Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

nanochess

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    6,419

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    19

Posts posted by nanochess

  1. Posted

    A pretty difficult topic.

     

    If I were a collector I would be very worried to lose of sight a valuable prototype, and by valuable sometimes we're not talking of money but some emotional value.

     

    Next point, some collectors (as I've read before in Atariage) doesn't want to release even ROM files because they think his prototype loses value or they paid a very high price so they don't want everybody else to enjoy it for free.

     

    Another point, other collectors (also seen in Atariage) would like to release ROM files but they don't want to see it commercially distributed, and though here in Atariage people is very educated, we have seen the ebay surge of not-so-good people that marks everything as "rare"

     

    Anyway my proposal is that collectors should take good quality pictures for the history's benefit and get equipment to dump ROM on their own, as the ROM continously oxydizes and would be a shame (even for the collector) to lose something unique.

     

    Maybe sometimes even the collector wants to remain anonymous, so I suggest to send pictures to NYAD just to tell that in effect the prototype exists, and maybe in some time, the collector would like to share the ROM under his terms, maybe even selling the dump and keeping the original prototype, I'm sure everybody here would contribute some money in order to release ROM for community benefit.

     

    Certainly I would put some money to contribute to pay for the ROM of Wizard of Wor or He Man.

    • Like 2

  2. Posted

    It is the problem of any thread using the "vs" (versus) word in title (check C64 versus Atari)

     

    People starts thinking that one of the two should win. But reality is that though I understand both Z80 and 6502, I prefer more Z80. And everyone here have their own preference.

     

    That's all folks! :)

     

    Now go in peace and write some good code.

  9. Posted

    If you look at the MSX market, an MSX2 machine included a 6MHz 64180 as a 2nd CPU and then the TurboR was introduced. Maybe MSX would have been popular in the US without IBM.

    Just for the records, everything from MSX up to MSX2+ used only a single Z80 CPU. I'm wondering were Hitachi HD64180 was used.

     

    When MSX came up to the United States, the Colecovision already had the market, same graphics capabilities and MSX had the price too high, so it couldn't have been successful.

  10. Posted

    The Z80 machine code is higher level than 6502. Unless you have some macro capability in your 6502 assembler you're going to spend a lot of time repeating some small routines for 16-bit operations.

     

    In Z80 there are a lot more registers, instructions to move a block, search for a byte, output block to port, input port to block, adding/substraction 16 bits, adding/substraction without carry (in 6502 you've to clean Carry flag,) conditional returns/jumps/calls (saves a lot of code.)

     

    As said before the 6502 needed more help from peripherals, so there is the C64 where the VDP has pixel scrolling capability and the PSG could do FM style sound, everything without processor help, even the Atari had a lot of help with its associated chips.

     

    While the poor Z80 stuck with not so powerful graphics and sound, like the SG-1000, Colecovision and MSX, and the better were the Sega Master System, and MSX2 and MSX2+ (this one with FM sound) that came a little too late.

  11. Posted

    Yes, PROMs are still being made. I've sometimes used EPROMs, but they're usually more expensive, and I have a great dislike of refurbished EPROMs... too much trouble for too little savings.

    Indeed a great trouble.

     

    Many years ago I bought an offer of a hundred of used EPROMS and for some reason, half of them never could be erased properly, other quarter never could be programmed properly, so I ended with twenty or so functional EPROMS :(. It would have better to buy new EPROMS

  13. Posted

    I'm surprised that PROMS are still being made. Are they used for something else in the world? Is that why they are still being manufactured?

    You would be surprised, EPROM and PROM are still in great use all around the world for small appliances and industrial machines. These chips are more trustable than Flash chips for many applications.

  15. Posted

    In fact there are two books about Toledo Nanochess (my own chess program!!!,) one by Lambert Surhone and other by Jesse Russell. Both say "quality content provided by Wikipedia".

     

    What makes me to wonder because the Wikipedia entry for Toledo Nanochess barely fills a page for a book.

     

    These things should be prohibited because trigger people to think there is indeed a book about my chess program.

     

    Besides these pirates are earning dollars for each book (somewhere I've read one of these "editors" have 300,000 different books published based on Wikipedia articles)

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDM_Publishing

  16. Posted

    I had a hard time finding this information before I began making boxes. The measurements I use are in U.S:

     

    7.5 x 5.5 x .9375 (spine/sides).

     

    Sometimes I do work in millimeters when I'm placing graphics in Photoshop, but I believe these standard U.S. sizes are what Coleco (and many third parties) used in box-production.

    I suspect you're right as Coleco was based in USA. Here at Mexico the metric system is the standard.

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    It's pretty hard to learn programming because every person is different, but here are my suggestions:

     

    * Only one language at a time. The one that you feel most comfortable.

    * Start with very small games (Nim, Tic-Tac-Toe, Checkers) WITHOUT A.I.

    * Try to answer questions yourself (some people know this as: learn to think)

    * Don't leave until you get it working.

    * Dedicate a time everyday, same hour.

    * After mastering a step, put yourself new objectives. (slightly more complicated games)

     

    By the way, the "C programming language" is not good for beginners, it assumes that you know how to program, but it is necessary if you want to learn C. Go to your local library and check for the book with the tone that you most understand.

     

    In 80's and 90's magazines published programs that served as a reference to learn, but now the Internet is the resource, just search for small programs and try to understand how them work.

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    I came to Colecovision searching for TMS9918 programming information while developing for MSX (2011, almost 29 years later)

     

    First was the challenge to make my games to work in Colecovision, then I knew I had to have one to test in the real hardware and I really liked it, so I started collecting loose cartridges. Now I've 80 cartridges, mostly standard releases, some homebrews, some repeated and of course various CIB.

     

    Maybe it is because when I was a kid I couldn't afford a game console, but certainly I'm having a lot of fun with it :) and it's my preferred over my other old consoles.

    • Like 1
AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...