CopyNES Will Be Available Again Soon!

Discuss hardware-related topics, such as development cartridges, CopyNES, PowerPak, EPROMs, or whatever.

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kevtris

CopyNES Will Be Available Again Soon!

Post by kevtris »

Just letting everyone know that I'm gearing up for another run of copyNES units. This time, it is unlimited. I will be getting 100 boards made. The host code was redesigned some and fixed/cleaned up a bunch so it's better, and I will be offering blank PCBs and possibly some PCB+part kits depending on what people want.

The boards are on order now so in a couple weeks I should have them and that's about that. Once everything is available I will be posting it on my website and on here and a few other forums and such.

If anyone has anything the think would be good to have on copyNES' host code lemme know (i.e. debug features, etc).
tepples
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Post by tepples »

How about ability to write to common flash chips (e.g. Atmel) so that we don't have to use sockets anymore on hacked NROM cards?
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Memblers
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Post by Memblers »

tepples wrote:How about ability to write to common flash chips (e.g. Atmel) so that we don't have to use sockets anymore on hacked NROM cards?
Should be no problem, CopyNES loads code plugins from the host PC and when I get one I'll be writing one for Squeedo.
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Memblers
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Post by Memblers »

I should mention also that I've never tried flashing CHR-ROM through the PPU, so I don't know if that'd work for sure. It might.
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dXtr
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Post by dXtr »

this is great news :D
what will the price be? I must have one! ;)

edit:
about "host code (i.e. debug features, etc)." I'm not fully sure what is supported of it for now... but I would love things like:
* breakpoints that can be triggerd from a computer
* register viewer so you can watch (and possibly change) registers
* adress watch, so you can watch specific variables for your game (and possibly change them)
* memory viewer

this would be some cool futures I would love to see.. just think of how nice IDE that could be written for computers to write NES games :D
this is nothing ofcourse that has to be in CopyNES for me to buy one.. but you asked for debug features, and this are some I would love to see (if they are possible)
Sorry for misspellings, I'm from Sweden ^^
Movax
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Post by Movax »

[ (Slightly) Off topic ]

Any plans for a CopyNES system that uses video out to display status, (instead of an LCD) etc?

Doesn't seem to me that this should be too difficult. I appreciate the simplicity of using the LCD, but could one just stack a RAM IC to setup some pattern tables etc...no? Doesn't even have to be a full 8K - ASCII set can be stored in 2K.
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Quietust
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Post by Quietust »

Movax wrote:[ (Slightly) Off topic ]

Any plans for a CopyNES system that uses video out to display status, (instead of an LCD) etc?

Doesn't seem to me that this should be too difficult. I appreciate the simplicity of using the LCD, but could one just stack a RAM IC to setup some pattern tables etc...no? Doesn't even have to be a full 8K - ASCII set can be stored in 2K.
Can't be done without a major redesign, since CopyNES only overrides the CPU, not the PPU.

Besides, there's no need to indicate status on the NES side (all previous CopyNES units were shipped without the LCD!) since the client software displays all of the necessary status info.
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Jagasian
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Post by Jagasian »

OK guys, I expect everybody to redump every NES and Famicom game and confirm that the previous dumps are good or not. It is allot of hard work, but with 100 more CopyNES systems out there, everybody can chip in 1/100th of the needed work :)
kevtris

Post by kevtris »

[quote="dXtr"]this is great news :D
what will the price be? I must have one! ;)

edit:
about "host code (i.e. debug features, etc)." I'm not fully sure what is supported of it for now... but I would love things like:
* breakpoints that can be triggerd from a computer
* register viewer so you can watch (and possibly change) registers
* adress watch, so you can watch specific variables for your game (and possibly change them)
* memory viewer


Sorry, this is a modified nintendo, not an ICE (in circuit emulator). Doing that stuff is impossible in the traditional sense.

Though, what COULD be done maybe is a user could put debug stuff in their game to use copyNES' BIOS to send and receive stuff through the PC interface. You could have copyNES dump data or upload things or similar. The BIOS sits in some "empty" space on the memory map (well, more specifically it steals some of the mirrored space where the PPU and RAM sit) so it will not affect any kind of bankswitching or RAM/ROM setups.

If you wanted to monitor the value of some memory location, you could put a call to the BIOS "send" routine to blast it out the port to the PC, or alternatively have some kind of mini-dump route to dump the RAM or whatever.
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dXtr
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Post by dXtr »

ok.. as you might note I'm not an expert in hardware ^^
and those kind of thinks I proposed was more of a "fun thing to have" then something I can't live with out (all of those things can be done in emulators). so anyways, what about date when you think you can start selling, and price? :)
Sorry for misspellings, I'm from Sweden ^^
peppers
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Post by peppers »

so how much are you selling them for?

and I do not mean to offend you but you are a guest how do we know you are the real you and not just some joker
Last edited by peppers on Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Necrosaro420
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Re: CopyNES Will Be Available Again Soon!

Post by Necrosaro420 »

kevtris wrote:Just letting everyone know that I'm gearing up for another run of copyNES units. This time, it is unlimited. I will be getting 100 boards made. The host code was redesigned some and fixed/cleaned up a bunch so it's better, and I will be offering blank PCBs and possibly some PCB+part kits depending on what people want.

The boards are on order now so in a couple weeks I should have them and that's about that. Once everything is available I will be posting it on my website and on here and a few other forums and such.

If anyone has anything the think would be good to have on copyNES' host code lemme know (i.e. debug features, etc).
Sounds awesome man, ive been waiting a long time for ya to do this =) Do you have a ballpark figure of our much say the pcb+kit would cost? Thanks Alot =)
kevtris

Re: CopyNES Will Be Available Again Soon!

Post by kevtris »

Sounds awesome man, ive been waiting a long time for ya to do this =) Do you have a ballpark figure of our much say the pcb+kit would cost? Thanks Alot =)
It looks like the cost is going to be $125 per conversion, and I haven't decided yet on the bare PCB and kit versions. I got quotes out to several board houses now and I'm waiting for them to get back to me. When I know how much it will cost, I will let everyone know.

When I say "per conversion" this means you send me your *working* nintendo (yes I will check :-) and I will modify it and test it and return it to you. As for kits I'm not quite sure. I was thinking of selling bare board, board+parts, or a stuffed board (minus CPU). I might offer all 3 styles and see what people want. Once I know more how many orders I will have, I will buy parts and charge accordingly. More people = less cost per unit due to volume discounts on parts.
Movax
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Post by Movax »

Quietust wrote: Besides, there's no need to indicate status on the NES side (all previous CopyNES units were shipped without the LCD!) since the client software displays all of the necessary status info.
Of course , but it would be 'neat'. Make it easier to play around with bits of homebrew code too. (From what I thought I understood about copynes, one could still acess the ppu, the only problem with displaying something is there are no pattern tables with no cart... disable cart pattern tables, enable ppu vram...should work.)
kevtris

Post by kevtris »

Well, I ordered boards for CopyNES today... so they will be ready in a couple weeks. In the mean time I will order around 20 sets of parts. I have 100 boards coming, and they are full pro boards with soldermask on both sides and silk screen and all that fun jazz.

I haven't set a price for them yet but it looks to be in the $15 area for a bare board. As for a set of parts with the board, I dunno. The conversion is still $125 with you providing a WORKING NES.

More details will be posted when I have more info.
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