jblang

Hi ColecoJoe, I was just curious if you ever got your RC2014 built?

For anyone who might be interested, kits for these boards are now available on Tindie: - Video Card - Sound Card - Controller Interface - z80ctrl Boot Loader

Thanks! Someone else designed a YM2149 module for the RC2014. I have one but I'm not sure it can be configured to use the right ports. I know it doesn't support the ports used by MSX. I have gotten the Bold MSX Demo to run on it (details), but only after I modified the code to use the right ports: I have thought about making a new version of the board that supports the MSX ports. When/if I do, I will look into supporting SGM too. Sigh, so many cards to design, so little time.

There are a few different RC2014 configurations that will work in combination with the 3 game boards that I designed (video, audio, and controller). With the RC2014 Zed Pro kit, you can load ColecoVision games from CP/M. You will probably want to add the CompactFlash module to that so you have permanent storage and you don't have to upload the games over the serial port the RC2014 every time. A less expensive, and in my opinion, superior option is to buy the Pro backplane, 64K RAM module, and Z80 CPU module separately, then add my 3 game boards, plus my z80ctrl board. The z80ctrl replaces the ROM, clock, Compact Flash, and serial boards with an AVR microcontroller that lets you load the games directly into memory from an SD card, bypassing CP/M. The Pageable ROM board that comes with the standard RC2014 Pro is NOT compatible, because it has a port conflict with the video card. Of my boards, currently only the video board is available as a kit. I am working with the seller of the video card kit to offer the other 3 boards on Tindie as well (sound, controller, and z80ctrl) but I don't know when they will be available yet. Until then you would have to get the boards manufactured yourself from e.g., JLCPCB.com, and then source the components yourself from Mouser and eBay. I have written a blog article that explains the various ways games can be loaded.

The RC2014 is a modular Z80-based homebrew computer kit that can run CP/M and BASIC. I've designed add-in cards (TMS9918 video card, SN76489 sound card, and ColecoVision-compatible controller card) that allow it to play ColecoVision games. Here's a video of some games running: And a video explaining how the boards work:

I came across your video on YouTube. I'm designing a TMS9918 printed circuit board for the RC2014 homebrew Z80-based computer. I found a fixed-point Mandelbrot generator for the Z80 and adapted it to the TMS9918 using the color selection algorithm you described in your video. I actually haven't looked at your TI-99 code yet, since my AtariAge account just got approved, but based on the glitch-for-glitch comparison with your video, I'd say I have pretty faithfully duplicated it. The Z80 code is in the github repo along with the PCB design linked above.