On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:22:36 -0700, larwe wrote:

> 
> larwe wrote:
> 
> If I was writing the universal book, it would be a torrid tale of lust,
> swashbuckling adventure, religious serenity, murder, vampirism, fervid
> calmness, death, resurrection and a journey of self-discovery, with
> overtones of conspiracy theory and a good solid scientific basis. 

That's fine.  Just make sure it fits into a Spartan-3E Starter Board. 
Hmmmm, where is that VHDL module for vampirism ...

    ~Dave~

larwe wrote:

> I'm working on the idea/presentation for my next book. It relates to

I now have my five sacrificial victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hesteemed
reviewers, thank you. So while I appreciate any feedback and
suggestions, the "vacancies" for paid reviewers are filled.

I'd just like to point out that I do not reasonably anticipate every
man, woman and child on the planet to purchase this book. I don't
expect everyone to /like/ this book, in fact.

If I was writing the universal book, it would be a torrid tale of lust,
swashbuckling adventure, religious serenity, murder, vampirism, fervid
calmness, death, resurrection and a journey of self-discovery, with
overtones of conspiracy theory and a good solid scientific basis. That
would get me on the Oprah Winfrey show fersure. Pity I can't stand the
woman.

larwe wrote:
> Isaac Bosompem wrote:
>
> > I think this is a great idea! I will be working soon (and will be
> > getting cash) so I will be looking out for your other book!
>
> Good! Did you find that internship, or what?

Not really, just a general summer job. I will be applying for a work
term after this coming year :).
>
> > The tile engines I am sure can be done in VHDL without too much
> > overhead. Also the YM synthesizers can be done too, YM chips really are
> > just a bunch of LUT's and weighted summers.
>
> Some of Taito's systems from the early 90s achieved AMAZING effects
> with those Yamaha chips. Really incredible stuff. Look at Crime City,
> for example.

Hey that game is pretty fun! I like those side scroller beat em ups :).

Taito is definitely one of the names that ring a bell. I to this day am
still very impressed with the sound of FM synthesizers. The Genesis was
nothing spectacular since the FM chip it used was I think a low cost
version, but the arcade ones simply blow me away.

I find some of SNK and their NeoGeo games to also have good soundtracks
that are a very good mix of FM/DAC.

Isaac Bosompem wrote:

> I think this is a great idea! I will be working soon (and will be
> getting cash) so I will be looking out for your other book!

Good! Did you find that internship, or what?

> The tile engines I am sure can be done in VHDL without too much
> overhead. Also the YM synthesizers can be done too, YM chips really are
> just a bunch of LUT's and weighted summers.

Some of Taito's systems from the early 90s achieved AMAZING effects
with those Yamaha chips. Really incredible stuff. Look at Crime City,
for example.

larwe wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm working on the idea/presentation for my next book. It relates to
> retrogaming from an embedded developer's standpoint (not an emulation
> book, but more along the lines of "this is how you could develop a
> modern version of the 2D tile-based graphics ASIC in XYZ old arcade
> machine", and "this is how you can simulate a YM2159 synthesizer in
> VHDL"). I feel many of these circuits have modern applications beyond
> gaming. I will include /some/ historical material in the book, but it's
> mostly concentrated on applications.
>
> The book will be based around the Xilinx ML403 EDK [I haven't yet
> decided fersure which CPU core I will be using but in order to exploit
> synergies with other work I'm doing it is likely to be PowerPC]. Very
> strong C and digital design skills are presumed. This is assuredly not
> a novice-level book; it is intermediate to advanced material.
>
> I'm looking for five people (only) to review my outline and make
> suggestions, particularly of additional pieces of arcade, console or
> home computer hardware I can implement in VHDL or C. There is a small
> gift certificate in it for you if you participate (your choice of
> amazon.com or cabelas.com).
>
> During the official submission process, I also have to provide at least
> two reviewer contacts to my publisher. I will be selecting those two
> reviewers from the pool of five people gathered in my first-round
> review. My publisher typically pays a cash honorarium of ~$80 or twice
> that amount in books.
>
> If you're interested, please contact me via email.
>
> Muchos gracias.

Hi Larwe,

I think this is a great idea! I will be working soon (and will be
getting cash) so I will be looking out for your other book!

I have always loved video games ever since I was a child (particularly
my firs tsystem being a Sega Genesis). Video games was what got me
interested in digital electronics, particularly microprocessors.

The tile engines I am sure can be done in VHDL without too much
overhead. Also the YM synthesizers can be done too, YM chips really are
just a bunch of LUT's and weighted summers.

-Isaac

Steve Muccione wrote:

> so you're going to go into detailed design of a blitter and sprite
> generator?

I wasn't actually going to put a blitter in there, I was focused more
on tile-based graphics (i.e. no need to blit memory around - because
the only mem that actually changes is a kilobyte or two of tiles).

> Are you trying to create a vhdl library for reuse?

To a certain degree it's a cookbook. The point is to capture
interesting techniques that were used back in the 80s and 90s.

???

so you're going to go into detailed design of a blitter and sprite 
generator?

I would think that anyone with the hw available to play with this would 
already be able to throw together their own blitters.

Are you trying to create a vhdl library for reuse?

"larwe" <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1146189828.634022.68820@e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com...
> Hello all,
>
> I'm working on the idea/presentation for my next book. It relates to
> retrogaming from an embedded developer's standpoint (not an emulation
> book, but more along the lines of "this is how you could develop a
> modern version of the 2D tile-based graphics ASIC in XYZ old arcade
> machine", and "this is how you can simulate a YM2159 synthesizer in
> VHDL"). I feel many of these circuits have modern applications beyond
> gaming. I will include /some/ historical material in the book, but it's
> mostly concentrated on applications.
>
> The book will be based around the Xilinx ML403 EDK [I haven't yet
> decided fersure which CPU core I will be using but in order to exploit
> synergies with other work I'm doing it is likely to be PowerPC]. Very
> strong C and digital design skills are presumed. This is assuredly not
> a novice-level book; it is intermediate to advanced material.
>
> I'm looking for five people (only) to review my outline and make
> suggestions, particularly of additional pieces of arcade, console or
> home computer hardware I can implement in VHDL or C. There is a small
> gift certificate in it for you if you participate (your choice of
> amazon.com or cabelas.com).
>
> During the official submission process, I also have to provide at least
> two reviewer contacts to my publisher. I will be selecting those two
> reviewers from the pool of five people gathered in my first-round
> review. My publisher typically pays a cash honorarium of ~$80 or twice
> that amount in books.
>
> If you're interested, please contact me via email.
>
> Muchos gracias.
> 

Dave wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:03:48 -0700, larwe wrote:

> > The book will be based around the Xilinx ML403 EDK [I haven't yet
>
> That EDK is what, $900-$1000 USD?  I don't picture many individuals
> of intermediate to advanced skill levels shelling out that much just to

It's just under $1k retail. Assume that you already have suitable
hardware, though. The idea is to lift segments out of the book for your
own evil purposes. I'm using the ML403 because I like it and I got it
"free".

"larwe" <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> escribi&#4294967295; en el mensaje 
news:1146195916.743345.180090@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>
> The ML403 EDK is < $1,000. While not cheap, it's not prohibitive
> either. I did say this wasn't an introductory-level book... :)
>

Interesting subject.

Please, make sure the whole thing can be programmed with the Webpack, or 
some other free package. I don't think hobbyists, and students are willing 
to pay an anual subscription for a full ISE in addition to the development 
board.


Best regards

Josep Dur&#4294967295;n


* It is  Much_a_s  Gracias   unless you want to refer to Terminator or David 
Beckam or ...   ;-)

On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:03:48 -0700, larwe wrote:

> The book will be based around the Xilinx ML403 EDK [I haven't yet
> decided fersure which CPU core I will be using but in order to exploit
> synergies with other work I'm doing it is likely to be PowerPC]. Very
> strong C and digital design skills are presumed. This is assuredly not
> a novice-level book; it is intermediate to advanced material.

That EDK is what, $900-$1000 USD?  I don't picture many individuals
of intermediate to advanced skill levels shelling out that much just to
recreate old games.  And I don't see people who want to recreate old games
shelling out that much.  Good luck!


    ~Dave~