Curt Vendel Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 On 1/8/2020 at 10:05 PM, CPUWIZ said: "XM has shipped" is a misleading thread title. Should be more like, the first assembled one (that might work), has shipped to a single person. XM = Expansion Module Shipped = it was shipped to Perry and he has it. Title matches what occurred... but thanks for your input. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 1:54 PM, jefffulton said: Now, when can we start ordering more of them? ? Nope...when the pre-orders are in people's hands first. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 2:40 PM, SlidellMan said: I look forward to a video or two demonstrating it. Let Bob, Perry, Mitch and others post photo's and video's of theirs, this way people can see other people kicking the tires. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 On 1/6/2020 at 5:11 PM, sixersfan105 said: Proof or it didn't happen! Just kidding. Glad to hear that, Curt. Thanks for all of your hard work on this project. When do you anticipate sales of the XM will go live to the general public, as in, non-preorders? Will it be for sale in the AtariAge Store or elsewhere. Cheers. It'll be a bit, I'll do these in 20-25 pc batches to get the pre-orders out. Then I'll prepare units and can sell them going forward. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boggis the cat Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 11 hours ago, Curt Vendel said: It'll be a bit, I'll do these in 20-25 pc batches to get the pre-orders out. Then I'll prepare units and can sell them going forward. I’d be interested in buying one when they come available. Just a thought on the scarcity of POKEY chips: perhaps use the PokeyONE (or similar) in the post pre-order units? The full capabilities of the POKEY aren’t required by the 7800. Or maybe give buyers options to have just a socket, a real POKEY, or the PokeyONE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 1 hour ago, boggis the cat said: I’d be interested in buying one when they come available. Just a thought on the scarcity of POKEY chips: perhaps use the PokeyONE (or similar) in the post pre-order units? The full capabilities of the POKEY aren’t required by the 7800. Or maybe give buyers options to have just a socket, a real POKEY, or the PokeyONE. There is no pokey included, buyer has to fit their own. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 1 hour ago, mimo said: There is no pokey included, buyer has to fit their own. Negative. "The 7800XM has an onboard POKEY audio processor chip...A Yamaha 2151 audio synthesiser chip is also onboard the 7800XM." http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/7800/expansion/ "The XM comes with the following features: ...POKEY and...Yamaha YM2151 sound chips for enhanced music and sound effects." Perhaps you may be confusing this with the AtariAge's store deal of "bring your own POKEY" option for a few titles. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Trebor said: Negative. "The 7800XM has an onboard POKEY audio processor chip...A Yamaha 2151 audio synthesiser chip is also onboard the 7800XM." http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/7800/expansion/ "The XM comes with the following features: ...POKEY and...Yamaha YM2151 sound chips for enhanced music and sound effects." Perhaps you may be confusing this with the AtariAge's store deal of "bring your own POKEY" option for a few titles. Fair enough, it's been a Llllloooonnnngggg time since I bought it I probably got confused with the PIA Edited January 11, 2020 by mimo Update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 4 hours ago, mimo said: There is no pokey included, buyer has to fit their own. There is a POKEY or PokeyMax on the XM boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 1 hour ago, Curt Vendel said: There is a POKEY or PokeyMax on the XM boards. Thank you for the second correction 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 5 hours ago, Curt Vendel said: There is a POKEY or PokeyMax on the XM boards. If at all possible I would really like a real pokey on my XM if you could please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 If the XM might have either the POKEY or PokeyMax, that means that developers will have to target the subset of capabilities that the latter can do. I don't know all the details, but can't a real POKEY e.g. do sampling for paddles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 3 minutes ago, Karl G said: If the XM might have either the POKEY or PokeyMax, that means that developers will have to target the subset of capabilities that the latter can do. I don't know all the details, but can't a real POKEY e.g. do sampling for paddles? The 7800 supports paddles via the TIA, the same way the 2600 does. No need for POKEY for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 9 minutes ago, DrVenkman said: The 7800 supports paddles via the TIA, the same way the 2600 does. No need for POKEY for that. Sorry; I should have been more clear. The paddles require value sampling many, many times each frame to work smoothly, which takes up CPU time that could be used for game logic or a more complex display. I believe the POKEY is supposed to be able to perform this function to free up CPU time for paddle games. From the POKEY Wikipedia page: Quote POKEY combines functions for sampling (ADC) potentiometers (such as game paddles) and scan matrices of switches (such as a computer keyboard) as well as sound generation. Mind you, I don't know if there are any games that actually make use of this, but in the future if the XM were in the hands of many gamers, new games could presumably make use of this capability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 2 minutes ago, Karl G said: Sorry; I should have been more clear. The paddles require value sampling many, many times each frame to work smoothly, which takes up CPU time that could be used for game logic or a more complex display. I believe the POKEY is supposed to be able to perform this function to free up CPU time for paddle games. From the POKEY Wikipedia page: Mind you, I don't know if there are any games that actually make use of this, but in the future if the XM were in the hands of many gamers, new games could presumably make use of this capability. Have you ever played KABOOM on the 2600? TIA can read the paddles with plenty of precision for a fast action game. POKEY is only needed on the 7800 for sound. The controller lines on the 7800 hardware are not carried to the cartridge slot connector so nothing on the XM could ever access them directly anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 I never said that precise paddle sampling could not be accomplished without a helper such as this, but paddle games come at the cost of much of the CPU time being eaten up by the need to sample the paddles ~200 times per frame. On the 2600 this comes at the expense of the complexity of the visible display, where on the 7800 I think it would just be at the expense of CPU cycles available for game logic. For some games this would matter more than others. The rationale that a POKEY on a cart connector couldn't poll the paddles whereas the actual game could doesn't make sense to me, but I'm admittedly not a hardware guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Either way, I hope the POKEY will be socketed, so people can put in what they want. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Congrats Curt on getting the first boards out ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 5 hours ago, Shawn said: If at all possible I would really like a real pokey on my XM if you could please. You were one of the very early orders, I’ve got a good supply of POKEYs so pretty much most of the PreOrders will come with the old Atari made chips vs the new FPGAs 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 4 hours ago, Karl G said: Sorry; I should have been more clear. The paddles require value sampling many, many times each frame to work smoothly, which takes up CPU time that could be used for game logic or a more complex display. I believe the POKEY is supposed to be able to perform this function to free up CPU time for paddle games. From the POKEY Wikipedia page: Mind you, I don't know if there are any games that actually make use of this, but in the future if the XM were in the hands of many gamers, new games could presumably make use of this capability. I never intended to breakout the paddle signals off the Pokey/PokeyMax... just the PIA has breakouts around it. if someone is going to want to use the Pokey paddles that means having to hardwire in controllers and some work inside. i think just using the front controller ports and using the TIA might be the best route but hey, I’ve marked every connection on the board and I see no reason why people can experiment and try ideas out. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Fair enough, and I didn't mean to derail this topic. It doesn't seem like anyone is too concerned about this function of the POKEY, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Well crap, now I need to get a 7800, but on the bright side I won't need to further mod my 5200 to get the VCS adapter to work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 20 hours ago, Curt Vendel said: You were one of the very early orders, I’ve got a good supply of POKEYs so pretty much most of the PreOrders will come with the old Atari made chips vs the new FPGAs Thanks so much. EDIT: Bill already gave you my address in NY, I figure it's a lot easier to keep it within the USA when it finally ships. I'll have my wife go pick it up for me. I have her name down on the "ship to" on the new XM addy list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambler172 Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 On 1/10/2020 at 9:43 PM, Curt Vendel said: Let Bob, Perry, Mitch and others post photo's and video's of theirs, this way people can see other people kicking the tires. seemed you forg ot me ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 (edited) I'm really busy at work right now, so don't have much time to play with this, but I'll post a little something. A while back I created some XM versions of Bob's Pac-man games. These are 48k roms that contain both the TIA and POKEY sound code. They check for the XM POKEY and will use it if present, or they default to the TIA sound. Here's a little video of Ms. Pac-man 320. Sorry about the poor video. I was holding my phone with one hand and working the joystick with the other. Edited January 12, 2020 by tep392 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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