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Maximum Game Size with Page-Flip


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In an effort to future-proof my Nintellivision emulator, I'm trying to figure out what's a practical upper limit on game size.

 

Right now, I support 512K WORDS or 1MB with Mattel-style page-flipping.  Am I right in thinking that the maximum theoretical size is roughly 832K WORDS (~52K with 16 pages across the board = ~832K WORDS or ~1664K BYTES)?

I could probably squeeze that into the 4MB memory architecture of a DS but it would be tight given that the emulator needs a big chunk of that to render the games, overlays, manuals, etc. And if nobody is even going to get close to that... I hate to waste the space.

 

It seems more likely that a couple of banks would be dedicated to RAM once you get to those gargantuan programs... so maybe it's more likely the oft-mentioned ~42K WORDS x16 = ~672K WORDS and 1344K BYTES... 

 

In looking at my collection of games, I see Bad Apple tops the scales at ~218K WORDS (435K BYTES) followed closely by Onion at ~204K WORDS (408K BYTES) and then a big drop-off to games like TNT Cowboy, Sorrow and A-F which clock in around ~100K WORDS (~200K BYTES).  Anyone know of bigger games?

 

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I got the LUIGI specifications sometime ago from @intvnut and the current internal limit of JLP cartridges is 512K words (that is 1 megabyte), although it promises there could be bigger cartridges in the future.

 

Furthermore, the pages $0xxx, $1xxx, and $3xxx aren't readable, and the $8xxx and $9xxx pages aren't available for bank-switching when JLP RAM and accelerators are available.

 

So the theoretical size would be 13 pages * 16 banks = 208 pages x 4K words = 832K words = 1664K bytes as you correctly calculated. Or when using JLP RAM and accelerators: 11 pages * 16 banks = 176 pages x 4K words = 704K words = 1408K bytes.

 

The jzintv emulator probably could use the limit, but the JLP cartridge would be still limited to 512K words.

 

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42 minutes ago, nanochess said:

the JLP cartridge would be still limited to 512K words.

That's good enough for me! Hard to image anyone would develop a game that goes above this limit. 

 

I assume the LTO Flash (being, essentially, a JLP cart with additional circuitry on top of it) would have a similar 512K word limit?

 

Thanks, Oscar, for the usual thorough response!

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10 hours ago, wavemotion said:

That's good enough for me! Hard to image anyone would develop a game that goes above this limit. 

 

I assume the LTO Flash (being, essentially, a JLP cart with additional circuitry on top of it) would have a similar 512K word limit?

 

Thanks, Oscar, for the usual thorough response!

I think yes, as both share the same foundation.

 

You are welcome! ✌️

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