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Building a Propeller based VCS?

potatohead

Entry posted by potatohead

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Propeller + 6502 = VCS?  

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  1. 1. Interested in that kind of thing?

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Well, most of the electronics have arrived. I've got some 2Mhz 6502's, a 6809, just because, misc resistors, a coupla buffers, and static RAM on the way.

 

This project has me seriously intrigued:

 

http://www.parallax.com/tabid/708/Default.aspx

 

Basically, the Propeller clocks the 6502, and can read the 6502 address bus, and can control the data bus. The included demo programs show how to load the RAM, and how to have the 6502 interact with the Prop, like it would in a classic computer or console.

 

I want to do some retro gaming on a Propeller, and that's been happening with nice game projects being completed. Really though, it would be excellent to have it run VCS games. Attempts at 6502 emulation were over my head, and for those who knew better after giving it a go, too slow to make this happen.

 

Other projects like this have been done, but were expensive or complex, or both.

 

This simple circuit might actually be capable of doing some good emulation of some retro hardware, and I'm gonna give it a go. I targeted both the Apple and VCS as they don't make use of interrupts. In the case of the VCS, none at all. In the case of the Apple, interrupts are used, but not used to get a machine booting into a simple Applesoft environment. From there, who knows?

 

I'm also very intrigued by Batari seeing success with the Harmony cart. There is lots of retro + modern goodness coming down the line, making this a good time to try something like this.

 

For now, completing FREEWAY, then building and debugging this circuit have my attention.

 

The purpose of the poll question is simple: Let's say this simple circuit could run VCS games unmodified, say from SD card, or something like that? Or even better, could run them from a cart! Would that be interesting, or a curio?

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EricBall

I suspect the Propeller2 will have enough power to emulate an entire 2600. The problem with emulating the TIA is a lot of I/O pins are dedicated to the address & data bus (16 for TIA, 4 more for RIOT). The Propeller would also have to generate the clock and the RDY signals.

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potatohead

I suspect it will too.

 

This 6502 + Propeller project is interesting though. For me, there is some nice learning getting the circuit built and running. That's worth it right there.

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