Hi to all! ;D
After neglecting the GX4000 to Plus modification project a little of late, I decided to roll up my sleeves and get cracking on it again. Having had some keyboard issues which turned out to be a faulty membrane, I swapped the 464 keyboard for one from a dead 6128 I got from ebay a while ago (will get round to repairing both one day ??? )
After soldering many, many, many wires to the GX4000 ASIC and CPU and various other places and soldering the other ends to a piece of PCB cut from a dead 464 mainboard, I had an Expansion Port rigged up which I tested with my trusty multimeter 1 or 2 (hundred) times. Testing complete I fired up the GX4000 and it still worked, always nice to see that blue and yellow menu screen! I have acquired an affection for it during this project! :laugh:
For my birthday I got a nice shiny DDI-1 interface which the previous owner had been generous enough to modify it to use a 3.5" drive or HxC with and the interface powered by the CPC. After a quick test on my 464 I removed the DDI-1 Amsdos ROM and performed a little surgery on it so it was ready to use with the GX4000.
I plugged in the DDI-1, prayed to the CPC gods and after a deep breath I turned on the machine and it didn't burst into flames! Next I connected a disk drive (unfortunately still configured as DS1 for now) and popped in a copy of Fluff. An |B RUN"FLUFF later and... well check out the youtube video and you can see! ;D Excuse the messy desk etc!
Amstrad GX4128 Lives! or A CPC is Born! - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32AaD2oO4JM#)
I haven't given up on making a Disk interface from scratch, I am still working on that, but as seems to be the case more and more these days I seem to have so much stuff to do, and it seems its usually car related! :laugh:
Well next on the list for the GX4128 Rev. 1 (as I'm calling it) is to tidy up and get those exposed wires inside the case and integrate the Expansion Port as neatly as possible into the side of the case. In the meantime I will be putting together a nice straightforward guide on how I did all this, which I guess will be essentially a multi media version of The Cranium's guide.
Thanks for looking! ;D
Nice work!
Glad you managed to get it up and running! 8)
excellent, now all you have to do is to find a square monitor. :D
Also, is your machine equipped with Disk or Tape ?
GX4000 ... but disk is for 6, not 4... and it is 3" disk.
So technically it is a real GX6128 you have here.
PErhaps even 7128 (7 for 3"1/2 ?) or HxC ?
GXHxC128 then...ouch...
I was alway ashamed the GX4000 didn't have a Keyboard plug nor a proper extension port or even tape port.
there should have been an upgradable GX4000 instead of a 464PLUS.
And IMO it should even have featured 128K.
You mean like the Atari XEGS? That's how the GX really should have been done.
Bryce.
Thanks Robcfg and MacDeath! ;D
It's certainly nice to have a new CPC with Plus features! I can sleep a little better knowing that its not a case of all eggs in one 464 Plus basket!
The model number I have chosen may seem a little strange however I used the following rationale. From what I can gather Amstrad Computers indicate the series by the first number, or prefix, in this case the machine is a GX4-000, in the case of a CPC the remaining numbers refer to memory configuration, however as you can see the GX4000 does not show its memory but as its no longer a simple GX4000 I felt that I should change the zeros to indicate the built in memory. As the machine does not currently have a built in disk interface I could not justify calling it a GX6000/GX6128. When the machine has all the bits in the box I plan on calling it a GX6128!
As for the monitor, I actually quite like the stretched out widescreen for some reason, I have adapted my GT65 to work with the Plus/GX but the 21st Century has spoiled me with super thin TFT screens! Space is at a premium on my work desk as you can see in the video so the GT65 has been stored away for now.
And I absolutely agree that the GX4000 should have offered some kind of upgradeability to a full Plus machine, I think it could have made quite a difference to its success as I think most of the potential buyers for the GX4000 would have been CPC users looking to upgrade and consoles were all the rage in the 90's.
[attachimg=1]
PS no sound then?
Hehe :laugh: There is sound but the digital camera it terrible at picking it up also the speakers on the TV are a little wimpy but if you play the video full blast you should be able to faintly hear the sound just don't let the white noise deafen you!
Actually I was hearing some nice ambient noise, like it was added for effect to the video :D
I know! Weird isn't it!? I have no idea why it makes that noise, I guess it could be the internal noise from the lens motor in the camera or just general electrical cross talk being picked up? It sounds like I have a server farm in the room with me! I will post another vid shortly with the TV full blast so we can hear the wonderful CPC sound ;D
Greets to the good work :)
@ TFM/FS Thanks very much! :D
No, no, thank you very much for sharing. I know how incredible much work it is to come that far. And you made it. You really can be proud :)
(http://catfishman.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/xe-and-keyboard.jpg)
yeay...
Atari was screwed with this one because it looks terrible, and those Atari 8bit consoles were shitty anyway.
Atari was only good for Atari ST/STE/Falcon/MEgaSTE/TT...
and the Atari Lynx.
(Also the Portofolio...)
The idea of a lower-config computer of the range released as a console was discarded because Atari shat their whole 8bit range...
But clearly, Alan sugar could have gone better as it would then remove the 464 from the range.
Also having a tapedriver plug on the console would also have been a cheap way to enable proper "savegames" possibilities.
it's not like nobody have a tape recorder in 1990...
anyway, to re-use a CPC6128 keyboard is the clever choice to make.
more compact and also the same as the PLUS range...
Perhaps you can even make a proper casing for it with a good cable.
Hmmmm, not as shitty as you think... :P
Space Harrier - Atari 8-Bit XL/XE (Final Release) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B-_6-RuJR0#)
Yoomp! - An 8-bit Atari game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxICcU3bPo#)
atari xl/xe game crownland (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAjvlSCf7CE#)
@MacDeath, I do intend to make a nice case for the 6128 keyboard, however, I may still repair the 464 one as it has a retro charm I quite like, on the other hand, the old "If it aint broke don't fix it" philosophy may prevail, as it's working and once I repair the 6128 I could house it in the sawn off 464 case I have with an HxC for a nice compact machine.
@Robcfg, those vids do look nice, much better than I have come to expect from those machines! I guess it's usually the case that many machines only start to really be fully exploited long after obsolescence has set in. That's why a good community like this one is good news for many 8 bit machines that tend to get scoffed at based on the quality (usually the graphics!) of their contemporary software and games. My opinion is that hardware development has always been two steps ahead of software so the machines get left behind by faster machines with more RAM that can be coded for less efficiently and still maintain a reasonable user experience. That's not to say coders aren't talented, it's just that the more space and cpu cycles available the less you have to keep an eye on how much resources are being used up. And that to an extent is the point of having more powerful machines. A good example of how it can all go so badly wrong though would be the horror that was Windows Vista!
So I say "Long Live The 8 Bits!" as they show us that with clever and efficient programming miracles can be achieved!
I'm also a big Atari XL/XE fan and from a hardware point of view, they have a few advantages over the CPC.
Bryce.
QuoteHmmmm, not as shitty as you think...
yeay I know...
I spend a lot of time at a french forum :
Gamopat.forum...
LA MICRO-INFORMATIQUE 8-16bits HYPOCONDRIAQUE (http://www.gamopat-forum.com/f26-la-micro-informatique-8-16bits-hypocondriaque)
There are a few Atari 8bit fans there...
But my point was that this Atari 8 bit took like 25years for coders to understand how to do better than a mode0 in 4 colours... sort of.
Its video modes are somewhat quite hard to even understand : complicated...
That's what I like with the CPC... limited video modes, yet simple so efficiants... no attributes nor big constraints.
Just... limited number of colours yet good resolution to compensate, and still a few effects too.
IMO the Atari 8 bit also suffer the MSX syndrome...
"Many" different generations all named the same.
Gotta specify what model you talk about actually...
(which you did Bryce...)
Many guys tell me "MSX is great"...
while they should say "MSX2 or later"... because MSX1 is not that awesome IMO.
but hey, Tramiel killed the Atari 8 bit ranges... because of Atari ST of course.
Yomps on "Atari8bit"...
I guess this could be done almost the same but in mode1 on an amstrad PLUS perhaps...
The Space Harrier is nice, yet somewhat not that much coloured...
It is a modern homebrew though...
I also believe we could get somethoing better on a CPC6128/PLUS cartridge...
Space Harrier on CPC wasn't that good (to much transparency, yet it is fast and almost playable provided you manage to see the things on the screen. But not that much faithfull to Arcade concerning Gameplay (some sort or erzatz...)
and the second opus was speccy ported too much too, IMO.
Crowland is nice indeed...
I just hope the flickering sprites are due to the emulation...
Nice parallax too, not sure it could be achieved that well on a CPC, but clearly a PLUS can do something looking as good and even playing as well.
Oh, Pokey was a nice soundchip though...
And we al know those britons never put Hardware sprites on their machine which is quite a shame...
QuoteMy opinion is that hardware development has always been two steps ahead of software so the machines get left behind by faster machines with more RAM that can be coded for less efficiently and still maintain a reasonable user experience.
Well...
Software dev was mined by piracy, while Hardware production/dev wasn't.
Also Software makers were limited by their knowledge, experience and imagination... and they were mostly alone...
Many of the best productions were from teams... like a pair of coders, often... (Oliver Twins ?)
At those times, a coder wouldn't share his coding secrets... because doing so he was arming the concurrents.
Proper complete documentation on the electronics parts weren't that complete nor easily available... custom chips in computer were some sort of "secret" that you wouldn't give to rival computer maker... and many tricks (or "undocumented features) were simply by-products of faulty (or genius) designs, not even imaginated by the creators.
ex :
Overscan/full screen on CPC is not really an "official" feature... yet a good surprise...
internet wasn't what it is, coders simply couldn't see each other that easily from one side of the glode to another, or even one part of a country to one other...
In France we had this magazine : Amstrad 100pour100...
it used to have nice technical articles from demomakers (and actually crackers) concerning Overscan, Rasters, scrollingsand so on...
But those were released a bit late in the CPC era... like 1989+... not 1985...
And last but not least... many coders actually still had some habitudes froms older machines...
Many guys who did CPC games were more Speccy coders than actually CPC coders.
Hardware often had one complete year to be developped... while Software had a few months at best.
and so on and so on.
Considering Alan Sugar did a lot of executive medlings, it is a miracle the CPC managed to be a good computer after all.
Quote from: robcfg on 15:58, 28 April 12
Hmmmm, not as shitty as you think... :P
Space Harrier - Atari 8-Bit XL/XE (Final Release) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B-_6-RuJR0#)
Yoomp! - An 8-bit Atari game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxICcU3bPo#)
I've always had a soft spot for the Atari 800XL - For me it was an amazing little computer.
atari xl/xe game crownland (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAjvlSCf7CE#)
Quote from: MacDeath on 22:32, 29 April 12In France we had this magazine : Amstrad 100pour100...
A great magazine.
But, better to write it :
Cent
Pour
Cent (hundred percent) ... 100% CPC and all about CPC.
Quote from: Bryce on 09:26, 29 April 12
I'm also a big Atari XL/XE fan and from a hardware point of view, they have a few advantages over the CPC.
Bryce.
Really? Which one could that be, except the 256 colors? (I'm asking seriously, like usual, would appreciate some short comments).
QuoteReally? Which one could that be, except the 256 colors?
Well, the 256 colours palette, and a few sprites, the soundchip was good to (4 channels instead of only 3...)
the MOS 6502 wasn't set at the usual 1mhz but at 1,7x mhz... which is quite some kind of overclock too.
And the XE had a nice ATARI ST-like look... which is kool too...
Sadly most (all ?) models lacked in-built disc drive.
And the video modes are somewhat axed on large blocky pixels anyway... and a pain in the @$$ to properly use/program...
Also the hardSprites may be quite... not that good looking (big pixels, not alot of colours anyway...)...
Most of the times, games were like some "Mode0.5"... a mode0 with 4 colours (mostly for the background) but a lots of rasters and a few Hardsprites... perhaps like Ghost and goblin on CPC with more rasters...
Managed nice scrolling though, or even some nice "3D"...
would have been really cool to have the CPU overclocked on the CPC too... ;)
check it by yourself...
60 Best Atari 8-bit games - Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfouuznWOUA#)
60 Atari 8-bit Games - Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk5TzvLIUIs#)
60 Best Atari 8-bit Games - Part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkNpUT2Sf5I#)
So having such a big Palette was often rendered useless because of all the limitations in number of colours actually usable without restrictions...
had the CPC had 256 colour palette, it would have passed as the best Graphic capability of the early 80's
(which it actually was anyway with its cubic3 RGB, lol... and only one grey).
There were a lot of "software video modes" possible on the Atari 8 bit, yet not always that easy to actually exploit for games.
But IMO, those Atari 8 bit games can be good to provide ideas on the way to actually well use the PLUS/GX4000 with mode1, rasters and Hardsprites...
Also if only the Atari ST also had a pokey in addition to its YM... would have been awesome.
But sorry to spoil the topic, it was supposed to deal with a far superior machine : the GX4128...
not an Atari Jokes topic...
Ok, ok, you can be likely be right in all that things. But not about the CPU, because the 6502 stuff is just a fart compared to the Z80. Our lovely Z80 can address 16 Bits, and that 6509 buggy-boy can only address 256 bytes directly.
Compare Driller or Starglider on c64/atari with the much more superior version on CPC. The power of the Z80! Year baby! 8)
But I like the Atari (and Atari freax) way more that all c64 stuff (pure evil!).
Quote from: MacDeath on 19:48, 30 April 12
the MOS 6502 wasn't set at the usual 1mhz but at 1,7x mhz... which is quite some kind of overclock too.
Actually, the C64 is the only 6502 machine I know that runs at such a slow speed (maybe because it's actually a 6510). The BBC-B 6502 was clocked at 2MHz.
Quote from: Executioner on 01:24, 01 May 12
Actually, the C64 is the only 6502 machine I know that runs at such a slow speed (maybe because it's actually a 6510). The BBC-B 6502 was clocked at 2MHz.
Well, the c64 had 0.9 MHz. Actually it runs thereby in the KHz region. :P
Quote from: TFM/FS on 15:57, 01 May 12
Well, the c64 had 0.9 MHz. Actually it runs thereby in the KHz region. :P
I think it is actually 1MHz, but the processor is disabled during certain parts of the display in order to fetch sprite data, making it effectively slower.
That may well be :-)
At the c64 datasheet they say "@ 0.985 MHz (PAL version)". So roundet 1 MHz, but i prefer to do runding by cutting numbers ... 0.9 then :P
Well, that little fraction of MHz may make a fair bit of difference! As I'm sure most people know, the Z80 in the GX4000 is clocked slightly lower than a standard CPC and I can report that while playing FLUFF the slowdown that occurs at various points during the game (you know when there are a fair few sprites going and the "loose a life" sequence where Fluff bounces up and down) seems at least subjectively a fair bit more exaggerated on the GX. I have played the game on both my 464Plus and the GX and it seems a little more sure footed on the 464. I haven't run both at the same time, not quite sure how I would be able to do a move for move comparison to see the difference really to see if its just my imagination. So this made me think is there anything that would work as a sort of benchmark tool for the CPC? I guess it would be kind of interesting to do some sort of benchmarking now that there is the opportunity.
Well take both machines, and start both at the same time, and press both joypads in the same (up right?) direction, ... wait for differences...
Just thought I'd give this a bit of a bump as I have now managed to get a PCW keyboard working with my GX4128, not only that but I have replaced most of the keys with the ones from my dead 464 keyboard the remaining ones will be painted to 464 colour scheme for now I have just coloured them in with sharpies (lol) to get an idea of how it will look...
Quote from: TFM/FS on 19:20, 30 April 12
Really? Which one could that be, except the 256 colors? (I'm asking seriously, like usual, would appreciate some short comments).
I was speaking from a hardware expansion point of view: 5V available at the joystick ports. analogue inputs on the joystick port, fully address decoded cartridge port, S-video signals available. All things that the (Classic) CPC didn't have.
@Badstarr: Crazy colours, it looks like a seasick Enterprise 128 :D
Bryce.
Haa! Good description! I might get some paint today and sort those keys out if I can find some that match well enough. I will have to finish the epoxy on the DEL and SHIFT key. I was going to keep the white casing but I think I might paint it black so I guess the GX will have to follow this scheme too. Certainly unique!
Quote from: Bryce on 10:49, 20 June 12
it looks like a seasick Enterprise 128 :D
Loltastic.
Well here is my progress so far, I couldn't resist painting up the unfinished DEL and SHIFT key to see what it all looks like. Not too bad really, I ran out of black paint so the space bar is half base coated, and the really nice satin sheen I managed to get was slightly ruined by a bit of splutter when the can was running out (kinda gives it a more industrial look which I'm starting to think might look pretty good actually, at least from some angles lol)
[attach=2]
I think I will be able to live with it when its finished. I think it's quite an improvement on the old 6128 keyboard idea I had...
Sorry, but all look dirty.
Better to buy a 6128Plus and use it like that, instead off killing/hacking all those poor hardware... :(
Wow, this looks very neat. Like a modern-date update!! Wish I had a PC keyboard like that :)
Thanks Gryzor! I was just thinking the very same thing! The GX4128 keyboard is in front of me now so I have to reach over to get to my Mac keyboard to type this and I have written most of this reply on the wrong keyboard lol! Shame it isn't connected to the Mac typing fruitlessly into the wrong keyboard gets a little tedious! I do have a black USB keyboard that I might have a go at 464-ing!
And yup, I haven't given the keys a good clean yet (but I think its a vast improvement on the PCW keyboard it was 24 hrs ago lol!) and DEL and SHIFT are not fully finished I just got a little giddy when I placed the newly painted case over the keyboard unit and thought that it does sorta look convincingly 464ish in the flesh. The black/blank keys are intensionally the same colour as the case as, I don't want to consider them as really being part of the keyboard, they actually send the joystick commands so they can be kinda useful if a joystick aint handy but they aren't laid out very ergonomically lol!.
Sure, it's WIP... So, I'll hope that the final result will make me lie.
Just one last thing I haven't really killed any hardware. The 6128 that I borrowed the keyboard from was dead (cheap on ebay always worth it for spares) and now I have repaired it so it got its keyboard back. So that's one more living 6128 in the world. The 464 that donated its keys to the PCW keyboard has a thoroughly calcified membrane and half its ICs are dead. Its cassette unit is missing several vital components too, that's the way it was sold to me. Since I only ever bought it to use its keyboard for my project I feel it fulfilled its purpose better than a landfill at any rate.
Granted I half killed a GX4000 when I started this project but I used parts from that to repair another GX4000 which was a brick until that point, (but very cheap on ebay as a result). The PCW keyboard came from a computer recyclers, and several times its ebay auction expired with no bids and I assume as they weren't selling a PCW as well, that the keyboard had no real future in front of it. Now it's a pretty nifty way of interacting with my GX machine!
I have a 464+ with HxC and 128k so I don't need a 6128+, besides, I have a GX4000 that can do anything a 6128+ can and I have the added bonus of knowing I made it do that ;D
Quote from: Badstarr on 16:12, 20 June 12
I have a 464+ with HxC and 128k so I don't need a 6128+, besides, I have a GX4000 that can do anything a 6128+ can and I have the added bonus of knowing I made it do that ;D
Well, I don't agree here. Think about the frequency of the crystal. That topic was discussed before.
Granted it's a little slower but I tried a simple benchmarking routine and the difference was negligible, I think I was just imagining a perceived difference in performance when I first tried FLUFF because it seems more or less the same on the 464+. I'm playing Super Cauldron right now on the GX and it's smooth as butter!
Yeah! Nothing can beat real hardware! :)
The frequency difference between the CPC+ and the GX4000 is so minimal, that I doubt any gamer could tell what machine a game is running on. It's barely humanly noticable.
Bryce.
I agree completely. The only thing I noticed when running Fluff on the GX was that when the CPU hits saturation point, ie; when there are lots of sprites on screen and the screen scrolls and everything gets a little choppy. You can notice the affect a little more, but in comparison to my 464+ it's not as pronounced as I perceived it to be. I tend to notice differences in timing more between audio events (so to speak), I'm maybe a little more sensitive to this as I have a degree in sound engineering and matching sounds with visual events is something I had a ridiculous amount of practice doing as a result. I would say having tried Fluff again yesterday on both systems (and this is based purely on intuition) that the lag on the GX when the game stutters is around 150 ms longer than on the 464, just barely perceivable as you say. Its like the lag is stretched out but this depends a lot on what is happening at the time. Platform games as we know depend on timing so lag tends to leap right out. However it seems Prehistorik 2 plays exactly the same on both machines.
Quote from: Bryce on 21:07, 20 June 12
The frequency difference between the CPC+ and the GX4000 is so minimal, that I doubt any gamer could tell what machine a game is running on. It's barely humanly noticable.
Bryce.
That's too easy ;-) Games are sometimes encoded in a way that they use up nearly all microseconds. So, if the GX is only for some microseconds too slow, it may miss tha point when the "FRAME" routine starts. That means you will loose a full frame(!). Now, due to this all timing get's messed up and the game will loose any kind of smoothness. To argue with pure speed leads nowhere, you have to consider what the program does. Well, and this is different for everyone. Fluff is one example, but there are others.
The Frame rate is different too, so it doesn't ever miss a frame.
Bryce.
Quote from: Bryce on 19:54, 21 June 12
The Frame rate is different too, so it doesn't ever miss a frame.
Bryce.
Ok, so why is Fluff acting obviously so different?
I wish I could think of an easy way to do a side by side comparison between the GX and the CPC. The difficulty is that both machines cant be controlled easily at the same time, my Plus machine loads via HxC, this seems a little quicker than loading from the physical disk that the GX currently loads from. Even recording the video output from each machine separately isn't really a good solution as key presses wont be timed exactly the same and loading times aren't directly comparable. Unless I can rig something up that produces the same pattern of key presses etc, this seems a little over the top when we can say with some certainty that there will be a very slight difference in speed but from a users' point of view they would be hard pushed to tell the difference and any difference is more than likely to be subjective/psychological. I would say it's a bit like after I have washed my car, to me it "feels" better, more responsive etc, but there is no way that simply making it clean and shiny could make any difference to the way it runs, just knowing it looks nicer changes my perception I guess. If I didn't know that the GX was clocked at a reduced rate I doubt I would have noticed anything but knowing it is will have more than likely caused me to over scrutinise any normal slowdown and while I do think that Fluff does seem to have slightly more lag, it is, in real terms, barely perceptible.
@TFM/FS Maybe you could code something for FutureOS that would settle this beyond any doubt? I would be more than happy to try it on my CPC and GX. I have tried a couple of BASIC bench mark routines but in all honesty there is only a minuscule difference, in fact, some don't show any differences at all, I suppose this could be due to the BASIC execution speed or something like that. I guess that my GX system does provide a rather unique opportunity to explore the performance of the GX4000 so we should test it out scientifically. :)
Yes the differences are minor, the problems arise when a routine uses up exactly 100% of cpu time, then waits for a FRAME fly, then it's just 1-2 ys too late, so it will wait for the NEXT FRAME-fly-back. That will cause a 50% slow down. But nearly no program uses up 100% cpu time in a FRAME.
I will play around as soon as I have access to my machines.
Well, except Fluff, this discussion is probably more or theoretical nature ;-)
I will think how to check, and try to create a small program for checking....
ARRGGHHH! :o I was just woken up by a rather loud crash, it seems my cat has attacked my GX! I found it about 6 feet away from the work bench where I left it, looks like a couple of wires have come loose hope its ok, I don't have the nerve to try it out think I will wait until the morning. I cant believe it! The first time I didn't pack it away ???
UPDATE...Since I was finding it a little difficult to sleep having found my GX4128 in bits on the floor, I got brave and after a bit of a check that the loose wire weren't causing any shorts and assessing the damage elsewhere. I found that one IC had some broken legs and that seemed to be the extent of the damage. I plugged everything in and got a brief flash of the Amsdos screen then nothing. I unplugged it and happened to glance at a capacitor that I hadn;t noticed was at a right angle, (I assume this took the brunt of the fall) its legs were sort of twisted together, and appeared to be part of the scart connection. I untwisted it and tried again but just the Black Screen of Death. I have tried it now plugged in via the monitor socket and it is working, but no f1 f2 menu which makes snese as the IC that controls this is missing some limbs. I'm sure I can fix it will just take some time to work out where the wires need to go back to and find another 74HC405 to restore the f1 f2 menu.
Not so bad I guess, I think now I can get back to sleep, as for the cat, he is currently howling at the door to get back in grrr!
Phew! More or less up and running again. Seems I will need a new RGB decoder chip, but the monitor output is working for now. I still need to repair part of the expansion port connections to the ASIC, but I have a bit of a headache probably due to lack of sleep so I'm not entirely in the mood for soldering tiny wires back up again. So TFM/FS, if you have thought of a benchmarking/testing routine, I should still be able to test it for you, but as you probably guessed, no rush! lol!
Quote from: Badstarr on 04:00, 23 June 12it seems my cat has attacked my GX! I found it about 6 feet away from the work bench where I left it
That number and the dastardly deed of the beast... that cat may be possessed by the spirit of a 6502, making it see the CPC as an enemy (or obstacle to World Domination™): ;) if that's the image you see (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:C64_startup_animiert.gif) when looking it deep in its feline eyes (if not blinking, don't press RUN STOP - consider yourself lucky that the demon is sleeping!), you may wish to refer the case to a qualified veterinary exorcist (1-800-CALL-A-CATHOLIC). :D
Haha! I don't know if he's possessed by the spirit of Commodore, maybe he was just trying to help with the remainder of the mod? On the other hand he certainly likes to push things off tables, usually one at a time! I think he might have grabbed at a dangling cable and cat-apulted the GX across the room. I'm back on speaking terms with him now that I have the F1 F2 menu back and just a bit of soldering to restore the 4 or 5 expansion connections that have detached from the ASIC. As for the RGB encoder, I'm hoping all I need is to solder in a replacement.
I'm glad it's not completely goosed, I'm kicking myself as I usually clear everything away when I'm finished working on something, its not unusual for me to find the cat flinging screw drivers or reels of solder around.
Quote from: Badstarr on 05:33, 24 June 12
Haha! I don't know if he's possessed by the spirit of Commodore
This being a tomcat, obviously not called Regan... ;) still, in particular if the occurrences started this April: In the voice of Max von Sydow, ask the spirit if he goes by the name of Jack and had been previously incarnated as a bumblebee (though I'd thought this one had been upgraded straight to hardware heaven)...
Quotemaybe he was just trying to help with the remainder of the mod?
Installing a mouse port, obviously. ;)
QuoteOn the other hand he certainly likes to push things off tables, usually one at a time! [...] its not unusual for me to find the cat flinging screw drivers or reels of solder around.
The "hardcore" version of woolen fluff balls. :D Then again, if he tries to assimilate metals, the possession might rather be one by Borg nanoprobes. ;)
Well, fortunately just playing with the solder and not the recently used iron: "chat échaudé craint le feu" as they say (i.e. once bitten, twice shy - the Germans have the scarier variant of "gebranntes Kind", i.e. baby burnt).
*OT* What??! I've been washing my car for nothing then? Goddamn!!! *OT*
For some time I had actually given the bottom of a c64 case to my cat, lined with a fleece blankie. He liked it, until he overgrew it.
Ha! I like that! Heavy metal cat toys! Great stuff! Trying to install a mouse port! That's actually quite funny as he has been bringing me an awful lot of mice recently neatly piled up on the back door step lol! I honestly think he might have been trying to join in with the GX4000 modding, he does watch me rather a lot, he seems fascinated but from his feline perspective he probably thinks its some kind of game (not totally wrong I suppose) one that's difficult to play without opposable thumbs (there's an Eddie Izzard sketch in there somewhere!)
Back to the topic (sort of) I have just realised, my cat has helped me in a strange way, my next mod was going to be a GX4000 in a 464 case. I wanted to run it off 5Volts and switch the video output to one of Bryce's marvellous S-Video dongles. Which as you might have guessed, negates the need for the SCART RGB encoder, the modulator and the 10Volt power! I'm hoping that the 5 Volt regulator can handle the expansion power demands I will have to check that!
So now, this project will form the basis of my upcoming Uber CPC project... The Amstrad CPC 6512 GX. And the console that was to become the 6512 will become the GX4128 (MkII Codenamed Dakota... after my cat lol!)
This new project will have 512k Memory, built in MegaFlash (self built hopefully),S-Video Out, built in HxC, built in mouse port (since my cat insisted), built in Disk Drive Interface, Built in 3.5" slimline drive, Built in cassette (that may change), and possibly some digital audio storage, for digitising cassettes while loading. The plan is to also have a huge built in selection of Flash RAM based EPROMS that will be accessed via the cartridge port, so hopefully all Plus/GX4000 cartridges only a few switches away. All this housed in a classic 464 case!
Its gunna be fun building this one! lol!
OMG! What a nightmare! I really like cats, but ... :o
He's a great cat really, he has been a little bit of a pest recently though, very excitable and racing round pulling power cables/speaker cables/laptop PSUs with his teeth, thats what makes me think he could have knocked the GX down by pulling on the PSU cable. Stupidly I had not screwed the case back together, shame I didn't spot that capacitor though as if I had the machine would be all back up and running 100%.
As they say though, every dark cloud has a silver lining, and in this case, the unfortunate experience has made me reconsider how to proceed with my GX projects. It was a bit of a head slapping moment where I kind of thought "Duh! why am I attempting to restore functions I don't require for my next project?" If I hadn't thought of that I would have essentially removed the features in another GX4000 after reinstating them in an already modified system lol! Can't see the wood for the trees sometimes!
Anyway I have ordered the parts I need for the S-Video unit, could only find the NTSC crystal oscillator as the PAL one didn't turn up when I did a search, but strangely enough several references to the AD724 IC showed up. My TV supports both standards so it makes no real difference. The 5Volt psu I will be using with the final system is producing a bit of a noisy signal so I reckon I will make a filter on the socket to deal with that, I think a Cap and a Diode should do it.