Original game carts on GBZ?

[abrugsch]

interesting stuff on the video, but those 2 additional controllers would make it almost impossible to fit even in DMG case i think?
also question: how much is that "abit more time to dump.."? have you dumped any really games and can give any numbers on that?

Well this is just the prototype version. For my build I'm going to use the SOIC package version which is a lot smaller than the DIP package.
As for times, sorry I can't remember the specifics, just that having a proper made PCB with ground planes means I'll be able to push the bus speed up to the chips rated speed. And maybe push it further by changing over to the SPI version MCP23S17.
But most b/w GB carts are less than about 20 banks, with each bank taking about 2-3 secs to dump. Perfet dark is an outlier and very few are anywhere near 255 banks in size. Afair, few are even 128 in size. Remember, memory was expensive back then!

[Pap]

Well this is just the prototype version. For my build I'm going to use the SOIC package version which is a lot smaller than the DIP package.
As for times, sorry I can't remember the specifics, just that having a proper made PCB with ground planes means I'll be able to push the bus speed up to the chips rated speed. And maybe push it further by changing over to the SPI version MCP23S17.
But most b/w GB carts are less than about 20 banks, with each bank taking about 2-3 secs to dump. Perfet dark is an outlier and very few are anywhere near 255 banks in size. Afair, few are even 128 in size. Remember, memory was expensive back then!

yeah i didnt really need the exact seconds number, just a "somewhat" calculation. 2-3 seconds is really nothing (slightly longer than the falling nintendo logo when starting gameboy:P)
so let me get this right cuz im not sure i understand you fully (sorry im a newb in these). as the final result you wanna end with an AIO board like KITE's or HELDER's other projects?

[abrugsch]

yeah i didnt really need the exact seconds number, just a "somewhat" calculation. 2-3 seconds is really nothing (slightly longer than the falling nintendo logo when starting gameboy:P)

that's 2-3 seconds PER BANK.
a gameboy cart can have anything from 1 bank (tetris) to (afair) 255 banks (perfect dark)
at 2-3 seconds, perfect dark takes 12 minutes!
this is what I'm trying to speed up. I've optimised my code as much as possible to speed this up, so now it's down to improving the I2C bus speed. at the moment that's limited by the prototype nature of the lash up, as it will be susecptible to noise at higher speeds. at the moment I don't know if I'm at the limit of the lash up or the limit of the cartridge ROM.

so let me get this right cuz im not sure i understand you fully (sorry im a newb in these). as the final result you wanna end with an AIO board like KITE's or HELDER's other projects?

I'm going to end up with a PCB that will contain SOME things. this reader interface, 4 buttons with maybe another MCP23x17 as the controller, the original gameboy amplifier chip, graceful shutdown, DPI interface... etc. probably not a massive AIO like kite's or helders, but will certainly have a lot of things on it

[Pap]

that's 2-3 seconds PER BANK.

oh okay i didnt get that it's per bank:) well yep, for some bigger games this will be a real pain in the ass.
good luck with the progress to improve the interface transfer speeds:) maybe you will come up with some revolution.

as for the board, still would prefer/pay for a just reader board or a true AIO but just my opinion

[abrugsch]

that's 2-3 seconds PER BANK.

oh okay i didnt get that it's per bank:) well yep, for some bigger games this will be a real pain in the ass.
good luck with the progress to improve the interface transfer speeds:) maybe you will come up with some revolution.

as for the board, still would prefer/pay for a just reader board or a true AIO but just my opinion

well nothing is set in stone yet. I'm still just prototyping to get the speeds up first. then my build will come, then maybe an AIO. or maybe someone else will incorporate my reader into an AIO... who knows the whole thing might be a gigantic waste of time

If nobody cares for it, then I'll do my project and that will be it. I was never doing this to sell AIO boards, in fact I was doing this project long before @Wermy went public with the original GBZ and before there was a community for making and selling AIO boards, but real life has been getting in the way rather a lot lately. in fact I may even ditch the zero and do the whole thing with a C.H.I.P. instead as it's looking like I can do DPI AND I2C/SPI at the same time on that, along with built in WiFi, bluetooth and LiPo battery charging.

[abrugsch]

The first prototype PCB is all designed now. This is just a test run to see if I can crank the speed up when off of breadboard. Just need to check all the measurements are right, then off to oshpark!

[abrugsch]

did some measuring today and I had the pitch for the cartridge connector slightly off, so just need to re-do that (it's like less than 0.5 mm difference end to end, but it's probably enough to make a batch of boards useless!) so that's tonight's task. I've done the footprint, just need to re-route it on the board after I re-add the revised component. should be pretty quick though. so I reckon I'll have it ordered tonight!

gbslurp-pcb.PNG (138.59 KiB) Viewed 7118 times

[Pap]

did some measuring today and I had the pitch for the cartridge connector slightly off, so just need to re-do that (it's like less than 0.5 mm difference end to end, but it's probably enough to make a batch of boards useless!) so that's tonight's task. I've done the footprint, just need to re-route it on the board after I re-add the revised component. should be pretty quick though. so I reckon I'll have it ordered tonight!

gbslurp-pcb.PNG

starts to look very promising:) glad to see this is not forgoten. GOOD LUCK!

[abrugsch]

Definitely not forgotten, i just have had very little time to work on this in the past year. It's been in planning for like 18 months!