I would love to bust out some sweet labels, but stickers will wear out over time. :-/
Only if abused. My Arcade Card Duo is almost able to vote and its sticker looks fine.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on June 29, 2012, 05:42:28 AM
Yeah.
heck, even NES cart labels survived.
So, maybe that will work just fine.
Have to make sure it's some damn fine adhesive. None of that hippy shit.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: MottZilla on June 29, 2012, 05:52:50 AM
Good adhesive and a good finish over whatever artwork you put onto it. Labels in "reproduction" carts can hold up well if you put some kind of laminate or other finish on top of your label artwork.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: BlackandBlue on June 29, 2012, 09:15:09 AM
Need more tissues....
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Black Tiger on June 29, 2012, 10:15:55 AM
Maybe have labels printed as the type of durable sticker that people put on stuff like snowboards, which are stuper sticky and made to withstand the elements?
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheClash603 on June 29, 2012, 01:13:28 PM
That looks awesome. Great work over there, definitely the most exciting homebrew project on any system right now.
Ironic that is the same lotion i use, makes your penis taste fine for the ladies.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: thesteve on June 30, 2012, 04:33:41 PM
TMI clash
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TailChao on July 01, 2012, 03:53:44 AM
It is a little hard to tell from the pictures, but are you sanding/rounding the area of the card below the contacts? If you leave it square, it's going to wear the slot.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: HercTNT on July 01, 2012, 03:57:46 AM
Tail, Considering the guy can make a Hucard to begin with, i'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheOldMan on July 01, 2012, 04:39:58 AM
Quote
are you sanding/rounding the area of the card below the contacts? If you leave it square, it's going to wear the slot.
Not exactly sure where you are talking about, but...
The current version is for testing. So, no, not much is sanded that doesn't have to be.
Final production versions will have rounded corners. And, if I understand correctly.... In a side-view profile, the edge where the contacts are will be beveled at ~45 degree angle. These two steps are necessary for the card to seat correctly.
Depending on how long it takes to do it, we may go ahead and knock off all the square edges around the entire board.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TailChao on July 01, 2012, 04:49:19 AM
Not exactly sure where you are talking about, but...
The current version is for testing. So, no, not much is sanded that doesn't have to be.
Final production versions will have rounded corners. And, if I understand correctly.... In a side-view profile, the edge where the contacts are will be beveled at ~45 degree angle. These two steps are necessary for the card to seat correctly.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was wondering about. Thanks.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on July 01, 2012, 07:49:10 AM
Yeah. A handful of people asked the same thing about stressing the connector out at the CCAG, and I told them the same thing.
At least people are concerned about the safety of their consoles. :)
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: T2KFreeker on July 01, 2012, 03:26:34 PM
Yeah man, late to the party again, but this is awesome. Loving the stuff you are coming up with Ark. I can't wait for these to be mass produced so we can all put candles around them and OBEY!!!!
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: SuperPlay on July 02, 2012, 03:10:07 AM
very nice work :@)
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on July 02, 2012, 10:35:25 AM
Yeah man, late to the party again, but this is awesome. Loving the stuff you are coming up with Ark. I can't wait for these to be mass produced so we can all put candles around them and OBEY!!!!
Keep in mind, it's not just me doing this card stuff. The credit belongs to OldMan, and his MacGyver shenanigans that resulted in this stuff.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Mishran on July 02, 2012, 10:39:36 AM
Three cheers for The Old Man! Hip, hip, OBEY! Hip, hip, OBEY! Hip, hip, OBEY! :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: T2KFreeker on July 03, 2012, 04:29:19 PM
Yeah man, late to the party again, but this is awesome. Loving the stuff you are coming up with Ark. I can't wait for these to be mass produced so we can all put candles around them and OBEY!!!!
Keep in mind, it's not just me doing this card stuff. The credit belongs to OldMan, and his MacGyver shenanigans that resulted in this stuff.
Awesome. Glad you are giving credit where it is due. Rare these days, sadly. You go Old Man!
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: esteban on July 03, 2012, 05:50:43 PM
The FabCard is quite splendid. You can send one to me at your convenience. (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/cooks_transb.gif)
Yeah man, late to the party again, but this is awesome. Loving the stuff you are coming up with Ark. I can't wait for these to be mass produced so we can all put candles around them and OBEY!!!!
Well, I'm even later to the party.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: BlueBMW on July 09, 2012, 04:06:34 PM
I assume this allows you to "backup" (program) any TG-16 game onto it? I know I'm a noob, but I really want to know.
no. These will have the games being made by Aetherbyte, burned in-house.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: BeaglePuss on July 11, 2012, 08:24:24 AM
Will Aetherbyte being adding EPROMs to the board or smaller mask roms? I'm just trying to wrap my head around what the final product would look like.
Excellent work btw to all involved. That pcb is mighty impressive looking. I've gone through the process of (attempting) to have Genesis pcbs produced, so I can appreciate the amount of work involved in such an endeavor.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: SignOfZeta on July 11, 2012, 08:29:07 AM
It will be a game that looks more or less just like production HuCards from back in the day. It will have software on it, for good, and have no bulges.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on July 11, 2012, 08:30:08 AM
Will Aetherbyte being adding EPROMs to the board or smaller mask roms? I'm just trying to wrap my head around what the final product would look like.
Excellent work btw to all involved. That pcb is mighty impressive looking. I've gone through the process of (attempting) to have Genesis pcbs produced, so I can appreciate the amount of work involved in such an endeavor.
There's what our current working prototype looks like.
There already is a ROM chip on these suckers.
:)
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheOldMan on July 11, 2012, 08:33:57 AM
Quote
Will Aetherbyte being adding EPROMs to the board or smaller mask roms?
They are flash eproms. And if you are looking at the blue boards, that's pretty much what they will look like, as a final version. There's one more intermediate version we're building to see what the demand is, that no one has seen yet.
(Yes, they are the same size as a HuCard. Flash eproms are just slightly thicker that the original mask eproms, but the carrier is thick enough to accomodate that)
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: BeaglePuss on July 11, 2012, 08:41:04 AM
Hot damn, the craftsmanship is outstanding. I must say, I couldn't be more impressed.
Did you guys create your own flash programmer for the pcbs? If so, do you have any pictures of that?
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheOldMan on July 11, 2012, 09:05:06 AM
Quote
Did you guys create your own flash programmer for the pcbs?
I tried, but there were.....problems. So we bought a Willem programmer, and made an adapter for it. Best $50 I ever spent.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: BeaglePuss on July 11, 2012, 09:11:13 AM
Haha, that's fantastic.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on July 11, 2012, 09:54:22 AM
Will Aetherbyte being adding EPROMs to the board or smaller mask roms?
They are flash eproms. And if you are looking at the blue boards, that's pretty much what they will look like, as a final version. There's one more intermediate version we're building to see what the demand is, that no one has seen yet.
(Yes, they are the same size as a HuCard. Flash eproms are just slightly thicker that the original mask eproms, but the carrier is thick enough to accomodate that)
yeah, if you look closesly at the back you can see the spot where the chip is.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Mathius on July 11, 2012, 05:27:19 PM
Wow, guys! The love and dedication exhibited here makes me proud to be a member of the PCE community. :)
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Duo_R on July 11, 2012, 05:32:53 PM
Wow that is impressive
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Bernie on July 11, 2012, 11:13:42 PM
Very impressive. Question....why the helmet????!!!! lmao
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on July 12, 2012, 03:33:24 AM
Hot damn, the craftsmanship is outstanding. I must say, I couldn't be more impressed.
Did you guys create your own flash programmer for the pcbs? If so, do you have any pictures of that?
BeaglePuss, you knowMarble Madness (and the other prototypes you have, like Pit Fighter) would be nice on a genuine HuCARD. (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png)
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheClash603 on July 18, 2012, 09:26:38 AM
Not to again throw this thread off topic, but...
HE HAS PIT FIGHTER TOO?
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Necromancer on July 18, 2012, 11:26:44 AM
It's wishful thinking on my part as well, not to mention it'd be cool if they had Peter Packrat, though, what lil' info there is on that one, I have my doubts that a proto exists. Then again, I doubted that Marble Madness existed, so....
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: SeymorOnion on July 23, 2012, 12:06:58 AM
Holy Moly! That prototype looks AWESOME! :shock:
I know it's probably going to be quite a while before you finish your first PCE/TG16 Game, and iron out all the details to finalize your HuCard Designs, but... If you want to order more than 750 HuCard Sleeves, in a single order, in the future, please shoot me an e-mail about one month in advance. That'll give me plenty of time to either set aside the requested number in advance, and/or do another run if necessary.
I don't know what the lead time for the HuCard Trays is going to be, yet, to make a run (it depends on the manufacturer I chose), but it should be about the same as the Sleeves.
I'm glad to hear the final HuCard isn't going to have any bumps. Well, if it did, that'd be ok, if the bump was in the same place as, and not any larger than, the one on the Arcade Card, as my current HuCard Tray design will support those too. I can always tweak the Tray Design, if you need me to. Just let me know before I start mass producing those suckers. :P
To get back on topic... Do you guys plan to provide (sell) HuCards for (to) other PCE/TG16 Game developers, in the future? Will ya also be making Arcade Cards at some point? If ya can't talk about that stuff right now, It's cool.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on July 23, 2012, 03:19:35 AM
I know it's probably going to be quite a while before you finish your first PCE/TG16 Game, and iron out all the details to finalize your HuCard Designs, but... If you want to order more than 750 HuCard Sleeves, in a single order, in the future, please shoot me an e-mail about one month in advance. That'll give me plenty of time to either set aside the requested number in advance, and/or do another run if necessary.
Our third game is what's going on the HuCard. We've already released one CD game, and have a second one almost complete... :)
Quote
To get back on topic... Do you guys plan to provide (sell) HuCards for (to) other PCE/TG16 Game developers, in the future? Will ya also be making Arcade Cards at some point?
1) Probably. Once the kinks are worked out and we test the waters 2) probably not.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheOldMan on July 23, 2012, 05:57:19 AM
The ultimate goal, which I admit will probably never be achieved, is to create a new system card, to go with an ide adapter from charlie. Then we wouldn't have to worry about the cd gears anymore...
<sigh. Maybe someday...>
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: sunteam_paul on July 23, 2012, 06:02:52 AM
Make a card that allows me to run games off my Minidisc player.
Minidisc is the future.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Duo_R on July 23, 2012, 06:11:08 AM
Imagine a mini disc drive made for the Turbo Express... Drools
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Samurai Ghost on July 23, 2012, 06:31:06 AM
THAT would be amazing. Imagine hooking up the SUPER-MD unit to your GT or TE and playing SUPER CD games on the go!!
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: SeymorOnion on July 23, 2012, 09:22:24 AM
Would the IDE Adapter be physically attached to (a part of) the System Card, or would the IDE Adapter simply connect to the rear port of a TG16/PCE Core System, or would the IDE Adapter connect to the place circled in red, in the picture below?
The ultimate goal, which I admit will probably never be achieved, is to create a new system card, to go with an ide adapter from charlie. Then we wouldn't have to worry about the cd gears anymore...
<sigh. Maybe someday...>
Given that the PCE uses modified SCSI, that might be easy to hack. In truth, I'd rather see a system card that packages the ADPCM hardware and a CD Emulation BIOS with a large pool of flash memory. CD on a card.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Samurai Ghost on July 23, 2012, 11:40:32 AM
The ultimate goal, which I admit will probably never be achieved, is to create a new system card, to go with an ide adapter from charlie. Then we wouldn't have to worry about the cd gears anymore...
<sigh. Maybe someday...>
Given that the PCE uses modified SCSI, that might be easy to hack. In truth, I'd rather see a system card that packages the ADPCM hardware and a CD Emulation BIOS with a large pool of flash memory. CD on a card.
Yeah that would be amazing. If that were the case you could play CD game ISOs directly off the card using only a CoreGrafx or other Hu-Card only system, correct? Seems like a tough thing to accomplish though.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheClash603 on July 23, 2012, 11:57:38 AM
BeaglePuss is a smart fellow: he knows it is best to slowly release stuff over time instead of dumping everything on the market at once.
He has PitFighter, make no mistake (http://junk.tg-16.com/images/pcgs.png).
Well, I put the chances on him having Pit Fighter as substantially ahead of any douche bag on these forums having Bonk BOE.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: TheOldMan on July 23, 2012, 02:18:19 PM
Quote
would the IDE Adapter simply connect to the rear port of a TG16/PCE Core System
Yes. Think replacement cd base.
Quote
Given that the PCE uses modified SCSI, that might be easy to hack
PCE uses a sub-set of standard scsi. And, fyi, IDE is only simplified scsi :)
Quote
I'd rather see a system card that packages the ADPCM hardware and a CD Emulation BIOS with a large pool of flash memory. CD on a card.
So would I. It would probably cost > $5000 or so, but it would be neat... Keep in mind, you are asking for: 1) over 650M of flash memory. At 1M for $10 (AM29f080), that's $6,500, not including other support chips. 2) Another 8K and an adpcm chip. That they don't make anymore. Good luck. And what about backup memory?
(Yes, maybe I exaggerated the problem. However, you would have to do all the cd hardware handling on the card. Half of the signals available through the external port on a tg don't exist on the card bus. Ergo, you would have to decode -all- the cd hardware from just writes to addresses. sounds like a huge multi-layer card would be needed...)
................................................ Now, consider what I've actually said: 1) we make a board, like the cd-adapter, that accepts an ide drive. We have plenty of board space to use an fpga (or hell, a micro-controller if we want) to run the adpcm, backup memory, and ide. 2) we figure out the cd-bios, and mimic the calls to use the custom adapter. It might cost $300 to make; probably not, though.
Then think about this: Assuming that ide is standard across devices (or that the programming accounts for differences), what would stop you from hooking up a hard drive? That was charlies first choice. Or better yet, using an ide->compact flash adapter. Compact flash may not be the cheapest route, but they aren't that expensive....
Or my favorite: adding a usb controller, so you can use an external usb drive :)
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Mishran on July 23, 2012, 03:27:17 PM
Noticed the Aetherbyte site is getting a facelift. Sweet...
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: SeymorOnion on July 23, 2012, 04:06:49 PM
would the IDE Adapter simply connect to the rear port of a TG16/PCE Core System
Yes. Think replacement cd base.
Quote
Given that the PCE uses modified SCSI, that might be easy to hack
PCE uses a sub-set of standard scsi. And, fyi, IDE is only simplified scsi :)
Quote
I'd rather see a system card that packages the ADPCM hardware and a CD Emulation BIOS with a large pool of flash memory. CD on a card.
So would I. It would probably cost > $5000 or so, but it would be neat... Keep in mind, you are asking for: 1) over 650M of flash memory. At 1M for $10 (AM29f080), that's $6,500, not including other support chips. 2) Another 8K and an adpcm chip. That they don't make anymore. Good luck. And what about backup memory?
(Yes, maybe I exaggerated the problem. However, you would have to do all the cd hardware handling on the card. Half of the signals available through the external port on a tg don't exist on the card bus. Ergo, you would have to decode -all- the cd hardware from just writes to addresses. sounds like a huge multi-layer card would be needed...)
................................................ Now, consider what I've actually said: 1) we make a board, like the cd-adapter, that accepts an ide drive. We have plenty of board space to use an fpga (or hell, a micro-controller if we want) to run the adpcm, backup memory, and ide. 2) we figure out the cd-bios, and mimic the calls to use the custom adapter. It might cost $300 to make; probably not, though.
Then think about this: Assuming that ide is standard across devices (or that the programming accounts for differences), what would stop you from hooking up a hard drive? That was charlies first choice. Or better yet, using an ide->compact flash adapter. Compact flash may not be the cheapest route, but they aren't that expensive....
Or my favorite: adding a usb controller, so you can use an external usb drive :)
Could you also integrate various Audio and Video Outputs into the back panel: S-Video, SCART, Component, RCA Stereo, Headphone, VGA, and so on?
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: spenoza on July 23, 2012, 05:28:52 PM
I would be OK with an expansion port-connected device. I think having simply an SD-card adapter might reduce the cost a little over an IDE interface, as IDE is very much on the way out and there are all sorts of different offerings out there for dealing with SD cards.
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: thesteve on July 23, 2012, 06:57:47 PM
remember a CD is a serial data device, just like an SD card. most ADPCM chips are expansions/upgrades of the original chip used in the dock/duo, (meaning they are code compatable)
would the IDE Adapter simply connect to the rear port of a TG16/PCE Core System
Yes. Think replacement cd base.
Quote
Given that the PCE uses modified SCSI, that might be easy to hack
PCE uses a sub-set of standard scsi. And, fyi, IDE is only simplified scsi :)
Quote
I'd rather see a system card that packages the ADPCM hardware and a CD Emulation BIOS with a large pool of flash memory. CD on a card.
So would I. It would probably cost > $5000 or so, but it would be neat... Keep in mind, you are asking for: 1) over 650M of flash memory. At 1M for $10 (AM29f080), that's $6,500, not including other support chips. 2) Another 8K and an adpcm chip. That they don't make anymore. Good luck. And what about backup memory?
(Yes, maybe I exaggerated the problem. However, you would have to do all the cd hardware handling on the card. Half of the signals available through the external port on a tg don't exist on the card bus. Ergo, you would have to decode -all- the cd hardware from just writes to addresses. sounds like a huge multi-layer card would be needed...)
................................................ Now, consider what I've actually said: 1) we make a board, like the cd-adapter, that accepts an ide drive. We have plenty of board space to use an fpga (or hell, a micro-controller if we want) to run the adpcm, backup memory, and ide. 2) we figure out the cd-bios, and mimic the calls to use the custom adapter. It might cost $300 to make; probably not, though.
Then think about this: Assuming that ide is standard across devices (or that the programming accounts for differences), what would stop you from hooking up a hard drive? That was charlies first choice. Or better yet, using an ide->compact flash adapter. Compact flash may not be the cheapest route, but they aren't that expensive....
Or my favorite: adding a usb controller, so you can use an external usb drive :)
Could you also integrate various Audio and Video Outputs into the back panel: S-Video, SCART, Component, RCA Stereo, Headphone, VGA, and so on?
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: Arkhan on July 24, 2012, 03:20:05 AM
Yeah, the site did get a facelift.
http://aetherbyte.com/
Check that jive out!
Title: Re: Behold the latest AbCard
Post by: soop on July 24, 2012, 03:28:52 AM