Collectorvison Phoenix - INTV

[ZillaRUSH]

Anyone get a Phoenix yet?   Blown away!!   Such an awesome job by Collectorvision.  What was amazing was the Atari 2600 core.  When you load the ROMS...they are bright, colorful...basically HD.  I cant go back to regular quality after playing this way!   I read in the manual they are planning an INTV core.   Cannot wait!!

[+GoldLeader]

Agreed!

[+sramirez2008]

10 minutes ago, ZillaRUSH said:

Anyone get a Phoenix yet? 

Yup...received mine today.  I'm happy with it!  An INTV core will be icing on the cake.

[Rev]

What is a core

[+intvsteve]

When I first read this, I thought CollectorVision was making a version of the game Phoenix for Intellivision.

[+intvsteve]

25 minutes ago, Rev said:

What is a core

The CollectorVision Phoenix uses a FPGA. Oversimplifying, you can think of a FPGA as a chip that can be reconfigured to act like a different chip. The Phoenix has a "core" that makes it act like a ColecoVision. The idea here is that someone would write a "core" to make it act like an Intellivision instead.

 

The trick with an Intellivision is that the EXEC is now the property of Intellivision Entertainment, LLC and / or Blue Sky Rangers, Inc. If someone were to make an Intellivision core it may be an issue to put the EXEC and maybe the GROM in there.

[TheSerialHobbyist]

34 minutes ago, Rev said:

What is a core

Apparently the Phoenix is built on an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), which means the "core" is essentially a reproduction of the original hardware. Unlike with emulators, FPGA chips are capable of physically replicating actual hardware. For example, an FPGA can be setup to contain the same transistors and architecture as an Zilog Z80, and the circuits on the motherboard to take advantage of it.

 

What's interesting about this is that you could, theoretically at least, reconfigure the FPGA to act like a different system. So it could replicate a 2600 one day and a C64 the next day. 

[IMBerzerk]

It's a great idea and truthfully more accurate than software emulation.  With Software, you're held back by the power of the machine you are using to run the software, as well as the complexity of the machine you ARE emulating.  With an FPGA core you essentially create a clone of the actual machine, and have no limits when that core is running.  The games have no stutter, crash, or anything else.  They run like they should, and utilize the Core script exactly as the game would have utilized the original hardware.

 

I do see a legal issue with this type of emulation.  It's one thing to create your own program to emulate a machine... it's another to create a 'core' to layer an FPGA into becoming that machine you made the core of.  There could be copywrite issues ahead.

 

Yeah... tell me no... we all thought this 25 years ago when MAME and Nesticle first came out and ROMs were all over the internet...wow!!  Free games!!  25 years later Nintendo is taking everyone and their mother to court.

[mr_me]

31 minutes ago, intvsteve said:

...

The trick with an Intellivision is that the EXEC is now the property of Intellivision Entertainment, LLC and / or Blue Sky Rangers, Inc. If someone were to make an Intellivision core it may be an issue to put the EXEC and maybe the GROM in there.

Wouldn't be any more of an issue than putting the exec in your raspberry pi.  Someone can provide the intellivision fpga core and the user can provide the exec rom file.

 

15 minutes ago, IMBerzerk said:

I do see a legal issue with this type of emulation.  It's one thing to create your own program to emulate a machine... it's another to create a 'core' to layer an FPGA into becoming that machine you made the core of.  There could be copywrite issues ahead.

No copyright issues cloning the hardware; and any patents have long expired.  Analogue is selling fpga clones of nes, snes, genesis.  There could be copyright issues with firmware like the exec in the intellivision. 

 

I wouldn't say fpga emulation is more accurate than software emulation but it behaves more like the original.  Fpga emulation can be inaccurate too.  https://atariage.com/forums/topic/295743-intellivision-evolution-by-mister-fpga-by-grabulosaure/

Edited November 19, 2019 by mr_me

[Swami]

15 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Wouldn't be any more of an issue than putting the exec in your raspberry pi.  Someone can provide the intellivision fpga core and the user can provide the exec rom file.

 

No copyright issues cloning the hardware; and any patents have long expired.  Analogue is selling fpga clones of nes, snes, genesis.  There could be copyright issues with firmware like the exec in the intellivision. 

 

I wouldn't say fpga emulation is more accurate than software emulation but it behaves more like the original.  Fpga emulation can be inaccurate too.  https://atariage.com/forums/topic/295743-intellivision-evolution-by-mister-fpga-by-grabulosaure/

Just so they don't use the hombew EXEC and GROM. Those seem to be troublesome, at least with some homebrew games, ironically.

[Rev]

Thanks for the info!