At 02:47 AM 6/30/2000 -0400, you wrote:
For those interested in the memory map project, take a look at the the URL
below. This will eventually become part of a (somewhat massive) documentation
archive for VCS hardware. The software stuff is pretty well documented, if
difficult to find at times. I just bought a HP 6300CSE scanner today, so
I'll be scanning in various magazine articles, data sheets, schematics, etc
and adding them to the archive as time permits. Eventually, it'll have a
more useful and organized format....first I want the files there. ;)
I've been cleaning up the chip mask scans on and off since last year. I
should have it done pretty soon. If it doesn't feature in Stella at 20
volume 1 I will at least have it available for study. I can't guarantee
100% accuracy since some of the imagery was so faded is very hard to
recover, but it will be as close as you can get unless Hasbro has anything
else in its vaults. They probably have whatever it takes to make
additional TIA chips, but that may not be quite the same thing. I don't know.
Since the TV-boy pirate chip isn't 100% compatible, it really would be nice
to have enough of a grasp of the 2600 hardware to start fantasizing about
reducing it down into a 100% compatible low-power single-chip
system. Hasbro might even be interested in that for a budget handheld
device somewhere inbetween keychain games and the gameboy.
The chip masks are cool because it shows every layer individually.
I do think I'll have to scale back somewhat on the level of technical
detail I was planning to include in Stella At 20 Volume 1 because no video
can give the kind of depth of information that archives like these can. As
simple as the 2600 is, it would indeed fill up a fairly hefty book to fully
document its subtleties. So it's going to have to be a much broader
overview. Just something to whet the appetite and generate appreciation
for 2600 coders.
I do think in the next year maybe we should all pull together to polish up
the information that has been floating around from various sources into a
coherent textbook-like learning document for fledgeling 2600 programmers.
Glenn Saunders - Producer - Cyberpunks Entertainment
Personal homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698
Cyberpunks Entertainment: http://cyberpunks.uni.cc
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