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Trap
Registered: Jul 2010
Posts: 223 |
Mega65
Hi,
Anybody here who had a chance to play around with the Mega65?
/Trap |
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soci
Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 479 |
No, but I'm aware of it since a few years. If I'd had something to run it on I'd give it a try.
It's synthmark results look fine, but somehow is way slower on bouldermark than expected considering the hardware used. (wide bus, and CPU clocked at 48MHz, fast access to video memory)
VIC-IV has some nice ideas for tiled graphics. Don't remember all the details now, but there's a nice blog about it.
It has good marketing, and most importantly open source, so in theory alterable (some skills needed).
Overall big respect to the author, I didn't expected to reach this far a few years back. Must have been a real time sink, but it looks great now!
Now the hard part is coming, selling it somehow ;)
Sure, anyone can run and improve it for free when already owning a high-end FPGA board. I'm curious what the price will be for the actual computer when it comes out. Have some memories from the C-ONE I wanted to have back then but never had at the end.
Considering the general scene attitude for acceptance of new stuff I don't expect that it gets far here, no matter what.
The DTV was cheap and interesting too, but only a few demos were made for it.
I've made some research and then pushed the SCPU emulation into VICE a few years back to improve it's accessibility, and still waiting for the flood of demos.
Ok, I think I saw a crack intro maybe. I've made two parts (one 65816 only) but there's no point to put more effort into it without competition. The compo we wanted to hold at Arok was a predictable flop too.
Sure that was just an emulator, therefore nothing serious to release stuff for. But would it made a difference if it'd have been an actual piece of hardware?
Possibly I just see this a bit darker than it is. Things must be improving considering the recent REU compo ;) |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5086 |
I was also excited about the dtv but in the end I was not excited enough :) scene settled for the stock thing, its not necessarily bad, its what keeps it alive imho, also one platform is good for the competition. |
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The MeatBall
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 367 |
Quote: No, but I'm aware of it since a few years. If I'd had something to run it on I'd give it a try.
It's synthmark results look fine, but somehow is way slower on bouldermark than expected considering the hardware used. (wide bus, and CPU clocked at 48MHz, fast access to video memory)
VIC-IV has some nice ideas for tiled graphics. Don't remember all the details now, but there's a nice blog about it.
It has good marketing, and most importantly open source, so in theory alterable (some skills needed).
Overall big respect to the author, I didn't expected to reach this far a few years back. Must have been a real time sink, but it looks great now!
Now the hard part is coming, selling it somehow ;)
Sure, anyone can run and improve it for free when already owning a high-end FPGA board. I'm curious what the price will be for the actual computer when it comes out. Have some memories from the C-ONE I wanted to have back then but never had at the end.
Considering the general scene attitude for acceptance of new stuff I don't expect that it gets far here, no matter what.
The DTV was cheap and interesting too, but only a few demos were made for it.
I've made some research and then pushed the SCPU emulation into VICE a few years back to improve it's accessibility, and still waiting for the flood of demos.
Ok, I think I saw a crack intro maybe. I've made two parts (one 65816 only) but there's no point to put more effort into it without competition. The compo we wanted to hold at Arok was a predictable flop too.
Sure that was just an emulator, therefore nothing serious to release stuff for. But would it made a difference if it'd have been an actual piece of hardware?
Possibly I just see this a bit darker than it is. Things must be improving considering the recent REU compo ;)
My guess is that the recent interest in REU is that it's easily available through various "cheap" cartridges for the real hardware, not just emulation.
Hardware like Mega65 is a "new" platform, and I suspect the interest won't be that big. |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11350 |
Quote:I'm curious what the price will be for the actual computer when it comes out.
yes, indeed. considering people are already whining about how "expensive" the chameleon is (or even the 1541u for that matter), i dont have high hopes for it (it will certainly cost more than a chameleon, i wont be surprised if twice as much)
also, there is one big problem with making demos for a platform like this: its a moving target and your carefully timed routines could break randomly with the next updated core. |
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mankeli
Registered: Oct 2010
Posts: 138 |
the platform IS the demo! |
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pmprog
Account closed
Registered: Nov 2005
Posts: 54 |
I bought the Chameleon. Don't think I've figured everything out yet though, because I still have a few issues. But one of my main nags is that I've yet to wire it up in a way that doesn't look a total mess of wires.
I like that the Mega65 is a full enclosed computer. I bought the dev board hoping to try and help out, but it's not even made it out of the box yet.
Still, colour me interested |
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Moloch
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 2924 |
Quoting The MeatBallHardware like Mega65 is a "new" platform, and I suspect the interest won't be that big.
Mega65 is interesting, but you're probably right. Just look at what the DTV spawned - a handful of demos and done. |
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Tao
Registered: Aug 2002
Posts: 115 |
I'm certainly tempted. |
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Joe
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 226 |
Lol! What happened to a stock c64 or an ocassional swim with the REU?
... Have to learn more, might be something big happening?
Some gfx-kidz and coders sprawled out all the entire C=-net just to find their score...
Or like Moloch said: "A handful of demos and done."
Keep it nice and tidy, and besides, does X approve? ;P |
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pmprog
Account closed
Registered: Nov 2005
Posts: 54 |
Quoting JoeLol! What happened to a stock c64 or an ocassional swim with the REU?
The Mega65 isn't a reproduction of the C64. It's supposed to be what the C65 was going to be. |
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