Possible?: Atari 2600 (Stella) with 4-Color Enhanced Graphics?

[AtariHacker]

I have been thinking about one theory: Can Somebody Recode the TIA to make the Atari 2600 generate 4 color (3 color

without Transparency) Graphics simular to Atari 5200/7800. But I want to call this MEGA-TIA and call the emulator MEGASTELLA. This may be possible,

 

Or you can do the same thing using the EMUZWIN Spectrum emulator source and Rip the 256-color mode stuff: http://kolmck.net/apps/EmuZWin_Eng.htm

 

You might have to email him to use his source. Does anyone Like this Theory/Idea to be Done?

 

-AtariHacker

Edited August 29, 2007 by AtariHacker

[supercat]

I have been thinking about one theory: Can Somebody Recode the TIA to make the Atari 2600 generate 4 color (3 color

without Transparency) Graphics simular to Atari 5200/7800. But I want to call this MEGA-TIA and call the emulator MEGASTELLA.

 

So are you looking to have an emulator to simulate some silicon that will never exist but might be fun as a virtual machine, or what are you after? If your goal is to design a simple piece of video game hardware, why base anything in particular off the Stella at all? Sure it's a decent design, but there are many limitations for which today there would be no need. Of course, in 1977 there was a good reason to use a 6507 processor, but today there'd be no reason not to use something a little handier. The 8x51 isn't exactly wonderful, but for most games it could work nicely if you rigged things right. You'd need more instructions for most tasks, but most instructions would take about 1us instead of 2-3.

[AtariHacker]

I have been thinking about one theory: Can Somebody Recode the TIA to make the Atari 2600 generate 4 color (3 color

without Transparency) Graphics simular to Atari 5200/7800. But I want to call this MEGA-TIA and call the emulator MEGASTELLA.

 

So are you looking to have an emulator to simulate some silicon that will never exist but might be fun as a virtual machine, or what are you after? If your goal is to design a simple piece of video game hardware, why base anything in particular off the Stella at all? Sure it's a decent design, but there are many limitations for which today there would be no need. Of course, in 1977 there was a good reason to use a 6507 processor, but today there'd be no reason not to use something a little handier. The 8x51 isn't exactly wonderful, but for most games it could work nicely if you rigged things right. You'd need more instructions for most tasks, but most instructions would take about 1us instead of 2-3.

 

Either that or make a File/6502 source code converter like Atari2600 ---> Atari5200/7800.

 

the converter part should be easier.