Yosikuma Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 4 minutes ago, chopperthedog said: Answer in the first 30 sec of this video. good day. That is what I was afraid of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesk8 Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 That's a real pity if it's true. I really hope Thomas will make it open source allowing the community to explore the vector beauty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 3 minutes ago, mikesk8 said: That's a real pity if it's true. I really hope Thomas will make it open source allowing the community to explore the vector beauty If he isn't open to making it open source, then maybe someone can purchase it outright and pay him a royalty for each unit sold 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesk8 Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 1 minute ago, fdr4prez said: If he isn't open to making it open source, then maybe someone can purchase it outright and pay him a royalty for each unit sold Indeed. I see it from the perspective of the vector community; this card gives a new life to those amazing consoles. I hope this will happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtoal Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 2 hours ago, fdr4prez said: If he isn't open to making it open source, then maybe someone can purchase it outright and pay him a royalty for each unit sold None of that is ever going to happen, which is why we came up with the PiTrex. OK, the few of us who created the PiTrex software haven't worked on it full time for years like Thomas has, but we did at least ensure a plentiful supply of boards at a fair price. All the software we're created is open source, so eventually - especially if more programmers get involved - it should catch up with the work Thomas has done. A lot of people find it quite playable already. The only down sides are 1) less developed software, as mentioned; and 2) the cost of Pi Zeroes has gone through the roof compared to when we created the project. And maybe 3), the Pi Zero may be end-of-life before the PiTrex is 😞 Here are our project's primary URLs: http://www.ombertech.com/cnk/pitrex/wiki/index.php?wiki=Software_Ports&PHPSESSID=a1mnbcaghfdkqi2b95todlgk81 https://github.com/malbanGit/pitrex-baremetal/ http://vide.malban.de/pitrex/pitrex-baremetal-download http://vide.malban.de/pitrex https://github.com/gtoal/pitrex/ http://www.ombertech.com/pitrex.php https://www.tindie.com/products/ombertech/pitrex-vectrex-to-raspberry-pi-interface/ It would be (relatively) easy to design new cards that avoided the need for a Pi; they would be more expensive but within reason (and the Vextreme for example is pretty similar to the Vecfever hardware already and could be used for a Vecfever-like system right now if anyone were to write the code for it) but the problem affecting all these projects is manpower - to make something acceptably cheap, it pretty much has to be done as an unpaid hobby, but the amount of work needed is equivalent to at least a year of full-time employment, which none of us have the time for. So we do as much as we can when we can, but have other things to do as well and will never be in a position to dedicate serious months of full-time work to this the way Thomas did. So if you want emulation of *all* the CPUs and you want full sound with every game, it's Thomas' way or add it to PiTrex yourself. Graham 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesk8 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Thank you Graham for the answer and your effort in creating PiTrex. I believe an open source is a way forward for the Vectrex community for a long run. As much as VecFever is amazing (based on the videos and reviews I have seen) its not freely available and its a proprietary device. I will wait with PiTrex as cannot get any Pi for a reasonable price at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uczmeg Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 The PiTrex looks great and has been on my list to get on the mythical day I have some free time in my life. It's just such a shame there is no way these can make a living for the creators so things can progress properly. Probably a stupid question, but couldn't the PiTrex be adapted to take any Pi? Other than size/overkill is there any significant issue? I actually have several original Pis lying around 9appreciate they are probably useless) but also at least one of two free Pi3 and 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Type Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 8 minutes ago, uczmeg said: Probably a stupid question, but couldn't the PiTrex be adapted to take any Pi? Other than size/overkill is there any significant issue? I actually have several original Pis lying around 9appreciate they are probably useless) but also at least one of two free Pi3 and 4. I asked this question on the PiTrex forum some time back, after some investigation I did regarding the various Pi versions out there. The PiZero is based on the same CPU as the original Pi, so there's a good chance that could be made to work, but you might still have to know what you're doing, software-wise, as well as having to sort out the physical differences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akator Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) I have a PiTrex and it's amazing. The software based alignment options have my Vectrex looking better than ever. I mostly use the PiTrex as a fancy multicart, but I also love the vector arcade game emulation even if the emulation isn't completely finished. Edited September 28, 2022 by akator spelling, clarity 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yosikuma Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Just for my frame of reference: how much were these VecFever carts when they were being sold? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtoal Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 On 9/28/2022 at 4:16 AM, D-Type said: I asked this question on the PiTrex forum some time back, after some investigation I did regarding the various Pi versions out there. The PiZero is based on the same CPU as the original Pi, so there's a good chance that could be made to work, but you might still have to know what you're doing, software-wise, as well as having to sort out the physical differences. One of the early pies (I think a model A?) was the same exact processor but at a lower clock speed. I did get another Pi B to work, mainly by changing the peripheral base address and recompiling: #ifdef RPI2 #define PERIPHERAL_BASE 0x3F000000UL #else #define PERIPHERAL_BASE 0x20000000UL #endif - and now that Malban has shown the Pi Zero 2 can work I expect the same changes he made can be backported to the Linux distro (in fact some of the changes appear to have been made already) and probably that opens up a few more boards too. There's never been an intrinsic reason not to support full sized boards, it's just that we never did so as there was no real need to at the time and we made a decision early on to only support the Pi Zero in order to simplify development and maintenance. Now if Pi Zeroes had dried up but not the larger Pies, then I could see a reason to add them now, but the larger boards are just as hard to find as the zeroes so you might as well hold out for a zero. Connecting up mechanically isn't that hard, it's just a ribbon cable - I think this would work: https://www.amazon.com/erounder-Raspberry-Female-Computer-Accessories/dp/B08H26LY71/ - so if you're up for getting your hands dirty and messing around with the source code, you might be able to put something together that works. Graham PS This Unix command: fgrep def `find pitrex piTrexBoot -name '*.[hc]'`|grep PI[0-4]|grep -v SPI can be quite helpful when looking for files that may need tweaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 On 10/3/2022 at 6:38 PM, Yosikuma said: Just for my frame of reference: how much were these VecFever carts when they were being sold? When I bought mine direct from Thomas, it cost me 99 Euros. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128Kgames Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 6 hours ago, Mayhem said: When I bought mine direct from Thomas, it cost me 99 Euros. Yeah, Thomas didn't charge much for the VecFever, but the VecFever Mark II cart was double the cost of the original. Had I known he was going to stop making them altogether, I would have picked up one of the Mark II SD card based models as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesk8 Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 Let us hope Thomas will change his mind 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattPilz Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 (edited) On 9/28/2022 at 11:14 AM, akator said: I have a PiTrex and it's amazing. The software based alignment options have my Vectrex looking better than ever. Second this. I have the Sean Kelly and Jason multicarts, but lacked any SD solution for transferring new ROMs or experimenting with development and homebrew. The PiTrex certainly fills that niche in every way I imagine, and seems very comparable to the functionality offered by VecFever but a lot more at least in the scope of open source and expansibility. I was surprised to see a PiTrex sold on eBay for over $200 recently. I paid $44 USD for the PiTrex + Case from OmberTech and about the same for a Pi Zero WH. So for around $90 I have the full PiTrexf and it is working so well. It also was my first experience with Vectorblade, which is the most amazing game imaginable. There is alternatively the VecMulti, which I just missed out on before the stock ran out, but that also would've cost more than the PiTrex solution. Love the PiTrex interface, too! Edited October 8, 2022 by MattPilz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesk8 Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 21 hours ago, MattPilz said: Second this. I have the Sean Kelly and Jason multicarts, but lacked any SD solution for transferring new ROMs or experimenting with development and homebrew. The PiTrex certainly fills that niche in every way I imagine, and seems very comparable to the functionality offered by VecFever but a lot more at least in the scope of open source and expansibility. I was surprised to see a PiTrex sold on eBay for over $200 recently. I paid $44 USD for the PiTrex + Case from OmberTech and about the same for a Pi Zero WH. So for around $90 I have the full PiTrexf and it is working so well. It also was my first experience with Vectorblade, which is the most amazing game imaginable. There is alternatively the VecMulti, which I just missed out on before the stock ran out, but that also would've cost more than the PiTrex solution. Love the PiTrex interface, too! I did opposite:) bought recently VecMulti and waiting now for PiTrex I hope it will be available soon and then will manage to get Pi for some reasonable price. I am curious if potential of multicore Pi Zero 2 processing will be ever used in PiTrex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtoal Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 10 hours ago, mikesk8 said: I did opposite:) bought recently VecMulti and waiting now for PiTrex I hope it will be available soon and then will manage to get Pi for some reasonable price. I am curious if potential of multicore Pi Zero 2 processing will be ever used in PiTrex. Quite unlikely in bare-metal, as the code would also have to implement multitasking as well, but it could plausibly be used in the Linux distro. I think Kevin's code improvements in the area of avoiding glitches caused by processor/memory contention have a chance of allowing the multicore processor to draw vectors without random glitches. I haven't tried working under linux with a Zero 2 yet but will at some point. We need to backport Malban's Zero2 mods to Linux first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesk8 Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 4 hours ago, gtoal said: Quite unlikely in bare-metal, as the code would also have to implement multitasking as well, but it could plausibly be used in the Linux distro. I think Kevin's code improvements in the area of avoiding glitches caused by processor/memory contention have a chance of allowing the multicore processor to draw vectors without random glitches. I haven't tried working under linux with a Zero 2 yet but will at some point. We need to backport Malban's Zero2 mods to Linux first. btw. do you know, by any chance, when the next batch of PiTrex will be available? thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamemeister Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 I recently received my Pitrex and can honestly it's bloody awesome, thanks to everyone involved in bringing this together. Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but I'm struggling to know where to put the various roms. Should these all go directly into the ROMS folder apart from the AAE ones. Could anyone also advise what game roms should go into this AAE folder? Thanks in advance folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uczmeg Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 Just a heads up. There are a few PiTrex back in stock (9 in a case, 3 without) at the time of writing... https://www.ombertech.com/pitrex.php Now just need top find a Zero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 3 hours ago, uczmeg said: Just a heads up. There are a few PiTrex back in stock (9 in a case, 3 without) at the time of writing... https://www.ombertech.com/pitrex.php Now just need top find a Zero. A dedicated PiTrex thread would be handy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesk8 Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 16 hours ago, uczmeg said: Just a heads up. There are a few PiTrex back in stock (9 in a case, 3 without) at the time of writing... https://www.ombertech.com/pitrex.php Now just need top find a Zero. Thanks for info;) bought one as well and, indeed, zero is the aim now;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uczmeg Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 Here we go again, someone obviously needs so Christmas cash. Starting at £250... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394344708716 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128Kgames Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, uczmeg said: Here we go again, someone obviously needs so Christmas cash. Starting at £250... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394344708716 That's actually a nice package, haven't seen a box for either the vecfever or robot arena (assuming 3rd party) plus he's got the 3d printed horizontal stand + an overlay. Also unless I'm mistaken that's a vecfever II (going by the vecfever 128 mb label). Edited November 22, 2022 by 128Kgames Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uczmeg Posted November 22, 2022 Share Posted November 22, 2022 2 minutes ago, 128Kgames said: That's actually a nice package, haven't seen a box for either the vecfever or robot arena (assuming 3rd party) plus he's got the 3d printed horizontal stand + an overlay. Also unless I'm mistaken that's a vecfever II (going by the vecfever 128 mb label). It is and I'm sure the final price will fully reflect it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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