Or a PC-Engine/TurboGraphics-style Console,
The actual need for a new PPU (and a 65816) makes sense, But do not consider it a need, I tried that, got nowhere.
Tepples is right, Deving on the SNES is what you need for all that
That should be a lesson learned, don't wish for an kinda-impossible (yet) upgrade, it should be your job and yours alone,
Design a new NES?
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Well, it exists!MottZilla wrote:I'd like to see an exact NES clone (compatibility wise) that features RGB/S-Video/Composite video output. Maybe even component video. Even more ideally it'd be nice if the system included its own hardware to scale the video output and output in progressive scan for better performance on HDTVs.
I haven't posted much about that FPGA NES lately. No the project didn't die, and I have pretty much finished the NES portion of it, at least as finished as it's going to get. Instead of NES I have been focusing on other aspects and other consoles.
It can output: NTSC composite (progressive and interlaced), PAL composite(same), RGB, component, S-video, VGA and DVI.
It's the size of an NES cartridge now, and in fact the PCB actually is designed to use an NES cartridge as the packaging for it.
All expansion sound chips are supported now (yes, even VRC7), all the Blargg tests I ran pass, and all games I've played function properly. over 200 mappers are supported, and the PCB is small enough now that it could easily be turned into a handheld system. Power requirements are fairly light, so it should be possible to run it off batteries for quite a while, too. It takes anything from 6-9V or so.
Since doing the NES, I have added MORE consoles to it.
I added Atari 2600 about 2 months ago, and it's 100% accurate (At least, it runs every single game the same as my real 2600 does. Yes I actually tested them all. Even the star background in cosmic ark.)
2 weeks ago, I added Colecovision and tested every game, all of them work perfectly.
And 3 days ago, I added Sega Master System, Game Gear and SG-1000 to it. I'm still debugging this, but it's working well enough to play the Sonic games more or less perfectly now. I still have lots more testing to do, so probably another week or so to perfect SMS/GG stuff.
I want to add Gameboy to it next, and I already have a finished and debugged GBCPU and GB sound hardware and such already written so all I need to do is add video and start playin' games.
Since someone will be askin', yes I *do* want to sell it eventually but I am not sure when or how much it'll cost or anything like that quite yet. Obviously I would like to make it as cheap as possible but I don't know how cheap it can be. The FPGA itself is 40 bucks or so and is the most expensive part on the board.
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Wow, just the NES part is amazing and what I want really badly, but all the other stuff is incredible! I hope you can wrap up just the NES part and make it cheaper and maybe a RGB PPU replacement chip [Save the Playchoices!] but all those you listed in one system? That's amazing. I'd happily buy it. Maybe you could even help along those NOAC suppliers? 
I too would be very happy with a yobo without sound issue and such... Like Yobo with real nes ppu and sound chip. As for the kevtendo FPGA, i wet my pant everytime i read about it, but then try to forget it like a kid getting excited about xmas only to realize minute later that it's still only march and those cool toys he want won't be here for a long time;)
Any chance that one day you will add Apple IIe (enhanced) support (even if the ROMs have to be supplied by the end-user?kevtris wrote:Since someone will be askin', yes I *do* want to sell it eventually but I am not sure when or how much it'll cost or anything like that quite yet. Obviously I would like to make it as cheap as possible but I don't know how cheap it can be. The FPGA itself is 40 bucks or so and is the most expensive part on the board.
They do, they are the same NOAC. As for "clones having it figured out" about NES & SNES, they are totally separate parts unlike what Nintendo seemed to be planning to do.
Ultimately it's a good thing Nintendo dropped the idea. It would have added unnecessary cost. Backwards compatibility is neat but I think except in the case of the Gameboy and possibly the Playstation 2, there isn't much reason or benefit to it. The Sega Genesis I think would have benefited from slashing the Master System compatibility resources and instead applying them to improving the 16bit games. Most notably by adding extra sub-palettes for games to be more colorful, and also possibly by improving the sound hardware.
Atleast in my opinion the Master System support was not widely used or beneficial to the Genesis. I'm not really sure what the total extra costs were for Master System only components in the design. But I'm sure it wasn't free. And I've probably made this point before that the Genesis badly needed and would have benefited greatly from extra Sub-palettes for more color diversity in games. Four palettes of 16 colors is just not enough particularly when compared to 256 of the SNES and 512 of the PCE. Just by allowing Background and Sprites to use different 4 subpalettes would have raised the color count from 64 to 128 which would have been acceptable, and you could have gotten more creative and allowed BG layers A and B and Sprites to each have their own giving 192 colors potentially. Far better feature than compatibility with the system of the last generation which didn't perform well in most markets.
Ultimately it's a good thing Nintendo dropped the idea. It would have added unnecessary cost. Backwards compatibility is neat but I think except in the case of the Gameboy and possibly the Playstation 2, there isn't much reason or benefit to it. The Sega Genesis I think would have benefited from slashing the Master System compatibility resources and instead applying them to improving the 16bit games. Most notably by adding extra sub-palettes for games to be more colorful, and also possibly by improving the sound hardware.
Atleast in my opinion the Master System support was not widely used or beneficial to the Genesis. I'm not really sure what the total extra costs were for Master System only components in the design. But I'm sure it wasn't free. And I've probably made this point before that the Genesis badly needed and would have benefited greatly from extra Sub-palettes for more color diversity in games. Four palettes of 16 colors is just not enough particularly when compared to 256 of the SNES and 512 of the PCE. Just by allowing Background and Sprites to use different 4 subpalettes would have raised the color count from 64 to 128 which would have been acceptable, and you could have gotten more creative and allowed BG layers A and B and Sprites to each have their own giving 192 colors potentially. Far better feature than compatibility with the system of the last generation which didn't perform well in most markets.
I don't think anyone is arguing that Sega made good decisions 
You hit the nail on the head. Backwards compatibility with the previous generation is a great thing IF that previous generation is still a viable platform. Take the PS3 as a (not so good) example. It was basically released with the promise that "games will come soon, for now play your PS2 games". Not that it worked out terribly well either
The DS is a great example though.
You hit the nail on the head. Backwards compatibility with the previous generation is a great thing IF that previous generation is still a viable platform. Take the PS3 as a (not so good) example. It was basically released with the promise that "games will come soon, for now play your PS2 games". Not that it worked out terribly well either
The DS is a great example though.
The only cartridge slot on it accepts micro SD cards only. Right now I am supporting 6 systems; There's no easy way to mount 6 cartridge ports onto it, let alone more as I keep adding systems. Since it can natively run every game made for each system, there's no reason to have a cartridge port. Besides, it'd need lots of level translation logic to go between the 3.3V FPGA logic and the 5V cartridge logic. Many of those cartridge connectors are proprietary also making life difficult.Teancum wrote:Oh wow Kevtris's system sounds like it will be very impressive. Just wondering if whatever design he is planning will allow for all the cartridge slots of the system to be hooked up? We can make our own monstrous clones!
The entire system is the size of an NES cartridge, so mounting connectors to it would look silly with them being bigger than the system itself.
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