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XM has shipped!


Curt Vendel

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12 hours ago, Tidus79001 said:

These are shipping to fill pre-orders now or are these more dev boards shipments?

Only shipping to Devs at this point...  not much sense for everyone to have XMs when there are only a few games that use just some of its features.

 

Now the coders can work on XM specific games now that the real hardware is ready

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It's RAM, and it's banked at $4000 and $6000. That much we know. It will clash if you try to enable it with any formats that try to use the $4000 address space, like 48k roms. I'll put some warnings into 7800basic, so people have less of a chance of shooting themselves in the foot. There will likely be related updates to a7800 too.

 

Dennis Debro had questions about it's usage earlier, but we don't yet have the answers. I made some speculations a few posts below his, which I can confirm once I have a unit in my hands. Anything I learn will be shared at my wiki.  I'll be glad to be beat by official docs, but I'm sure XM team has their hands full with birthing this thing, and with everyday life.

 

 

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For direct usage, I don't think so. Those aren't pattern based, and just time-coded dumps of register updates to the soundchips, so it would be a very expansive format to use. Also, there likely a lot of instrument changes and other extra data being thrown at the YM2151 in those, and we don't have a dedicated chip to manage the soundchips.

 

Something like x68000 MDX files might be more useful since they have more structure in them, being MML based, but without actually looking into it I have a feeling those also might be too free-form.

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1 hour ago, Stephen said:

Order Number: 2009904
Date Ordered: Thursday 23 September, 2010 5:51 PM

Anxiously awaiting :)  Anyone earlier than this?

Holy crap!  Hopefully we all get one that wants one.  I am more interested in future stuff than present day library for the 7800, though it was about time I got something that will play 2600 games.  And Asteroids on it rules.

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1 hour ago, Mayhem said:

Yes, mine is from the 20th September 2010...

 

1 hour ago, DarthCloud said:

Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 7:18 AM EST, my longest pending order!

There we have it.  "Day late and a dollar short" as my dad always used to tell me :)  We're at the finish line now though, I don't want to even think about how much I've spent on the 8-bit computer mods and upgrades in the intervening years.

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13 hours ago, Stephen said:

Order Number: 2009904
Date Ordered: Thursday 23 September, 2010 5:51 PM

Anxiously awaiting :)  Anyone earlier than this?

 

After much digging, I FINALLY found my invoice.  20 Sep 2010.  There ya go. ?
 

Order Number: 2009874
Date Ordered: Monday 20 September, 2010
Edited by KevinMos3
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4 hours ago, DarthCloud said:

Mon, Sep 20, 2010, 7:18 AM EST, my longest pending order!

I would hope so!

 

Ironically, I didn't pre-order this (I will purchase one when they become available to the masses) but I'm waiting on three other consoles. I just ordered a Colecovision Phoenix, I'm in on the Intellivision Amico and I've been waiting on a Playtable since 2017.

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9 minutes ago, Kobra Kai said:

I have at least 3 games I could utilize the XM right now, DKXM, Beef Drop VE, and Pac-Man Collection. Devs getting the first units is great, but lack of software as a reason to hold up more units,  isn't actually a thing.

In theory for sure, assuming everything is 100% compatible with all existing and planned software and boards. But the putting the first few units in the hands of active 7800 devs is also a prudent final QA test. With his XM, tep392 has been testing compatibility of existing cart boards and software. When I get mine I plan to test out all of the exotic XM functionality. If any of us find some issue after XM units have been shipped to hundreds of customers, that's a problem. If we find some issue prior, the customer units can be as perfect as possible.

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12 minutes ago, RevEng said:

In theory for sure, assuming everything is 100% compatible with all existing and planned software and boards. But the putting the first few units in the hands of active 7800 devs is also a prudent final QA test. With his XM, tep392 has been testing compatibility of existing cart boards and software. When I get mine I plan to test out all of the exotic XM functionality. If any of us find some issue after XM units have been shipped to hundreds of customers, that's a problem. If we find some issue prior, the customer units can be as perfect as possible.

I don't disagree. I was responding to Curt's recent post intimating my concern:

Quote

Only shipping to Devs at this point...  not much sense for everyone to have XMs when there are only a few games that use just some of its features.

That right there I think is not a legit excuse to hold up the XM. Beta testing, yes that's legit.

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OK, another test ...

 

This is intended as level 1 music for Sky Scraper 2115.  It's an expansion of the original theme music I did on POKEY back in 1990.  I used some new patches here, including a nice bell guitar hit to add to the atmosphere of the tune.

 

I also used an old synth trick for the hi hat ... holding down the note makes it a closed hi hat, but releasing it (with an OFF command in the tracker) makes it an open hi hat!  Therefore you only need one instrument patch for it.

 

The instruments are out of order, so I hope this doesn't affect things too much.

 

Real hardware tests are always appreciated.

 

 

sky scraper.wav sky scraper.dmf

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