Quadhorn

How do's, I've got some experience, but mainly with the FX2LP family. They're somewhat different as they're all digital, Fast or High, only provide for a generic driver (instead of the class drivers like HID, etc.), operate at Fast or High speed and they use the c-coded FrameWorks to do most of the hard work in setting up and managing the USB. I'm not sure off-hand how much the CY8C24894 USB differs ... we'll see ... Please excuse me if some of the questions seem dumb or insulting; it's not intentional, I've just got little information to go on or I'm thinking of the FX2LP equivalent. Right, you've changed the descriptors, so the PC/Host knows what the end-points should be doing. Have you made sure the Peripheral is correctly configuring the endpoints themselves? The descriptors only tell the PC/Host about the endpoints, they don't set up the Peripheral's endpoints. After that, I suppose there's the ever-present problems with real-time stuff; is the Peripheral completing all necessary tasks within the 1ms between packets? And finally, is the Peripheral code timer- or interrupt-based; differences between clocks mean using interrupt-based programming is essential - a timer-based method will likely miss some packets and have to wait until the next timer period. What kind of "maximum throughput" and "speed" are you after?: Throughput on any one endpoint is limited by the minimum time between packets and maximum packet size. For maximum throughput you need the smallest interval between packets and the largest packet size. For a Fast-speed Interrupt endpoint, that means 1ms with 64B packets ~ 64kBps. It's a meaty document, but the USB 2.0 specifications from www.usb.org has details on the limits for the different endpoint types in "Chapter 5: USB Data Flow Model: <endpoint type> Transfers". "Speed" in terms of bandwidth can likely be increased using multiple end-points, though you'd have to code handling which end-points're used for what. "Speed" in terms of latency is not likely to be helped using multiple end-points. It _might_, but the Host decides the ordering of data transfers; it could well process two endpoints straight after each other or neatly 0.5ms apart in the 1ms cycle - there's no way for the Peripheral to control this. Btw, was there a particular reason for picking a PSoc?

"Beneath a Steel Sky" is now free to download direct from Revolution's website; "Flight of the Amazon Queen"'s available too. http://www.revolution.co.uk/_display.php?id=16 Most people'll need ScummVM to play them: http://www.scummvm.org/

Keep one of them, especially if you have a little PSOne. They make great "spare" consoles when you have to go off to conferences / weddings / etc. for when you're waiting around. If there's nothing else to do in the evening, beer and Tekken's always a good back-up plan.

Brief run down for the emulation newbie (?): A PC is not an arcade machine. It does not have the same hardware. Not the same graphics processor, not the same sound hardware, nothing the same. A game ROM contains all of the information that the programmer provided, all that was necessary to make the game work on the original arcade hardware. As a result, it makes lots of assumptions, based on that fact. 1. There are not ROMs "with" or "without" sound. Only emulators that can and can't deal with it. Unless a PC has a program to look at the game ROM, work out what the arcade sounds would have been and then convert that to what a PC sound card plays, there's no sound. The information is in the ROM (and the specifications of the original arcade hardware), but without that chunk of code, the PC doesn't know what to do with it. All ROMs have all the information in them about a game that they're ever going to have. 2. You need a very fast PC to emulate a game from a supposedly slow arcade machine. Look at Atari 2600 emulation, for example. The original Atari 2600 main processor ran at a mere 1.16 MHz and had 128 bytes of RAM. To run an Atari 2600 emulator, such as Stella, requires a Pentium class processor (100MHz+, about 100x faster or more) and 16MB+ of RAM (over 100000 times as much). The PC has to pretend to be the Atari 2600's processor, the TIA chip, the RIOT chip, lots of other bits and pieces and at the same time deal with its own operating system (Windows), display, sound, mouse, keyboard, etc. If the current version of MAME doesn't do sound for a particular game, you'll have to wait for a version that does. A different ROM won't change that. The same goes for any other part of the game i.e. graphics, controls, etc. If it's running slowly, it's because your PC is too slow for the emulator's requirements. You need a faster PC and / or wait for a "faster" version of the emulator if one is possible and ever written. If the game involves 3D, expect MAME to be _very_ slow; there's some preliminary 3D support but the MAME developers are mainly interested in the earlier 2D games. Rules of the forum say we can't give you details on where to look for ROMs, etc; you'll have to hunt around the web for websites and torrents and the like.

This is possibly an utterly crazy thought here, but how has chatbot technology come along these days? The way that chat log reads, it's almost like there's not really a real live person there at all ... as if they decided chatbots would do the job well enough and were cheaper to run than paying someone a salary .....

*cough* ... Bust-A-Groove ... *cough* ... and the sequel despite being NTSC-only ...*cough*cough*

Just a thought: The Cypress FX2 (and FX2LP) chips have a number of useful aspects. First off, they're Fast / High speed USB devices with a decent amount of FIFO RAM (~4kB from memory). Second, they contain an extra chunk of hardware called the GPIF - General Purpose InterFace. This can be configured to stream data from the USB FIFOs to the IO ports with address and control data - there may be a way to do the bit-banging rapidly using this, maybe simplifying the data stream so that b0 contains the bits of interest and configuring the GPIF to put out the bit and control pattern required. Third, as it's an 8051, you can code in C; Cypress provide a 4kB limited version of Keil uVision for this. Fourth, Cypress provide a fair bit of support for developing USB applications - the main thing is the C FrameWorks, which is a core framework providing all of the basic USB functionality. You plug your code into the FrameWorks main and use the function prototypes provided to deal with interrupts. Chips are roughly $10, I think. The largest are 128-pin flat-packed things, with all IO available. A cut-down 56-pin leadless (?) thing is available, with reduced IO, where space is at a premium. Fifth, Cypress provide a basic driver, library and API for coding the Host-side driver in C++ and integrating it easily for use in a Windows environment. The Tuttee has turned up - ask us later if you want to know more. QH.

The Lynx isn't my thing, but a quick web search for "lynx mandelbrot" picked up Chip's Challenge as a possible: http://www.cheatsearch.com/Atari_Lynx/unp1...eats_02152.HTML

NeoGeo King of the Monsters 1 and 2, perhaps? Monster-themed beat-'em-up where you brawl across a city scape, interspersed with army attack bonus rounds between stages. You could find power-ups in the buildings and you could also pick up some of the larger buildings to use as weapons. I think there were Megadrive / SNES ports as well.

Aye, there's no real difference between them. There're pins on certain chips inside that select PAL/NTSC and JAP/USA depending on whether they're GND or +Vcc. The regions are selected as: USA="USA"+"NTSC", Japan="JAP"+"NTSC", Europe="USA"+"PAL". The mod just involves putting switches in line with these pins. The following might be of interest: http://www.gamesx.com/importmod/gen2import.htm ... and this has some pictures: http://www.consolepassion.co.uk/modification.htm As Bruce pointed out, you may need to mod the cart slot as well.

Wow ... if I have any sense I'll never use a Continue again. Cheers.

@remo: 'First thing I though of reading that was "Ode to a Lump of Green Regal I Found In My Armpit One Midsummers Morning". That and whether my intestines were plotting to strangle my brain. @Random: for Robot Monkeys and cheers for the "Gimme The Codes" again; cheered us up no end. @oval: Thank, man. I try to help where I can and shall continue to do so. @everyone else: Cheers for trying to warn us. I was kind of expecting it after "Gimme..." and the third post, but thought I should give him a chance, incase he was actually serious and just needed things explaining more clearly. [Childish side-note: 100th post! Woo-hoo! *Happy dance*]

If I had a laptop, Streets of Rage Remake, with the original sound-track patched back in. Otherwise Mean Bean Machine would be the next choice.

That was beautiful! 5-11under Indeed it was; far shorter and more coherent than the software engineering rant I was tempted to go off on. On the other hand, with that in mind, would this be of any use: http://yourdon.com/strucanalysis/ It's only the Analysis part of the Analysis / Design / Implementation chain, but I thought it might give people more of an idea of what a proper / semi-formal specification is like. Not perfect, nor the only structured method out there, but it's been useful for stuff I've done.

"I forget what I'm saying mid sentence even when typing and I'm either too dumb / deluded to listen to other people or intentionally wasting their time." Aye, we get it. People of the AtariAge forum, I have tried, but here I draw the line. If Regal wants free crispy fried Dodo he can get it from someone else. For people not Regal, I shall return to lurking and occassionally providing bits of information and advice where I think I can help.

@remo: Thanks. Next year he's paying, though. @Random: Ah, that's taken the edge off the need to rant nicely. Cheers. I'll keep in mind if/when Regal posts again.

How would we go about getting an AtariAge label design compo' going on this? Or would that be an inappropriate and daft idea for a chunk of Nintendo hardware?

@remo: Meh, I'm a sucker for trying to help people. There's a guy from work I'm tutoring twice a week for free for his re-sits after he bombed his first year Electronic Engineering. Go figure.

Ok, this is likely to all sound very patronising and/or insulting from your end. After I put that first reply together, grin and bear it. It's 'cos we can't bounce back-and-forth rapidly as if we were face to face and I want to get the concepts across. Still clear as mud. "build a cartridge and produce it in high numbers". Que? A game cart? A flash cart? Do you have a game in mind and want to produce carts of it? Or new hardware, like a new bankswitching method? The way you describe it, it could almost even be a cosmetic design - a new case moulding? Without more information we cannot advise further. "Draw my design and then .." Uh huh. Not going to happen, just as you say. Many tens or hundreds of hours go into developing even the simplest seeming hardware and games. There is far far more effort involved than coming up with the concept. The concept is the tip of a small ice-berg, perched on top of a much larger iceberg. Picking components comes about half way through said larger ice-berg. Whatever it is, you still need to prototype. I disbelief in such ideas. You go straight on dis-believing. Everyone on here likes retro consoles in some form or another. Many of them are putting many hours and much effort in to making games and hardware. It is a simple fact that very few of those make any money, none make enough to live on. On this I argue from observation not opinion. You may be the first to become truly commercially successful, but to do that you'd have to single-handedly become larger than AtariAge. "Here, try this crispy fried Dodo." "Why it's great. I declare we shall eat Dodo forever." Finite numbers are always a problem in any real-world business model, especially "niche" markets like retro gaming. Denying them just results in bankruptcy. Edit: If you're going to ignore both what you don't want to hear (that there are practical considerations beyond your belief) and what you did want to hear (the answers to your questions), there's little we can do and little you will do. If you try to follow the conversation and make sense you'll find there are many people happy to help and advise you. Much as they have already tried to do.

Meh, too late; I've posted now. We'll see what response we get.

Aye, man. It'd help to have more details. Are you intended to build and program something like standard game cartridges? Multi-game carts? Re-programmable Flash carts? In general, for the physical building of the cartridges you're going to need to learn how to solder and de-solder through-pin and surface-mount ICs and components. For hacking an existing cartridge you're going to need something like: * Digital electronics theory, including as a bare minimum dealing with asynchronous logic and parallel EEPROM or NOR RAM devices * Details of the target console's interface and (if powering the cartridge from the console) available current on the power rail(s) One simple way to reuse through-pin ROM carts is to desolder the exisiting ROM and solder a socket for a compatible programmable memory device in place. Depending on the target console, you'll likely need other small logic devices; e.g. for an Atari2600 cart, EEPROM devices have CS_NOT instead of CS lines, so a NOT gate is required to invert the chip select. To program the memory chips you'll need some kind of Chip Programmer or to build one yourself. Program the chip, put it in the socket, then plug in the console and play. For designing a game cartridge from scratch you're also going to need: * How to read component data sheets, at least to get the info you need * Power sources i.e. voltage regulators * PCB design theory and software; ---- "theory" being what's practical in terms of layers, layout, trace widths, grounding and power planes, decoupling ICs, etc. ---- "software" being schematic capture and PCB layout software, like Eagle PCB, OrCad, or the like * A suitable board house (or local friendly university) to make the PCBs * Either a lot of money to pay them to mount the components on the PCBs or time and a soldering iron + stand, solder, de-solder wick and possibly a few other things I've forgotten To extend design for a re-programmable cart or other functions, you'll also need to know about some or more of the following, depending on the exact design in mind: * Data interfaces e.g. RS-232, USB * Microcontrollers; common ones include PICs, 8051-derivatives and ARM processors ---- plus knowledge of their programming language and development environment software in which to write the microcontroller programs and compile them * Batteries and/or using external DC power supplies (assuming the console can no longer provide enough power) * Programmable logic: CPLD's and / or FPGAs ---- plus more understanding of synchronous and asynchronous logic design, a high-level logic language like VHDL or Verilog, design and simulator software (often available free from the vendor like with Xilinx or Altera) and some way of programming them (depending on the device and application you may be able to provide an EEPROM or need a JTAG cable) * Other miscellaneous devices: switches, LEDs, sockets and cables for data interfaces, many others depending on application For a re-programmable cartridge, you'd need to combine appropriate parts of the above to make a non-volatile memory device that the console can read like a normal game cartridge, but which you can connect to a PC (or which can read e.g. an SD card) to upload game data to it. I'm sure there's lots more I've missed, but the above should cover most of the basics. Off the top of my head, Farnell and RS are two of the best known resellers of small volume stuff, but at an expected high price. RS have a slightly more user-friendly website. Both provide all kinds of semiconductor devices, sockets, cables, wiring, everything up to and including small-scale PCB manufacturing sets for hobbyists (if you can afford them). There are distributors for larger scale sales, like DigiKey and AvNet (one of the cheaper for what I've been looking for so far), but they're more difficult to deal with and likely should be avoided unless you're dealing with large volumes or work for a company that produces electronic devices and know the procurement guy well ennough to get your orders squeezed in with everything else. Some chip manufacturers provide limited samples and / or sell direct, but again often with limits such as minimum quantities. I'll avoid listing companies for now, but I'll suggest some starting points later if you want. Eh ... what? Electronics design or making / hacking cartridges for obsolete consoles? Short answer: For the first the answer would be "an Electronic Engineering degree or similar". For the second the answer would be "you don't; there's not a large enough market to make a living from - we do it for fun".

Actually, I'm kind of intrigued myself; sure there're how ever many hundred A2600 games out there (I've a collection of slightly over 600 ROM images, though some are of course NTSC/PAL or version variants) ... but how many of them were originally for the A2600? Rather than ported to it? How many games started life and / or only exist for the A2600...?

The last bit in particular sound a little weird - am I likely to fry this thing if I try to do anything with it? If I ever manage to get my hands on one, I'll get it plugged in to the logic analyser and take a closer look at what it does. Maybe I'll have to look in to some kind of simple emulator for the system, something I can plug the code in to to check it won't fry the screen before trying it on hardware.

Ten or so years back I'm sure I paid up to £30 for a few Megadrive games (though I can't think which ones). Since then, never more than £20. Even the few slightly rare games I have (Mega-CD Snatcher, Saturn Panzer Dragoon Saga) I got buying consoles second-hand (Mega-CD and games £40) or was given free (Saturn + games). I have a few that cost more at the time (Megadrive Landstalker £50, a few PC games) but those I had as Christmas or birthday presents. Thinking about it, I think Dreamcast Shenmue II was £25. In the last decade, that would be the most expensive I've bought myself.

Thanks to all that have answered. I'm still not sure I've got the answer I'm after; is that the _adaptor_ that provides 400-500 mA in _total_ to the A2600, or is 400-500 mA how much you can actually pull through the cartridge slot's Vcc line without killing / brown-outing the A2600? I think AJF might have answered that, to be fair. @AJF: 300 mA drawn with a 4kB cartridge ... hmmm ... any idea how much of that's the console and how much is the cartridge? I know modern S/NV RAM'll only use 10's of mA, but I have no idea how power-hungry the older chips were. Btw, it looks like you can fit a UART on that $2.50 XC9572XL ... with a little space to spare. Cutting down the UART a little (don't quite need everything for this - fixed baudrate, remove some buffering and error reporting and have only one or two fixed responses to the host instead of a full TX line) and with a little tweaking, there might _just_ be enough space on there for a NOR RAM programmer (simple state machine, off-load sequencing to the RS232 host machine) and some simple bank-switching ... maybe the smaller RAM-free methods. I'd prefer to avoid using two CPLDs if one can do the job. If only the next CPLD up were only $5, but where I can find it it seems to jump to $10...