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Hey guys,

You may know me from other projects. I am the primary firmware engineer and spokesperson for the FujiNet project, which aims to bring a comprehensive network adapter to every single available retrocomputing and retrogaming system, each with similar capabilities and programming models. (more info at fujinet dot online)

For the video game systems, this would essentially boil down to:

[*] Being able to load any game from either local storage or the network
[*] Being able to interact with Internet services and/or other game players, even on different platforms due to common protocols of all shapes and sizes.

To this end, we've made a very comprehensive code-base that is extremely modular, and split across bus, device, and media lines, all interoperating with each other.

The fundamental issue that is being worked on at the moment, is to create a generic 8-bit bus interface that could easily be adapted to either computers with bus interfaces (ZX Spectrum, IBM ISA, etc.) and video game console cartridge slots. To this end, there are currently two approaches being investigated:

[*] The developer for the NEC PC-8801 is investigating an SPI to 74HCT595 interface.
[*] The ZX Spectrum developers are trying to do it with a minimum of TTL logic.

And I'm reasonably sure that some people here may have another approach that might work, and should be investigated.

One of the big wins with our code-base is the network protocol adapters that are a part of the network sub-device, which abstract complex protocol interactions for a variety of protocols (TCP, UDP, HTTP/S, SSH, SMB, TNFS, FTP, and others.), and provides a nice clean I/O channel that can be read by the target system at its leisure. Combine that with complete TLS support and on-board XML and JSON parsers, and you have everything needed to talk to modern web APIs and other complex systems, and to be able to do things like store data from native development tools somewhere else. :)

Would you like to help? I'll post the discord later.

I’m not volunteering :)

For SMS, the communication options are either something on the cartridge/card/expansion buses - which will be difficult to construct - or the controller ports, which boils down to serial connections. The latter is likely much easier to deal with in hardware but rather more complex in software.

For Game Gear, there is a communication port but effectively no way to connect to it (it’s a custom plug), or the cartridge port again (which is also made of unobtainium).

However, the “download a game” part kind of requires building a device with RAM on the cartridge bus, or super-limited games in system RAM.

Maxim wrote

I’m not volunteering :)

For SMS, the communication options are either something on the cartridge/card/expansion buses - which will be difficult to construct - or the controller ports, which boils down to serial connections. The latter is likely much easier to deal with in hardware but rather more complex in software.

For Game Gear, there is a communication port but effectively no way to connect to it (it’s a custom plug), or the cartridge port again (which is also made of unobtainium).

However, the “download a game” part kind of requires building a device with RAM on the cartridge bus, or super-limited games in system RAM.

Am quite aware, this is why I have mentioned what a couple of the other teams are doing. The device will most likely live on the cartridge port, but wanted to put out a call for anyone to help design the bus interface to the ESP32, so we can do software bring-up.

This interface is a game changer, and I am trying to get as many different platforms and their respective communities involved, so as to make something that we all can share.

-Thom

Did you see what these folks are doing? Perhaps an opportunity to collaborate?

There's a forum post here.

Author	Message
tschak909 Joined: 11 Dec 2022 Posts: 2 Location: Planet Earth	#FujiNet for the SEGA Master System, any1 want to help? Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 8:49 pm
	Hey guys, You may know me from other projects. I am the primary firmware engineer and spokesperson for the FujiNet project, which aims to bring a comprehensive network adapter to every single available retrocomputing and retrogaming system, each with similar capabilities and programming models. (more info at fujinet dot online) For the video game systems, this would essentially boil down to: [] Being able to load any game from either local storage or the network [] Being able to interact with Internet services and/or other game players, even on different platforms due to common protocols of all shapes and sizes. To this end, we've made a very comprehensive code-base that is extremely modular, and split across bus, device, and media lines, all interoperating with each other. The fundamental issue that is being worked on at the moment, is to create a generic 8-bit bus interface that could easily be adapted to either computers with bus interfaces (ZX Spectrum, IBM ISA, etc.) and video game console cartridge slots. To this end, there are currently two approaches being investigated: [] The developer for the NEC PC-8801 is investigating an SPI to 74HCT595 interface. [] The ZX Spectrum developers are trying to do it with a minimum of TTL logic. And I'm reasonably sure that some people here may have another approach that might work, and should be investigated. One of the big wins with our code-base is the network protocol adapters that are a part of the network sub-device, which abstract complex protocol interactions for a variety of protocols (TCP, UDP, HTTP/S, SSH, SMB, TNFS, FTP, and others.), and provides a nice clean I/O channel that can be read by the target system at its leisure. Combine that with complete TLS support and on-board XML and JSON parsers, and you have everything needed to talk to modern web APIs and other complex systems, and to be able to do things like store data from native development tools somewhere else. :) Would you like to help? I'll post the discord later.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:12 pm
	I’m not volunteering :) For SMS, the communication options are either something on the cartridge/card/expansion buses - which will be difficult to construct - or the controller ports, which boils down to serial connections. The latter is likely much easier to deal with in hardware but rather more complex in software. For Game Gear, there is a communication port but effectively no way to connect to it (it’s a custom plug), or the cartridge port again (which is also made of unobtainium). However, the “download a game” part kind of requires building a device with RAM on the cartridge bus, or super-limited games in system RAM.

tschak909 Joined: 11 Dec 2022 Posts: 2 Location: Planet Earth	Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:24 pm
	Maxim wrote I’m not volunteering :) For SMS, the communication options are either something on the cartridge/card/expansion buses - which will be difficult to construct - or the controller ports, which boils down to serial connections. The latter is likely much easier to deal with in hardware but rather more complex in software. For Game Gear, there is a communication port but effectively no way to connect to it (it’s a custom plug), or the cartridge port again (which is also made of unobtainium). However, the “download a game” part kind of requires building a device with RAM on the cartridge bus, or super-limited games in system RAM. Am quite aware, this is why I have mentioned what a couple of the other teams are doing. The device will most likely live on the cartridge port, but wanted to put out a call for anyone to help design the bus interface to the ESP32, so we can do software bring-up. This interface is a game changer, and I am trying to get as many different platforms and their respective communities involved, so as to make something that we all can share. -Thom

willbritton Joined: 06 Mar 2022 Posts: 671 Location: London, UK	Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:53 pm
	Did you see what these folks are doing? Perhaps an opportunity to collaborate? There's a forum post here.

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