CD Stupid Card 4.0

[elmer]

What I'd actually recommend is just taking a ZIF socket and then placing it in a wire-wrap socket (which have very long legs). This can then be placed in the board's normal socket and allows you to reuse the ZIF socket in other cards / projects (they're expensive, so I stopped soldering them down years ago).

That sounds like a great idea ... if a bit ugly.

I guess that in practical reality, there's not a lot of reason to flash anything other than the regular system card bios onto the Stupid Card. The would give maximum compatibility for unmodified games ... and the modified ones just load up whatever changes they want.

I guess that a question that really should be asked is ... does it even make sense to take up your valuable time and energy in actually going ahead and manufacturing these cards at this time?

I'd hate to see you get stuck with a lot of boards and parts.

There doesn't seem to have been a lot of interest from translators/developers looking to use/buy a Stupid Card so far.

The translation guys have already got a Mednafen-capable version of your MCGenjin that they can develop with in preparation for the volume-produced TurboED2 ... and developers like myself are going to find the TurboED2's 4MB RAM and its built-in USB port and SD card to be irresistible draws.

Yeah, it's pretty astonishing how much IC sizes have shrunk in the last few decades. There aren't any BGA parts on this board, either. The RAMs are only TSOPII's.
Funny thing is that if I used a smaller package for the flash it would have been way easier to route.

I've just found out how far the FPGA scene has come ... it looks like it's now possible (and afforable) to emulate complete old computers/consoles in hardware on an FPGA. It looks like there's at least one PCE-on-an-FPGA in development.

There are even people selling things like the MIST board, specifically for retro computing/gaming ...

https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/

There may be a Terasic DE1-SoC in my future sometime soon. The idea of being able to put together a complete computer without having to do any surface-mount soldering is pretty appealing. ...

http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=836

[TailChao]

I guess that in practical reality, there's not a lot of reason to flash anything other than the regular system card bios onto the Stupid Card. The would give maximum compatibility for unmodified games ... and the modified ones just load up whatever changes they want.

For most users, yes.
Personally this is a future investment so I can have a HuSound "loader" to receive SFX, MUS, and PCM packs over the controller port from a PC. My Lynx sound tools allow downloading like this and having the Compile -> Send -> Listen, repeat workflow with real hardware in the loop is pretty nice.

I guess that a question that really should be asked is ... does it even make sense to take up your valuable time and energy in actually going ahead and manufacturing these cards at this time?

I'd hate to see you get stuck with a lot of boards and parts.

I've been thinking the same thing. However, I'm going to make at least a few cards since I want to use them.

Once layout is done for next Friday's deadline, I'll figure out the final cost of the boards and parts and leave this topic open for a "formal" developer sign-up to get a final count. Again, even if this number is zero, I'll still fab a few cards and release all my pertinent work.

I've just found out how far the FPGA scene has come ... it looks like it's now possible (and afforable) to emulate complete old computers/consoles in hardware on an FPGA. It looks like there's at least one PCE-on-an-FPGA in development.

There are even people selling things like the MIST board, specifically for retro computing/gaming ...

https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/

There may be a Terasic DE1-SoC in my future sometime soon. The idea of being able to put together a complete computer without having to do any surface-mount soldering is pretty appealing. ...

http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=836

It's really fantastic stuff, isn't it?
I invested in an old Altera DE2 years ago for my own prototyping work, and it's astonishing how much cheaper and more capable FPGAs have gotten. The DE0 Nano and friends are nuts in both price and gate count.

[TailChao]

Alright, everyone. Layout is completed and it's time for Developer sign-up.
Cards will cost $35/each + shipping and I have listed a component cost breakdown in the first post for those who'd like to manufacture their own cards in the future.

If you're interested in getting a card, please state so AFTER this post (all prior "give me one" posts are ignored). A total of 25 cards are available as first-come first-serve. You may sign up for more than one card.

This sign-up period will be open until April 10th. I will not collect anyone's payment until all cards have been built and tested. Please hold on to your money.

[MotherGunner]

Please put me down for one, thanks!

[elmer]

Alright, everyone. Layout is completed and it's time for Developer sign-up.

Yay! Thanks for doing this ... one for me, please. 

[Black Tiger]

I would like to get one please.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I'm tempted to get one.  I haven't read every last post on the the features.  Is there any advantage to getting this to play currently released games, or completely for upcoming homebrew/translations?

[SkyeWelse]

I kind of have the same question as ParanoiaDragon. I'm not a PCE developer, or a PCE Romhacker, but if I did decide to work on a project one day with a group here, would it benefit me to have this and would it generally have a benefit for the non-developer at this stage in the development process?

Also, would you plan to produce more batches in the future if it made more sense for non-developers to take a pass on it currently so that it can be used by developers as a priority?

-Thomas

[Black Tiger]

I'm tempted to get one.  I haven't read every last post on the the features.  Is there any advantage to getting this to play currently released games, or completely for upcoming homebrew/translations?

Since this uses the MC Genjin mapper, I'm assuming that you could play the sound roms that TailChao has made for it, if he makes them public, as well as anything else made in the future that uses the mapper to make development easier.

[elmer]

I'm tempted to get one.  I haven't read every last post on the the features.  Is there any advantage to getting this to play currently released games, or completely for upcoming homebrew/translations?

I kind of have the same question as ParanoiaDragon. I'm not a PCE developer, or a PCE Romhacker, but if I did decide to work on a project one day with a group here, would it benefit me to have this and would it generally have a benefit for the non-developer at this stage in the development process?

There is no advantage that I can think of to using this on currently-released games ... they won't even know that it exists.

As for the future ... who really knows?

I honestly can't see any translators making this card a requirement when there are going to be 25 or less of them in existence.

If translators or homebrew-developers decide that they need extra RAM on a PCE, then they can develop for either this card, or for krikzz's mass-produced (but more expensive) Turbo EverDrive 2 ... or both.

That will be entirely up to them.

Also, would you plan to produce more batches in the future if it made more sense for non-developers to take a pass on it currently so that it can be used by developers as a priority?

My understanding is that TailChao has already said that he's not interested in mass-producing these cards in the future ... but that all the plans and schematics necessary to do so will be freely available for anyone that does want to do so.

That's incredibly generous of him ... as is his offer to actually make some of these cards for the people that want them, at what is basically his cost price.

But think about that mass-production run in the future ... who is going to do it?

Do you want to gamble that the community here will get together and commit to an order of 100 cards at say $60-each (if you get someone in China to manufacture them)?

IMHO, unless you're a developer that knows exactly why this card will benefit you ... and what you can use it for right now ... then I suspect that you'd just be taking up TailChao's valuable time and your money in buying a beautiful development card that you'll never use and possibly regret.

Then again ... perhaps in 5 years this will be a must-have "collectable" in it's own right! 

[synbiosfan]

IMHO, unless you're a developer that knows exactly why this card will benefit you ... and what you can use it for right now ... then I suspect that you'd just be taking up TailChao's valuable time and your money in buying a beautiful development card that you'll never use and possibly regret.

That is my thought. However, I don't want TailChao sitting on 5-10 cards for a year+ and regretting making 25. I'm holding off showing my support (buying one) for TailChao's efforts until I see his target audience has had their opportunity. Even then I'd just be a caretaker until a developer came along who missed out.

[Lochlan]

TailChao, please sign me up for purchasing one card.  Thank you!

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ok, I'll hold off for now.  I'm hoping these will be helpful & mass produced for the future, depending on who takes up the task.

[TailChao]

IMHO, unless you're a developer that knows exactly why this card will benefit you ... and what you can use it for right now ... then I suspect that you'd just be taking up TailChao's valuable time and your money in buying a beautiful development card that you'll never use and possibly regret.

This is fairly good advice.
I do not mind manufacturing 25 of these cards for the developer run, nor ending up with leftovers (things break, extras are good to have). But unless you have a specific development paradigm where this card would help, I'd hold off.

Since this uses the MC Genjin mapper, I'm assuming that you could play the sound roms that TailChao has made for it, if he makes them public, as well as anything else made in the future that uses the mapper to make development easier.

Actually, this card uses a new mapper (MCGenjin-CD) which is not 100% compatible with the original MCGenjin (which makes sense, since they're designed for different things). So my sound driver is not compatible (yet).

[wyndcrosser]

I'm interested. PM me when you want $$. Thanks