Re: [Re: [stella] miniaturization]

Subject: Re: [Re: [stella] miniaturization]
From: kurt.woloch@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 08:24:08 +0200
Rob wrote:

>>not quite. the game gear handles colors and cartridge
>>memory differently than the SMS. the GG has twice as
>>many colors (ottomh) but cannot access as large a 
>>cartridge.

>I think it's actually an enhanced SMS - I have the Master Base Converter,
>which lets you play SMS games on it, and I'm pretty sure it's just a pin
>converter (I can't see how much more complicated it would be when I paid 15
>bucks for it new, not on clearance or anything.)

>Then again, I don't know if there were some SMS cartridges I never had that
>might have been too big for the GG/MBC to handle.

Well, I studied the specs for these systems a while ago (the SMS video chip
being a derivate of the TMS-9918 used in MSX, Coleco, and TI-99 machines),
and it seems the Game Gear already has the Master System Mode built in, in
which it will play the Master System games as usual. The "native" Game Gear
carts, instead, use the Game Gear mode which isn't present on the original
SMS. The Master Gear converter (that's how it was called here) thus only
seems to re-wire the big SMS carts into the small Game Gear ones.

It also seems to me that the TV Tuner hasn't got any software run by the
CPU. However, one could check if it's possible to write a ROM portion for
the 2600 adapter. This portion would run on the Game Gear CPU, check the
controls and feed the results into the simulated 2600 inside of the adapter.
I don't know if that's technically doable, though...

With love (and many systems to adapt to each other)
Kurt Woloch

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