+sramirez2008 Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 Excellent news! Thank you very much. I picture all remaining Ballblazer carts dancing for joy now. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zh2PalZFs0g&feature=share 1 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 Great news indeed! I've stuck with TIA for homebrews because the price premium per cart for POKEY seemed too high to justify. Something that's ~$10/cart is a gamechanger, though (literally, even!). 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlidellMan Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 Excellent solution, Batari. By the way, would it be possible to put this on a Ballblazer cart that had its Pokey chip removed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted December 19, 2021 Author Share Posted December 19, 2021 44 minutes ago, SlidellMan said: Excellent solution, Batari. By the way, would it be possible to put this on a Ballblazer cart that had its Pokey chip removed? Yes! 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaden (JRH) Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 It's a good day to be alive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 34 minutes ago, Jaden (JRH) said: It's a good day to be alive. What about tomorrow? Or the day you actually make an unboxing video of the package from Fred? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 Awesome news!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electronicsibley Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 This is awesome! Seems like it should pair up quite nicely with the new physical cartridges being worked on (by Al, I think)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Muddyfunster Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 On 7/29/2021 at 8:31 PM, batari said: Yes, 48k/POKEY support is 100% in firmware, and in my spare time (ha!) I am working on a major firmware update to address this and other issues. The major firmware update will be out before HOKEY as it has other improvements to Concerto's POKEY support code. But, I can probably do an interim release that just fixes the 48k+POKEY issue, and I probably should so I can test Danger Zone. HOKEY will be available for developers as soon as I get the in-circuit, user-programmability working so that people can update firmware and install new sound drivers as they are developed. Right now the only way to reprogram a HOKEY is via proprietary tools. It will probably take me a few weeks to get this sorted out. HOKEY does not yet support EXO as I have not yet figured out how the weird two-tone modes work, but the documentation is there and schematics exist so I expect it's just a matter of time. I do intend to make HOKEY work with all of the weird POKEY modes. Depending on when you release EXO, I may or may not have things figured out by then. Fred, Thanks for the update on HOKEY, really excellent news ! Danger Zone is complete and ready to go to store (imminently) and I don't expect issues with HOKEY as I think the music that we used doesn't use any exotic modes or anything. The plan is to bring EXO to the store Q1 2022. I think the RC binary we have right now is basically "done", so we do have a little time to tinker with the music if needs be. I think I mentioned before that I am happy to test HOKEY with EXO, or even better @Synthpopalooza, as his ear for the tunes that he created is many orders of magnitude better than mine (I'd happily pay for a HOKEY or two for development purposes and have one sent to Bobby). I do think that this test for EXO needs to happen at some point if HOKEY's are going to be in the EXO carts, which I think is the plan, and if there are issues, then we have some time to work around them. Let me know if you want to pick up on PMs. ? 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 This is excellent news! I love the flexibility and expandability that is being offered. The future of 7800 homebrew will continue to shine bright. I don't remember if I mentioned it in my PM to you, but Donkey Kong Remix is currently using two tone mode for some of the sounds. I hope that feature is something that you will be able to implement when you have time. ? Thanks for this amazing work! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 2 hours ago, CPUWIZ said: What about tomorrow? Speaking of alive, good to see you back on the forum, CPUWIZ. You've been missed. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Iacovelli Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 excellent news fred, especially news on concerto cart as well. I'm willing to wait till next year for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 Well done Fred!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthpopalooza Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 My services for bug-crunching HOKEY are always available. ?. Exciting news 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freetz Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 This is awesome news, but what I don't understand so far is why a version for the 8-Bit Atari would be different from the Basic version? I thought the POKEYs used in e.g. Ballblazer were the same as the ones built into the 800 XL for example? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted December 20, 2021 Author Share Posted December 20, 2021 14 minutes ago, freetz said: This is awesome news, but what I don't understand so far is why a version for the 8-Bit Atari would be different from the Basic version? I thought the POKEYs used in e.g. Ballblazer were the same as the ones built into the 800 XL for example? The Basic version is intended for 7800 homebrews which generally only require sound capabilities and maybe the random number generator, so these versions can use less costly hardware. The 8-bits use all features of the POKEY chip such as the pot ports, serial I/O, keyboard scan and other features and implementing all of this requires more costly hardware. I always felt it was important to be very mindful of cost when designing HOKEY as the main target is the 7800 homebrew market. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesB Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 Will the Arcade Hokey also support the random number generation used by arcade games such as Centipede? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pac-Lander Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 Great news! This is a gamechanger! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 Fantastic news! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 Atari makes the Pokey and 45 years later Batari makes the Hokey. The question is what will Catari make in 45 years? The answer is Wokey. 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freetz Posted December 20, 2021 Share Posted December 20, 2021 14 hours ago, batari said: The Basic version is intended for 7800 homebrews which generally only require sound capabilities and maybe the random number generator, so these versions can use less costly hardware. The 8-bits use all features of the POKEY chip such as the pot ports, serial I/O, keyboard scan and other features and implementing all of this requires more costly hardware. I always felt it was important to be very mindful of cost when designing HOKEY as the main target is the 7800 homebrew market. Thank you for the explanation, that of course makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted December 21, 2021 Author Share Posted December 21, 2021 11 hours ago, LesB said: Will the Arcade Hokey also support the random number generation used by arcade games such as Centipede? Yes. It should also support the timers and IRQ generator (if those are needed - I don't know if any games use them.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottz29 Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 20 hours ago, batari said: Yes. It should also support the timers and IRQ generator (if those are needed - I don't know if any games use them.) This is great news! You'll get quite a few orders from us arcade folks too... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitrinx Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 It's hard to see, but that just looks like a microcontroller plugged into a carrier board. Is this going to go the same route as that 2600 stuff that is just a grossly overpowered arm cpu running software emulators of hardware parts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 3 hours ago, Kitrinx said: It's hard to see, but that just looks like a microcontroller plugged into a carrier board. Is this going to go the same route as that 2600 stuff that is just a grossly overpowered arm cpu running software emulators of hardware parts? Absolutely not. This is a reproduction of the PoKey chip in various forms. Unless you can start up your own NMOS IC production plant which probably hasn't made the chips since 1980, it needs recreated. Please go back and do some research. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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