I think using a 33F for the CPU, and another 33F for the GPU, and other smaller PIC's you would me able to recreate the NES withouth dealing with VHDL.gannon wrote:You'd be lucky to get a color composite NTSC image out of a PIC with it's processing power, let alone any CPU emulation. You wouldn't even be able to get good NES emulation out of a 20-48MHz PC.
nes recreation. I need help.
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I know it's been a long time since I've been around. College will do that to a person.
Regarding my idea, why would I have to emulate the entire NES on a chip, be it FPGA or Propeller? We have the reverse engineered schematics for the NES (see above post). Why can't equivalent components be used? I know that the 6502 microprocessor is still being manufactured. I'm sure with a little research, other chip equivalents can be found. And most of the other parts are standardized equipment as far as I can tell. PROM is PROM and SRAM is SRAM. So, please shoot my idea down. Why can't new equivalent parts be used to make an identical NES?
Regarding my idea, why would I have to emulate the entire NES on a chip, be it FPGA or Propeller? We have the reverse engineered schematics for the NES (see above post). Why can't equivalent components be used? I know that the 6502 microprocessor is still being manufactured. I'm sure with a little research, other chip equivalents can be found. And most of the other parts are standardized equipment as far as I can tell. PROM is PROM and SRAM is SRAM. So, please shoot my idea down. Why can't new equivalent parts be used to make an identical NES?
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palmertech
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AFAIK, Nintendo had several parts custom made for the NES. Pirate NOACs are unable to have 100% compatibility because these parts are not available, nor do any suitable alternatives exist. All the NOAC save problems, video glitches, bad color saturation, and especially the very common sound chip errors... These are caused by trying to hack something together that works, just not perfectly. You will not be able to build a perfect NES clone because of this.
Something to consider: You say that you do not condone ripping apart old NES systems because of rarity... Just buy a broken one!
That is what I do when ripping apart old stuff, not only will the broken ones be cheaper, but you are saving them from the landfill. Just try to find one with a cracked, yellowed, or otherwise bad case.
Something to consider: You say that you do not condone ripping apart old NES systems because of rarity... Just buy a broken one!
That is what I do when ripping apart old stuff, not only will the broken ones be cheaper, but you are saving them from the landfill. Just try to find one with a cracked, yellowed, or otherwise bad case.
Excellent
Yeah, NES's are getting thrown in the trash a lot because they cart slots break or they just get yellowed and totally gross looking.
All I'm trying to say is that, unlike consoles that seemed to roll over and die in America, like TG16, Neo Geo AES, etc. the NES has hundreds of thousands, probably even millions of units made and sold in the US alone. Don't sweat it if you roast a couple, and don't believe the guys on Ebay who say every old videogame is "SUPER RARE!!! NO RESERVE!!! YOU'LL NEVER SEE ONE AGAIN IN YOUR WHOLE LIFE!!!" NES is not that rare, don't worry.
As for the FPGA, go for it if you are:
-a skilled and trained engineer
-have TONS of free time for this project
-know the inner working of the NES like the back of your own hand
-and have lots and lots of money for the tools you'll most certainly need
Trust me, I've done a lot of hardware hacking in my time- reverse engineering a system, even from the 1980's, and making a whole new unit on different chips is really hard. If you must have portable and can't sacrifice quality (NOAC) or a real NES board then it's time to emulate on a handheld console, like GP2X, Pandora, DS, PSP, or what have you. It'd be cheaper to buy one of those and load games than to make your own reproduction NES CPU, VPU, sound, logic, etc.
All I'm trying to say is that, unlike consoles that seemed to roll over and die in America, like TG16, Neo Geo AES, etc. the NES has hundreds of thousands, probably even millions of units made and sold in the US alone. Don't sweat it if you roast a couple, and don't believe the guys on Ebay who say every old videogame is "SUPER RARE!!! NO RESERVE!!! YOU'LL NEVER SEE ONE AGAIN IN YOUR WHOLE LIFE!!!" NES is not that rare, don't worry.
As for the FPGA, go for it if you are:
-a skilled and trained engineer
-have TONS of free time for this project
-know the inner working of the NES like the back of your own hand
-and have lots and lots of money for the tools you'll most certainly need
Trust me, I've done a lot of hardware hacking in my time- reverse engineering a system, even from the 1980's, and making a whole new unit on different chips is really hard. If you must have portable and can't sacrifice quality (NOAC) or a real NES board then it's time to emulate on a handheld console, like GP2X, Pandora, DS, PSP, or what have you. It'd be cheaper to buy one of those and load games than to make your own reproduction NES CPU, VPU, sound, logic, etc.
Emulation isn't accurate. There is no substitute for real hardware!