Sharp Famicom Titler

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NewRisingSun
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Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 11:30 am

Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by NewRisingSun »

How much PRG-RAM does it have? Does it use a battery? I cannot tell from the few inside pictures that I can find online.
lidnariq
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by lidnariq »

I found this picture, clearly showing a battery:

I think the four ICs in the top left are the Titler software, but I can't really tell what they are. The socketed thing is likely a ROM? and maybe the 0.3" DIP next to it is an MMC1?
Attachments
originally via https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/l576570889
originally via https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/l576570889
NewRisingSun
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by NewRisingSun »

Thanks, that answers the battery question. Chris Covell, who has since sold his unit, had dumped the 512 KiB PRG-ROM; the software works either in a SUROM or an SXROM configuration. So the only remaining question is the amount of PRG-RAM. My write log indicates no SXROM-like WRAM bank-switching writes, but that may only mean that I am not reaching the point where that happens.
Fiskbit
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by Fiskbit »

This looks like SUROM to me. The only valid instances I found of STA Absolute targeting the $A000-BFFF range were at Bank0F_E03C and Bank1F_E03C, and the only uses of those functions I found were at Bank0F_E023 and Bank1F_E023, both of which perform AND #$F0 before the call, so only the top register bit can be set (for selecting the 256 KB half). There's also no jump or call into the function after the AND #$F0, and I wouldn't expect there to be because the function saves and restores A/X/Y at the start and end (though admittedly not on the stack, so doing so won't crash). This certainly wasn't an exhaustive search, though, so I wouldn't take it as absolutely definitive.
lidnariq
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by lidnariq »

I wonder how the Graffiti-like interface works? Nothing else looked too unusual.
Great Hierophant
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by Great Hierophant »

lidnariq wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:56 am I wonder how the Graffiti-like interface works? Nothing else looked too unusual.
There are two ways to "free-form" draw on the Titler. The first is when you are using Famicom games, the stylus pad and the buttons on the side are the only ways to "interact" (if you can call it that) with the Famicom game. The second is with an external video source, the buttons, stylus and the program can all be layered onto the source and mixed in. The Titler has a simple drawing program you can manipulate with the Controller. I do not believe the built-in program can read from the stylus pad, but someone correct me if I am wrong.
ccovell
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by ccovell »

Great Hierophant wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 11:26 am
lidnariq wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:56 am I wonder how the Graffiti-like interface works? Nothing else looked too unusual.
There are two ways to "free-form" draw on the Titler. The first is when you are using Famicom games, the stylus pad and the buttons on the side are the only ways to "interact" (if you can call it that) with the Famicom game. The second is with an external video source, the buttons, stylus and the program can all be layered onto the source and mixed in. The Titler has a simple drawing program you can manipulate with the Controller. I do not believe the built-in program can read from the stylus pad, but someone correct me if I am wrong.
Could you actually free-form draw with the tiny stylus pad all over the screen? I don't recall being able to do that when I tried out the Titler. The stylus pad was used for text entry, as it had rudimentary handwriting recognition in its software for Japanese (hiragana, even kanji?) text entry, something necessary when searching for the hundreds of Kanji that I fuzzily recall being stored within.
Great Hierophant
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by Great Hierophant »

ccovell wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 4:11 pm
Great Hierophant wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 11:26 am
lidnariq wrote: Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:56 am I wonder how the Graffiti-like interface works? Nothing else looked too unusual.
There are two ways to "free-form" draw on the Titler. The first is when you are using Famicom games, the stylus pad and the buttons on the side are the only ways to "interact" (if you can call it that) with the Famicom game. The second is with an external video source, the buttons, stylus and the program can all be layered onto the source and mixed in. The Titler has a simple drawing program you can manipulate with the Controller. I do not believe the built-in program can read from the stylus pad, but someone correct me if I am wrong.
Could you actually free-form draw with the tiny stylus pad all over the screen? I don't recall being able to do that when I tried out the Titler. The stylus pad was used for text entry, as it had rudimentary handwriting recognition in its software for Japanese (hiragana, even kanji?) text entry, something necessary when searching for the hundreds of Kanji that I fuzzily recall being stored within.
You're right, the stylus pen and pad was really not for free-form drawing across the entire screen, it was for text input via simplistic handwriting recognition. The use process is shown here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imUXQ9u7uqQ&t=690s

The video also suggests that the program has a very limited ability to "interact" with the Genlock functionality.
Pokun
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Location: Hokkaido, Japan

Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by Pokun »

Considering you don't have a keyboard, that makes sense, provided that the handwriting recognition is any good. The touchpad and stylus is the fastest way to input kanji characters into my Japanese electronic dictionary (the keyboard doesn't allow kanji input for some reason), and the handwriting recognition is really good for kanji (not for anything else though).
kmg
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Re: Sharp Famicom Titler

Post by kmg »

Has nobody taken a decent image of the boards yet? Best I could find is this blurry fellow:

Image

I think I can squint out that there's an MMC1B1, X1252CE (our 512K ROM?), two LH5164D-10Ls (8K RAM for PRG and CHR respectively?), and two LH5216D-12s (two 2K pages for main RAM and CIRAM). That's all above the cart slot, but also what's the X1251CE between the edit/game toggle and power button?
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