Official BlackBox News Thread

Krepticor · Post by **Krepticor** » Fri May 26, 2006 4:07 pm

well what about that analog stick isn't that 4 pins right ther plus thta d-pad plus the two shoulders and the two above the d-pad

that is 12 pins plus ground plus anything I missed a 14 wire would be really big and kinda heavy of a line why not have a slighly heavier controller with just the four wires? sounds more reasonable to me...

Post by **Skyone** » Fri May 26, 2006 4:16 pm

Eh, NeoGeo had 15 pins, and it was fine.

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:18 am

K. I'm happy too anounce that I and a friend have designed the first bb game concept: Weird Ducky. It's gonna be a side scroller like Mario. I'll post the story later. Heres a picture:

Basicly he's a weird duck with a gun. Iam is going too program this game and my friend and I are going to design the level concepts and stuff.

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:55 pm

im7805,
do you have hoes for this to be mass produced??

Post by **Triton** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:09 pm

hoes? double-u tee eff

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:10 pm

shmagoogin77 wrote:im7805,
do you have hoes for this to be mass produced??

Wtf mate? What are "hoes"?

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:10 pm

Wtf! Do you mean?

Edit: darn i've been beaten.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:36 pm

um, I think he means "hopes"

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:40 pm

sponge is right
sorry i ment hope

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:44 pm

It depends if there is enough demand and if it can be produced cheap enough. Of course, production costs would be lowered if there is enough demand because everything can be purchased in bulk.

wallydawg · Post by **wallydawg** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:55 pm

Too bad he didn't mean hoes.

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:56 pm

wallydawg wrote:Too bad he didn't mean hoes.

???

MM007 · Post by **MM007** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:59 pm

I like the controller design, but I must wonder: Given the system's potential capabilities(perhaps early level 3-D capability), should it have four buttons instead of two?

Also, to those who said analog wouldn't be necessary, the Atari VCS had analog, and you could tell the difference in some games. However, using only analog doesn't always work depending on the game type. That's why I prefer controllers like the Dual Shock and N64 controller than have both. Sometimes digital control is better, and most of the NES-style games were better off digital.

I am also glad that a seperate GPU will be used. About how many colors will be available? I'm asking about...

How many total possible colors in the pallette?
How many colors in Bitmap Mode?
How many colors on screen in normal gameplay mode?
How many colors per sprite?
How many colors per background(or per X pixel by X pixel background section)?

Also, if you plan to have audio, will that be a seperate processor, integrated with the CPU, or integrated with the GPU (uncommon)? If it were a seperate CPU, you may be able to give it voice capability, like the Macintosh, the Famicom (had a game with added hardware to allow it), the Intellivision Intellivoice Add-on, and the C-64.

I am also wondering how much RAM both the CPU and GPU will possess. This can effect performance as much, if not MORE in some cases, as the width of the processor bus and its speed. I know the c64, though posessing a 6502-based processor, could handle more than the NES in some aspects due to the RAM capacity. How much RAM is going into the thing for the CPU and GPU? I believe seperate RAM spaces should be utilized for the CPU and GPU. Furthermore, RAM is not as expensive as it once was, so you can get away with putting more in.

Also, will the cartridge media be normal ROM or flash? If it's normal ROM, you can always test with EEPROMs...

Also, the CPU will be 40MHz. What will the bus speed be for the rest of the board? Are you planning 8MHz for the whole board with a 5x multiplier, 10MHz@4x, 20MHz@2x, or 40 MHz for the whole thing? If you plan a flat 40MHz all across the board, it may act flaky if you're not using surface mount components or something, if the efforts with the 80486 teach us anything. You may get away with 20MHz@2x though.

That's all I can think about for the hardware questions right now...

Edit: Thought up some more.

iam7805 wrote:Four pins on the controller:

Data
Clock
5v
Ground

I understand that for the digital controls this is possible with a multiplexor like in the Saturn controllers, or a Flip-Flop chain like in the NES/SNES to give a digital number value of a set number of bits to allow for all the combinations of button presses to be sent along less traces, but wouldn't the analog need at least two independent data connections, one for left/right, and one for up/down?

(If negative voltages are used, the minimum of two additional lines can be attained by feeding 5 volts through both a positive and negative regulator of equal values, maybe about 3.3V, and setting 0V as the "center". If you use positive voltage only, you'd need up to four additional pathways, with my thinking. Left, Right, Up, and Down, or may still get 2 additional pathways, if 2.5V is set to the "centered" position, but that may be tricky to pull off. )

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:34 pm

Hey, do you think I could design a game?

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 5:02 pm

iam7805 wrote:It depends if there is enough demand and if it can be produced cheap enough. Of course, production costs would be lowered if there is enough demand because everything can be purchased in bulk.

I would buy two. This sure is looking great! So, how far are you into this? Are you still making the blueprints?