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Posted: Thu May 15, 2014 1:26 pm |
Agreed, I would really rather focus on electrical aspects... |
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Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 10:38 pm |
I disagree. We need multiple people doing the same thing, at least for right now. First, with multiple people working on it in different ways and sharing ideas, it's more likely some one will eventually combine all the good ideas and make a really nice cart. Cereal would be boring as crap if corn flakes was the only brand on the shelf, right? We need variety and innovation until quality improves. Second, I hate sole-source for components. I used to make NES games too. I'm getting out because I don't have a good source for new parts. I used to buy new boards and cases from retrousb. They were the only provider. Last year they stopped making the product! I had to hunt the internet for a new provider, but I only found one and their stuff isn't as good. So we need multiple sources for products because no source will be around forever. [EDIT] Ni****do carts also have a security chip (CIC) that I can't reproduce at this time. Master System carts just have a checksum in the ROM, so go SEGA! The SMS cart circuit board is easy to reverse engineer too. |
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 3:24 pm |
I know that my 2p is not worth anything since I am manufacturing neither cases nor carts but I'd like to explain things as I understand them.
Hand casting cases is a short-term, low yield and very manual process that hides a great deal of the true cost (it's easy to disregard the value of one's own time and the amount of materials and prep that go into getting the technique right). The main idea of db-electronic's work is that developers purchase cartridges off of him (programmed for them or not) with which to sell on to consumers wanting to buy homebrew. Therefore the carts needs to be produced at low enough cost that the homebrew developer can buy a lot of them and sell them onto their customers at a reasonable price, and with profit. Getting an injection mould made is probably the only method that is going to scale enough to serve everybody and allow for cheap cartridges. If you have twenty developers each ordering twenty carts, hand casting is not going to cut it and 3D printing possibly won't be cheap enough. Getting an injection mould made can cost several thousand USD! A Kickstarter or similar would be needed to get this off of the ground, and to meet Kickstarter's criteria, not least inspire faith in those committing money, there would have to be some demonstrable prototype product. |
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 11:19 am |
Kroc, I quote you (again?). I also believe a KickStarter for an injection mould is the (only?) cost feasible option, after all we're not all going to make our own carts ourselves... well, at least I'm not planning to. |
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 2:42 am |
How about mapping Ram on the range $c000-$ffff. This would it add much complexity?[/quote]
Source: http://www.smspower.org/Development/RAM "Bit 4 of I/O Port $3E must be 0 for RAM to be enabled. This feature allows the Master System 8KB of RAM to be disabled and RAM from an external device such as a cart to be used in the last 16KB of the memory map." No emulator implements this functionality (tried many - sad face). About to buy as everdrive will report if works, it bus contention concerns are true and if data persists between page swaps. On Topic ...WTB!!! Wish List - All storage banks RAM/ROM compatible. SMS already decides if respective page is RAM/ROM, let it deal with the formalities. Now game cart has access to multiple 16k ram portions through say page 3 (and potentially page 4 if you disable SMS ram). - 8 MEGA POWER limit? I guess my line as a purists is low. Additional processing units... yeah, not cool. Additional mappable banks... mhe storage seams arbitrary (realize there is the voltages issue). Don't think santa is going to deliver my dream cart. No harm in having a wish list though. $4000 is a pretty low ceiling for a kickstart. 100 people x $40. This discussion is great! You got my $40 just give me the kickstart details. |
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 8:17 pm |
Hi people!
I've just received some laser-cut wood parts I designed to make carts. I chose wood because it's fun, safer, less polluting, cheaper and easier to cut for me (I forgot the edge connector screws on my design) than plexiglas. The design is not perfect and there is a 1mm-gap for the PCB in the middle, I'll improve it, but it works great! I used three 3mm-layers (MDF, dark) and one 5mm-layer (populus, light). I created the parts with freeCAD http://www.freecadweb.org/ and Inkscape, and ordered it at http://damengo.com/ (Toulouse, France). It cost me around 5€/cart including shipping, but I didn't optimized it (I'm sure it can be 3~4€/cart for more than 10 carts). |
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 7:44 am |
this is really cool! | |
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:10 am |
Sort of a steampunk Master System cartridge. ;) | |
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:54 am |
I was thinking lumberjack-punk. xD |
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 12:11 pm |
Maybe one could put Woody Pop on the cartridge? XD | |
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 1:03 pm |
I really like the retro-look the wooden carts give! | |
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 3:37 pm |
So pretty.
How would these stand against conventional carts in terms of longevity? |
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 3:46 pm |
Jokes aside, it's a nice idea. Maybe the layered design could work well with other materials, too. | |
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 11:41 am |
Are these files available to everyone here? :) I really like what you did! |
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 4:06 pm |
FYI everyone,
We just had a baby last week - little girl. I'm still working on the homebrew cart electronics; albeit at a much slower pace for the next few months. |
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 7:47 pm |
Congratulations! :) Let us know the news on the cart development asap! | |
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 9:26 pm |
Hey congrats bud! Good luck with everything. Kids is the craziest people. |
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Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:03 pm |
Also terrible productivity sinks... | |
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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:38 pm |
This is my second daughter, my other just turned 6 years old. Once the newborn is sleeping through the night my productivity will increase to some acceptable level I hope... |
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Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 5:14 pm |
Congratulations!!
Here are the fixed sketches. The two svg files have the correct scale, one is for the 3mm parts and the other for the 5mm part. I've just got a new cost estimate from the same supplier: 27.50€ for 10 wooden cartridges including taxes, without shipping. I'll ask the price for plexiglas ones. |
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 4:41 pm |
The price for transparent plexiglas cartridges is 52.32€ for 10 carts including taxes, without shipping. | |
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 4:10 am |
Hello everyone!
I have not died, nor have I given up on this project. In fact, I just had a baby and distanced myself from my side projects for a little. I'll slowly get back into the development of the homebrew carts in the coming weeks! |
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:36 pm |
Cool, thanks for the update! | |
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:05 pm |
And when you do return, lets start a new thread. Lots of junk and irrelevant stuff in this thread. It will also allow for you to update the main post every time you make progress. | |
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 4:44 pm |
Agreed, as this evolves there should be a design thread (contributors) and a suggestions thread (users). |
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