2600 On A Chip Update

[Cupcakus]

I'm not sure if Carlos browses these forums or not but I thought I'd post an update on his 2600 On A Chip he sent me via E-Mail...

 

Hello Chris,

 

I'm sorry for not posting any news on my site. The thing is that I don't like to give excuses, I'm a results guy, but let me give you a brief of what's happening.

 

As you may read on my site, I got a new job (about 2-3 months ago) and I had to move to another city. Actually, I moved to another country (I'm living in California right now, and I was living in Mexico).

 

That means that I left my school electronics lab in Mexico, where I was developing my project. Of course, I really want to continue with this project, since it is my intention to finish the 2600 on-a-chip and to design a portable 2600 with it. The problem is that I don't have the same resources at home.

 

What I am doing right now on my free time is trying to set-up a mini testbench at home. I already bought a new FPGA development board. I also ordered the Xilinx WebPack FPGA development software, and I already installed it on my laptop (I don't have another PC at home). I'm also waiting for some electronic components that I ordered to wire again my prototypes (basically a 6507 and some resistors and caps).

 

As you can see, this change of city is delaying for a couple of months the project, but I'm about to continue with it (I almost have everything I need).

 

Anyway, there are good news. A colleague send me an email two weeks ago telling me that there is a new free 6502 core available at opencores, 100% compatible with the original NMOS 6502. If that core is really 100% cycle compatible with the NMOS counterpart, and if it's ready to use, that would mean that the 2600 on-a-chip is closer to materialize than you thing.

 

I will post some news on my site before the holidays with my current results.

 

BTW I wish you very luck with your FLASH cart!!!

 

Carlos Lopez

[church]

I can just imagine all the sleek and sexy designs that could be made with this. Mmmmm, small portable atari.

[Rob Mitchell]

That makes for much cheer to spread around!

 

Thanks for the news from Carlos!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Channel 2]

My question is, is this thing entirely legal and thus usable in commercial products? I remember some discussion about reverse engineering the TIA chip where it was said that if you used the original -- still copyrighted -- scematics, without permission, to help design a perfect substitute, the result would be considered an infringement.

 

It would be great if products like the 10 in 1 games from Atari and Activision could be powered by this chip, for obvious reasons. And of course everyone wants their own Atari handheld. I envision an inexpensive add on that snaps onto a portable TV. Another use I find intriguing is putting it in a GBA cartridge with a hundred or so games. But can the GBA handle the resolution and colors?

[Curt Vendel]

Last time I did some research, the Patent on the TIA chip had run out, I then made 12 copies of "E" Sized TIA schematics and sold them at cost to everyone who was interested. They were then scanned down to a more web-usable size and were posted here on Atariage.

 

I still have 2 remaining sets of full "E" Sized (24" x 36") schematics sheets (set of 5) These were the latest rev levels from 1984 and came out of GCC Technologies, the reason they had a copy was that the original idea was to combine the MARIA and the TIA together as one chip.

 

If anyone would like a set of these please let me know. They cost me $5 a sheet to reproduce so its $25 for the set (again, I was just looking to release the info, not make a profit) and $7 for a tube & shipping within the US, if some who is outside the US wants a set, I'll have to find out the charges.

 

 

Curt

[Curt Vendel]

Okay, that didn't take long, 1 gone, 1 left....

 

 

 

Curt

[Cupcakus]

It would be great if products like the 10 in 1 games from Atari and Activision could be powered by this chip, for obvious reasons. And of course everyone wants their own Atari handheld. I envision an inexpensive add on that snaps onto a portable TV. Another use I find intriguing is putting it in a GBA cartridge with a hundred or so games. But can the GBA handle the resolution and colors?

 

It would! be great if the TVGames products used this type of technology and it's most obvious use is a portable VCS. Given that he is doing this on an FPGA, "probably a big one" implementation will be really easy.

 

It might not be small enough to fit inside a GBA cartridge... but it will me small. And putting it inside of a cartridge won't help play it on the GBA... As the GBA would try to execute the chip as a standard game... I suppose someone could be clever and write I quicky GBA program that does nothing but allow the cartridge to directly control the display, but I wouldn't count on it. RGB LCD display's work a lot differently than CRT TV's which is what the TIA is designed to control.

 

and

 

I sure hope this product is legal :-) You'd think the patents on all of the 2600 proprietary hardware have long scince expired...

[jsoper]

Yeah, what you'd want to do is change the TIA functionality (or add to it) so it can drive the GBA's lcd screen, then you could rip out the nintendo guts. Throw in an Eprom with 256 4k games and a 24 pin mini connector (for plugging in a 2600 cartridge connector) and you're all set.

John

[Cupcakus]

I think he was referring to playing it on an unmodifed GBA... just by placing the cartridge in... That would be a feat... but I think it's possible.

 

I'm not gonna attempt it though :-)

[Andrew Davie]

It would be great if products like the 10 in 1 games from Atari and Activision could be powered by this chip' date=' for obvious reasons. And of course everyone wants their own Atari handheld. I envision an inexpensive add on that snaps onto a portable TV. Another use I find intriguing is putting it in a GBA cartridge with a hundred or so games. But can the GBA handle the resolution and colors?[/quote']

 

I did a bit of work on a GBA Atari 2600 emulator a year or two back. The prototype can be found at www.2headed.com/2600.bin - should run on any GBA emulator, or on hardware. There are a few ROMs installed on that binary. Its a prototype, so has a couple of bugs in the CPU core - but some of the games work OK. It does answer the questiona bout the resolutoin/colours. In short, its possible to do a reasonable Atari 2600 on GBA. Certainly the speed can be improved - however the vertical resolution probably will always be a problem.

 

Cheers

A

[Curt Vendel]

Phew!!! Okay everyone, the 2 prints are gone, finished, fineato (is that really a word?

 

I didn't know there was so much interest in these...

 

Well, if everyone is really into having a fullsized set, I'll run off another 6-12 of them, I just want to remind everyone, if your looking to these for reference, they are free and posted in small form on AA, I'm not making any money on these, just trying to make sure that this info is out there for all to see, use and enjoy... so if everyone really wants more, I'll make more, just let me know, if the 1/2 doz people who emailed me are still interested just let me know and I'll run off more after the New Year.

 

 

 

Curt