Spec256 - Is it possible?

Turrican
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Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por Turrican » 28 Ago 2017, 14:48

Is it possible to make something like Spec256 in the ZX-UNO?

http://www.emulatronia.com/emusdaqui/sp ... ex-eng.htm

If yes, we can convert a lot of games. :mrgreen:

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mcleod_ideafix
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por mcleod_ideafix » 28 Ago 2017, 18:11

I'm not sure that could be fitted in the FPGA. Anyway, the amount of work to covert existing games to this format is not trivial. It's not palette recolouring, as in ULAplus, but you have to actually disassemble the game and see how sprites are coded and outputted to the screen. There's only a few games converted. I'm not sure if it deserves the effort, honestly, but it's an interesting exercise.
http://www.zxuno.com
ZX-Uno · Clon de ordenador ZX Spectrum basado en FPGA

k_mirror
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por k_mirror » 28 Ago 2017, 20:01

In an interview with the creator of Spec256, said that the emulator consisted of a normal spectrum emulator running in parallel with another emulator who was the one who handled the new colors. He said that the coloring of the game was not as trivial as he supposed, so you had to cheat them with many POKE.

https://www.ivoox.com/3x02-parte-2-2-in ... 243_1.html

Turrican
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por Turrican » 28 Ago 2017, 23:37

Understood. :okidoki;

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vlad
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por vlad » 16 Oct 2017, 11:00

Spec256 on ReVerSE-U16
How it works

Why are we going to rewrite the game code if we already have the game, and all it needs are better graphics and sound?
But, how can you get 256 colour modes with a Spectrum emulator instead of the colours the original games have?

The idea is: in one hand we´ve got the speccy emulator with its memory zone, and in the other we emulate a Z80 which works with 64 bit registers instead of 8 bit, and with a memory map with positions of 64 bit instead of 8.

Each time a z80 instruction is emulated, the same instruction is simulated with data always supposed to be graphics. I´ve named this parallel processor Z80_GFX. Z80_GFX modifies its memory zone accordig to the instructions and doesn´t do anything with Z80´s memory zone. What have we archieved? A faithful emulation of Z80 and a memory zone from which we can obtain 256 colour graphics.

One thing must be clear: graphics don´t get 256 colours by magic. You must work on them. We´ve got some tools that allow from a SNA file the modification of the graphics with a determined 256 colour palette, generating a GFX file that contains the colour definition in 8 planes (256 colours). The Z80_GFX processor will use this data afterwards.

SPEC256 (Iñigo Ayo Blázquez and David Goti) http://emulatronia.com/emusdaqui/spec25 ... ad-eng.htm
phpBB [media]


Build 20171015:
  • - 12 games in SPIFLASH
    - CPU T80_GFX (5K6 LE's)
    - ROM 16K
    - RAM 48K
    - Video HDMI 720x480@60Hz
    - USB Keyboard
    - USB Joystick
    - Sound beeper port #FE
    - F1 = Joystick on/off, F2 = GFX256 on/off, F3 = NMI, F4 = Reset, F5 = Menu

Turrican
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por Turrican » 16 Oct 2017, 18:52

:veoestrellas:

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aowen
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por aowen » 16 Oct 2017, 20:01

Turrican escribió:Is it possible to make something like Spec256 in the ZX-UNO?

http://www.emulatronia.com/emusdaqui/sp ... ex-eng.htm

If yes, we can convert a lot of games. :mrgreen:
No. Spec256 uses a 64-bit Z80 co-processor and parallel memory to store the images. There isn't physically enough RAM or gates on the FPGA to do it. It's a very inefficient solution that really only works in software, and as has been mentioned, you have to recreate all the graphics for every game from scratch. You're much better off using ULAplus. If you want to go beyond a simple 16 color palette you can edit the game and have 64 colors on screen and nice gradient backdrops.

Turrican
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por Turrican » 16 Oct 2017, 20:08

aowen escribió:
Turrican escribió:Is it possible to make something like Spec256 in the ZX-UNO?

http://www.emulatronia.com/emusdaqui/sp ... ex-eng.htm

If yes, we can convert a lot of games. :mrgreen:
No. Spec256 uses a 64-bit Z80 co-processor and parallel memory to store the images. There isn't physically enough RAM or gates on the FPGA to do it. It's a very inefficient solution that really only works in software, and as has been mentioned, you have to recreate all the graphics for every game from scratch. You're much better off using ULAplus. If you want to go beyond a simple 16 color palette you can edit the game and have 64 colors on screen and nice gradient backdrops.
But with this we continue with colour clash, not?
And SPEC256 does not have the clash. Or it has? :D

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aowen
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por aowen » 16 Oct 2017, 23:28

Turrican escribió:
aowen escribió:
Turrican escribió:Is it possible to make something like Spec256 in the ZX-UNO?

http://www.emulatronia.com/emusdaqui/sp ... ex-eng.htm

If yes, we can convert a lot of games. :mrgreen:
No. Spec256 uses a 64-bit Z80 co-processor and parallel memory to store the images. There isn't physically enough RAM or gates on the FPGA to do it. It's a very inefficient solution that really only works in software, and as has been mentioned, you have to recreate all the graphics for every game from scratch. You're much better off using ULAplus. If you want to go beyond a simple 16 color palette you can edit the game and have 64 colors on screen and nice gradient backdrops.
But with this we continue with colour clash, not?
And SPEC256 does not have the clash. Or it has? :D
If you get rid of color clash it's not a Spectrum. But ULAplus gives you options for more color. You can have the backgrounds for the "bright" and "non-bright" inks be the same. You can have up to 32 color gradient backdrops with 8 foreground colors. And you can have palette cycling effects. You could do an Amiga 1200 in the FPGA size that would be required by Spec256, and that has rather more releases available for it. If you want a decent Z80 based machine with no attribute clash, the MSX-2 is a good candidate.

Turrican
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Re: Spec256 - Is it possible?

Mensaje por Turrican » 17 Oct 2017, 01:21

aowen escribió:
Turrican escribió:
aowen escribió:
Turrican escribió:Is it possible to make something like Spec256 in the ZX-UNO?

http://www.emulatronia.com/emusdaqui/sp ... ex-eng.htm

If yes, we can convert a lot of games. :mrgreen:
No. Spec256 uses a 64-bit Z80 co-processor and parallel memory to store the images. There isn't physically enough RAM or gates on the FPGA to do it. It's a very inefficient solution that really only works in software, and as has been mentioned, you have to recreate all the graphics for every game from scratch. You're much better off using ULAplus. If you want to go beyond a simple 16 color palette you can edit the game and have 64 colors on screen and nice gradient backdrops.
But with this we continue with colour clash, not?
And SPEC256 does not have the clash. Or it has? :D
If you get rid of color clash it's not a Spectrum. But ULAplus gives you options for more color. You can have the backgrounds for the "bright" and "non-bright" inks be the same. You can have up to 32 color gradient backdrops with 8 foreground colors. And you can have palette cycling effects. You could do an Amiga 1200 in the FPGA size that would be required by Spec256, and that has rather more releases available for it. If you want a decent Z80 based machine with no attribute clash, the MSX-2 is a good candidate.

No, no... no MSX. Thank you. :D

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