Re: [stella] Miniaturization

Subject: Re: [stella] Miniaturization
From: Glenn Saunders <cybpunks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 22:38:13 -0700
At 07:03 PM 4/15/00 -0700, you wrote:
Quick question on that statement:  because the 2600
chips are simpler than the Game Boy, would it take
longer for an equivalent charge to be depleted?  Or,
because the chip set is older (read that:  less
effiecient than modern designs), would it drain it
faster?

You wouldn't use the stock TIA/RIOT chipset. You'd build a miniaturized low-power-consumption version of it. With .25 or .18 micron technology which is what they use in today's processors, it would probably fit on the head of a pin and draw very low voltage.


possible (if you don't know, you don't have to
answer), and if possible, did anyone try it with the
2600?

The Amiga has a couple devices that do this. DCTV and the Graffiti boards. They encoded the extra information in the picture which would then be externally decoded. Most of the extra info would hide in the overscan areas.


Does LCD run at a slower rate than a regular TV, NTSC
or PAL?  I'm wondering if the TV tuner for the Game

It's not that it runs at a slower rate as much as the pixels may have some persistence to them because of their electrochemical nature.


to make "Save Mary."  BTW, does anyone know how the
game is supposed to control?

Save Mary uses a joystick to move the crane around.


Those DIN ports would come in handy for plugging in a
keyboard controller for games like "Star Raiders."  It
wouldn't take much to make a switch to go between the
joypad and a port so you could plug in paddles, right?

Ideally there should be two paddles (i.e. knobs) on board the unit as well, with P1 togglable to P3 and P2 togglable to P4. Or maybe find some way to integrate the paddle in with the joypad or have it as a mini joystick like the top of the Astrocade.


If it could store high scores, do you think it could
also hold your place in the game so you can pick up
and play later?

I think it could do this, but it's a lot easier in emulation than if it's actually running a true 6507. You'd probably want to wrap the 6507 core within some kind of in-circuit-emulator glue so you could intelligently watch memory locations change and apply triggers.


Good idea, but if this thing is expensive enough,
won't that push it through the roof?  How expensive is
it to make a Supercharger?  Or are you blue skying
like for reducing everything to a smaller, more
efficient chip for the 2600 hardware?

That's what I mean, reducing the entire thing down, the core chipset, the wrapper electronics that babysit the core, all the built-in ROMs, the RAM, and an area for persistent memory (Flash ROM or what not).


Is that necessary?  I mean, assuming this is a
hand-held unit, you won't really be able to hear the
stereo effect because the speakers would be too close
together.  Or would they be?

It wouldn't add much cost to do this. You might be able to get it so that the tiny speakers can detach as well, like a really tiny pair of desktop PC speakers. But that might increase battery consumption.


I would love to buy something like that, too, but I
could never play it.  I get too wrapped up in the
games and I'm worried I'd break the buttons.  Trust
me, I went through a score of official Atari joysticks
before I wised up and taught myself control.  That,
and bought a Pointmaster.

Then how about this... Make it modular so that you can replace broken components. The controller section becomes a snap-in or slide-in module. Break it, just replace it. The screen could be a pop-in and lock module.


That also opens things up for aftermarket devices, like more heavy duty controllers and so on.

It's too bad the world is so big on disposability these days, otherwise I think more computer devices would be more easily repairable.



Glenn Saunders - Producer - Cyberpunks Entertainment
Personal homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698
Cyberpunks Entertainment: http://cyberpunks.uni.cc


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