thefox wrote: Or you can try to get it working with loopy's mapper source, it's all in Verilog. In any case, I think emulator support is more important than PowerPak support, truthfully.
Are loopy's mappers open source? I can only find the synthesized mapper config files. I never asked him though...
I agree emu is more important than powerpak, but it would be helpful for development verification/debugging by Tepples. The games can always be played individually by the powerpak.
Hmm, not sure. If/when Streemerz is released separately on a cart at some point, that naming could get confusing.
Good point, Maybe something to the effect of '2012 compo multicart featuring streemerz and others.' Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue... I'm at a loss on this one. Maybe Action15 streemerz bundle? IDK...
Since this is basically charity, you should try to be as transparent as possible about how much the manufacturing costs, how much profit is made etc, and how the profits are used. So please post all of these figures when you know them.
Also, if profits are used for Action 53, are the profits from Action 53 also used for compo prizes, etc? I wouldn't want to see any of the profits being funneled into for-profit projects.
Now, don't take this as me accusing you of anything, I just want transparency.
I agree with the transparency. I thought about posting some of the details of costs in my original post but didn't expect people to want those details at this point. I'll work on putting this info together and sharing it here. The only thing I'd ask is that people don't take my plan/budget as set in stone. We still don't have the final product prototyped out yet so things can change. And I don't have all the parts in hand yet either, so at the moment I can only provide an estimate. I'll be as transparent as possible throughout the process.
I don't think the future projects Tepples was speaking of were for-profit. But yes we'll be sure the funds will stay reserved for non-profit projects. If there is debate on whether or how the funds should be spent we can always vote on it.
BTW, I also have to make sure everything Streemerz related is OK with Arthur Lee, but since this is a not-for-profit project that supports the community, I don't think he'll have any problem with it.
Alright thanks, let us know how he responds.
As for the emulators the more the merrier IMO, everyone is welcome to start implementing the mapper. Tepples and I have sorted out the detail of start up. Basically the ONLY requirement is that the last 16KB of the ROM are located at $C000-FFFF upon startup. The multicart menu will handle the rest of the setup from there.
slobu wrote:What about including that ROM ripper that uses audio? I'd love to have a way to back up my games. or, is the cart swapping technique so sketchy it may end up frying the bundle cart?
Good question, I can't really see it being an issue from a cartridge/hardware perspective, I dunno about space though. My only concern about this would be people expecting me to provide support for a tool I know next to nothing about...
Here's the current transparency I have to offer:
$1.20 1x XC9536XL CPLD (mapper)
$0.30 1x 3.3V LDO voltage reg
~$2 1x 512KB EPROM (PRG ROM)
$1.30 1x 32KB SRAM (CHR RAM)
$0.50 1x attiny13 (CIC)
~$0.20 5x power/noise caps
~0.50 sales tax and shipping of above
~$2 PCB
$4.15 Case with shipping (perhaps retrozone will sell these to us at discount???)
$??? Labels (I don't have a great solution for these, perhaps retrozone has something to offer?)
$? Shipping supplies
$? Do we want sleeves assuming retrozone will sell them to us?
TOTAL ~$12-13 + paypal fees and shipping to customer
As for what we charge it's kinda open for debate. There are some things to figure out consider here. Is this going to officially be the compo multi-cart? I know Memblers already had some supplies for 30-40 boards, last I heard he didn't have cases though. I don't want to put him out on the money he's already invested for the dedicated compo multicarts. We owe ~$175 in prizes to the winners of the NROM competition.
So for supplies and compo prizes we're looking at ~$825. So the goal would be that the quantity we're fairly certain we can sell would cover that expense. If we only sold 20 carts that would be ~$40 or so. If we sell 30 carts would be around $30.
Assuming we sold all 50, after covering expenses prizes we'd have:
@$20 ~$175 earned
@$30 ~$675 earned
@$40 ~$1175 earned
Personally $30-40 sounds pretty reasonable and puts us at a pretty decent spot. Some may be wondering how that money would actually be spent in the future. Well that's really up to all of us especially if you're buying the carts I'd think. Here are some things I could see it getting spent on:
*Handing over sizable compo prizes at the time of announcing winners. Having that money already set aside would hopefully entice more entries and give people confidence that we're going to give prizes that we promise.
*Web hosting costs? IDK how these are being handled currently but I think it would be nice to support ourselves as a community.
*Supply investments for future compo multicarts. I'm willing to make the financial investment personally to make this happen this time around. But it would be nice to have reserve funds to buy parts/pcbs possibly before a future compo ends. Then we'd only have production/assembly time to wait before holding fresh carts in our hands. Additionally the funds we have on reserve would justify buying larger quantities of parts to get a better deal for ourselves. We may also have to consider labor costs for assembly of future releases. It's not a big deal for one person to make 50 of these, but a few hundred is quite a chore, and is probably worth having done by a professional assembler.