elmer

In the USA ... absolutely! In the UK and EU, things like this ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_PCW ... kept CP/M alive in the home and mom-and-pop businesses for a while longer. The CPC 6128 with a green-screen 80-column monitor was something that you'd occasionally see in a mom-and-pop outfit, because they could run their CP/M word-processing and accounting apps on it, and still play games if they were bored. Sure, anyone with a serious business, or serious money was using a PC instead. What's surprising to me, is the OP even asking about the Amstrad CPC in the same question as one of the Tandy or Apple 8-bit machines. Different times ... different places. AFAIK, the CPC computers were pretty-much-unknown and entirely-unwanted in the markets where the Tandy and Apple machines thrived. Living in the UK at the time, I always wanted a CoCo3 with OS/9 ... but could never justify the price. Then the 16/32 bit era machines became affordable, and the CoCo3 just seemed out-of-date. Different countries ... different worlds.

The OP started the thread asking about specific features of specific model-ranges of 8-bit-generation machines, and I was trying to answer in the same vein, and to point out that the Amstrad CPC wasn't purely considered a home-machine at the time, and suddenly you're switching the topic to sales figures and the 16/32 bit transition, and a processor that didn't even ship. Errrr ... I'm really confused. I don't need the history lesson, I was around then, too. And yes, there weren't any CP/M machines at my university in 1984, either, as far as I can remember. As darthkur said ... if you're wanting to include the CPC in an 8-bit machine comparision, then the CoCo2 or CoCo3 and Apple IIe would seem to be better machines to compare it to. Yes, you're right, I was forgetting about the Amiga 2500 that shipped with a factory-installed 68020 board in 1989, sorry ... I was overlooking the professional range of Amiga systems since the topic seemed to be about different consumer-level machines. So, yes, I was thinking about the Amiga 1200.

It's definitely a bit unfair to compare machines from such a wide time-period and price range (partly time, partly customer-base). The CPC, with its 80-column text mode, really came into its own as a "semi-serious small-business contender" in 1985/1986 with the floppy-disc models and the upgrade to 128KB of memory. It was the cheapest CP/M machine that you could buy at the time in the UK, at a time when the IBM PC was still too expensive for anything but larger businesses. The plus models were too-little-too-late, and included the failed attempt to turn the CPC into a game console (GX4000). And IBM PCs had an 80486 in 1990 ... so? Amiga's didn't actually ship with anything better than an 8MHz 68000 until 1992.

There are no wait-states on the PCE's ROM and RAM accesses, but there's a single wait-state when accessing the VDC. And "yes", it can easily consume data at that rate ... there are plenty of 2-byte, 2-cycle instructions ... but they're sequential access. kevtris's idea of burst-loading a few instruction bytes might indeed work. Probably just to allow for the use of slower BIOS ROMs at boot (not used in practice). The first thing that every game does is to switch to high-speed mode. The PCE's VDC has the ability to run with slow RAM ... but they ended-up putting the fastest possible RAM on the actual console when it shipped. It's the only 4th-generation console (that I know of) with completely unrestricted CPU access to VDC RAM during the frame.

Genesis 16-bit-wide memory access in 4 clocks @ 7.68MHz -> 1.92MHz SNES 8-bit-wide memory access in 1 clock @ 3.58MHz PC Engine 8-bit-wide memory access in 1 clock @ 7.16MHz

This was posted on the Twitter account (romhacking_net) ... BUT ... the folks on the romhacking IRC feed (it took me a while to find that) say that's a fake Twitter account, and just someone stirring up trouble. They say that the site is down because it's been hacked, and that it will be back.

Unless they've just been hacked themselves, it looks like the premiere site for the development and distribution of Translation Patches and other classic-game Hacks just went titsup! It's been down all day, and then I just saw this ... Does anyone know what happened? Is this legit? Did they get a takedown notice or C&D? Whatever ... unless this is a joke, it isn't a great day for the folks that are working hard to bring classic games, that were only released in Japan, to an English-speaking audience.

Just "sometimes doesn't-work-correctly". The TED v2 seems the most-sensitive, but that's because it is running modern 3.3V components (needed to keep the costs down, and because 5V chips are a disappearing breed), and it is using 3.3V-5V level shifters to talk to the PCE/TG-16 cartridge bus. It's all been calibrated to work with real hardware (and even then, the early versions had some problems). The most common region-mod adds delays to the signals on cartridge bus, and messes with the signal voltages. The old tech in real HuCards could tolerate that, but the modern tech in the TED v2 doesn't like it. Folks have "fixed" their region-mod by giving it a higher power supply voltage to reduce the delays and signal voltage drop ... which seems to have worked ... for now. But the TED specifically avoids the claim of any compatibility with region-modded systems. It's up to the potential owner to decide which hardware they think is more important, and whether to take the risk.

Did these guys kill your dog, or pick on you at school, or something??? You're very vocal with your pronouncements that this system is some complete scam, when there is still little real evidence about WTF is going on inside it. The RetroBlox guys are making overblown promises about what they can deliver ... and sure, the chance that it can live up to its claims, and do so without using modified GPL'd or Non-Commercial software seems highly unlikely ... but ... there is still a slim possibility, and they haven't actually asked for anyone's money yet. There's plenty of time to crucify them if/when they do start asking for money, and if they do so without answering people's concerns and really showing the thing actually working with those difficult-to-run carts. Even then ... we're all unlikely to know if they've really avoided stealing other peoples emulators until (if ever) the thing actually ships.

IndieGogo? Patreon? There is an established precedent now, after all!

Unless you really want to collect US HuCards (which would require spending an absolute fortune) ... I'd always recommend people to NOT region-mod a Japanese system. You're paying extra money to have someone screw with the electrical signals on the cartridge bus, and things like the Turbo Everdrive v2 really don't like that.

Given the typos and sentence structure, I'd just write that one off to the poor Education System. It's like trying to read too much into certain politician's statements ... don't try to attribute deep meanings to the words of people who are incapable of deep thoughts, especially when they're posting after midnight. I read it as a simple, "We've got more information to give out, but our hands are tied.". Not particularly useful ... but it does show that they've not just gone away.

There's no point in going the TG-16 route unless you're desperate to "collect" the limited amount of vastly-overpriced US HuCards. You'd pay a large premium for little benefit, and then have to pay a fortune for the US CD system. If you don't want to play CDs, you're much better off with a Japanese CoreGrafx (cheap as dirt) and a TurboEverdrive (which plays all the US games). But a better solution is a recapped Japanese DUO or DUO-R, or a briefcase ... and they're available at about half the cost that you're quoting, if you know where to look (i.e. not eBay), although you'll pay a bit more if you also want it with an S-video or RGB mod.

The closest thing to a "promise" that I remember, was them saying that the Kickstarter campaign would be in April (targeting people's tax-return money?). Anyway, looks like they've not disappeared yet, this was posted on their forum ... Ahhhhhhhhh, the tried-and-trusted "lawyer" excuse! It's always fun to see that one get used.

"No, no, he's not dead! He's ... he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, isn't it, ay? Beautiful plumage!" But seriously ... these guys still have a chance to come through. At least they've not been constantly stepping into the limelight and shooting themselves in the foot. But neither have they answered the questions or concerns of technically-minded skeptics. The onus is on them to prove the claims that they've made about their amazing "Patent Pending" technology. They haven't done that yet ... but neither have they shown stuff that's been debunked ... it could still go either way. But the odds don't seem to be in their favor.

IMHO, reading the CD data from SD card would be the only sane solution. The main point is to remove the need for fully-working original hardware, and that includes all of those pieces of spinning-plastic that have become scratched over the decades. The entire PC-CD library (and most others) is available on sites-that-should-not-be-named as perfect bin/cue rips. Anyone that wants to can rip their own PCE-CDs, and compare the results against a database of known-good copies. Really??? I've been working on game translations for the last couple of years, and Mednafen seems to have absolutely no problem emulating and playing CD audio from a .bin file, and it even did a great job of matching 5th-generation video-playback limits when I tested it against real-hardware. Basically, yes, but with a few important wrinkles, like the ADPCM subsystem. As a first generation SCSI CD-ROM drive, there are a few proprietary undocmented SCSI commands that it responds to. Nothing that Kevtris couldn't figure out, especially since open-source software emulators already exist to use as reference for the commands themselves. IMHO the problem with the SegaCD would be less with the CD unit, and more with the fact that it's a totally different 4.5th-generation SuperAmiga-type computer that runs in parallel to the base MegaDrive, and just DMAs data to the MegaDrive's VDC for actual display ... while the original MegaDrive can still access the VDC to add some of its own work to the mix. It's one of the first multiprocessing systems that developers had to deal with, and one heck of a kludge of a design. PCE HuCards go up to 1MB (except for the bank-switched SFII with 2.5MB). PCE ArcadeCard games allow for 2.25MB of RAM. There's probably no need for more block RAM (even with the 128KB video memory on the SuperGrafx and the 64KB of ADPCM RAM, and, say another 32KB for CD read-ahead). I suspect that Kevtris has already hit upon the solution for the PCE's fast memory access speed ... it may only a real issue on instruction reads (1..7 consecutive bytes). AFAIK, the minimum non-consecutive memory accesses would be the 3-cycle PHA/PHX/PXY instructions, with a 1-byte read, and 1-byte write all in 3 cycles ... followed by the next instruction read. But ... at the end of the day ... everyone here is benefiting from Kevtris's personal-passion-and-drive in creating these things for fun. He's put far more time-and-effort into these than anyone could even expect from a fully-paid-employee. He can choose what he wants to work on, and the rest of us are just along for the ride, and enjoying the wonderful results.

You might be able to get away with that, it's a very good idea. The instructions are sequential bytes, with lengths of 1,2,3,4 and 7. I hear you, especially for the SegaCD which is basically a whole different computer tacked on to the design with a DMA channel to access the original MegaDrive. It's an ugly hack. Quite clever ... but ugly. The PCE-CD is a lot cleaner, acting much more like a traditional computer-expansion with a pseudo-scsi chip, and the ADPCM chip-n-ram, and not much else. But still, as you say, it would be a lot of work, and you're only human. Sad to hear from my POV though, because it's the CD games that really make the PCE totally unique for its time.

From my understanding of what Kevtris has said, it's just not possible to release a full PCE core on the Analogue NT Mini. The PCE has a very high memory-access speed in comparison to all of the other 4th-gen, 16-bit, machines, and IIRC, he's said that the Analogue NT Mini hardware just isn't quite fast-enough. Folks that aren't technical, don't necessarily understand the tradeoffs in the PCE design, and how darned good it was, and just see its 1-backgound-playfield, vs 2-background-playfields on the MegaDrive, vs 2.5 background-playfields-plus-rotation on the SNES. As someone that professionaly-programmed the big-two machines back-in-the-day, I can point out exactly where the limitations are in each of the three machine's designs, and now that I'm semi-retired, it's the PCE that I go back to, and not the Genesis or the SNES. The SNES has some of the best games that have ever been made ... but so does the MegaDrive ... ... and so does the PCE, although a lot of them were Japan-only.

Yeah, you're missing the point that I was trying to make ... most folks there would love to see Kevtris make a PCE core. He has the necessary level of personal-perfectionism to do the job right. People can look at a bunch of the open-source FPGA cores on the MiST, and see just how much work it takes to make a good one, and how long it takes to get it debugged. Kevtris has demonstrated both his superior skills, and his passion, in creating his own library of cores. There's only a small-few die-hard luddites that don't understand that, and worry about the "purity" of the end-experience. The PCE's historical importance as the first CD-based videogame console, with hundreds of released titles in Japan, comfortably outselling the Sega MegaDrive in its own country-of-origin, seems lost to many Americans, who only see it as a 3rd-place fail in the American market ... but heck, you really don't need me to prosthelytize here. The point is ... everyone that I know would love to see Kevtris release a PCE core (preferably a SuperGrafx-ArcadeCD core). But if he chooses not to, or to just de-prioritize it ... then that's absolutely his right. It's just sad for all of us that love the machine, wherever they gather.

I feel exactly the same myself, so I've tried to figure out what happened. Ah cr*p ... I suspect that it's a couple of the more-obnoxious-asshats at my very own main hang-out, PCEngineFX. Particularly one guy "ProfessorProfessorson" who quit the forum some time last year. Kevtris kindly came over to answer some questions about the Hi-Def NES kit and got jumped on by a couple of rude idiots who were armchair-quarterbacking everything, and appointing themselves defenders-of-the-faith. There were others supporting kevtris, but as a "community", the moderation policy is very liberal, and it can be a tough place to hang out. Some folks seem to treat the whole members-only aspect of the place, which was put there by the site owner to reduce traffic and his hosting costs, as an excuse to engage in childish and rude behavior. The vast majority don't ... although the forum's reputation for being very unkind to "collectors" rather than "players" is well-deserved. I can only put forward my own apology to kevtris for his treatment.

<sarcasm> They're probably "In Deep Discussions with Sony, Sega, and Konami to license the original BIOS files, and those companies are all on-board" ... you know, as in, they sent an email to some low-level employee there and the email address didn't bounce it back. </sarcasm> Don't know about the PSX and SegaCD, but they could potentially license a PCE-CD BIOS-rewrite from the Magic Engine author. It apparently has a few bugs/incompatibilities, and its legality is unknown (it's hard to imagine that he didn't rip at-least the Kanji fonts from a real Hudson System Card, and the thought that he wrote a 100% clean-room version of the complex Sound Driver that's in it is pretty remote). It seems much more likely that they require a real PCE System Card to be inserted into a Module for 100% compatibility. Which still doesn't deal with the PSX and SegaCD. All-in-all, it's a pretty amazing claim for them to make. They've been very quiet over the last couple of weeks.

Yep, good points guys ... all that they'd need to do to stop dumping on an Everdrive would be to hard-reset the cartridge port. Silly me, I was thinking that they'd allow you to dump a cartridge at any time while playing, but I guess that doesn't make any sense. Not that most of this makes much sense. Yep ... I'm going to want to see a video of this thing actually running a bunch of different physical carts, taken by some non-involved 3rd-party who can confirm that the cart images weren't pre-loaded, before I begin to believe RetroBlox's claims.

I found this interesting ... http://retroblox.com/forums/topic/some-questions-from-a-very-interested-gamer/ I'm having trouble understanding how both of RetroBlox's statements can be true. If the "Hybrid Emulation will allow anything that can be used in a real console to be used on RetroBlox", and they can't stop you running an image off of an Everdrive, then how can they stop you from installing the cart image on the console? If they can detect that you're running an Everdrive and so choose not to allow you to install the cart image on the console ... then they can also detect the Everdrive and refuse to run the image in the first place. I just can't see how they can have it both ways???

Hahaha ... nope no degree required. In my *personal* experience, it's an Administrative and People-Skills job. At a videogame company the size of Insomniac, they're probably there to make sure that schedule is being kept, that the tasks are being done, that the Programming/Art/Sound/Design/etc Directors (the ones that do the real technical stuff) actually have what they need, that the client's Producer is happy, and that the client's concerns are all being met. They spend a lot of time on the phone, or making sure that the coffee supply doesn't run out and that the fridge is stocked with soda (maybe beer, too), and that there's a decent-enough rotation on the free-dinner menu that the grunts don't complain too much at the mandatory-overtime. They are there to grease the wheels. It's an important job ... it needs to be done. But it's not a "technical" job. They often have "ideas", and some of those "ideas" might be good ... but, like everyone else, not all. In the case of an existing Sony-owned franchise like Ratchet & Clank, I'd be very surprised if Brian would have had much, if any, creative control. It's not like film-production where the Producer might be the guy that ropes in the financing and keeps a tight lid on things. Then again, perhaps Insomniac was different to the companies that I saw. Doesn't sound too much like it, though. I've seen many, many other guys that went from QA-Tester to Producer/Project Manager.

OMFG ... I'm really starting to dislike that guy. So much name-dropping and appeals to Authority Figures to show that they know what they're doing. Jeez ... their team created SpaceX's Dragon Module, they really *are* a bunch of Rocket Scientists!!! And then ... Errr ... no I can't read an "extreme technical explanation" on your website, it's vague and full of holes. That "extreme technical explanation" is *exactly* what I do want to read. FFS ... these guys have already filed their Patent Application, they're in-the-queue with a datestamp on the tech ... there shouldn't be any reason to avoid talking bragging about it. And then ... Really? You need 8-10 months after the Kickstarter to finish building the console, and you need crowdfunding money to do it, but Hitachi are already dedicating expensive engineering time to write custom firmware for the optical drive just for you? Sure, it could be true. Sure, this could all be true. But it really *smells* of the same kind of exaggeration that Mike Kennedy was throwing around about when he said that he was having discussions with Konami about them developing for the RetroVGS. They've got about 2 months left to really show stuff working.