FPGA Based Videogame System

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

E-Ink?

 

And have you any plans for Odyssey 3? Since you already have the core for Odyssey 2....

E-Ink is cool idea, though I haven't seen it implemented in product since the original Amazon Kindle. It's readable well enough in medium lighting conditions, and better than black/white LCD, but it's incompatibility with backlights or colors precludes it from being included in more consumer products. You may have difficulty building an e-ink screen with off the shelf components, and I don't think fabbing one yourself would be economical.

 

This may sound silly, but a controller pad overlay with 3x5 grid would help for Coleco, Intelli, and 5200 support. The rest of the buttons could be mapped to any USB joystick with Dpad, analog stick, and buttons. USB analog sticks would work well enough for 5200 or 16-way Intellivision disc emulation if extra precision is needed over an 8-way Dpad. If a 3x5 button pad is difficult to procure, 4x4 button arrays are commonly available from parts suppliers and the executive functions would be to the rightmost side of the number pad, ie ABCD.

[Schizophretard]

Hahah, I just might do that. damn you for giving me that idea :-) /system/ is boring, but /corestore/ is better. If nothing else, the cores ARE stored there...

Exactly. You got my pun. "It's not like you can just get cores from the Core Store." "Umm.. yes I can. I got them all stored right here in Kevtris's Core Store."

[Rave]

Regarding the buttons and overlays, how about something like the Atari Jaguar Controller with its bazillion button matrix in the centre, then the user could essentially print the overlays themselves, and the buttons could be configured at run time from the core/Zimba for that machine?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Edited March 15, 2016 by Rave

[kevtris]

 

E-Paper?

 

And have you any plans for Odyssey 3? Since you already have the core for Odyssey 2....

Yes I had plans to do the 3, but I had trouble finding good information; especially since my O^2 is NTSC only. I would need to make an NTSC version of it. I was needing to do some work on reverse engineering the PAL video chip in the O^2 and since I don't have one, it never happened. I did a full reverse engineer on the O^2 NTSC video chip however, and got exact timing information out of it.

[iesposta]

One last fact on the dream of E-Ink.
My Pebble Smartwatch display is E-Ink, with or without back light, and I've played Asteroids and Space Invaders...
You'd be surprised by its refresh rate.

There's even an "upload your photos" to grayscale and there's a flicker 2 images display to give greater detail!

 

 

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

Yes I had plans to do the 3, but I had trouble finding good information; especially since my O^2 is NTSC only. I would need to make an NTSC version of it. I was needing to do some work on reverse engineering the PAL video chip in the O^2 and since I don't have one, it never happened. I did a full reverse engineer on the O^2 NTSC video chip however, and got exact timing information out of it.

I honestly wasn't aware an Odessy 3 existed. How rare is it?

[Schizophretard]

I honestly wasn't aware an Odessy 3 existed. How rare is it?

I think it was released in Europe as this:

 

 

But was suppose to be released like this in the US before the crash:

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

I think it was released in Europe as this:

 

So no GUI menu, just a dozen switches to select the game on that multicart. Sounds cumbersome.

[LS_Dracon]

Odyssey 3 was renamed as Command Center before canceled. There is like, 2 or 3 existing prototypes in collector hands.

G7400 is the same hardware with small changes on BIOS and a PAL tv compatible machine.

The cool of it, some O2 games was codded to support the "high res" background from O3, so theoretically you plug the game on O3 and magically it looks better!

With Z3k it could be real!

[Schizophretard]

With Z3k it could be real!

I like the sound of that. Not just for the Odyssey 3 but in general. I kind of hope Kevtris gets more of the obscure rare prototypy consoles/computers than the common stuff.

[+Random Terrain]

Since it looks like this thing will have so many cores that it might cause a time vortex to open up, you could call it the CoreNado.

[Keatah]

Absolutely not! I tried those experiments back in the 70's after studying Kip Thorne's papers and had some really funky stuff happen.

[milamontagne]

I know i might be in the minority here (I got to reading the first 12 or so pages before posting this) but

i would ask for controller ports on the system itself (or at least for the most common ones)

 

My reasoning is I've seen plenty of usb ports go bad with frequent use. It'd be less of a concern if the ports were not soldered directly onto the mainboard and could be replaced easily. Good quality 8-pin connectors can live a very,very, VERY long time before any prolbems occur. Same goes for other console game system ports. they were designed to be plugged in and out while a kid's hands were slimy with pizza grease, mud, etc.

 

Plus, when you get down to it, usb adds lag to the system. Many PC gamers prefer old ps/2 style ports over usb due to the ability to mash multiple keys at once (NKRO and 8KRO are common terms)

 

I love the idea of this project, but IMHO, it'd be better to work in console ports (or at least a pluggable option board) before worrying about cartridge adapters.

 

I'll duck out here before i'm burnt at the stake for heresy...

[Game-Tech.US]

In case anyone was going to bug Kevtris about it, i'm loaning a working bally astrocade to him, so that's covered!

[Great Hierophant]

I know i might be in the minority here (I got to reading the first 12 or so pages before posting this) but

i would ask for controller ports on the system itself (or at least for the most common ones)

 

My reasoning is I've seen plenty of usb ports go bad with frequent use. It'd be less of a concern if the ports were not soldered directly onto the mainboard and could be replaced easily. Good quality 8-pin connectors can live a very,very, VERY long time before any prolbems occur. Same goes for other console game system ports. they were designed to be plugged in and out while a kid's hands were slimy with pizza grease, mud, etc.

 

Plus, when you get down to it, usb adds lag to the system. Many PC gamers prefer old ps/2 style ports over usb due to the ability to mash multiple keys at once (NKRO and 8KRO are common terms)

 

I love the idea of this project, but IMHO, it'd be better to work in console ports (or at least a pluggable option board) before worrying about cartridge adapters.

 

I'll duck out here before i'm burnt at the stake for heresy...

 

I believe that more modern USB keyboard can have n-key roll over by use of drivers, but it is a complicated subject.

 

Get a short USB extension or space saver cord and you can seriously reduce the wear and tear on the real USB ports.

[narshe]

Plus, when you get down to it, usb adds lag to the system. Many PC gamers prefer old ps/2 style ports over usb due to the ability to mash multiple keys at once (NKRO and 8KRO are common terms)

 

 

If this is true, I would much prefer to have a multi input as shown in the Z3K video you have on youtube Kevtris. I would want to use original controllers, more than likely SNES controllers. I have SNES to USB converters I've used for emulators, which have lag themselves. If the USB or the converter has lag, I'd really want the other type of multi-plug.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

I believe that more modern USB keyboard can have n-key roll over by use of drivers, but it is a complicated subject.

 

Get a short USB extension or space saver cord and you can seriously reduce the wear and tear on the real USB ports.

I haven't heard of USB type A ports breaking or wearing out from use, but I've heard plenty of stories about MicroUSB ports on "smart" devices breaking or going bad, essentially bricking the device because you can no longer charge it. I guess it's why they use Mini rather than Micro on game controllers, as it's still robust enough that the solder points don't break off when pulled.

[Phantom_of_Krankor]

How do you hold your head up with all that knowledge floating around in there?

[Andromeda Stardust]

Kevtris has knowledge, which equates to power. Mike Kennedy has BS, which equates to, er, Schight!

[kevtris]

It's been a little while, and I've been busy but in the last week or so I have managed to reverse engineer the Game King and the Core Store delivered today on an FPGA implementation.

 

Actually it took about 4 days to reverse engineer and another 2 to get it going on the FPGA. Also, I have built that hardware I threatened to build earlier, namely the cartridge emulator system.

 

The docs are here:

 

http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/

 

 

Here's a video of how I reverse engineered the Game King using my new rig:

 

[narshe]

I switched some things around and found that I can get by with just a single RGB output now without any lag, so I would only need one on the Z3K. Having the single Analog/HDMI module way you were talking about would work great for me. Again, super excited for the Z3K!

[RupanIII]

Hey Kev,

 

I was fumbling around Youtube and couldn't find it.

Do you have a working NES FPGA core? I imagine it would be quite similar to the Gameboy core. NO doubt you have it, I just couldn't find it.

The Colecovision Core looks solid and the SMS as well.
Genesis is planned i remember. What about TG16/PCE/SGX?

 

Progress looks great man, do what you want as you can.

Cheers!

 

It's been a little while, and I've been busy but in the last week or so I have managed to reverse engineer the Game King and the Core Store delivered today on an FPGA implementation.

 

Actually it took about 4 days to reverse engineer and another 2 to get it going on the FPGA. Also, I have built that hardware I threatened to build earlier, namely the cartridge emulator system.

 

The docs are here:

 

http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/

 

 

Here's a video of how I reverse engineered the Game King using my new rig:

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

It's been a little while, and I've been busy but in the last week or so I have managed to reverse engineer the Game King and the Core Store delivered today on an FPGA implementation.

 

Actually it took about 4 days to reverse engineer and another 2 to get it going on the FPGA. Also, I have built that hardware I threatened to build earlier, namely the cartridge emulator system.

 

The docs are here:

 

http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/

 

 

Here's a video of how I reverse engineered the Game King using my new rig:

 

I finally got around to watching these videos. Kinda ironic, that Game King is nothing but ripoffs of other (better) games on other console. Neat that you've documented and reverse assembled some of these obscure game systems.

[some_canuck]

Hey Kev,

 

I was fumbling around Youtube and couldn't find it.

Do you have a working NES FPGA core? I imagine it would be quite similar to the Gameboy core. NO doubt you have it, I just couldn't find it.

 

via youtube

 

[Guspaz]

Do you have a working NES FPGA core? I imagine it would be quite similar to the Gameboy core.

 

By what metric? The NES and GameBoy aren't even remotely similar architecturally, and don't even use the same processor architecture (6502 vs Z80)