optixx » Console http://optixx.org About Linux and Console Hacking Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:31:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The PCB is coming down http://optixx.org/2009/06/18/the-pcb-is-coming-down/ http://optixx.org/2009/06/18/the-pcb-is-coming-down/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:04:18 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/?p=270 Got an mail from pcb-pool.de, our PCB is nearly done and will arrive this week. So the first prototype will be assembled over the weekend. Keep fingers crossed that everything is working as planed.

Quick Featuers list

  • ATMega 644
  • Software USB
  • FTDI USB Debug port
  • 4MB SRAM
  • LO/HI Rom Switch
  • SD Card Daughter Board
  • AVR Cart IRQ Trigger
  • AVR WR sniffer

Things not happping with this version

  • Save Game support by design
  • DSP Support
BDE4a2f92e599701_05 pcb0528t pcb0528b ]]> http://optixx.org/2009/06/18/the-pcb-is-coming-down/feed/ 0 SNESRAM Proof of Concept is working http://optixx.org/2009/04/05/snesram-proof-of-concept-is-working/ http://optixx.org/2009/04/05/snesram-proof-of-concept-is-working/#comments Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:10:45 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/?p=218 We have been working the last 4 Weekends on a cool side project – we built a DIY Super Nintendo development hardware. As a SNES Programmer or SNES Nerd you always want to run your code on the orignal hardware. But this is only possible using old backup stations from the 90ies like the Super Wild Card or Game Doctor. But all these tools lack cool features like SD Card support, USB connection or real time debugging. I own an old Super Wild Card and its a pain in the ass. I can’t get the parallel port connection working and so i have to use the builtin floppy drive :-) There are newer projects around, but either not working or not really cool.

So we decided to build our own hardware. Today we got our proof of concept working. Its based on a STK500 setup using a ATmega16 (Ja.. I fried the ATmega32 while setting the fuses..). Attached is a SD Card and a home cooked memory bus driver for one 512k SRAM Chip. Both the ATmega and the SNES memorybus are connected to this SRAM via busdrivers. The ATmega does the housekeeping and manages the access to the RAM. To save IOpins on the ATmega side, we use shiftregisters and counter to set the adress. On the SNES side its connected to a Snes Multi Cartridge Adapter. One slot holds an orginal game, so we can use the lockout chip from there and solder the data and address from the other slot to our memory interface.

Now we are able to upload a 2Mbit SNES rom. A mario sprite on flashing background. We load this rom image from the SD Card and write it to the attached SRAM. When this is done we switch the busdriver and connect it to the SNES memory bus. Today we got the demo working. See the video and pics.

We did like 3 other proof of conecpts before to get this working.

[flash]http://www.vimeo.com/4011976[/flash] Watch the Video on vimeo to get HD and see the console output

dsc00985 dsc01082 dsc01196 dsc01071 dsc01058 dsc01198 dsc01194

Right now we are planing the features for version 0.1. Its mainly to get a good hardware design the cool software features are planed for version 0.2

  • ATmega 644
  • 4mb SRAM
  • Address Counter
  • Address SREG
  • Busdriver
  • LO/HI Rom support
  • Lockout Chip
  • Save game SRAM
  • SD Card Support
  • Software USB
  • USB Upload Client
  • Software Mode Switch
  • Remote Reset

The Project is hosted at Assembla.com

And the poc code is here and here 

git://git.assembla.com/snesram.git

]]> http://optixx.org/2009/04/05/snesram-proof-of-concept-is-working/feed/ 4 Back into SNES DEV http://optixx.org/2008/12/09/back-into-snes-dev/ http://optixx.org/2008/12/09/back-into-snes-dev/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:21:19 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/?p=106 Just started to work on some SNES stuff. Took a simple sample from vintagedev to get it working using linux as the development system. Added proper Makefile and made ubuntu wla packages.

first.tar.gz

wla-dx-9520081209-1i386.deb

wlalink20081209-1i3861.deb

]]> http://optixx.org/2008/12/09/back-into-snes-dev/feed/ 0 Update on 64×48 http://optixx.org/2008/12/07/update-on-64x48/ http://optixx.org/2008/12/07/update-on-64x48/#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:53:14 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/2008/12/07/update-on-64x48/ Made some progress. Nice sunday hacking.









]]> http://optixx.org/2008/12/07/update-on-64x48/feed/ 1 OpenWII Debugged http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/openwii-debugged/ http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/openwii-debugged/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:33:52 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/openwii-debugged/ Made my very own openwii version including debug routines. So i added a another status led to the chiip design and also added IO lines to the ATmega SIO pins. So now i have a drive chip which prints debug info via a serial line. So everybody who want to understand the dvd drive patching can watch this in serial console. The debug code retrieves the media status flag and prints some other status flags.

pic1 pic1

download source

]]> http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/openwii-debugged/feed/ 0 Fuckin awesome SID podcast http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/fuckin-awesome-sid-podcast/ http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/fuckin-awesome-sid-podcast/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:43:45 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/fuckin-awesome-sid-podcast/ Wow cool stuff, a podcast playing only real awesome SID stuff, including some newer SID stuff from the last few years. No lamers talking inbetween just chiptunes. Great ! Check it out 8bit Mayhem

BTW my favorite tunes:

  • JCH – Chordian
  • Rob Hubbard – Lightforce
  • DRAX – Bombastic
  • Rob Hubbard – Commando
  • Jeroen Tel – Cybernoid II
  • Rob Hubbard – Delta
  • DRAX – Depressed
  • Mitch & Dane – Gloria
  • DRAX – Disco Zax
  • Edwin van Santen – Edwin’s Dream
  • Michael Hendriks – FAME
  • JCH – Hawaii
  • Martin Galway – Miami Vice
  • Edwin van Santen – Phalanx
  • David Whittaker – Red Max
  • Chris Hülsbeck – Ski Dance
  • Juha-Matti Hilpinen – SYS4096

    • Maybe i should code a PSP based SID compilation demo…

    ]]>     http://optixx.org/2007/04/04/fuckin-awesome-sid-podcast/feed/ 0     Gnuboy AALib http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/gnuboy-aalib/ http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/gnuboy-aalib/#comments Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:01:09 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/gnuboy-aalib/ This is really usefull, isn’t it. Made a video driver for gnuboy based on aalib. The sound it actually done by sdl lib. But i don’t care about sound to much because this thingy is meant to be played via telnet. So hook up the aagnuboy binary into xinted and have fun.

    service aagnuboy
{
    disable         = no
    flags           = REUSE
    socket_type     = stream
    wait            = no
    user            = root
    log_on_failure += USERID
    port            = 1989
    server          = /usr/local/bin/aagnuboy 
    server_args     = /usr/local/games/roms/demo.gb 
    log_type        = SYSLOG daemon info
}

    pic1

    download gnuboy

    ]]>     http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/gnuboy-aalib/feed/ 0     Return of the SNES http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/return-of-the-snes/ http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/return-of-the-snes/#comments Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:46:04 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/return-of-the-snes/ Updated my old SNES demo a little so that it runs on real hardware. Was able to get my handy on a half broken Super Wild Card. So i finally i fixed the rom headers and now the little demo runs on a real snes. Nice.

    Snes Snes

    Snes Snes

    Source

    ]]>     http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/return-of-the-snes/feed/ 0     PSP Futurecomposer Player http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/psp-futurecomposer-player/ http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/psp-futurecomposer-player/#comments Wed, 13 Dec 2006 00:29:06 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/psp-futurecomposer-player/ Made a Futurecomposer player to the PSP. This version is hacked together from the xmms-fc and the fcplay sources. First i did x86 version using alsa interface. Later ported this over to the psp using the native audio interface. Memory footprint is quite ok, despite the fact that the old FC engine is written in c++ so that the whole stuff has to be linked against libstdc++ which makes the player kind of bloated.

    pic1

    download fcplay

    ]]>     http://optixx.org/2006/12/13/psp-futurecomposer-player/feed/ 0     Sidplay http://optixx.org/2006/12/01/ported-sidplay/ http://optixx.org/2006/12/01/ported-sidplay/#comments Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:14:24 +0000 Administrator http://optixx.org/2006/12/01/ported-sidplay/ Ported the original sidplay to the PSP. Now i use the native pspsdk audio libs so SDL is not needed anymore. This reduces the footprint by 200 Kb.

    download sidplay

    ]]>     http://optixx.org/2006/12/01/ported-sidplay/feed/ 0