753 Reply by arfink

(31 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

NO CARRIER wrote:
arfink wrote:

You make it sound like you haven't settled on a mapper... I hardly believe that. tongue

Well it's MMC3 in the demo, for no better reason than I like the way the bankswitching works. However, I am trying to make it work on MMC1 just for you. Hope you feel special.

arfink wrote:

Lastly, will there be Linux control software? Even in binary form? I can understand if the source is not with you, but if you have OSX support there is no excuse for not having Linux support.

Yes, Linux, too.

All of the control software will be source + binary across all platforms.

YOU.
ARE.
THE.
MAN.
PERIOD.

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754 Reply by arfink

(31 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

This is kinda exciting. Also, it's slightly gratifying to me that this software really will require the user to stop emulating and start using real hardware. My guess is, based on what you have said here and elsewhere, I already have the hardware I need minus the arduino. You make it sound like you haven't settled on a mapper... I hardly believe that. tongue

Lastly, will there be Linux control software? Even in binary form? I can understand if the source is not with you, but if you have OSX support there is no excuse for not having Linux support.

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755 Reply by arfink

(31 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

Looks cool. Needs moar technical details though. You could at least put the stuff that's in the Youtube description in the post. By the way, nice BG rips from NES games there, I recognized them. wink

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756 Reply by arfink

(224 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

Looks like the Repro-pak can support SXROM, which is nice. I can certainly see why you need 32kb of .SAV though. I'd say, go for it anyways. smile

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757 Reply by arfink

(224 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

neilbaldwin wrote:
arfink wrote:

If you moved away from MMC1 you could make this more compatible with real hardware and still get your 32kb of SRAM.

I'm all ears...

Hrm... pardon my freak out, but there are no NES cartridges besides Nobonunga's Ambition II which support 32kb SRAM. There are a few that support 16kb, but they are all MMC5, so not much better.

Darn, this is a problem.

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758 Reply by arfink

(224 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

neilbaldwin wrote:

http://blog.ntrq.net/?p=333

NOOOOOOES! There are absolutely ZERO NES games which support SXROM. None. Powerpak doesn't even support it yet. The only way to run this on real hardware right now is with a Famicom cart, and there are only two available SXROM donors, both of which are rare and expensive. If you moved away from MMC1 you could make this more compatible with real hardware and still get your 32kb of SRAM.

Also, when are you going to integrate outputting .SAV files via the controller port to PC? Look at Blargg's code examples here: http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewtopi … 5375#65375

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759 Reply by arfink

(374 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

OK, since I've promised pictures, here are some pictures:

First a picture of some random things. My NROM test cart is there (loaded with Blargg's CRC32 test code) along with the USB to NES adapter, which is built on a breadboard at the moment. To the right of the image you can see some MMC1 donor boards which are being stripped for further testing once the Flash chips come in.

This second shot is a closeup of the breadboard. The astute viewer will notice that this closeup shot was taken before handshaking was added to the adapter. smile

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760 Reply by arfink

(374 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

Thanks for the tip, but I have used this provider before, they are reputable.

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761 Reply by arfink

(374 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

2XAA wrote:
blargg wrote:

Yeah, the PC cable works fine on a PAL NES, and fortunately I have one for testing. I've been using it for years. As arfink said, it's just an adjustment to the timing loops, since the PAL CPU runs slightly slower than the NTSC one. Ideally the cart would have a Ciclone chip in it, so that it would work on NTSC or PAL NES, but we probably won't put that in the first version, which will be NTSC/PAL depending on the original cart we start with. The alternative is to use a NES with the CIC disabled by cutting a pin, or the redesigned one which I hear doesn't even have a CIC.

Oh oh oh!
Start with PAL xD

I can only test in NTSC, but Blargg can test either. So obviously the first hardware I build will be NTSC. What Blargg means is what donor cartridge I rip up. The first prototypes will be NTSC, since it's what I can get here in the US, and I'll move to PAL when I can get some PAL donors lined up. smile

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762 Reply by arfink

(374 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

Wow, we are making some real progress today. Blargg helped me debug my serial link and gave me a bunch of test code which seems to be working perfectly. I'll take some pictures which will maybe (or maybe not) be interesting!

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763 Reply by arfink

(105 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

If I had an arduino I would volunteer to try this out, since I have plenty of teh devcarts! smile

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764 Reply by arfink

(105 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

Very nice stuff! I'll have to look into building one of these cables when I get the money. Actually, more like I'll have to buy an Arduino and wait for the code to come out.

Oh, and by the way, I'm extremely jealous of your WICKED AWESOME SCOPE! That thing is so coooool!

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765 Reply by arfink

(374 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

Yeah, Super PakPak is great indeed. The Funky Flash was a pretty cool concept, but sadly unfinished. It's been eclipsed by the PowerPak, which can do everything the FunkyFlash wasn't going to be able to do. The Munchausen Cart, by comparison, will be doing even less than FunkyFlash, but it'll be cheap and easy to build. And it'll play Super Pakpak, since that game is NROM. Yay!

By the way, I found the absolute best Flash chip provider, who got me exactly what I wanted (AMD AT29F040B chips) at the price I wanted too. (extra cheap!) So now I have Flash chips coming to me all the way from Hong Kong. Oh yeah! smile

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766 Reply by arfink

(14 replies, posted in Trading Post)

Lookin' cool Low-Gain. Nice enclosures too, were you get those?

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767 Reply by arfink

(374 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

low-gain wrote:
2XAA wrote:

Will it be compatible with PAL systems too?


all this stuff should work on all platforms since it's pre-video conversion.
but that's assuming i understand it correctly.

Actually, not quite right Low-Gain. I believe we can make it PAL compatible, but since we're using the NES as a UART it's very cycle-dependent, which is different if you have an NTSC or PAL NES. However, I have reason to believe it's just a matter of retiming some things to make a special PAL version. I'll need to check that with Blargg though, since he's the code junky. As far as the hardware goes, there will almost certainly be carts with PAL CIC chips onboard.

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768 Reply by arfink

(105 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

That's very cool, but something is missing. Mainly, the download. *blatant hint hint* smile

By the way, this runs in NROM with CHR RAM, yes? If so, I think it might work with the Munchausen Cart, which is great because it means the two projects can be used together.

Anyhoo, take your time with the release of course, it's looking very nice. As for full access to the PPU/APU, what RAM bank is it poking these into? Is the user limited to the 2kb WRAM onboard the NES, or can the 8kb or whatever on the cartridge be used too?

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