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Microvision homebrew? (part 7)


atari2600land

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Question time, now that I have the right things (except a voltage meter) to make a game.

#1 - How would I give power to the Propeller chip? Enough power to not zap it to death?

#2 - How would I make sure the game I program works? In other words, how would I connect the Propeller to the Microvision and make it use the Microvision screen?

#3 - How do I take apart a MIcrovision game? I can't find any screws to unscrew or anything like that.

I've decided in favor of using Phaser Strike instead of Cosmic Hunter since Phaser Strike is more common. It's a shame though since Cosmic Hunter has the right buttons for a Frogger game. And I've decided not to call it Frogger anymore. I don't want to get in any legal troubles with whoever owns the Frogger name (I think it's Konami). I've decided to name it "Frogs and Logs," since that's all there is in the game (no cars.) and "frogs" rhymes with "logs."

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#1 - While connected to the PC via USB, the Quickstart will self power from the USB. You can use this to experiment with the Propeller via the serial terminal. In the game (not connected to USB at the same time) you would need to connect pins 40 (Vin) & 39 (Vss) on the Quickstart accessory socket to pins 24 (+9V) and 20 (GND) of the Microvision cartridge connector.

 

#2 - You would connect the other pins on the Microvision cartridge connection to pins on the Quickstart accessory socket. However, you need to establish first what voltage levels the LCD controller expects as you may need a level converter (and possibly an additional voltage convertor) if it needs more than 3.3V. Then there's the whole LCD controller protocol you will need to work out along with the driver software for it and the keypad & dial. No, this isn't a plug & program solution - there's serious hardware & software hacking required.

 

#3 - No idea. Maybe Dan Boris or some of the other Microvision enthusiasts has an idea.

 

The name is good.

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No, this isn't a plug & program solution - there's serious hardware & software hacking required.

So, what do you mean? Do you mean hacking the propeller chip? or the cartridge, or both? I'm guessing by connecting, you mean soldering? or some other way? I tried e-mailing Dan I think, but never got a response.

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3 - there's a screw on the back, usually under the white sticker.

 

Hacking in this case = figuring out the details of the protocol that haven't been mentioned in previous blogs, removing all the crap from the existing MV cartridge, and connecting your development system to the cartridge port of the donor cartridge.

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Re: Hacking (note: this is not a complete list)

 

Hardware:

  • What voltage levels does the LCD controller need. If native 3.3V output is not sufficient what parts are needed to convert the output.
  • What components are needed to connect the switch matrix & dial potenitometer so they can be used.
  • What components are needed to drive the speaker (the QuickStart doesn't have an onboard amplifier like the Demoboard)
  • How does this all physically come together, i.e. the cartridge connector (including stuff like the 9V loopback) and in the cartridge

 

Software:

  • What pin states & timing are needed to send to the LCD controller to get something to appear onscreen (including the "inversion" referenced in the documentation). Best way to do this is to capture the logic used by an actual cartridge and then reverse engineer it. Just check the voltage levels first so you don't overload your inputs.
  • Creating the software to do everything including driving the LCD controller & speaker, reading the keypad and dial, capturing the LCD controller protocol, not to mention the game itself and all the necessary debugging

All of this is possible, although soldering will probably be required.

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I'm sorry that you didn't realize the scope of the project until after you spent money on it. Maybe you can return the QuickStart. Or you can have fun with a new toy.

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