Quadhorn

True enough ... but I was considering having a stab at that "magical $15 design"; I've got something else in mind I want to do eventually, but this might be a simpler starting point. How much work are we talking? And how much documentation is available? You might get offers if people had more of an idea what they'd be taking on. Out of interest, how much current can you get out of the A2600? I've asked elsewhere before and had no response; you sound like you've had hands-on experience with this.

Fair do's. Aye, if extra stuff's there anyway, use it. Hmmm, $15 is kind of tight - any idea of intended volume? Single quantities are always rediculously expensive. Is there room on the CPLD for a simple bankswitch method, IP processor, RS-232 controller and FLASH programmer? You'd obviously still need an RS-232 transceiver, parallel Flash RAM, power supply, sockets, passives and PCB to complete it. 'Might be able to get away with a 2-layer board given the virtually point-to-point layout, with everything else inside the CPLD. The "processor" would just need to be a simple state machine to handle getting data from the RS-232 to the Flash programmer. I reckon a Spartan-3 3S50 could easily handle it, but then you're looking at $10 for that alone, plus all the extra support components and hassle it brings in. CPLD's I don't know enough about, straight off. Have you looked at something similar already or is it worth me taking a look at?

@AJF: Aye, I was having a 'stupid day'. Chimera looks cute, but a little over-kill if it's main intent is to provide a new cheap Supercharger alternative.

I've looked through the blog, but it's a little confusing and fragmented; could you give us a brief summary, please? Edit: Never mind; finally found it on the third page.

Daft thought, but are you actually sneaking when thieving? Admittedly I've not played Oblivion yet (damn Geforce 4MX), but in Morrowind you had to hold down the sneak button and be sure the "sneaking" icon was there before doing anything ... dodgy. Like. And didn't there used to be different buttons for 'talk' and 'open/thieve'?

ZX Spectrum "How to be a Complete Bastard". I can't say I can think of another game where the aim is to ruin a house party for everyone.

Really? Seriously? I was under the impression that PC disk drives can't, regardless of software, because the way they're built with Independent Drive Electronics prevents the kind of low-level control needed. If I'm wrong, fair do's; Evidious, tell us how it goes. For the workbench images, you can also try: http://tahirtas.tripod.com/Amiga/amiga2.html If mrnukem's suggestion doesn't work, you'll need either a drive which can write Amiga disk formats, like a CatWeasel, or an Amiga 1200 - they can read 720kB DOS disks. Copy the .adf image to a 720kB DOS disk, create a RAM disk on the Amiga, copy the image into that, then write out the image to a new disk as an Amiga disk. Erm .... there's more to it than that, but it's been a while since I've done it and I don't have an Amiga to hand at the minute. You might have to compress the disk image to fit it on the DOS disk.

I cannot stand sports or racing games, but found myself hooked on Gran Turismo 3 (PS2) for a while (at least, until the disc failed) and I absolutely live for Burnouts 3 and Revenge/4 (or "Smashy Crashy" as the ex calls it) and the Tony Hawks and SSX series'.

Warum haben Sie auf Deutsch geantwortet? -- (Edit: Sorry, I assume you're both German-speaking and know each other. I was intrigued by the seemingly random change of language. Entschuldigen Sie mich, bitte.)

Aye, he's pointed us that way in a different thread. There's plenty of information and details on / links to patents. It's interesting to see that there were three different original versions... Cheers, though.

Dumb question - when would the official "30 Years Old" day be?

Mr. Dan, you are an absolute star. Which is to say that, you have the splendor and wonder of a massive exploding ball of gas in space, held together by your own greatness and shining a pureness of light on everything near you. That is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for - thankyou. Right, now all I need to do is revive the e-bay account, get hold of one of these pretty pretty's and see what I can do.....

Not kidding about being from the East End of Hell, eh? My sympathies. I was just thrown by your apparent lack of taste in beers - it didn't seem to mesh with everything else you've said recently. Fair do's; we do the best we can with what we have. Of late I've been drinking a lot of John Smiths (which is most definitely at the ass end of bitters) when out and about as places have dropped the decent beers for lagers...yeuch...

Still easily done; the PICs start at 1MHz+, same as the A2600's 6507, and we're talking about a 16x16 screen, not the ~40*30 A2600 playfield. Mini-handheld Skeleton?

I'd go with Theakston's Old Peculiar, myself. And some Kopparberg perry (that's pear cider, American readers) for the ladies. Man, just when you were doing so well, making sense on a wide range of subjects across the forum, you go and pull this on me. Heineken? What next - Carling? Stella? Meh, I suppose it's light and fluffy, better suited to long gaming sesions. I just can't accept it as a beer. S'pose I'm just a Real Ale elitist. ... Y'know, it's only reading back over the above that the Atari2600/Stella/StellaArtois link actually hit. It's the perfect _name_ for a drink to go with Atari gaming, it's just a shame it's the strainings from the devils own jock-strap. Really, how can anyone drink it? I can deal with any other ale, beer, cider, etc. you can throw at me, but my body physically rejects Stella Artois....

Apparently so; little bits in a few placs. anyway. What descriptions I can find seem slightly confusing - I have the UK version and it seems to be somewhere the Japanese and USA versions for censorship. Katrina in the shower, but with a (very thin) towel, lots of dismemberment and disembowelment, without mosaics but without animation. Heck, like I care, it's still my favourite Mega-CD game. BTW, have you chased down the rom-file of SD Snatcher? It's an excellent little RPG, blending the ultra cute and the evilly homicidal.

Diet cola, but not by my choice; the last two girlfriends were diet cola fanatics. In all fairness, they had a Coke problem and they would admit as much. I always preferred Pepsi. If I get to choose myself, Dandelion and Burdock.

AJF, cheers for trying. Aye, I've gathered that much about it so far. In a sense it's just as well; a modern processor means a well-supported modern IDE. I'm thinking a flash-based PIC will make a nice cheap single-chip solution, but I've no idea how much or what kind of I/O I'll need nor how much physical space I'll have to fit everything in. I'll have to butcher an existing cartridge for the casing, but ... y'know ... omlettes and eggs ...

How do's, Does _anyone_ have anything on the MB Microvision handheld? I'm looking for any information on what's in the core unit and how to connect to it. Interface details, logic levels and so forth. At the very least, could someone who owns one read the patent numbers off the back, please? I could do with a secondary pet project, something to do when the current one gets stuck or I'm waiting for kit. This may well be it, but I'd like to know more about it before buying one. I've tried looking up stuff myself, but no luck yet. Cheers, QH.

Where I used to live in the north, there was a pub called the Wardels Bridge Inn (or something like that). It was a fair way out of town, but had some of the best beer on tap (Castle Eden; couldn't find it anywhere else at the time) and did some fantastic pizza. They piled the cheese up high and cooked it on large metal trays. The cheese would come off the edge and start frying around the edge. Mmmm, fried cheese... Since then, there's been no place remotely as good. I do a decent pizza myself (make the dough myself, large rectangular things) but the current house won't have a kitchen until I get around to fitting it.

Nice; what happened to all the bubble-gum, though? Did he chew through it all himself? To be fair, it was that bad that it would've tasted better after rolling in the dirt. Uh, sorry man, didn't mean to stir things up. If it helps, these things happen even when you don't move home. Changing between school / college / university / the working world is enough all by itself. Being the eldest doesn't help either - you have to deal with everything first. Aye; climbing trees on private land, weekend cartoons and Atari 2600's. Once upon a time when life was simple and we were allowed to play Bull-dog in the playground. Happy card hunting, man.

With that thought in mind, is there any technical data available for this beauty? Measurements? I've had a look around, but can't find anything. A Geode is impractical (obviously, ), but in-system-programmable flash-based PICs or 8051s are easy enough to come by - it could yet have a flash-cartridge...

We used to love those things at school. I can't say I've seen any of them in a long time, though. Are you just collecting the cards? As I recall, there was a TV cartoon series and also Trashcan Trolls cards. Memories of Icutyou's Troll Sushi House flood back even now. Any chance of some photos as the collection progresses?

Dumb question: did anyone else read this hoping it would be about a new Elite game?

Ya, but Panzer Dragoon Saga is the greatest game ever made, sir! I'd pay more than $200 for it. Would now be a bad time to mention I got my Saturn with PD Zwei and Saga and a bundle of other games for free? A pseudo-relative was going to throw them out, but offered them to me instead. At those prices for second-hand games, can you really fault getting old systems chipped and using copies?