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CollectorVision Phoenix Game Console


retroillucid

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You will only need 1 sd card. You won't have to switch back and forth.

Interesting. And how will FPGA core loading work? Is it something you have to do manually when switching between CV and Atari 2600 (or whatever other systems are supported) or will there be an automatic core loading system that will depend on the name of the directory where the selected ROM resides on the SD card?

Edited by Pixelboy
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Interesting. And how will FPGA core loading work? Is it something you have to do manually when switching between CV and Atari 2600 (or whatever other systems are supported) or will there be an automatic core loading system that will depend on the name of the directory where the selected ROM resides on the SD card?

 

Great question. Even file extension could be enough to automate this (.A26 for Atari games, .col or .bin for colecovision games? .SGM for SuperGameModule games). Would also be a cool way to sort games by title instead of console type, makes it easier when doing comparisons? Ok I'm being silly lol

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Great question. Even file extension could be enough to automate this (.A26 for Atari games, .col or .bin for colecovision games? .SGM for SuperGameModule games). Would also be a cool way to sort games by title instead of console type, makes it easier when doing comparisons? Ok I'm being silly lol

Well, now that I think about it, you'd need both a manual method and an automatic method. The manual method would be for playing cartridges via the cartridge port (if you insert a 2600 cart with the 2600 adaptor, I suppose the 2600 core would have to be pre-loaded manually) and the automatic method would be strictly for SD card interactions.

 

Having the FPGA core loaded according to the file extension would not be a good idea for a couple of reasons. First of all, let's say you have two ColecoVision cores on your SD card, one with the F18A built-in and one without (or at least disabled). You may want to play Burgertime or Roc'n Rope on the core with F18A, to remove the sprite flicker, but you may want to use the "vanilla" CV core to play Antarctic Adventure, because that game depends on the 4-sprite-per-scanline limit to function properly. All these ROMs have the same file extension, so it doesn't help much.

 

Secondly, it has been stated that the Phoenix is meant to be an open-source system, which implies that people can implement their own cores if they have the time and knowledge to get the job done. You could theoretically have multiple cores that could play the same ROMs, each core offering different extra features, so how would that work if the core is linked to the file extension?

 

For those reasons, I think it would be far better to link a core to a specific directory. Here's an example:

 

"A2600" directory: Put all your "regular" Atari 2600 ROMs here

"A2600X" directory: Put all the Atari 2600 ROMs that use specific extra features which are not present in the regular A2600 core.

"CV_ORIG" directory: Put all your "regular" ColecoVision ROMs here (you'd put Antarctic Adventure here)

"CV_F18A" directory: Put all your ColecoVision ROMs that you prefer to play with the F18A here (like Burgertime and Roc'n Rope)

 

Then you'd just need a "CORES" directory that would contain core files that match the directory names ("A2600.COR", "A2600X.COR", "CV_ORIG.COR" and "CV_F18A.COR"). Those who want to create new FPGA cores could easily use this system: Just put the new core file in the "CORES" directory, create a new directory (in the root of the SD card) with the same name as the new core, put your ROMs in that new directory, and the rest "just works" when you turn on the system.

 

I don't know what CollectorVision decided to do, but that's how I'd do it. Of course, things get slightly more complicated for computer cores (MSX, Adam, etc.) but not that much, because each computer core could be locked to their respective directory when doing file reading/writing.

Edited by Pixelboy
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Don't underestimate the power of the Phoenix!

Here's what the Phoenix can do (see attached pic)
Look at the normal Colecovision version of Mario compared to what could be done on the Phoenix
That's right! Perfect arcade ports are now possible to do!
We're definitely going to release exclusive titles for the Phoenix (and F18A users)
The best is yet to come!

post-11933-0-75064400-1547344989_thumb.png

post-11933-0-56607600-1547345008.png

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Don't underestimate the power of the Phoenix!

 

Here's what the Phoenix can do (see attached pic)

Look at the normal Colecovision version of Mario compared to what could be done on the Phoenix

That's right! Perfect arcade ports are now possible to do!
We're definitely going to release exclusive titles for the Phoenix (and F18A users)

The best is yet to come!

 

 

What about arcade sounds ? An arcade game like say Q*bert or Donkey Kong , how close to exact arcade sounds could you get ?

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Don't underestimate the power of the Phoenix!

 

Here's what the Phoenix can do (see attached pic)

Look at the normal Colecovision version of Mario compared to what could be done on the Phoenix

That's right! Perfect arcade ports are now possible to do!

 

We're definitely going to release exclusive titles for the Phoenix (and F18A users)

 

 

The best is yet to come!

I’ve never noticed any choppy scrolling on Mario Bros. ;)

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Threadjack for a quick second. I don’t know if selling things is allowed here but I will have an old Colecovision that will need a good home. I won it on eBay last April and haven’t even opened the box yet. I’m not interested in a profit, just making sure a working piece of hardware doesn’t end up in a trash heap.

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The cases look great! Definitely some quality injection molding there. :thumbsup:

 

Originally, I wanted an Adam colored case but I might prefer a Black one, since I already have a few lighter colored consoles.. Still undecided there. Unless it's going to screw everything up.. I don't want to create any extra hassle.

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Excellent news on the adam core. Since there are similarities in the hardware, perhaps another core will see is the MSX system?

 

Extremely happy to see there is a vision towards improvements on this device. Summer can't come soon enough!

 

Let me tell you this....

 

There's more to the picture than meets the eye ;)

Edited by retroillucid
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