peteym5 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Well many people probably plan to make a game with the board or be looking to purchase games made for the board. I wonder what people plan to make or would be looking to buy. Personally I have thought about adapting my Pitfall II/Mario brother combo type game for it. I also have a asteroids clone floating around here. Anybody on here have some thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmel_andrews Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 So am i right in thinking that the colour pallete is still 8bit (VBXE) but with additional 8bit locations for additional colour palletes Or will it have 16/24 or 32 bit colour palletes (I.E. aga/vga OR truecolour) or color for our American/canadian friends And if the proposed WDC 'terium' processor ever reaches the market place and is utilised in some sort of A8 upgrade (like an upgraded 'dataque' turbo 8/16), will the VBXE ever utilise the additional capabilities of this processor (i.e 32 bit, 32 bit addr./data bus and speed wise etc) Just putting in my 4p's worth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 The Videoboard XE will use a 16bit palette, 5 bits for red, 6 for green, and 5 for blue. standard true color (colour) format. I know the sprites will have 16bit color, but I have to see what it can do for the background Antic Modes. According to the docs I've been reading, the palettes will be re-programmable. However, some of the info needs to be translated from Polish. Don't wanna say more until I go back and read up on it or more information is released. You will have much more that just the Player/Missile graphics. I am not sure you can use the P/M graphics at the same time as the updated sprites, that is if you really need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Any idea when this will be for sale? I sure would buy a few of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 (edited) Here is What I've retrieved from an old site: - Sprite blitter with it's own 512 KB of RAM. It generates sprites with sizes from 1x1 to 256x256 points in the resolution of 320x192, each sprite in 256 colors. Number of sprites is limited only with blitter effectiveness, at least it wil be 30 pieces with 32x32 size and 256 colors per frame. - Programmable priorities for sprites and background. Simple sprite collision detection. - Programmable x and y sprite positions with 1 hi-res pixel presision. - Two programmable 256 color palettes - one for the playfield and one for sprites. The palette colors are chosen from the 65536 colors (Hi-Color RGB). - Playfield colors map in 8x8 and 4x4 pixels resolution, for each such block a 1 of 32 color-sets may be chosen (all playfield colors are changed), it is also possible to scroll color map vertically/horizontally with 1 pixel precision. - Ability to mix hi-res and color modes with appropriate definitions in the map of colors.. There was some earlier documents about loosing Player/Missile graphics and GTIA modes, but I am understanding that the people making the board are trying to maintain compatibility with GTIA so you can still run all your old software. I tried copying and pasting the phrases into an Polish/English translator. Possible what is causing delays on its release. I am not sure when and how it will become available and I wonder if the manufacturer has an English speaking representative. I am interested in the Playfield color thing and wonder if it functions like the color map on the Commodore Systems. I live in Buffalo, NY and we have a Polish speaking segment here, I would have to pay someone to translate it though. However would probably wait until the board is finished soon with English documents. Edited July 23, 2007 by peteym5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Hello guys (and girl) If a windows computer can't hold up with something, it doesn't mean that a "slower" computer can't do it either. Remember that a big part of the CPU power is used up by windows. Back when I bought my 14k4 baud modem, the only computer mentioned as needing a hardware upgrade where Windows computers. All others didn't need an upgrade. BTW check out this small demo (not using any hardware upgrade except for the My-Ide interface). Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Wow, that was cool that video of "Matrix Reloaded" Ok that does prove an Atari could play video. Now did you had to convert the movie so you can play it on the Ataris' screen? I think people were talking about decompression of AVI CODECS like divx and xvid and playing to the Atari's screen or the Videoboard XE. Like the image formats, you need some software to convert the file so it can be quickly rendered on the Atari. I agree that Windows is multiasking when you play movies and wonder what is the minumal computer requirment to play a movie. This is one reason why Linux has become popular because it can run on a '386 computers and do multimedia applications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 Mathy...while all that is true enough in general terms, the 6502 is not even in the same category as more modern processors. No amount of software cleverness is going to allow modern video CODECS to reasonably run on a 6502. That's not bad, its just a fact. I love the 6502 and the Atari for entirely different reasons. Also, people keep knocking Windows with the old stuff that was true 15 years ago. The truth is that modern Windows is a very, very good operating system. It has fully pre-emptive multitasking and in general is very solid. Vista is a question mark, but the Windows core has been very good since Win98 ( Ok, ME excepted ). .NET in particular is a really excellent API set. Windows is resource heavy, but so is Linux, and, although most people don't believe it, so are the current Apple OS's. Linux is popular because it's free. Period. It has no inherent superior ability to play multimedia. In fact, it's a pain in the ass for the average user. It used to be that Linux was very small, and fiercely defended by CLI fetishists, but that is no longer true. Most linux distros are bloated monstrosities. Windows is universal because its good, not because of some kind of brainwashing or forced adoption. Yes, I know MS is an aggressive marketer, but that wouldn't save it from a crappy OS over the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 Hello guys (and girl) @peteym5: Mr-Atari did the converting (that's him on the demo). And he explained somewhere (maybe the Atarimax-forum, maybe his own site) what he did. All the Atari does basically is shovel the data from the harddrive to the computer. @danwinslow: My responce was to people talking about thing not working on windows computers "way back when". That's what I was responding to. There's no way the Atari can decode movies on the fly. Greetings Mathy (Apple user) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted July 24, 2007 Share Posted July 24, 2007 Allright I think we are getting offtrack of the subject of Videoboard XE. It may be possible to come up with a format to play color video with Videoboard XE and use IDE or other fast access device. It would have to be a very basic compression that does not require alot of cpu power to do. I think people are looking to get more information on this chip, want to know what it can do, would it be backward compatible with existing Atari hardware. There were modifications to the Ataris' sound with multiple pokeys, this is the first time I have seen a direct upgrade for the Ataris' internal hardware that will be available to the public. That is improving the graphics for game play. I am not saying some others might have tried something, or those 80 column devices that connected. Can you honestly say those 80 column devices improved the graphics. One alternative I thought about was multiple GTIA chips graphed onto a board to have several PM bases, get 8 or 12 players instead of 4. Still use Antic to drive the playfield background, just have the first GTIA feed back to the Antic chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted December 1, 2007 Share Posted December 1, 2007 Has anyone heard anything new about this card? I see on the AtariArea forum, this Electron guy seems to be posting recently. However I cannot read Polish all that well and attempted to translate it to English. Said something about wating on FPGAs and the last version is 1.1. What I used to translate it is not perfect. Hoping to find someone who can read some polish to go onto his forum and related webpages, and gather some information for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvas Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Can anybody translate what's going on with VBXE: http://atari.online.pl/v01/index.phtml?sub...&ct=nowinki ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregor Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 (edited) Can anybody translate what's going on with VBXE: http://atari.online.pl/v01/index.phtml?sub...&ct=nowinki ? VBXE is a first graphics card for Atari 8bit and dramaticaly changes the possibilities of our Atari computers. VBXE board is a replacament for old GTIA with its emulation, creates huge sprites and has a lot of colors. The quality of picture can be improved due to onboard RGB output. VBXE is equipped with 512KB of SRAM and 512 KB of FLASH RAM. It supports fact copying with blitter and share 320 KB of "standard" RAM. The VBXE is "transparent". This means that all old computer functions are preserved. All old software can be run without any software modification. The most important change will be seen when we plug a monitor to RGB output. Then all new possiblities will be shown (colors, ghosts). The programist can create a game that runs on the standard Atari without any extensions but when the VBXE is detected it qenerate a quite new look of a game with all extra features on the RGB output (256 from the palette of 65 thousands colors, etc.). Edited May 22, 2008 by gregor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvas Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Can anybody translate what's going on with VBXE: http://atari.online.pl/v01/index.phtml?sub...&ct=nowinki ? VBXE is a first graphics card for Atari 8bit and dramaticaly changes the possibilities of our Atari computers. VBXE board is a replacament for old GTIA with its emulation, creates huge sprites and has a lot of colors. The quality of picture can be improved due to onboard RGB output. VBXE is equipped with 512KB of SRAM and 512 KB of FLASH RAM. It supports fact copying with blitter and share 320 KB of "standard" RAM. Yes I know what VBXE is (almost). But are they manufacturing it? Can it be ordered? I want one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregor Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Yes I know what VBXE is (almost). But are they manufacturing it? Can it be ordered? I want one The documentation has been published and is available from here: http://atari.online.pl/pliki/vbxe_docs.7z. Assembly description is still in Polish language. The first pieces of VBXE are manufactured but there is no info about retail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 The last I have heard was it was being manufactured and being sold in Poland by Electron. There has not been any information about international sales as of yet and how much they are running. There also has not been any information about these being able to run with NTSC machines, but I am assuming it not be a problem because that is all controlled by the Antic chip which is still being used to drive the background playfields. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 (edited) I'll post this same question here that I posted on Kaz's site today.. The VBXE includes a VGA output in the kit, I can't read the docs but there are some macro photos on the VBXE website. I'm asuming that the VBXE having a hardwired VGA output completely bypasses the bad components of the XE's usual poor video circuitry? so we wouldn't need to make any of the usual motherboard modifications replacing components like you would when making an s-video modification? Is this right? With that in mind and the fact that it's 100% backwards compatible, it would be a big reason to buy and install this even if the new features are not desirable to the purist 8-bit user Edited May 22, 2008 by Tezz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 22, 2008 Author Share Posted May 22, 2008 I mailed Electron how much he would charge when getting one included in a 65xe... as I am not a hardware guy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz atarionline.pl Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 (edited) Tezz: I'm not the best guy to answer your question, but I know that it is RGB video output: According to Electron's doc: 1 Red (from VBXE) 2 Blue (from VBXE) 3 Green (from VBXE) 4 RGB control (from VBXE) 5 CVBS (composite video) 6 CSYNC (from pin 10 of CD4050 from Atari XE board) 7 GND (from VBXE) 8 GND (from Atari board) 9 Audio EDIT: Yes, it should meaningfully increase quality of picture. Edited May 22, 2008 by Kaz atari.online.pl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz atarionline.pl Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Can anybody translate what's going on with VBXE: http://atari.online.pl/v01/index.phtml?sub...&ct=nowinki? Main points: 1. Short description of VBXE (thanks to gregor for translation). 2. VBXE has just launched on the market. First 20 people received their VBXE boards two weeks ago, but they got assembly manual two days ago. 3. I started a forum for VBXE users/fans to find each other , to discuss about projects for this video card. 4. XLent opinion about VBXE: "it is not a real Atari!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Tezz: I'm not the best guy to answer your question, but I know that it is RGB video output: According to Electron's doc: 1 Red (from VBXE) 2 Blue (from VBXE) 3 Green (from VBXE) 4 RGB control (from VBXE) 5 CVBS (composite video) 6 CSYNC (from pin 10 of CD4050 from Atari XE board) 7 GND (from VBXE) 8 GND (from Atari board) 9 Audio EDIT: Yes, it should meaningfully increase quality of picture. Thanks Kaz! Well I've got my soldering iron at the ready now. I wonder when i'll be able to buy one from Electron it's just a pre run batch now I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvas Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Can anybody translate what's going on with VBXE: http://atari.online.pl/v01/index.phtml?sub...&ct=nowinki? Main points: 1. Short description of VBXE (thanks to gregor for translation). 2. VBXE has just launched on the market. First 20 people received their VBXE boards two weeks ago, but they got assembly manual two days ago. 3. I started a forum for VBXE users/fans to find each other , to discuss about projects for this video card. 4. XLent opinion about VBXE: "it is not a real Atari!" Thanks Kaz! I just don't want to miss the ordering I hope it will be announced here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaz atarionline.pl Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Thanks Kaz! I just don't want to miss the ordering I hope it will be announced here too. I think Electron should answer this question himself, but I'm afraid you missed ordering . We all placed orders before VBXE hardware was ready (in the thread on Atari Area) in the beginning of 2008 and we paid in advance in the end of February. It tooks Electron time to prepare and test 20 VBXEs, but finally we got them - that was my article about. However, Electron has released VBXE technology secrets to other "electronics guys" thus is should be possible to buy VBXE in future. We paid about 350 zlotych (100 euro) per unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezz Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Let's hope another batch is produced soon for those of us who didn't get chance to pre-order. 100 euros is a reasonable price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Tezz: I'm not the best guy to answer your question, but I know that it is RGB video output: According to Electron's doc: 1 Red (from VBXE) 2 Blue (from VBXE) 3 Green (from VBXE) 4 RGB control (from VBXE) 5 CVBS (composite video) 6 CSYNC (from pin 10 of CD4050 from Atari XE board) 7 GND (from VBXE) 8 GND (from Atari board) 9 Audio EDIT: Yes, it should meaningfully increase quality of picture. OK, I have been using VGA monitors for years and have used CGA/EGA monitors before. I know VGA monitors has more pins, can a VGA monitor be plugged into this? I am wondering if both a RGB and S-Video mods can both be made on the same system. All S-Video mod really is just taking the chroma/luma outputs from the chipset and wiring it a S-Video jack. I would be cool to be able to hook my Atari computer up to different monitors and TV sets. Electron has released VBXE technology secrets to other "electronics guys" thus is should be possible to buy VBXE in future. I wonder how long would it be before we start see these devices in North America, there are many Atari users in the United States and Canada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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