not? Yes, I believe there is an interlaced mode. I am not sure why it appears to be flickering, I think I may have initialized the TV wrong. Well, that and the language is really weird and you have to almost take speed to understand it. I've been told it's really a weird way of doing things. Lots of workarounds, but it's coming soon. Us people working on it have to make money, so personally I can't spend as much time as I'd like to on the Project. Weird language? You mean the manual, or the processor? The assembly language is somewhat obscure, it is based off of mips. We currently only have a list of opcodes, no documentation on the video hardware at all. OK, thanks for the video! How many colors exactly are there appearing on screen? The demo is in RGB 565 mode, so 65,536 different colors (they are hard to make out though, since there is 1 pixel per color) They are repeated a little over 4.5 times on the screen. I have done a demo, here: to youtube demo The file is in Wickey's post above. Not bad! Thank you very much for uploading a video! Edited April 23, 2009 by Wickeycolumbus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 I thought some of you might be interested in this picture, it is a picture of all the prototypes I had to make before I made the final version of the color demo. HS programming is not for the impatient! No emulator means only hardware tests, it takes forever. If you look at one of the hyper.exe files on the disk it looks like a really weird form of OS because the way it's written. Are you talking about when you open up HYPER.EXE files up in notepad? It looks like that because that is machine code, open up any program in notepad and you will see the same strange symbols. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDW Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 You know, in 30 years, we're all going to be sorry we didnt get one. Since it failed so miserably it *might* be worth a lot later...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 You know, in 30 years, we're all going to be sorry we didnt get one. Since it failed so miserably it *might* be worth a lot later...... Don't you worry, I am prepared for the situation. I have over 12 systems (6 sealed!) and am waiting for the prices to skyrocket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 You know, in 30 years, we're all going to be sorry we didnt get one. Since it failed so miserably it *might* be worth a lot later...... Don't you worry, I am prepared for the situation. I have over 12 systems (6 sealed!) and am waiting for the prices to skyrocket You're a nut! Though I do want to learn more about this machine. If it was such a failure because a lack of any real software, I wonder what you can do with the hardware? I put it on my backlog to look at moving the one game I am working on, over to the HS when I know more about it. I am assuming that the frame buffer is memory mapped into normal address space, and what people are doing now is similar to what they were doing when hacking the N64 (i.e. doing software rendering into the frame buffer and minimal hardware setup). if it is MIPS-like, then it should be pretty easy to pick up. Having done a lot of PSX/PS2/N64 assembly level programming, this shouldn't be that hard. Does it have the same load/store RISC arch, 32 general purpose registers, pipeline stalls if the stage isn't ready at the time of execution, etc? Some people must know more than they are saying out there. --Selgus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 Though I do want to learn more about this machine. If it was such a failure because a lack of any real software, I wonder what you can do with the hardware? I put it on my backlog to look at moving the one game I am working on, over to the HS when I know more about it. Another HS programmer is always welcome Right now, it is only me and ppcasm. I am assuming that the frame buffer is memory mapped into normal address space, and what people are doing now is similar to what they were doing when hacking the N64 (i.e. doing software rendering into the frame buffer and minimal hardware setup). Yes, so far, all graphics are through the framebuffer. if it is MIPS-like, then it should be pretty easy to pick up. Having done a lot of PSX/PS2/N64 assembly level programming, this shouldn't be that hard. Does it have the same load/store RISC arch, 32 general purpose registers, pipeline stalls if the stage isn't ready at the time of execution, etc? I do not have previous experience with MIPS based machines, so I could not tell you the answer to that. I believe all 32 general purpose registers are present though. Some people must know more than they are saying out there. --Selgus Most of the stuff we know can be found on the internet if you search hard enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathanallan Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 @wickey I opened it up in a freeware compiler, and not really being a programmer I didn't know what I was looking at. I can't even remember which free compiler I used. @Selgus Not sure about worth, I figure the whole thing will be on a single chip when it gets over and done with Rename it QuantumScan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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