- Joined
- Mar 27, 2005
- Posts
- 23,647
I demand all my retro games be played on vinyl.
Can you imagine vib ribbon using vinyl? Would be fuckin' crazy!
I demand all my retro games be played on vinyl.
So apparently they've released the specs for this (or maybe it's old news?):
http://www.gamegavel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7474
Also, sounds like they're considering some sort of minidisc technology for the carts:
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=175286544
It's not really clear if they literally mean MiniDisc, or something like a little hard drive. Either way it would sort of fly in the face of the whole "keep it retro" vibe.4. Using optical discs outside the standard BD/DVD/CD world is asking for pain. EDIT: Yes this includes M-O before anyone gets pedantic.
It's not really clear if they literally mean MiniDisc, or something like a little hard drive. Either way it would sort of fly in the face of the whole "keep it retro" vibe.
It is quite puzzling... the whole indie boom came as a result of the move away from physical media. Most of these games will be released digitally as well, so who exactly is going to wait months for the physical versions?I'm using the storage media as just one example of this design issue. They're making dogmatic decisions because "that's how it used to be", not for any rational user-experience concerns.
What can you tell us about the cartridges and couldn't you do the same thing with an SD card or USB stick?
(John Carlsen) No. Secure Digital (SD) cards and USB sticks are great for storing large amounts of data cheaply, but they are not reliable for long-term storage. If you look closely at the packages from better brands of SD cards and USB sticks, they will warn you that those products are for short-term storage only.
RETRO VGS uses a special new type of memory device. Unlike conventional flash EEPROMs, ours are rated to retain data for 100 years. This allows RETRO VGS games to be published more economically than with the masked ROMs used on previous cartridge-based systems, making a wider variety of games available through small-quantity publishing, while better avoiding the “bit rot” that plagues other types of memory devices.
The (soon-to-be-patented) RETRO VGS cartridge interface supports many different configurations, including cartridges that temporarily reconfigure the FPGA inside the RETRO VGS console, enabling hardware optimization for kinds of games we haven’t yet even imagined.
The plan has always been from day one to support indie game development and what I mean by that is that if you're a game developer you'd have as much info, tools and help as possible and not be closed out of the system. This is not a closed console, meaning If you make a game for the RETRO VGS, and you wanted to order 50 copies of your own game to take to PAX and sell them on your own, you could! The plan is to be able to submit your box, cartridge & manual artwork, game code (for the cartridge), instructions and how many you'd like to order and you'd get your 50 shrink wrapped plastic cases with your awesome game cartridges all professionally packaged and sent to you. That still is the plan.
I just jizzed in my paints. If this thing is done right ill buy two. Usually stuff like this just dissapoints me but i saw some stuff on the new site for it that gave me promise.
http://www.retrovgs.com/
this is amazing also
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/TC58NVG2S0HTA00/TC58NVG2S0HTA00-ND/5226324
Unless I'm mis-reading their datasheet, this is a typical cheapo Flash ROM and it's rated to 100 years if you're going to write it once and leave it alone (e.g. game cartridge).
That's NAND flash. It's a little more complicated to use as mask rom replacement than say NOR flash. NOR flash, which is used in NeoBitz and NGdev games is significantly more expensive, especially the 5v variants, than NAND flash which has a higher memory density and complexity threshold. It's sorta like SRAM vs DRAM. SRAM is very simple to use with very little external hardware but gets real expensive as memory capacity goes up. DRAM on the other hand in is super cheap even in high density applications ( > 1gb) but requires a memory controller to monitor refresh cycles to prevent decay as well as arbitrate read/writes to a very precise timing cycle.
The system's built around an ARM CPU in the neighborhood of 1ghz. It's not going to be fetching anything directly from an external memory, and it likely has flash and SDRAM controllers built-in.
If $300 is the price, it's over before it started.
Hold on, I'm not done laughing yet
Hahahahahahahahahahaha