I made a ROM full of games

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denjhang
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I made a ROM full of games

Post by denjhang »

I tried to make a loader with an arduino uno two days ago and it failed (objectively everything works fine, but my gigatron is indifferent to the loader). So I made a ROM full of games, based on DEVROM.
Image
Looks good, thanks for all the Gigatron Hackers contributions.
Attachments
Gigatron Game ROMv1.06.rom
(128 KiB) Downloaded 139 times
Sugarplum
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Joined: 30 Sep 2020, 22:19

Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by Sugarplum »

This is neat, but why are there so many duplicates? Two Pucmon, 2 Puzzles, 3 Invader, 2 Bricks. Are these different variations of the same? Like 32K and 64K, or for different ROM versions, or what?
denjhang
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Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by denjhang »

Sugarplum wrote: 04 Feb 2022, 08:44 This is neat, but why are there so many duplicates? Two Pucmon, 2 Puzzles, 3 Invader, 2 Bricks. Are these different variations of the same? Like 32K and 64K, or for different ROM versions, or what?
These duplicate games are exactly the same. Actually, it is because the ROM space is not enough. At present, these games have taken up almost all the ROM space, and I have deleted all unnecessary files. However I didn't want to break the original two-row six-column layout, so I used the exact same entries to fill in the blanks.
Maybe I'll develop some mini programs to replace these duplicates.
Sugarplum
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Joined: 30 Sep 2020, 22:19

Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by Sugarplum »

Thanks for the explanation. Still, 7 different hardwired games are still a lot when compared to the TV Wizard consoles and the old arcade games. Those are all equipment from the late '70s.

It is too bad that arcade games from that time period didn't have multiple games per console. That would have allowed new games and unpopular or niche games to be more accessible since the consequences could be minimized. That wasn't a thing until arcade games started getting phased out. They're good for places where there isn't much room. Only 1 arcade game might fit in a laundry room, and it could have 3 or more titles on it to have a broad enough appeal to justify it being there.

And your idea reminds me of one I've sorta had. I imagine someone could build an arcade cabinet around the Gigatron.
Hans61
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Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by Hans61 »

I tried the ROM and all games work. Thank you for contributing to the Gigaton. For a game ROM, some sort of zip/unzip for the games would be useful. I don't know if something like that is possible with a positive effort benefit.
denjhang
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Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by denjhang »

Hans61 wrote: 04 Feb 2022, 19:27 I tried the ROM and all games work. Thank you for contributing to the Gigaton. For a game ROM, some sort of zip/unzip for the games would be useful. I don't know if something like that is possible with a positive effort benefit.
Compressing and decompressing games sounds complicated, and when I made the SD card browser, there seemed to be no need for things like saving ROM space. I'm still interested in compression though.
I'm actually going to develop some simple Gigatron console games using LCC. Of course I might also try something like gtbasic or gcl, these languages look professional and take time to learn.
Hans61
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Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by Hans61 »

I used gtbasic for my first game. I don't think the LCC was that good back then. I also chose gtbasic for its easy sprite support.
My next idea was to make Atomix for the Gigatron. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomix_(video_game)) I haven't been able to fit it into the graphics yet.
Other ideas I don't have time for at the moment:
- Boulder Dash/Digger (use horizontal scrolling of the Gigatron)
- Bomberman
Anyone who wants to join is welcome.
If new software runs under 32k, it's fine. But I think you should be able to assume 64k (minimum effort)
Sugarplum
Posts: 93
Joined: 30 Sep 2020, 22:19

Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by Sugarplum »

Another idea on ROM space involves other threads where 20-24 bit addresses are considered. While that allows more RAM, it is conceivable that could make wider ROMs possible if one wanted to pursue that. So then a master game ROM like this could be made, and maybe code in the ROM to detect what Gigatron it is in, and provide more menu options if all the ROM can be reached.

Compression is a worthy goal for projects like this, and probably one of the more primitive algorithms should be used, such as ARC or the early PKZip. There was a Lib that was simpler, but it only concatenated and did not actually compress. That was mostly for BBS usage since you could send an entire folder in one go, even if you saved nothing in transfer time. Even some PC BIOSs used compression since the BIOS code was larger than the ROMs used.
bmwtcu
Posts: 145
Joined: 01 Nov 2018, 12:02

Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by bmwtcu »

Sugarplum wrote: 04 Feb 2022, 12:56 And your idea reminds me of one I've sorta had. I imagine someone could build an arcade cabinet around the Gigatron.
Funny you should say that:P I did exactly that last year, but I did it on a Spartan6 LX25 FPGA. Excuse the poor workmanship:P I had to deal with a monitor dying on me and had to improvise fitting a larger monitor with what MDF I had left so I wouldn't have to buy another sheet. I have 2 CPs that I can swap out depending on whether I am running the Gigatron or a Raspberry Pi 3B co-located in the same bartop chassis. I had planned to fix some schematic errors on the controller shift register, Audio DAC and VGA connector and make a Youtube video, but got distracted by other projects so it's been sitting in project limbo since last September. Other than a known issue with level shifting the LATCH and PULSE to the controller, it's a fully functioning derivative of the Gametron handheld proof of concept that I shared back in Feb 2021 and leverages the Pluggy Reloaded and SDROM changes that I requested from at67. (See Gametron playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... qG0CLZiLjt )
I'll get around to making a video at some point, but here are some pictures for now.

Bartop arcade
Bartop arcadeCP1.jpeg
Bartop arcadeCP1.jpeg (196.78 KiB) Viewed 1869 times
Board design
Board design.jpeg
Board design.jpeg (187.8 KiB) Viewed 1869 times
FPGA board http://www.piswords.com/xc6slx25.html
FPGA board.jpeg
FPGA board.jpeg (216.57 KiB) Viewed 1869 times
Oopsie - fixes need on shift register, VGA connector and Audio DAC
Oopsie.jpeg
Oopsie.jpeg (98.07 KiB) Viewed 1869 times
CP2 for Gigatron FPGA
CP2.jpeg
CP2.jpeg (256.87 KiB) Viewed 1869 times
Last edited by bmwtcu on 06 Feb 2022, 01:01, edited 2 times in total.
bmwtcu
Posts: 145
Joined: 01 Nov 2018, 12:02

Re: I made a ROM full of games

Post by bmwtcu »

Posted a crappy video of it in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqS9qv3 ... jt&index=6
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