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Post by spenoza on May 12, 2020 18:39:29 GMT
We have to remember that the NES and SNES exposes more system access on their cartridge lines than other systems of the day. I'm looking at the pinout of the SNES; which necessary lines are there that are missing on the HuCard slot?
Of course the NES is very different due to the PPU bus being exposed.
I don't actually know all the details. It's just what I've gleaned from reading various information, including in PC Engine forums. It's not that the PCE (or the Genesis, for that matter) couldn't take advantage of a co-processor, just that Nintendo has always been much more pro-active in their selection of what to expose on the cartridge port and that has made it easier for Nintendo to do that kind of integration. That doesn't mean what I've been reading is entirely true, so take it with a pinch of salt.
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Post by dshadoff on May 12, 2020 21:12:41 GMT
Well, developers for Nintendo were more eager to take advantage of the cartridge port to add electronics for several reasons: 1 ) Protection from copiers 2 ) Because the scale of sales could allow them to do so sometimes 3 ) Because the size of the cartridge allowed it
The PC Engine didn't get this treatment, probably because the cartridge size was an intended selling point for the system, and ASICs are way too expensive to design just to include on a HuCard. Today, we're freed from these constraints, but do we really want such an extension ? I'd argue that it might be interesting as a lark, but not for an actual product or an extension of the system.
Just my two cents.
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Post by spenoza on May 12, 2020 22:34:16 GMT
Putting aside ideas about trying to mimic the SVP or SuperFX, what about a decompression chip to allow use of highly compressed data on a HuCard or in CD cache? Anything useful for decompression could probably do rudimentary graphics data manipulation, like vertical sprite flipping or sprite compositing. I can think of a number of very practical and useful things that could be done with those capabilities.
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tvset
What's a PC Engine?
Posts: 2
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Post by tvset on May 16, 2020 7:26:22 GMT
I’d be more worried about power consumption. Some PCEs can’t even use certain flash cards because of the limited current at the cart slot. A modern chip sure but something back in the day may have needed its own power supply like the 32X and IMO once you start seeing parallels to the 32X it’s time to stop. I have never thought of this one. Maybe this is one of the main reason why expansions are so hard to implemented in cartridge port
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Post by dshadoff on May 16, 2020 13:47:10 GMT
I have found this to be something which very few people consider in the modding community, or makers of external devices (like the SSDS3). I have asked more than one person how much power their device/modification consumes, and heard the answer that they don't know. The implication is that they assume that it is fine, so long as it works on their stock machine.
The challenge is that not every machine these days is still 'stock': when added together with other options, the net power may put stress on the supply. This would show as instability, likely due to inability to maintain a consistent level - 'ripples' (rather than a net voltage drop). Of course, heat would also be a problem.
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Post by turboxray on May 16, 2020 23:27:44 GMT
Putting aside ideas about trying to mimic the SVP or SuperFX, what about a decompression chip to allow use of highly compressed data on a HuCard or in CD cache? Anything useful for decompression could probably do rudimentary graphics data manipulation, like vertical sprite flipping or sprite compositing. I can think of a number of very practical and useful things that could be done with those capabilities. Well, just having 8k more ram would have solved a lot of the compression scheme problems haha (better compression schemes based on LZSS). Though 16k extra would have been nice for pre-level sprite composition for generating frames in ram.
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TailChao
Gun-headed
I Must Eat Muffin Gear.
Posts: 68
Fave PCE Game Overall: Bonk's Adventure
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Post by TailChao on May 17, 2020 14:16:42 GMT
The challenge is that not every machine these days is still 'stock': when added together with other options, the net power may put stress on the supply. This would show as instability, likely due to inability to maintain a consistent level - 'ripples' (rather than a net voltage drop). Of course, heat would also be a problem. Another issue along these lines the components are all aging and the regulators won't reach anywhere near their ideal output either. Well, just having 8k more ram would have solved a lot of the compression scheme problems haha (better compression schemes based on LZSS). Though 16k extra would have been nice for pre-level sprite composition for generating frames in ram. More RAM goes a long way, yeah. But if we're strictly speaking about what's available now - bumping your ROM size and storing everything uncompressed isn't a dealbreaker.
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