16-bit C64/128?
in [Commodore]
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From: BruceMcF on 12 Apr 2008 11:35 On Apr 12, 7:19 am, Mark McDougall <msmcd...(a)no.spam.iinet> wrote: > BruceMcF wrote: > > How to get a Chinese (or Malaysian or ...) manufacturer interested in > > making it? SNES is the only lure I could see, but SNES+C64 with a SD > > Flash ram socket. > That would be my main incentive to get a 65816 core going - a SNES would be > seriously cool. Since we've now got an Amiga in an FPGA - including 68K core > - it's certainly quite feasible and I wouldn't be too surprised if someone > announced one in the not-too-distant future. So, the main pitch to the Chinese manufacturer, is that it can make the joystick, this time tailored to the actual demands of the markets in the US and Europe, and instead of having to worry about pesky copyright issues, the device loads software from an SD-Card, so any copyright infringement that takes place is not their worry. And yes, they include a SD-Card that has a chunk of software patched to fit around the capabilities they can build in without Copyright problems. Now, the second part of the pitch is taking a problem and turning it into an opportunity. That is, in that mode, you need the joystick to be able to come up in a mode that allows selecting an emulation module to load, and the emulated cartridge to load with it. *THAT* is the mode that is built around the public aspects of the C64 design. Everything that can be included without copyright infringement is in there ... and there have been so many after-market modifications of every part of the C64, that what is copyrighted can be replaced with an alternate that is no problem. In particular, the memory map register is emulated. And it comes up like there is a 16K cart in a C64 with a 65816 after-market mod, that has the software to load the emulator module and cartridge module and then start up the process. So from the user perspective, it has a slide switch. "Emulate" and it loads the first emulator module and cartridge module on the SD and goes. "File" and it goes into the selector mode. It *is* a joystick, it has an SD port, it has a second DB-9 style joystick port, A/V out, and a +3v DC jack. The reason its an Atari/C64 joystick port is that the "2nd joystick" *is another of the same device*. The Chinese manufacturer does not want to sell someone else's gear, they want to sell their own. So the Fire is used by the device being used as a "passive" controller that its going to be a joystick, and the device running the program knows when it gets a fire that there is a joystick connected. And its easy to tell if its SNES or Atari ... say, "push the fire button on the second joystick" on screen, if you get another fire, its an Atari ... if you wait and don't get one, then send a high pulse down the SNES latch line, try to clock in a byte of data, if you get a fire button that way, its SNES ... "no second joystick connected, push fire button on the second joystick to set up two player mode, fire on the first joystick to set up one player mode" ... repeat until its one or the other. What the community would bring would be something extra that the joystick could do that your regular retro joystick could not. Like browse the internet using Contiki and an SPI modem plugged into the joystick port to download new games.
From: BruceMcF on 12 Apr 2008 11:36 On Apr 12, 9:34 am, "John Selck" <selck...(a)t-online.de> wrote: > On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:37:54 +0200, Harry Potter <maspethro...(a)aol.com> > wrote: > > > I would like somebody to do what Apple did with the IIgs and make a > > C64/128-compatible 16-bit computer. It would have the following > > features: > > > * A version of the 65816 processor > > * 16-bit graphics/sound > > * hardware-based 1571 burst mode > > * compatibility with CMD drives and CBM devices > > * modular 8-bit and 16-bit BASICs > > * in-ROM compression and text editing > > * RGB monitor > > * math coprocessor > > * character and bitmapped graphics modes and sprites > > What about this: Amiga Oooh, an Amiga with a 65816 processor instead of a 68K family processor. What an idea ... still have the software problem, but.
From: Sam Gillett on 12 Apr 2008 16:07 "Tom Lake" wrote ... > > > "Harry Potter" <maspethrose7(a)aol.com> wrote in message >> >> I appreciate all your opinions, and I think they're right. I was just >> asking, though. > > Hey, if it wasn't for dreamers who ask, "What if...." we'd never > have most of our great inventions! Before the light bulb, there was no demand for electricity in residential areas. Then, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and the rest is history. Electric companies sprang up to supply power to light homes and cities. With widespread availability of reliable electric power other inventions were born and other disciplines, such as electronics, spawned inventions and discoveries of their own. If Thomas Edison had stopped at the phonograph (the first phonograph was purely mechanical and employed no electrical circuits whatsoever) and never invented the light bulb, we might not have computers and the internet today. Without the light bulb, the motion picture projector might not have been invented, and there would be no Hollywood. -- Best regards, Sam Gillett Change is inevitable, except from vending machines!
From: Joe Forster/STA on 12 Apr 2008 16:31 It is very rare that the course of technological history is changed significantly by a single person _and_ noone could've achieved the same. New stuff is built onto old, mostly widely known stuff and there are quite a few geniuses around at any given time. If one genius fails, doesn't have the necessary background knowledge or is not even interested, another will step in instead and the new stuff _will_ happen, if only a year or a decade later. (In the book I've read this lately, the author mentions that, perhaps, Isaac Newton was the only person unusually ahead of his time.)
From: aiiadict on 12 Apr 2008 17:26
On Apr 12, 1:07 pm, "Sam Gillett" <sgillettnos...(a)diespammergte.net> wrote: > Before the light bulb, there was no demand for electricity in residential > areas. Then, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and the rest is history. You need to read up on your history. Edison didn't invent ANYTHING.. What he did is improve other peoples inventions. He experimented with different kinds/configurations of wire for the filament in a light bulb. He found a metal that would result in a lightbulb that would last YEARS (I read that there are some of his bulbs in the world that have been burning constantly since they were installed) Thomas Edison was an evil man who used every dirty tactic to discredit Tesla.. His DC method of power generation and distribution was extremely dangerous and prone to problems. He didn't even understand the DC generators he was working with. Fires, breakdowns, and arcs jumping off wires/junction boxes. When Tesla showed him AC, he didn't understand it either. He spread propaganda, put on live shows of killing stray animals with AC. Tesla and westinghouse had to fight pretty damn hard to get AC accepted by the public. Rich |