Upcoming Jaguar Game Drive Cartridge

[The Yar]

I don't know the answers from the top of my head. But I remember it being answered in the past.

 

 

Amusing that you'd take umbrage with me asking a question that'd dredge latent info back to the surface, and not the monotony of people posting their enthusiasm without really contributing anything. If you're subbed to this thread that's the majority of the notifications you're getting bothered with. Not that I'm gonna discourage folk because it's an exciting product, just if I know something pertinent and someone asks, I'm generally not going to keep them in the dark.

[JagChris]

My guess is because he/she had greater interest in this post/project than the person who can't be bothered to "wade through" previous posts. If you were as pumped about it as they were, you wouldn't complain about reading up on it. As it is, it is bothersome to get notifications of new posts only to find they are questions on things that have already been answered.

Exactly. And search is your friend.

[SainT]

Will the circuitboard design be conducive to installing it inside of an injection molded Jaguar cartridge shell, or will it be exclusively made for / sold with a 3D printed case? With the cartridge shells available now, especially the clear ones and potentially other colors, I know what I'd prefer, even if I had to cut out a slot for the SD card.

 

Also will it use SRAM or flash?

It will have a custom case -- Ideally I want to produce an injection molded a case for this.

 

It will use RAM not FLASH.

[bbuchholtz]

Can we maybe have a sticky that summarizes the project and current status? I agree, it's quite challenging digging through over 20 pages, trying to find that nugget...

 

-Brian

 

[+madman]

Can we maybe have a sticky that summarizes the project and current status? I agree, it's quite challenging digging through over 20 pages, trying to find that nugget...

 

-Brian

 

It's not out yet. It'll be ready when it's ready. There are no pre-orders or donations or lists.

[UHATEIT]

It's not out yet. It'll be ready when it's ready. There are no pre-orders or donations or lists.

This is probably the first post I've liked from Madman. I'm glad someone finally said this. Hell why not delete the first 20 pages of this thread.

[UHATEIT]

Great work SainT, we are all excited for this

Edited September 6, 2017 by UHATEIT

[+madman]

This is probably the first post I've liked from Madman. I'm glad someone finally said this. Hell why not delete the first 20 pages of this thread.

Try sitting through a decade of this sort of stuff, you'll understand why some of us old timers may seem a bit cranky in regards to certain things coming up time and time again on here.

[Krip316]

Can we maybe have a sticky that summarizes the project and current status? I agree, it's quite challenging digging through over 20 pages, trying to find that nugget...

 

-Brian

 

All you gotta do is read the first post. It pretty much sums it up. Also, follow this thread and you'll be in the know. Easy peasy!

 

This is probably the first post I've liked from Madman. I'm glad someone finally said this. Hell why not delete the first 20 pages of this thread.

Apparently you've missed my multiple posts on here saying pretty much the same thing. I gave up because, frankly, nobody cares.

[+orpheuswaking]

Try sitting through a decade of this sort of stuff, you'll understand why some of us old timers may seem a bit cranky in regards to certain things coming up time and time again on here.

 

The same way the invocation of "The Fumes" makes me want to throw my laptop out of the window

[+CyranoJ]

 

The same way the invocation of "The Fumes" makes me want to throw my laptop out of the window

 

That's probably the fumes talking.

[bbuchholtz]

All you gotta do is read the first post. It pretty much sums it up. Also, follow this thread and you'll be in the know. Easy peasy!

 

Apparently you've missed my multiple posts on here saying pretty much the same thing. I gave up because, frankly, nobody cares.

 

I'm surprised that my Sticky idea was met with so much resistance

 

I thought this would have been a good starting point, for any new reader stumbling across this thread for the first time. This would also benefit those who have stepped away and wanted a quick update. Plus, this would help cutdown on posts asking the same question a dozen times (reduce noise).

 

I was thinking something like a simple FAQ or feature/capability list would be highly beneficial:

• Platforms supported: Jaguar Cartridge, Jaguar CD?
• Old cartridge plastic case or injection mold?
• Supported media: SD, Micro SD?
• Maximum capacity?
• Supported filesystem?
• Support for folders?
• Game loading SRAM or Flash-based?
• Support for game saving?
• Support for saving game state?
• Game Genie support?
• How are firmware updates applied?
• USB port for debugging?
• Etc... I'm sure missed something else...

 

I know the question of a waiting list has been asked many times. So, why not run a poll for those interested in buying this? I think if you knew if 5, 50, or 500 members were interested, this would help you make design decisions.

 

-Brian

[+madman]

 

I'm surprised that my Sticky idea was met with so much resistance

 

I thought this would have been a good starting point, for any new reader stumbling across this thread for the first time. This would also benefit those who have stepped away and wanted a quick update. Plus, this would help cutdown on posts asking the same question a dozen times (reduce noise).

 

I was thinking something like a simple FAQ or feature/capability list would be highly beneficial:

• Platforms supported: Jaguar Cartridge, Jaguar CD?
• Old cartridge plastic case or injection mold?
• Supported media: SD, Micro SD?
• Maximum capacity?
• Supported filesystem?
• Support for folders?
• Game loading SRAM or Flash-based?
• Support for game saving?
• Support for saving game state?
• Game Genie support?
• How are firmware updates applied?
• USB port for debugging?
• Etc... I'm sure missed something else...

 

I know the question of a waiting list has been asked many times. So, why not run a poll for those interested in buying this? I think if you knew if 5, 50, or 500 members were interested, this would help you make design decisions.

 

-Brian

A couple of these were already answered with the post right before your initial request for a sticky.

[SainT]

On 9/6/2017 at 2:39 PM, bbuchholtz said:

 

I'm surprised that my Sticky idea was met with so much resistance

 

I thought this would have been a good starting point, for any new reader stumbling across this thread for the first time. This would also benefit those who have stepped away and wanted a quick update. Plus, this would help cutdown on posts asking the same question a dozen times (reduce noise).

 

I know the question of a waiting list has been asked many times. So, why not run a poll for those interested in buying this? I think if you knew if 5, 50, or 500 members were interested, this would help you make design decisions.

 

-Brian

 

Yeah, I did a similar thing with the Lynx project. All pertinent information is in the first post of the thread, and is kept up to date -- I should start doing this for this thread as well now. While it wont cut down the noise (people always ask first and search later... ), the answer will be simple and consistent -- check the first post. I'll ask Al to sort first post edit permissions for me.

 

And on the subject of updates... I managed to get something fairly monumental done today -- the SDRAM controller is sort-of working! I'm simulating the cartridge ROM with a single 16MB DDR SDRAM. While this cuts the price down a LOT (SDRAM is peanuts compared to SRAM), the complexity is just massive in comparison. Thankfully Micron provide a nice simulation model for their DDR SDRAM which let me track down a load of issues in my SDRAM controller to get it to the point it now "sort of does something like it should". This, in comparison with doing fuck all (which is what I've had most of the day), is awesome!

 

Hopefully this has broken the back of it and its just fine tuning left. Once this is working, technically it should be able to boot games from the simulated ROM. But, of course, I'll need to implement the mirocontroller and comms to the Jag before I can load any data into the 16MB of ROM lovelyness.

 

I'll add some bank switching for the unused 10MB... it's actually very difficult to get SDRAM smaller than 16MB... lol, how times change...

Edited October 25, 2019 by SainT

[bbuchholtz]

A couple of these were already answered with the post right before your initial request for a sticky.

 

Yes, I realize - I was trying to help compile a list of questions

 

-Brian

[SainT]

Man, developing hardware is always full of frustration!

 

I have the SDRAM reading stable now after installing an extra bodge resistor on the FLASH. However it's not playing nicely writing...

 

I have a 32bit bus multiplexed with the data and address lines, but for some reason when reading the data lines they are not stabilising. Switching to them and WRITING to the Jag is fine, though! The delay is at about 150ns from switching to the data lines to reading, but I'm still getting dodgy / glitchy bits like there are multiple bus drivers or something. I'm doing it all in the domain of the CPU clock, so there should be no metastability issues... very frustrating!

 

And to top it all off, the SC1224 I use for testing has just had the vertical deflection pack up! Ffs.

 

I'll have a look at that tomorrow, but as a backup I have an old 14" Trinatron in the attic... hopefully that still works!

[MockyLock]

'llo here.

i come time to time, and it's nice to see this is still WIP.

Very interested in the final product.

But contrary to many (if not all) the other interested people, i do prefer you to take your time. A few monthes would be great...

I already spent too much in other projects

[Higgy]

SainT - If your Trinitron is dead and your stuck for a CRT, I have some spare CRT's and you can borrow/have one with RGB SCART.

[SainT]

SainT - If your Trinitron is dead and your stuck for a CRT, I have some spare CRT's and you can borrow/have one with RGB SCART.

 

Very kind offer, but my old Trinitron is working!

 

That's two old monitors I've had now where the vertical deflection has gone. The service manual for the SC1224 seems pretty good though, it seems to be one IC and a couple of other components which could be bad to cause the vertical deflection to pack up, so with any luck it should be easy (famous last words!) to track down.

 

Although having opened it up, my god is it packed. You cant get at anything without having to be right by the high voltage section as the tube, PS and high voltage PS are all packed right in there. The only other monitor I've tinkered with recently is a Sony BVM, which is quite a different story. Everything is packed around the tube and HT, so its much easier to work on, although hugely more complex! It seems with these little CRT's, you work from underneath if you want to probe anything. That's a job for a rainy day now I have a working monitor for the Jag.

[SainT]

And another update...

 

I've tracked down the odd data instability, it ended up being corruption when actually writing to the SDRAM. As initially I had issues with the data coming IN, I stupidly assumed it was still the case as some simple static writes to the SDRAM seemed to work. Although on closer inspection all writes to the SDRAM were going weird in some way. In the end it was actually an issue with drive strength and slew rate. I had slew rate already as FAST on the data, but not address lines, so setting things up with fast slew and higher drive strength everywhere sorted out the instability with writing. As the SDRAM is operating at 100Mhz with DDR on the data lines (so 200Mhz on the data lines), things have to change pretty bloody quickly, hence higher drive and fast slew are essential.

 

So once that was sorted I added the refresh cycles back in, and it all APPEARS to be working correctly. Which is, quite frankly, fucking ace.

 

Time to write a memory tester and leave it running!

[SainT]

Ok, some more tweaks to the SDRAM controller and everything is working. For some odd reason auto-precharge for read and write commands wasn't working... not sure why, so I just did it manually instead. The only thing I can think is I'm only clocking this SDRAM at 100MHz whereas it's rated at 200Mz... although the valid clock range for this chip is right down to 83Mhz. So, not really sure, but either way its sorted now. Its been running through a memory test for some hours now hammering the SDRAM with a write / read cycle and it's not had any errors. I'll leave it running for a few days to make sure... although probably not overnight. Leaving nearly 30 year old hardware on for long durations unattended doesn't seem like the best idea!

 

Next up, the microcontroller! Initially it will be a matter of concentrating on getting the direct ASIC<>micro comms working via SPI then exposing the USB and microSD to this comms stream. Then we have the I2S and UART which are also hooked up, they will come next.

 

This is all happening quite quickly.

[SainT]

Oh, and something else which is very cool, I have a YM2149 core which I should be able to include too. I've not checked on how much space it takes up on the CPLD, but I think it should be fine. So CJ's ST ports could include sound....

 

The audio out will just be a couple of registers, so they can just be output directly via the Jag DSP.

 

And I could also include a planar to chunky register too. Write your 4 planes, read back your 16 pixels in chunky 4bpp or 8bpp or whatever.

[+CyranoJ]

Oh, and something else which is very cool, I have a YM2149 core which I should be able to include too. I've not checked on how much space it takes up on the CPLD, but I think it should be fine. So CJ's ST ports could include sound....

 

The audio out will just be a couple of registers, so they can just be output directly via the Jag DSP.

 

And I could also include a planar to chunky register too. Write your 4 planes, read back your 16 pixels in chunky 4bpp or 8bpp or whatever.

 

Nice features

 

Don't think I'd use them though, as then they wouldn't work without the flash cart.

[mattsoft]

Oh, and something else which is very cool, I have a YM2149 core which I should be able to include too. I've not checked on how much space it takes up on the CPLD, but I think it should be fine. So CJ's ST ports could include sound....

 

The audio out will just be a couple of registers, so they can just be output directly via the Jag DSP.

 

And I could also include a planar to chunky register too. Write your 4 planes, read back your 16 pixels in chunky 4bpp or 8bpp or whatever.

 

 

Very nice...this keeps getting better and better. Nice work man.

[leech]

This again makes me wonder if we could get an ST emulator. Though I don't really care, got some STs already