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Author Topic: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-  (Read 119203 times)

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Dr Zero

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GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« on: January 13, 2011, 04:10:05 pm »
Has one seen this yet?

Could be the basis of a bartop or other small cab. The EU plug looks like it could be swapped for a US ac adapter.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.54070

- Model: GBX-1001
- NTSC/PAL output
- CPU: GameBox dual-core 500MHz processor
- Memory: 128MB
- Flash: 2GB
- Game FORMATS support: MAME, CPS3, CPS2, CPS1, PGM, SFC, MD, PCECD
- Features micro SD card interface
- Support 720P (1280*720P) TV-Out
- Support media formats: RMVB, ASF, MKV, WMV, MOV, MP3, WMA, WAV. FLAC, APE, AAC, OGG
- With dual shock vibrating Joypad gamepad
- Comes with 60 Arcade games
- Plug and Play on your TV
- Powered by AC 100~240V EU plug
- Ultra low power consumption
- Package included:
- 1 * Game console
- 1 * Dual-shock gaming controller
- 1 * TV composite audio and video out cable
- 1 * 100~240V AC adapter (EU plug)

Manuals and info on Dynamo cabs!

Donkbaca

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2011, 04:33:52 pm »
THat is interesting.  Is the only storage it uses SD cards?  Wonder what kind of front end/OS it uses and how customizable it is.  That would be the main thing.  For 50 bucks, someone should give it a shot.

MagicManPA

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2011, 04:37:31 pm »
So who's gonna try it out & report for the rest of us? :D

Looks promising. I'm sure it needs some fine tuning, though.

FlatEarth

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2011, 04:39:33 pm »
It does look interesting.  I wonder how hard it would be to get a US power adaptor?

Also, only composite video out?

Bender

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2011, 12:39:41 am »
something aint right threre, it aint doin 720 thru composite :banghead:
and what version of mame does it support

EDIT: looks like they took the 720 specs off the page
« Last Edit: January 14, 2011, 12:45:26 am by Bender »

DJ_Izumi

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2011, 09:22:34 am »
The composite out only seems like a weakness in this modern age.  It should offer component and RGBHV over a HD15 connector at least.

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2011, 10:21:59 am »
look interesting

ordered

will post details upon arrival

opt2not

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2011, 10:36:26 am »
Interesting. $53.50 for a emulation computer w/ TV out is the right price. I wonder if those gamepads are easily hackable...


Vigo

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2011, 11:11:54 am »
Sounds like a console version of a Dingoo. I doubt it uses any commercial OS with a FE setup, but probably has a deticated interface built into its flash memory. and I agree the composite video seems to be it's achilles heel.

Here are my questions. For anyone is testing it out, thanks in advance to taking the plunge  :cheers:

*Does it accept other brand/style usb gamepads? I wonder if it is possible to plug in a usb arcade joystick setup rather than hacking the gamepad. On the same vein, are button layouts programmable, can the MAME options even be accessed?

*How does the interface look?

*At what point will there be lag and slowdown in games. I am assuming it can handle just most 2d, but any form of benchmarking would be appreciated. I'm not holding my breath on getting Gauntlet Legends working on this.  :lol

*I am assuming you put the game roms on the SD card and it will load them, but I wonder about games with samples and such...

Thanks again to anyone willing to check into this  :)


bkenobi

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2011, 11:15:25 am »
The DX page says it's a "USB DualShock" controller.  So, any playstation compatible USB game pad should work at a minimum.

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2011, 11:23:26 am »
I may not be the first person to receive one, but if I am, I'll post pics of its innards, answer all questions, etc.

I like the list of questions - I think it's a good idea to post all questions here.  I'll answer them all when I get it.

I do have a variety of USB gamepads I'll try.  If it supports USB HID in general, it may support more than a simple gamepad - I'll give it a shot.

...unless someone beats me to it.

bkenobi

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2011, 11:38:44 am »
The pictures show it has 4 USB connectors.  If it doesn't support 4 game pads...

Vigo

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2011, 11:59:34 am »
I may not be the first person to receive one, but if I am, I'll post pics of its innards, answer all questions, etc.

I like the list of questions - I think it's a good idea to post all questions here.  I'll answer them all when I get it.

I do have a variety of USB gamepads I'll try.  If it supports USB HID in general, it may support more than a simple gamepad - I'll give it a shot.

...unless someone beats me to it.

Thanks, ids! I look forward to your review!

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2011, 03:23:48 pm »
Quote
Order:   ######## placed on 1/14/2011 9:21:42 AM
Status:
(of current
shipment)
    On 1/14/2011:
Waiting for Supplier
see all processing steps
Latest
Shipment:
by Air Mail

Playing the waiting game - will keep everyone posted.

ark_ader

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2011, 03:28:32 pm »
Quote
Order:   ######## placed on 1/14/2011 9:21:42 AM
Status:
(of current
shipment)
    On 1/14/2011:
Waiting for Supplier
see all processing steps
Latest
Shipment:
by Air Mail

Playing the waiting game - will keep everyone posted.

Did the same thing to a $15 Thin client and Puppy Arcade.

Looks the same too. SD Cards and HD.



Well it does if cleaned up.  ;D
If I had only one wish, it would be for three more wishes.

lodoss118

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2011, 03:56:36 pm »
theres a jamma version aswell :@

lodoss118

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Donkbaca

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2011, 04:36:41 pm »
ooh, can you post more info on the thin client?

lodoss118

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2011, 04:58:31 pm »
if you goto features section and scroll down there is some info but basically the same as the console version

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #19 on: January 20, 2011, 12:00:03 pm »

My order status has been updated on DealExtreme.  Last item I got from them took a few weeks, so it could be a while before I can review it.  Fingers crossed it comes quickly.

Quote
Order:   ######## placed on 1/14/2011 9:21:42 AM
Status:
(of current
shipment)
    On 1/19/2011:
Packaging
see all processing steps
Latest
Shipment:
by Air Mail

Bootay

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #20 on: January 20, 2011, 12:59:31 pm »
Yea, DealExtreme is slow. I ordered something from them on the 5th of January and it just reached the shipped status yesterday. It was pending status for almost a week and a half. Then packaging status for a few days and now shipped. And the email I got said shipping takes 3-14 business days. So I am still waiting.....oh well.

clok

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #21 on: January 20, 2011, 01:37:00 pm »
I also ordered one whenit showed up on Deal Extreme, from my readin and speculation and such its not a copy of another system in anything but looks. There is somthing called a ZEEBO? that it looks exactly like, but from my reading that is the only thing that is the same. There was some speculation you might have been able to use an external HD, but it sound like that is a no go.  SD cards only from my reading.

Guess we all wait and see.

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #22 on: January 20, 2011, 03:09:55 pm »
That sums up my understanding also.  A sufficiently large micro-sd card should hold enough games; worst case scenario, you may have to swap cards.  I think the better solution, however, is to trim your ROM list.  I've not found any information on which version# each of the emulators are on there, which could be another minor issue.

Looking forward to building a bartop out of it.

opt2not

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #23 on: January 20, 2011, 03:41:32 pm »
Looking forward to building a bartop out of it.
What I'm wondering as well is if the FE is better than what those 60-in-1 boards have. I can't stand that grid layout with the multi-coloured font and gray background.
If this has a better FE then I'd be sure to pick one of these up for my bartop instead of the 60-in-1!  :cheers:

lodoss118

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #24 on: January 21, 2011, 01:40:29 pm »
if anyone knows here to get jamma version let us know :@

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #25 on: January 21, 2011, 09:41:20 pm »
status changed to shipped....only 3-4 weeks to go now  :banghead:

lodoss118

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #26 on: January 22, 2011, 07:05:31 am »
Hi guys i got some more info via email:

Thanks for your mail and very glad you are interested in our product.
 
Arcade Box Jamma is designed and manufactured only our factory.It is patented for us.
But it is not mass-production now.So the price is not sure.You are informed once it is producted in a large number.
 
At present,arcade box is in stock.Maybe you are interesred in it,too.Attached specification of arcade box for you reference.

Arcade box specification

colour:  Black and white
Size: 19cm*16cm*4cm
G.W: 980g
Memory: 128MB
Video RAM: Video RAM shared with main memory
Video Output: AV Cable.PAL/NTSC supported
Audio Output: Dual channel stereo
Expander Port: USB 2.0 device and wireless keyMac gamepad
Expansion slot: Gamepad slot, AV slot, memory stick slot
Expansion Slot: Gamepad slot, AV slot, Memory stick slot.
Power interface: 5V AC
CPU: Gamebox dual-core processor (500 MHz X2), 32-bit SDRAM memory
Graphic: Built-in graphics manipulation, zoom, wing, distortion, multi-reel
Game support
1.Game formats supported: MAME,CPS3,CPS2,CPS1,PGM,SFC,MD,PCECD
2.Build-in marco-operation-system, perfect zooming facility
3.Mega-memory card
Video Support
1.game card supported, web-downloaded supported
2.Built-in operating system, instant save, tutorial, no-battery save information, reset supported.
3.Video is viewed at maximum resolution of 720p(1280*720)supported.
4.Audio formats supported: RMVB,ASF,MKV,WMV,VOB,MOV.
Audio support: audio coder engine build-in, dual channel stereo, over 20 video output formats supported:MP3,WMA,WAV,FLAC,APE,AAC,OGG.
Power: Xpower technology is a power-saving consumption.
Consumption: utilize with less power consumption
Memory system: 32-bit SDRAM memory, video RAM shared with main memory
Video slot: TV OUT-AV OUTPUT(PAL and NTSC supported)
Gamepad: 4 gamepad supported, update to 4 wireless gamepad supported
Arcade game:mame, cps3, igs, mvs, snes, gba, md.
Others: clock built-in, calendar built-in, GB-4GB nand flash,
Operating system:
1. keyMax technology-faster speed of game pad responsiveness
2. enpreview technology-instant game video review supported
3.enautosave technology-instant gamesave support

Bender

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2011, 09:57:10 am »
I still don't get the output resolution
the very best you could hope fore over composite is 576i and only if you have a PAL enabled Monitor/TV
and what version of MAME?

guess we'll just have to wait for Ids to his in a month :angry:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #28 on: January 25, 2011, 09:31:41 pm »
..............
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:11:12 pm by shin_akuma »

micky4fun

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #29 on: January 27, 2011, 06:18:39 am »
Hi all

just joined the forum , will get busy reading all the post soon as poss ,
i see this from a link from another site , so i have also got one on the way to me
to be honest i am not expecting much for $53 , £34 it just seems to cheap to be any good , dont think it will be any way near as good as a low grade pc emu
but soon find out , was looking for a all in one small box system that i can link to a lcd display or projector
anyway wait and see what the box holds

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #30 on: January 27, 2011, 12:44:05 pm »
I still don't get the output resolution
the very best you could hope fore over composite is 576i and only if you have a PAL enabled Monitor/TV

It's a simple composite output.  The annoying part is that the chip is capable of putting out component, but the designers did not take advantage of it.  I tried hacking one to get even S-Video, but it appears that this needs to be set up internally as well.  Oddly, the composite is decent looking.  I may have improved it when I took out a capacitor joining what should have been the Luma and Chroma signal outputs from the chip.  Looked a little sharper afterwards, and it was still in color so I didn't bother trying to put it back.  

Be forewarned that you cannot change the contents of the built-in memory.  I have not tried any other games on a memory card.  It seems to do surprisingly well with most of the ones it came with, but they were likely "cherry picked".

The build quality is pretty good for what it is.  Touch sensitive lit controls on the console (just POWER and RESET), piano black plastic, a mostly decent feeling PS knockoff control design, etc.  There's even a fan and heatsink on the PCB, which I don't expect will last too long, but who knows.  Very light-weight, which adds to the cheap feel.  

Very simple selection menu, and no way, other than the reset on the console, to exit a game.  Shows a graphic to the left and a list to the right.  That's the extent of the menu system.  Not sure what happens yet when a TF card is inserted.

Don't know anything more about it, and don't see much of a way to find out more about the system, with such a limited interface.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2011, 03:16:20 pm by RandyT »

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #31 on: January 27, 2011, 03:14:55 pm »
Thanks for the info.  Too bad you weren't able to hijack a better video out option.

Still waiting for mine; according to tracking info, it's still in Shenzhen.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #32 on: January 28, 2011, 01:50:03 pm »
RandyT,

Can you post more?  Pics, dimensions, etc?

I'm thinking about getting one of these just to pull it apart.

Have you tried plugging in a keyboard?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #33 on: January 28, 2011, 03:55:31 pm »
RandyT you got a game list you could post?

Maybe a scan of the info / instruction sheets?

 :cheers:
Manuals and info on Dynamo cabs!

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #35 on: January 28, 2011, 04:39:28 pm »
http://img823.imageshack.us/i/301364081393.jpg/

That's some prize winning Engrish right there, folks.

ids

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #36 on: January 28, 2011, 04:40:52 pm »
I think i spotted "All your base...."  ;D

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #37 on: January 28, 2011, 05:56:46 pm »
.....................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:11:40 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #38 on: January 31, 2011, 04:43:46 am »
hi all

mine is in the van for delivery so sould get it today , will post what i find asap

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #39 on: January 31, 2011, 06:09:58 am »
will post what i find asap
Thanks for this, I'll be looking forward to your post. :D

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #40 on: January 31, 2011, 10:36:43 am »
.......................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:06:55 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #41 on: January 31, 2011, 02:15:31 pm »
"Now surprise show up" is one of the features. I would buy it just for that!
NO MORE!!

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #42 on: January 31, 2011, 03:21:32 pm »
hi all

ok just got home had a very quick go , will give a bigger review in a few hours but for now here are the inside pics

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #43 on: January 31, 2011, 04:20:08 pm »
................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:07:18 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #44 on: January 31, 2011, 04:37:31 pm »
hi all

ok quick , very quick video on youtube now , bit shakey as trying to hold camera and play at same time ,
the video out seems to be a bit low in colour seems a little washed out , the video is as tv was set up for normal tv , so i could increase the colour , neo geo games seem smooth enough and very very little slow down when screen is very busy , not tried any games off of a card yet will do that next and see what the usb socket does



first 30 minute impressions is for $53 its quite good , but sound is tinny on neo geo games

mick
« Last Edit: January 31, 2011, 04:40:19 pm by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #45 on: January 31, 2011, 04:50:39 pm »
Thanks for posting this! Got a few questions:

Is resetting the unit the only way to get back to the game select screen?

Are there any configuration options for the game select screen, like different layout, or view changes?

Do you have any way of accessing the rom's dip switches to change the game's settings?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #46 on: January 31, 2011, 06:18:22 pm »
hi all

first of all yep king of fighters 97 is on the unit and seems to run fine

the only way to get back to menu screen is by resetting unit
they are no layout changes at all , no dip switches at all , no access to game changes

and now the bad news , i cant seem to get anything to run apart from avi films from the micro sd card slot
it had a gameboy advance slot on other side of unit they call the game card slot , ive got a funny feeling this is the only way of getting other games onto the system , not unless anyone knows differant

so my second thoughts on the system is its ok if you want to play the games on it , drift out is nearly unplayable because of the dpad stearing to fast and the analog thumb stick is no better
errm lets hope there is a way of getting other images onto this

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #47 on: January 31, 2011, 06:36:50 pm »
................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:07:52 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #48 on: January 31, 2011, 07:09:35 pm »
hi all

ok there is no way of getting back to the menu without reseting that i can see , tried the middle lighten up button as well as all sorts of combonations , seems you just have to hit reset
maybe thats why its called reset , hahah

ok got gba games to work off micro sd card , but thats it , tried all sorts of file extensions , zipped and unzipped , looks like they may sell games on multi cart thing , maybe i dont really know ,
hopefully others will get theres soon to see if they can get any furtjer , i will post some more videos tomorrow of other games , but at the moment it looks like a 60 pre installed game console that plays avi's and gba game

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #49 on: January 31, 2011, 07:18:47 pm »
....................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:08:28 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #50 on: January 31, 2011, 07:27:49 pm »
hi all

the 60 games are on internal memory , the gba slot is for the carts that it looks like they are going to sell , as the picture on the front of the box shows metal slug 4 on a gba type cartridge
so at the moment it seems reconise gba extensions and plays them games from the sd card , and reconises avi or mov files and plays them as movies , they well may be another file extesion it reconises to play other games but i cant figure out what that is at the moment , or like i say it only plays other games off of the gba slot on a gba type card

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #51 on: January 31, 2011, 09:26:31 pm »
.............
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:08:57 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #52 on: February 01, 2011, 01:41:42 am »
is there any means of changing the flash memory? .. could you maybe post a quick video of navigating all of the setup options?

i'm highly considering using this thing to build a vertically oriented arcade cabinet using an old CRT television, how well suited do you think this would be ?
thanks. :)

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #53 on: February 01, 2011, 04:39:32 am »
hi all

Quote
i'm highly considering using this thing to build a vertically oriented arcade cabinet using an old CRT television, how well suited do you think this would be ?
no i would not goto all that trouble of putting this in an arcade cab , a low grade pc would be more better than this i think
on playing the unit for a few hours , the neo geo games do seem to skip frames , very noticable on scrolling games , jumpy
sounds very tinny as well , even on avi,mov files , you get what you pay for , this is more for kids i think
still cant get any other games apart frm gba game to load from sd card , it has a small usb port on side , in instructions it says its for service mode
i tried to link to pc , pc found it , but could not load any drivers for it

so at the moment i would just rate this 5/10 and ok for kids , miles better using a pc emu

i am loading more videos on youtube now
full game list video

btw there are no setup options just the basic front screen you see in video


king of fighters 97



mick

« Last Edit: February 01, 2011, 05:36:49 am by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #54 on: February 01, 2011, 05:37:07 am »
yeah, looks like i'll go down the PC path once again then, i just thought this might end up being easier.
thanks :D

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #55 on: February 01, 2011, 05:42:22 am »

i tried to link to pc , pc found it , but could not load any drivers for it


Would you go into device manager and look up the Vendor and Device ID it's reporting to the system?
http://www.troublefixers.com/identify-unknown-devices-in-device-manager-using-vendor-id-device-id/

You can ignore from step 5 on in that guide.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #56 on: February 01, 2011, 05:50:27 am »
hi all

Quote
Would you go into device manager and look up the Vendor and Device ID it's reporting to the system?
ok i will do , i am at work now so will do so later tonight
thanks




ok a few to look at , any requests ile do my best

mick
« Last Edit: February 01, 2011, 06:41:15 am by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #57 on: February 01, 2011, 06:25:02 am »
hi all

Quote
Would you go into device manager and look up the Vendor and Device ID it's reporting to the system?

just manage to hook up unit on works pc , it returns USB/UNKOWN

?

MICK

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #58 on: February 01, 2011, 08:26:14 am »
Would you attach a screenshot of what you're seeing? It still should return a ven and dev number.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #59 on: February 01, 2011, 08:45:51 am »
hi all

sorry my mistake , in all the frantic stuff of trying all files and swapping stuff about , i did not see this message at bottom of screen , i tried it in another usb port and windows does not reconise it


mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #60 on: February 01, 2011, 09:16:28 am »
My guess is that they use a non-standard pinout on that usb socket then. I don't recall exactly what that message means... Would you mind still trying the steps in the guide I posted and see if there is an 'unknown device' listed there?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #61 on: February 01, 2011, 10:35:15 am »
See if you can get street fighter 3 to work.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #62 on: February 01, 2011, 01:13:23 pm »
no i would not goto all that trouble of putting this in an arcade cab , a low grade pc would be more better than this i think

I fully agree.  It's a neat little device, but at current, it's pretty much one of those "game playing MP3" devices that are common from China.  This one seems to put the monies normally associated with the LCD screens into a better processor,  a wired controller and more plastic / PCB real estate.

The only bright thing I see here is that this unit uses the same processor family as the popular Dingoo, but a step up.  I think the company is hoping for a similar following, with custom firmware, Linux, etc. being put out by enthusiast.  If I had to make a prediction, I would think this was a good possibility considering the price point and capabilities.  But what the company is claiming, doesn't seem to be there yet, unless there are a whole bunch of hidden options no-one seems to be aware of yet.

I was hopeful as well.  :-\

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #63 on: February 01, 2011, 02:03:57 pm »
hi all

sf3 is not on unit , tried a mvs file that did not work either , better wait to someone else a bit more clued up than me gets one , they might be how to do something , dont know how they are coing to put custom firmware on it though as it only reads gba or film files off of sd card , well lets hope anyway , think ile put mine away till some more news when others get one

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #64 on: February 01, 2011, 03:03:51 pm »
dont know how they are coing to put custom firmware on it though as it only reads gba or film files off of sd card , well lets hope anyway , think ile put mine away till some more news when others get one

That's pretty much what I did with mine.  The mini-USB port on the side is obviously how they load the internal memory and firmware.  But like most of these devices, there needs to be a bootstrap procedure of some nature to get to it.  There is either a special, custom driver that no-one else has, or there is, as I have seen on some MP3 players, a button combo one needs to press at power up, which puts the device into "receive" mode.  There is usually a special piece of software that needs to be used at that point as well.

Hopefully they will open it up to developers soon, or at least come up with a way to provide the functionality they describe on the box.  It could be decent little gizmo with Linux on it.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #65 on: February 01, 2011, 03:52:05 pm »
................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:09:14 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #66 on: February 01, 2011, 04:10:26 pm »
hi all

instructions say without gamecard , that is gba style gamecard that plugs in the side , that only the internal games are only available ,
no i cant get any time or calendar to appear
sorry i have no photo copier

just wondering , if i can get old of one of those old gameboy or gba multi cart things that you can dump images on , will it reconize that and let you play other game formats?
« Last Edit: February 01, 2011, 04:18:37 pm by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #67 on: February 01, 2011, 04:24:42 pm »
This thing is neat and all, and I gotta admit the idea of a 'MAME Console' is appealing...

but you can snag an off lease Optiplex for the same money.....

 :dunno
Size? With a controller? With TV output? All pre-configured?
NO MORE!!

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #68 on: February 01, 2011, 04:38:05 pm »
hi all


video of unit

usb joystick ports on front , power a/v at rear , sd card port and mini usb port one side , gameboy style cartridge port on other side

thanks
« Last Edit: February 01, 2011, 04:40:39 pm by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #69 on: February 01, 2011, 07:56:16 pm »
....................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:09:35 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #70 on: February 01, 2011, 08:41:10 pm »
so wait, you cannot hook up a HD to the usb and load up more roms? you can only play the ones that are already built into the machine?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #71 on: February 02, 2011, 02:34:40 am »
Hi everybody

I am from France and I just arrived here.
Sorry for my poor english.

Thank you for this first review, it's great ! I ordered one on dealextreme but I haven't received it yet.

I sent an email to the gamebox technical support to have answers about games from sd card.

It should be a good idea to plug the box via usb on a linux system.

For french people I try to translate and compile informations on a french forum http://limited-edition.forumj.net/t5132-gamebox-arcade

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #72 on: February 02, 2011, 07:01:44 am »
Just need someone to dump the flash either with a key or via USB. Once we know what's on there, it should be fairly easy to modify and put whatever we want back on.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #73 on: February 02, 2011, 07:48:22 am »
hi all

Quote
Just need someone to dump the flash either with a key or via USB. Once we know what's on there, it should be fairly easy to modify and put whatever we want back on
yep i think if some can do that and with a re-written emu code , it might be quite a good little machine for $53
has the flexability for using other controls on usb port , once new code is written ,
i think the internal memory is for unpacking the games on the gamecard you would buy for it , as i notice some of the file names in the menu screen end in .zip , and in the instruction it say files are compressed

so all we need now is people in the know getting one of these and getting to work with it , sound is still poor , but proberly re-writen the emulator will solve this

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #74 on: February 02, 2011, 12:34:28 pm »
I'm with Jhabu

If we can see what's happening with that USB port we can most likely see what's going on inside the unit....my thought is that most likely they've got some sort of light weight linux running on that thing and a frontend, with the cart slot and the internal rom hardwired as paths to roms so that you get the extra artwork and the like.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #75 on: February 02, 2011, 12:47:49 pm »
..............
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:09:54 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #76 on: February 02, 2011, 01:46:42 pm »
But is strange have not any menu to configurations,this way cant put other usb joystick,this will need configuration to work.

I'm not even sure that the ports on the front of the unit are real USB ports.  I haven't done any real port testing, but I have tried a generic gamepad.  Doesn't work.  I have also plugged the included controller into a PC and the PC doesn't even sense that a USB device was plugged in.  Makes me suspect that it's just using the form factor, but not the protocol.  If this is true, it's going to limit it quite a bit.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #77 on: February 02, 2011, 03:18:10 pm »
Have you tried plugging a PC keyboard into the first USB port and hitting keys to see what happens?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #78 on: February 02, 2011, 03:26:15 pm »
Have you tried plugging a PC keyboard into the first USB port and hitting keys to see what happens?

Yes, nothing.  The keyboard does not initialize the way it would on a PC.  Just gets power lights.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #79 on: February 02, 2011, 04:03:02 pm »
hi all

Quote
I have also plugged the included controller into a PC and the PC doesn't even sense that a USB device was plugged in

ahh im running windows 7 32bit and it reconises gamepad as unknown device , it shows up in device manage as well as unknown , so it is a usb controller

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #80 on: February 02, 2011, 04:26:07 pm »
Interesting.  I'm running Win7 64-bit and it doesn't do a thing.

Just tested on 98SE.  The first time it came up "Unknown Device" and the second time, it didn't even show up in the device list.

Then tested XP SP3.  Gave the USB device has malfunctioned error. 

One thing is certain....it's not a normal HID controller.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2011, 04:34:48 pm by RandyT »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #81 on: February 02, 2011, 05:47:58 pm »
hi all

this is what it returns , using side usb port
so not much joy there

mick
« Last Edit: February 02, 2011, 07:30:40 pm by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #82 on: February 02, 2011, 06:40:08 pm »
hi all

someone from Finland on the Dealextreme website that sells this unit says
Quote
I Got this "wondermachine" two days ago.Wonder what this box is.GBA files works and CPS1 somes..and vids and mp3 etc.I have Dingoo 320 (Dingux GPX2Menu mod)Can´t find any settings(only..push left side 1 and 2 corner buttons)ONLY Language settings opens? What is mini USB connector on panel? Pc doesnt recognize on USB port.Linux or (Linux/Android flash?) there is many good question and answers.Bottle of Vodka and REM sleep :D
looking at this does he mean he as got CPS1 games to load off of sd card ?
i have tried to join forum , but it just wont let me sign in

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #83 on: February 02, 2011, 10:57:55 pm »
The OS never gets any of the USB info, so utilities which go about getting it in the same manner, won't be any more successful.  I'm really suspecting that the ports on the front aren't USB.  This whole "keymax technology-faster speed of game pad responsiveness" gives me the feeling that they are using a proprietary 2-wire interface to communicate with the gamepads.

The chip does have a couple of pins dedicated to USB Device 2.0, but those are probably connected more or less directly to the small port on the side.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #84 on: February 03, 2011, 12:46:30 am »

I just cracked open the controller.  Something kind of humorous...the right stick is bogus.  I thought  it was funny that it didn't click when depressed, like the left one does.  Turns out, there is no switch, no pots, and it wasn't even soldered to the board :) 

All of the buttons are common ground, so hacking it should be fairly simple.  No convenient exposed pads for soldering, like on some of the gamepads out there.  Still shouldn't be too hard.

And the board is labeled SDA and SCK where the wires attach, instead of the  D+ and D- one would expect for USB.  May or may not be significant.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #85 on: February 03, 2011, 02:01:36 am »
The manual talks "usb port is for debugging only", so in my view it should be possible to run a light Linux from a usb key to see what's happening inside :)
If joypad and usb port are not real usb the differences should be tiny...

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #86 on: February 03, 2011, 02:30:25 am »
The manual talks "usb port is for debugging only", so in my view it should be possible to run a light Linux from a usb key to see what's happening inside :)
If joypad and usb port are not real usb the differences should be tiny...

You aren't going to run anything if that "usb key" isn't recognized by the system.  It's a long way from that capability at current.

And if they aren't USB, they could be any 2-wire protocol, including a proprietary one.  If you consider that a "tiny" difference, then I suppose...

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #87 on: February 03, 2011, 03:33:52 am »
Ok for proprietary 2-wire interface to communicate with the gamepads but what about the side usb port ? How do they debug (it should be suprising if they developed a proprietary system). If they do it should look like something existing. That what I mean in my previous post.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #88 on: February 03, 2011, 03:45:23 am »
Ok for proprietary 2-wire interface to communicate with the gamepads but what about the side usb port ? How do they debug (it should be suprising if they developed a proprietary system). If they do it should look like something existing. That what I mean in my previous post.

You still need to know how to "wake it up" and then how to talk to it.  Hopefully, the manufacturer will share details, or even some software.  Without it, it's not going to be easy, and there isn't even anything to reverse engineer in order to see what it expects.  Heck, nobody even knows how to get it to play games of the advertised types from a TF card yet, and without access to the internal memory, they can't even learn from what is on the machine.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #89 on: February 03, 2011, 07:33:33 am »
hi all

i have not got access to mine as i am at work , but on dealextreme this is reported by a user
Quote
Came across this tonight - hold down the Select and Start buttons on the controller when turning on and an info screen comes up. Mine has the following details:

Device Model: JZ4755
Device Version: V1.0Build7c1
U Disk Size: 1.770 GB
U Disk Space: 298.944 MB
External Card Size: 0 BYTE
External Card Space: 0 Byte

mick

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #90 on: February 03, 2011, 08:29:09 am »
And the board is labeled SDA and SCK where the wires attach, instead of the  D+ and D- one would expect for USB.  May or may not be significant.
Judging to the names of the pins, it should be a NES/SNES-like protocol. You send pulses to SCK and read out SDA. Looks like a simple SPI protocol to me.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #91 on: February 03, 2011, 08:49:49 am »
I'm assuming that means it uses this proccessor?
ftp://ftp.ingenic.cn/2soc/4755/Jz4755_ds.pdf

Quote
WLAN, Bluetooth and expansion
options are supported through high-speed SPI and MMC/SD/SDIO host controllers. The TS (Transport
stream) interface provides enough bandwidth to connect to an external mobile digital TV demodulator.
Other peripherals such as USB 2.0 device, UART and SPI as well as general system resources
provide enough computing and connectivity capability for many applications.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #92 on: February 03, 2011, 09:36:13 am »
Hi,
First time poster, short-term lerker. Bit of a gadget freak and build rockets for fun :)

Found the link to the forum on DX. Just had my Gamebox arrive tonight and posted the message on DX about the Select & Start buttons :)

Here's a screenshot:



Oh - has anyone been able to figure out how to access the Clock & Calendar (not that I want or need the feature, just curious?!!)

Reading through the PDF - Page 33 states:

BOOT_SEL1
Other Condition
(PE25’s internal pull up is disabled)
Boot From
1PE25 is low or ADIN1 channel > 381NAND flash
1PE25 is high and ADIN1 channel <= 381USB2.0 device @EXCLK=24MHz
0PE25 is low or ADIN1 channel > 381SD card: MSC0
0PE25 is high and ADIN1 channel <= 381USB2.0 device @EXCLK=24MHz

And Page 7:
RISC instruction set to support Linux and WinCE

Hmm....

Cheers,
Sascha.

http://www.ibuildrockets.com/
« Last Edit: February 03, 2011, 09:46:44 am by ibuildrockets »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #93 on: February 03, 2011, 06:44:10 pm »
hi all

tools and driver chip here , i aint got a clue how to use them , but someone might
ftp://ftp.ingenic.cn/3sw/
as per dealextreme site , look for tools and driver chip thread

also just to ad anyone playing gba games off of sd card , press select and R1 at the same time to save and load game data

mick
« Last Edit: February 03, 2011, 07:41:32 pm by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #94 on: February 04, 2011, 07:21:44 am »
Mick, you still need a gba cart?  I have a super card cf with a 512mb cf card and reader...pm me

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #95 on: February 04, 2011, 08:28:35 am »
To get the link to work for Software ftp for drivers and tools strip out the http:// and paste into your browser.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2011, 08:33:30 am by BobA »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #97 on: February 04, 2011, 11:19:10 am »
ftp://ftp.ingenic.cn/3sw/00tools/usb_boot/manual/USB_Boot_Tool_Manual_1.4_EN.pdf

this is promising.
Indeed. Its the program to access the gamebox, I guess. Problems half solved?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #98 on: February 04, 2011, 12:50:15 pm »
I downloaded the drivers. Theres a tool folder there. It seems to be the program to allow writing and reading. It seems you put the data on the MicroSD, and command it via usb to copy to the contents to the drive.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #99 on: February 04, 2011, 01:18:43 pm »
I downloaded the drivers. Theres a tool folder there. It seems to be the program to allow writing and reading. It seems you put the data on the MicroSD, and command it via usb to copy to the contents to the drive.

Just a word of caution.  Until you have a known good copy of what is already on there, I'd be very careful dumping anything to the NAND memory.  You could end up with a very nice doorstop until someone gets a good dump of the contents.

There's also the matter of the controllers.  If they aren't real USB, which it appears they aren't, you will need to write routines to use them, or replace them with your own device, if you replace the code that is already there to interface with them.  You might be able to get an OS installed on the machine, but without some way to interact with it, it won't be very useful.  This is why some support from the manufacturer would be very useful, but given the quasi-closed nature of the system, I'm not sure if that will be forthcoming.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #100 on: February 04, 2011, 01:26:41 pm »
I got it Randy, but I didnt receive my gamebox.. yet.
I suppose I'll get it on 02/23/11, until then, I'll be here just brainstorming with you all :)
I hope untill there, theres a definitive solution for our speculations (ITS POSSIBLE or NOT POSSIBLE)

Anyways, it got metalslug on the preloaded. I feel happy with that. Just sad cause of the controller issue.

edit: Just to inform, I got one of that DX usb controllers. It looks like the one on the screens of gamebox, except for the abcd that are 1234 and the gamebox text.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2011, 01:29:46 pm by neninef »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #101 on: February 05, 2011, 01:42:12 pm »
I have mine
Good games, bad image (dull colors, muffled sound), well playing gba games (it's nice).
Should be a nice small machine with a second gamepad (is 2 players gaming enable ?)


Does anyone tried pc engine isos on sd card ?

Not the ultimate emulator I was waiting for...

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #102 on: February 06, 2011, 08:17:45 am »
hi all


well had a good go of mine over the last few days and ive come to the conclusion its time to get rid of this gamebox as i cant see that its going to be much use to me , so ebay thus cometh
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300523214625
mick ;D
« Last Edit: February 06, 2011, 09:03:47 am by micky4fun »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #103 on: February 09, 2011, 06:32:15 am »
Topic died?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #104 on: February 09, 2011, 08:24:31 am »
I think only two people actually owned one to tinker with it. One of whom has already sold his.

someone send me one. I'll do some exploring :P

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #105 on: February 09, 2011, 09:08:32 am »
I do a bit of embedded work.

SDA and SCK/SCL normally refer to the two-wire I2C protocol, which is definitely not USB. USB controller ICs cost good money because the manufacturer has to register a VID/PID combo as mentioned previously by other people (not to mention the protocol is quite complex). I would say RandyT is bang on; these are not USB game controllers, they simply use the USB plug hardware to trick people.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #106 on: February 09, 2011, 09:41:48 am »
I think only two people actually owned one to tinker with it. One of whom has already sold his.

someone send me one. I'll do some exploring :P

Still waiting on mine.  This thread is making me regret the purchase, however.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #107 on: February 09, 2011, 10:43:28 pm »
......................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:06:15 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #108 on: February 10, 2011, 10:58:26 am »
If the controllers are not USB and the unit comes with only 1 controller...why have 3 more plugs?  I suppose they might sell the controllers separately (didn't check), but that's likely to cost nearly as much for 3 more + shipping as the GameBox from DX did in the first place.   :dizzy:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #109 on: February 10, 2011, 11:39:39 am »
If the controllers are not USB and the unit comes with only 1 controller...why have 3 more plugs?  I suppose they might sell the controllers separately (didn't check), but that's likely to cost nearly as much for 3 more + shipping as the GameBox from DX did in the first place.   :dizzy:

Why have a second thumbstick on the controller that doesn't have any electronic guts, but still moves around like a functional thumbstick?  Different question, but likely the same answer. :)

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #110 on: February 10, 2011, 12:40:01 pm »
I suppose they might sell the controllers separately (didn't check), but that's likely to cost nearly as much for 3 more + shipping as the GameBox from DX did in the first place.   :dizzy:

Could not find anything on the DX site yet for controllers. Going by other pads they will probably be in the $12 range so maybe about $36 for 3.  DX does not charge for regular (slow) shipping.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #111 on: February 10, 2011, 03:25:19 pm »
DX does not charge for regular (slow) shipping.
Duh, of course...   :cheers:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #112 on: February 10, 2011, 07:51:10 pm »
....................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:13:45 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #113 on: February 11, 2011, 02:49:06 am »
This console have a lot of speculation,why you say not have eletronic for joysticks,in images made by mick,show board you can see electric track,this not a fake joysticks slot,and not we dont have drivers to be recognized on window we can say this not a usb or dont have usb controller.

You seem a little confused.  The second (right) thumbstick on the controller has no electronic guts.  I was rather impressed to find that it was a special part, made to be a dummy stick. 

The jury is still out on what those ports on the front are doing.  But they are connected directly to GPIO pins on the processor.  If it's doing USB on them, it's purely a custom firmware implementation.  Doesn't seem too likely when all they seem concerned about connecting are gamepads, but stranger things have happened.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #114 on: February 11, 2011, 05:58:05 pm »
On Wednesday I received the Gamebox I ordered about 3 weeks ago.  I had no problems connecting it to my old CRT gaming TV and getting it going.  The console is roughly the size of a Wii unit.  The controller is a copy of a Playstation controller, so if you like those controllers you'll like this one.  My Gamebox came with a flat-pronged 120v power supply suitable for North America.

Pros: it comes with the 60 games listed previously, all stored internally on its flash memory.  The emulation quality seems reasonably good to me.  I also loaded about 20 different GBA ROMs on a micro-SD card.  They all ran well, including 3D games like VRally.  I would say the quality of GBA emulation is as good or better than the Dingoo's native GBA emulator.  Both "game saves" and save states seemed to work okay. 

Cons: the composite output seems a bit muddy and fuzzy, with cross-hatching on diagonal lines.  It's perfectly viewable for playing games, but could be better.  The plastic casing for the console and the controller seems a bit thin and cheap; if you press hard on seams with your thumb, you can feel the plastic flex slightly.  I think if you gave one to a small child who likes to bash things around, it wouldn't last that long.

I have not tried loading any other sorts of ROMs on the micro-SD card.  I will give it a try this weekend, but since the manual doesn't talk about putting any ROMs other than GBA on the micro-SD, I doubt the Gamebox will run them.

I have not tried running any video files off the micro-SD card yet, but I'll try that as well.  There is an AVI for the Avatar movie trailer in the internal storage.  It seems to display that okay.

If you enjoy playing GBA games and want to try playing them on a larger screen, this machine might be for you.  However, unless someone figures out a way to run other game formats from the micro-SD card, I can't recommend paying the $50+ for one.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #115 on: February 11, 2011, 08:07:54 pm »
Hi, look at that link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/tExXEwuStxU?v=2#errorPrivate video) that opening up the device it says "GameBox", not "Arcadebox" as one of the videos that have appeared on the network ...  ???

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #116 on: February 11, 2011, 09:05:40 pm »
..................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:13:13 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #117 on: February 11, 2011, 09:48:44 pm »
RandyT , i not good with board and eletric but i can see 2 track passing in all 4 pads,anyway if second usb joystick is a dummy fo trick consumers maybe never selling any game for this console,in this case it is complete fake console,i hope not.

I don't think the translator is doing justice to what I am trying to tell you....each gamepad has two thumbsticks.  Of the two thumbsticks, only one is real, and that is the left one.  The right thumbstick is fake

Yes, there are lines going to each of the 4 ports on the front of the system.  They go directly to GPIO pins on the processor.  This processor, unlike the processor in the Dingoo 320, has no built in USB Host lines.  It only has USB Device support.  It's unlikely that the ports on the front are USB, as there is no good reason to go through the trouble on a machine this inexpensive, and only for gamepads.  If you look at the brochure, they refer to something they call "Keymax".  My guess is that it is a proprietary 2-wire serial protocol between the gamepads and the console.  Even if they aren't USB, it's still quite clever of them to use the inexpensive and widely available USB connectors for this purpose.  A little confusing, but clever.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #118 on: February 11, 2011, 10:05:25 pm »
............................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:05:12 pm by shin_akuma »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #119 on: February 12, 2011, 05:03:30 am »
Are there any vertical games, and if so, how are they displayed?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #120 on: February 12, 2011, 01:17:52 pm »
The 2, 3 & 4 player ports on the game box are not fake. They do work as i have tested them. It's not hard to just plug controller 1 into them to see.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #121 on: February 12, 2011, 02:18:22 pm »
................
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:05:31 pm by shin_akuma »

RandyT

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #122 on: February 12, 2011, 03:16:48 pm »
The 2, 3 & 4 player ports on the game box are not fake. They do work as i have tested them. It's not hard to just plug controller 1 into them to see.

Nobody said they were.  There's either a reading comprehension or translator deficiency in this thread.  Whichever it is, it's starting to get annoying.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #123 on: February 13, 2011, 08:24:32 am »
Nobody said they were.  There's either a reading comprehension or translator deficiency in this thread.  Whichever it is, it's starting to get annoying.

I think YOU have the reading problem pal. Did i point out anyone said they were fake????? NO. This is just a standalone post. Calm yourself.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:26:42 am by Riddler »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #124 on: February 13, 2011, 09:22:36 am »
Nobody said they were.  There's either a reading comprehension or translator deficiency in this thread.  Whichever it is, it's starting to get annoying.

I think YOU have the reading problem pal. Did i point out anyone said they were fake????? NO. This is just a standalone post. Calm yourself.

What was the purpose of your "standalone post"  then ?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #125 on: February 13, 2011, 11:33:06 am »
What was the purpose of your "standalone post"  then ?

Whats the point of Any post. It's called sharing information. You could all stop moaning and just say "oh thanks for the info".

and to you Pinballjim, as for being a "shill", if you like throwing away money you might as well buy one cos thats just a foolish comment.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #126 on: February 13, 2011, 11:44:19 am »
What was the purpose of your "standalone post"  then ?

Whats the point of Any post. It's called sharing information. You could all stop moaning and just say "oh thanks for the info".

and to you Pinballjim, as for being a "shill", if you like throwing away money you might as well buy one cos thats just a foolish comment.
You'd be better off coming out with the truth and telling everyone that it's your product and answering direct questions about it.  Hiding behind a user name and acting foolishly towards other members isn't going to help your case.


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #127 on: February 13, 2011, 02:11:31 pm »
What was the purpose of your "standalone post"  then ?

Whats the point of Any post. It's called sharing information. You could all stop moaning and just say "oh thanks for the info".

and to you Pinballjim, as for being a "shill", if you like throwing away money you might as well buy one cos thats just a foolish comment.

Reverse psychology my friend?





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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #128 on: February 13, 2011, 02:25:07 pm »
You'd be better off coming out with the truth and telling everyone that it's your product and answering direct questions about it.  Hiding behind a user name and acting foolishly towards other members isn't going to help your case.



Ha ha ha ha, yeah you got me. I created the gamebox and i joined your forum to sell you all one. You guys figured me out. I throw my hands up. I'm sorry. You are all too clever for me.

How sad that a bunch of you need to gang up just to try make yourselves look big. You have nothing better to do and have not contributed anything informative to this topic yourselves.

Grow up kids
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 02:30:37 pm by Riddler »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #129 on: February 13, 2011, 02:38:08 pm »
Hmm, looks to me that this product isn't what I'm looking for. It would have been nice if you could use it as a cheaper, all-in-one solution for the internals to a cabinet, but it really seems like this thing is similar to those Namco Plug & Play devices.

Good for the general audiences, not really catering to the hobbyist crowd.

Thanks for all the investigation and info guys.   :cheers:


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #130 on: February 13, 2011, 03:21:06 pm »
Randy, just post a photo and the "dummy stick" will make sense. I wouldnt mind seeing the guts of this thing anyways.

NO MORE!!

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #131 on: February 13, 2011, 03:39:04 pm »
Randy, just post a photo and the "dummy stick" will make sense. I wouldnt mind seeing the guts of this thing anyways.

Just look at the link posted up above.  It's fully disassembled in the photos.

Here's the one with the joystick PCB.  As you can see, the one on the left has no pot on it, and there are no pins protruding or soldered to the PCB.  On mine, they even forgot to solder the two mounting lugs.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #132 on: February 13, 2011, 04:19:30 pm »
If he's still here in a year posting something lucid about anything other than GameBox I'll donate $10 to the Special Olympics.  Cause it sure feels wrong to participate in them for free.



There he goes again splashing the cash and this time insulting the disabled.  :applaud:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #133 on: February 13, 2011, 07:36:28 pm »
If he's still here in a year posting something lucid about anything other than GameBox I'll donate $10 to the Special Olympics.  Cause it sure feels wrong to participate in them for free.



There he goes again splashing the cash and this time insulting the disabled.  :applaud:

Thanks for this reply.

Very good know about this,he dont have any dummy to trick,this maybe use money for the best price,and turn forum more cheap.   ;)

It seems silly to be arguing about something so silly to be arguing about.  ;)  Seriously though Randy says that on his gamepad a part is not connected to anything therefore making it useless, several times in fact.  This is problematic apparently because some people aren't understanding what he meant.  If you don't believe him that's fine.  It just seems that to get angry about this makes it seem like you have personal reasons for defending the product (having designed it, being a vendor, or just liking the product).

In this thread I wouldn't call any of what has been said "ganging up on."  Its more like someone said something and others are pointing out how silly dilly the poster is for saying what they said. My, my, my.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #134 on: February 13, 2011, 08:07:52 pm »
ok everyone, take it easy. Nothing worth worrying about here.

To continue this thread: does anyone have access to both a gamebox and a storage oscilloscope/logic analyser? I have the latter but not the former (and I don't really feel like spending the money on something that probably won't work); you could hook up to the controller traces and it will tell us once and for all if they are USB gamepads or not.

I also noticed in an earlier post that there was no PID/VID was assigned by the device when plugged in? If so, the controller is not a valid USB device, with or without drivers.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2011, 08:13:04 pm by penjuin »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #135 on: February 13, 2011, 09:01:59 pm »
They are obviously not usb gamepads for the reason you stated.  They are not recognized as such when plugged into a PC and the documentation makes mention of a proprietary interface for increased speed and responsiveness. No need for more electronics to figure out that they are not USB. :D

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #136 on: February 14, 2011, 10:46:39 am »
I have both a gamebox and a logic analyzer, but analyzing the gamepad will not lead anywhere. Just as BobA said, it's for sure not USB but probably some kind of serial protocol, which I probably could reverse engineer but it would not really help us.

What we need to do is get the machine booting from either USB or SD card. For booting from SD card, we would need to get Pin 93 to GND. At first I assumed that this pin is not connected at all and just put to VCC by the CPUs internal pullup. However, when I managed to solder a cable to it and connect it to GND, I blow one of the fuses next to the power connector - obviously the pin is connected to VCC somewhere under the CPU and so I did a short-circuit, I should have checked that before. This makes it hard to get the pin down to GND.

The other option is to get the CPU into USB booting mode. To do that, Pins UART_TX and ADIN1 have to be altered. UART_TX is accessible on a test pad on the board, I guess that ADIN1 also has to be accessible somewhere because USB booting is probably how the system is programmed at the factory, but I have not yet found it. As soon as it's in USB booting mode, it should be detected as a usb device by the PC and we would be able to access it with the driver and tools provided by Ingenic.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #137 on: February 15, 2011, 12:48:33 am »
Or you could like, I dunno, install FBANext on your PS3 and forget about this stupid thing?

 :dunno



I think they're more interested in just finding the solution.  Whether anyone plans on using that information to use one of these inside a project of theirs depends probably on how difficult it would be to recreate the process to get the product to work "correctly."
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #138 on: February 17, 2011, 05:10:06 pm »
http://www.zonadepruebas.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11418&forum=8&post_id=111284#forumpost111284

Looks like the boys in SA have figured out how to get it into USB boot mode.....

For those that can't read it, basically they've bridged a few points on the MOBO and are running the unit off a powered hub.  They're able to control booting with it but haven't gotten a dump of the ROM yet.  There is speculation on if the OS is MINIOS.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #139 on: February 18, 2011, 05:34:30 am »
http://www.zonadepruebas.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11418&forum=8&post_id=111284#forumpost111284

Looks like the boys in SA have figured out how to get it into USB boot mode.....

For those that can't read it, basically they've bridged a few points on the MOBO and are running the unit off a powered hub.  They're able to control booting with it but haven't gotten a dump of the ROM yet.  There is speculation on if the OS is MINIOS.

Awesome. Say, is it possible to have this output to RGBS instead of that Composite output?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #140 on: February 20, 2011, 04:44:43 am »

I posted my review of the GameBox on its DX product page  :

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/gamebox-multi-game-platform-tv-video-game-console-with-dual-shock-joypad-gamepad-set-pal-ntsc-54070


What's my impression ?  The review title may give you a hint ...

Quote from: GameBox DX review

Run a mile from this lemon.



Seriously, I wish I could sing the praises of the GameBox.  I wish I could "get my money's worth" out of my purchase.  But I had to be honest.

I'm telling you, it's not a pleasant feeling when you realise you've flushed $53.50 down the shitter.    :angry:
« Last Edit: February 20, 2011, 04:50:50 am by TPB »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #141 on: February 20, 2011, 08:04:16 am »

Guys,

The pain inflicted by my GameBox purchase, was eased by this awesome microscope (SKU 35625) which I also bought :

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/bw908-av-output-1-3m-pixel-400x-zooming-digital-microscope-camera-with-4-led-illumination-pal-35625


It has Composite Video Out, and 4 * LED illumination. You get beautiful colour images of what you're viewing on your TV.  Purely amazing magnification and picture quality.  Plug the microscope into a huge flat-screen TV and you'll be impressed !!    :applaud:

If you need a microscope, I highly recommend buying this one.  Your kids will love it.  It's great fun, and educational at the same time.

The money you would have spent on the GameBox, is much better spent on this fantastic microscope.  And you'll have change to spare.

BTW, I have nothing to gain from plugging this microscope ... I just feel that great products are entitled to receive their due praise.  And as aforementioned, this microscope was instrumental in easing the pain of my GameBox purchase.    :angel:


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #142 on: February 22, 2011, 12:09:16 pm »
TPB: I also bought a Gamebox, and regret it.  The construction quality seems flimsy, the video output is mediocre, and the inability to load any ROMs other than GBA is extremely frustrating.

Beware of some of the more positive reviews on DX.  There are a couple of folks in particular who seem to want to post gushingly positive reviews - and attack anyone who is less than complimentary towards the Gamebox.  I suspect they may be shills for the manufacturer not wanting to let on what an utter turd this machine is.

Unless the manufacturer helps get this box opened up for Linux and homebrews, it is a waste of $53+...
« Last Edit: February 22, 2011, 12:25:08 pm by LS650 »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #143 on: February 22, 2011, 12:13:01 pm »
Agreed.  Just got mine.  Sorry I bought it, for all reasons stated in this thread.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #144 on: February 23, 2011, 02:34:50 pm »
I'm a bit suprised at the hate here for this system (long time poster so I'm not a shill). I must admit Im not to up and up on other versions of this type of hardware, but my view of it sure inst as bad as most.

I must admit the video out isnt the best, but seems OK to me, not great. And some games do have issues, most notably the Capcom games have a strange scrolling issue, but the games seem to play pretty well. And forgotten Worlds with no rotating fire!!!!! why even put it on?

Construction, cheap, sure but not fragile. The gamepad is most likey a very CHEAP knockoff, but i have seen worse. My biggest complaint is the Hair dryer fan.. I'm not getting any heat at all from it playing games, not sure why the super loud fan is in it. It would be great to be able to load other roms, sure (besides GBA).

Honeslty it seems to do what it was suposed to do, for $60 it is kinda a deal. Well, if it lasts, no idea on that.

I know many of us have machines that will emulate all these roms much better, but the price of most of those machines is quite a bit more. I wont even get into what it would cost to have all those boards sitting around for hte 60 games. I mean I know you all have them for the games you emulate, right? (yes that is a joke...)
 Im not 100% sure but i would guess these roms are legal on this? maybe not as it is Hong Kong.

I guess we just have it too good, 60 games for $60 bucks, the price of one new 360/ps3 game, seemed like a deal to me. Sure its not the best implimentation, but as i say  $60), you dont get high quality top of the line stuff for that price  :)

with All that said its good to mention the quaility of the output and cheapness for others, i agree, its no do all machine at all. I dont feel ripped off for money spent, i do agree better output would be nice. And a less noisy fan!

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #145 on: February 23, 2011, 03:03:03 pm »
How is that deal when you can get an old p4 and have it run what you want for about the same price?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #146 on: February 23, 2011, 04:34:41 pm »
its smaller, it has a TV out (admitedly its not a good one) with the standard Red/white sound it has a controler. as I said the big one, It has all the games LEGALLY on it (i assume, as its a retail product). its a big deal if you care about that stuff, (that part is to each to decide, n ot me).

I am not saying its not flawed, it is. And as I did say, many of us can do everything it does MUCH better with our systems. This is a simple plug and play system with 60 games of yesteryear.

You bring up a good point, while me and you (and many others) have no issues hooking a PC to a tv, its not as easy for some, NEW TV's have VGA in (or better) but most old ones take a bit more work to use a PC. Let alone sound from a PC. I throw out PC every day that would do what this machine does, some even in a fairly small form factor.. but they use more power, and do take more to hook up then this did, they are more a hassle to move around.. etc.. but are free as long as I have the ROMS/boards..

I really am not saying its a great system, its not, The washed out output doesnt bother me to much, but the wierd scrolling issues in capcom games does some, and the fan. Its got issues, but I just am not as down as many here are on it. It plays the games ok, its simple plug and play and while $60 is alot, its as I said the price of a single modern game.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #147 on: February 23, 2011, 04:40:36 pm »
Its not THAT much smaller, I have tv out on my p4 and and I can get an adapter for a buck that splits my audio out jack into your red/white stereo jacks.

Probably has all the games legally, if by legal you mean in accordance with what is locally acceptable where it is manufactured, which is China, which doesn't believe in IP rights.

If you want to get rid of some pc's i'll gladly take them off your hands.  I want to build a cocktail for my bro in law..



I feel ya though, i guess for those that buy those type of plug and play type games its worth it.  But for what we would use it for here, its a ripoff. The hopes were that it would be suitable for maybe a simple bartop build.  Sadly, its not.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #148 on: February 23, 2011, 06:58:22 pm »
My $15 Thin Client does HD and has all the power to play practically everything and it is silent.

You guys banging on about some crap Chinese box with bogus game pad is just too funny.  :laugh2:
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #149 on: February 23, 2011, 06:59:29 pm »
I was thinking about using a think client in a bartop, but I have no idea how to set one up.  Do you have a good guide?  What hardware are you using?  What OS?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #150 on: February 24, 2011, 04:55:53 am »
I was thinking about using a think client in a bartop, but I have no idea how to set one up.  Do you have a good guide?  What hardware are you using?  What OS?

+1

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #151 on: February 24, 2011, 09:34:55 am »

TPB: I also bought a Gamebox, and regret it.  The construction quality seems flimsy, the video output is mediocre, and the inability to load any ROMs other than GBA is extremely frustrating.

Beware of some of the more positive reviews on DX.  There are a couple of folks in particular who seem to want to post gushingly positive reviews - and attack anyone who is less than complimentary towards the Gamebox.  I suspect they may be shills for the manufacturer not wanting to let on what an utter turd this machine is.

Unless the manufacturer helps get this box opened up for Linux and homebrews, it is a waste of $53+...



Hi LS650,

Yes, I noticed a few trolls attacking you on the DX forum, for having the "audacity" (in their eyes) of posting a non-favourable review of the GameBox.

Don't let it bother you.  There's no point responding to them, they'll just keep baiting you.

Some of them are, without a doubt, shills for the manufacturer (or others in the supply chain, profiting from the sale of this lemon).  The rest are fanboi geeks, quite sad really.    ::)


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #152 on: February 24, 2011, 04:06:33 pm »
I very much agree you guys should post the flaws... I just went back and re-read the DX site. it looks like it supports rom reading from the SD card in the discription, but it sure doesnt. "1 Duel shock game controler"  "- With dual shock vibrating Joypad gamepad".. errr wouldnt that mean some vibration?  that controler cant have anything like that in it can it? Or is duel shock just a game control STYLE? I gotta admit the text is pretty misleading.

I'm still not as down on it as most here.. but it is pretty poor represtation of what it does on DX.

One thing for those of you not happy, they do state right at top of picture of it MONEY BACK GUARENTEED  maybe you should send it back?

I'm not real sure what use I will get out of mine.. Impulse buy.. i have spent about 4 hours playing the games.. but I think its going to go back in teh box.. Eh... some timein the future I will dig it out and wonder wth it is  :)

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #153 on: February 25, 2011, 07:44:04 am »

These are the real doozies ...


Quote from: GameBox - DX overview

Game FORMATS support: MAME, CPS3, CPS2, CPS1, PGM, SFC, MD, PCECD



Quote from: GameBox - claim stated on the product packaging - as shown in the DX promotional images (which accompany the DX overview)

Over 5000 games supported in multi-game platform



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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #154 on: February 25, 2011, 07:25:31 pm »


I very much agree you guys should post the flaws... I just went back and re-read the DX site. ... "Duel shock game controler"  "- With dual shock vibrating Joypad gamepad".. errr wouldnt that mean some vibration?



Randy ... we need your expert findings.


When you disassembled the GameBox controller, and discovered the right thumb-stick is a fake,

Did you see the circuitry for the supposed "dual shock vibration" ?


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #155 on: February 25, 2011, 08:15:01 pm »
I was thinking about using a think client in a bartop, but I have no idea how to set one up.  Do you have a good guide?  What hardware are you using?  What OS?

I have 512MB in my T/C but you can get away with 256MB.

I use Puppy Arcade.  I boot using Plop, which is required if your T/C doesn't support USB booting.  I suggest you check out the plop site.  There are a few nifty utilities in there for those arcade builders using old kit.

I also have a 20gb laptop drive I rigged up inside (no mounting for HDD) that stores all the games, but you can use SMB.

Puppy Arcade loads entirely in Ram, and is very quick.  Version 10 is the latest and can be installed to SD/CF/etc.  It is designed to do minimal writes so you can old flash memory.  Has Xmame, and all the console emulators.  I have an Eden 1ghz inside mine - it isn't the fastest, but it plays nearly everything 100%.  I suggest anyone using Puppy Arcade to donate something to the developer, as the package is quite good. Below are some links to get you started.

http://scottjarvis.com/page105.htm
www.mini-itx.com
http://www.plop.at

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #156 on: February 25, 2011, 08:17:31 pm »
Word Ark!

You can get thin clients so cheap.  I really want to do this for my next build and make a bartop classics cab

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #157 on: February 25, 2011, 09:21:00 pm »
Randy ... we need your expert findings.


When you disassembled the GameBox controller, and discovered the right thumb-stick is a fake,

Did you see the circuitry for the supposed "dual shock vibration" ?

No motors, no "dual shock".

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #158 on: February 26, 2011, 09:14:57 am »


No motors, no "dual shock".



Now why doesn't that surprise me ?    ::)

Thanks for the info. Randy.


Another GameBox review :

http://retrofungeon.com/?review=the-gamebox


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #159 on: February 26, 2011, 09:49:42 am »
Word Ark!

You can get thin clients so cheap.  I really want to do this for my next build and make a bartop classics cab

This looks to have an Epia 5000 inside perfect for .32 or as a home server.  Wow $20.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #160 on: March 25, 2011, 07:48:38 am »
So.... Noone trying to debug this anymore?
MicroSD will only be used for GBA and videos and usb ports only for the Keymax controllers?


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #161 on: March 27, 2011, 03:15:46 am »
From the pics its running off of a Ingenic JZ4755 SoC

Grab a datasheet, and start playing. (I've attached one to the post)


So would be similar to the A320 (as its same family) - its the same cpu as in the A380 Dingoo device.

Some tools here for those.
http://sentinelgames.com/documents/tools_utilities.html

You may find the rom repack tool works for playing capcom stuff - someone should check.
It has USB, but no idea if hooked up, I'd guess not if you say its SPI based.

Without looking at it physically, I'd say it would be fairly straightforward to port the A380 stuff onto it, as its mostly the same hardware.

I reckon I could probably get it running an embedded linux fairly easily, as i have a little experience in reverse engineering stuff ;)

I also speak / read Chinese semi fluently, so thats a help too  :lol

Its documented pretty well though, I'd probably start looking at the uart and see if it pokes out some data on boot or not.

Someone should probably pull the nand flash out and dump it, then I could tell you how it ticks...
Actually it wouldn't be too hard to design a MAME machine based on something like this - making boards isn't $$$ anymore, and with SoC based stuff like this, its more or less 20 minutes design change from a reference design.


Getting a BSP from somewhere is the main issue though..

I do like it when work and play intersect though, so i may take a closer look at this..


A quick google shows that there are people working on OS stuff - the RTOS people for a start -

Its mentioned here -
http://code.google.com/p/rt-thread/source/browse/trunk/libcpu/mips/jz47xx/jz4755.h?r=902

And a closer look at the Ingenic site  shows they are nice - http://en.ingenic.cn/product.aspx?ID=62

The BSP is freely downloadable, so this would be fairly straightforward to code for I'd say.  Much easier than the usual stuff I have to do!

Lawrence.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2011, 03:20:40 am by shanghaiguide »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #162 on: March 27, 2011, 08:18:15 am »
snip

 :o

Cool, man. Is it possible to get RGBS video from it though? I would happily get one if it can be fitted with a JAMMA edge connector and set to boot right into a specific game of my choice...  :cheers:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #163 on: March 27, 2011, 01:03:27 pm »
I don't have one, and I couldn't find it in the local mall, so I guess this is theory for now.

Spec sheet shows YUV though, so we could make RGB from that, however we don't have a sync line, so no rgbs unless we can use gpio or pull from the lcd hsync / vsync.

Board design guide attached.




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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #164 on: March 27, 2011, 11:13:45 pm »
Here is another game console from DX.   Right off the bat it looks like composite video not component.  It says it can have a USB memory device attached. Supposed to play games with the gamepad. Again a non standard pad. 

Yet another DX game box

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #165 on: June 19, 2011, 12:56:12 pm »
At least this one comes with 2 RF controllers
Another game box from DX

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #166 on: February 24, 2012, 05:20:14 am »
I just bought an SD card Jamma board which offers XXX in 1 CPS etc.

After looking at the board for a while, I realized that its a JZ4755 based SoC, similar to the Gamebox above.
Some photos:

The board

3806a Jamma board with SD by sheedl, on Flickr

Its a pretty simple board layout, mine isn't even fully populated - i'm missing the VGA decoder side of things.
Can run off USB power, or Jamma, or PC PSU.

Has an SD card slot for adding roms, and also USB for controller apparently, although I'm not quite sure how to interface that yet.  I may take a trip down to the market and see what kind of skanky usb game controller I can pickup for 20rmb to see if it will talk.

Current draw is a bit over 500ma as my sacrificial laptop didn't quite like playing with it over usb and moaned quite a bit about that.
I told it to play nicely though, and its behaving now.


I stuck a serial port on the board to see what I could get out, and its running an embedded os - MINIOS.  This does seem to be available, and there are some tools out there for flashing via USB, so I will be taking a closer look at this now I have a similar board.

Serial port connected up (I had to macgyver bits as I don't quite have a proper set of electronics parts at the office as I keep taking them to South Africa hehe)


3806a Board by sheedl, on Flickr

Pin 1 is gnd, pin 2 is TX, pin 3 is RX. Speeds are 57600, 8,n,1 no flow control.

Heres the obligatory boot sequence to show that it does indeed work:


Serial output from the 3806a board by sheedl, on Flickr


Next up will be dumping the flash though so I can see whats inside, and probably doing a better job at the connections.
Plus a bit of googling for data sheets, programming tools etc.


Engenic's website page for the JZ4755 is here -  http://en.ingenic.cn/product.aspx?ID=57
Rockbox page on the chipset range - http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IngenicJz47xx

Looks like the Dingoo-Tech A380 tools will work for playing with it.  Anyone else interested in this kind of stuff and wants to help?

I'm almost getting to the point where I reckon I just design my own board, and spec it as I need it, sigh...  Mind you I prefer software to hardware, as I'm more of a developer than otherwise..

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #167 on: February 24, 2012, 06:15:01 am »
A port of a more modern build of mame to ARM would go a long long way toward making these sort of embedded projects more interesting.  Though I imagine the opportunity for abuse of such a port would greatly overshadow the effort.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #168 on: March 11, 2012, 09:09:18 pm »
my apologies for bumping up this thread. Coincidentally, i was offered a gamebox (non jamma version) as a review sample over the weekend. I should have one shipping out to me from asia in the next few days. I'm always morbidly curious about embedded hardware like these little boards.

I will try to offer up as much information as i have on these units. There are various hardware revisions with varying looks and features. I'm trying my best to get review samples of each piece of hardware for the sake of documentation.

The original gamebox GBX unit, shaped like the rather rare Zeebo console. The unit does have a side cartridge slot for gamebox compatible games and can also play standard gameboy advance cartridges. This model however, cannot save your game status to the cartridge. The GBX has so far had 3 confirmed firmware revisions. None of the firmware is available for download from their website located at http://www.gamebox.hk and so far, nobody has found any native way to update the firmware.

Some of the later firmware revisions are said to be working quite well and even include support for older mame compatible games such as pacman. The first firmware revision of the console can only play gba games from the cartridge slot and from the microsd slot. The second revision allows you to load any Neo Geo, PGM, CPS1/2 and GBA game with the appropriate bios files located in the same directory as your games. The third revision is said to have preliminary support for older, non cps games such as pacman. The third revision also includes a slew of features such as default boot mode (from cart, sd or nand) changing the background and more.

There is a second hardware revision with a red PCB inside.

The Game controllers are proprietary. The GBX model has usb ports but standard HID joysticks do not work. The controller also does not work on a PC.

holding L1 + R1 + right during startup will allow you to see the contents of the nand flash (internal memory) and swap out games.

the PV Station ND3000 is another Gamebox shaped like a ps2 slim. This unit includes hdmi and support to load games from a standard sized sd card. Some folks have given this unit even less favorable reviews than the GBX model. Some believe this is due to the firmware revision in these units however, there isn't much evidence to go on with these at this point.

VBox II NJ-3802 is another Gamebox shaped like an xbox 360, this one has standard composite out but includes a wireless controller.

The Gamebox Advance is a portable gamebox running on the same hardware. This unit is a clone of the gameboy advance. This unit, much like the GBX model can play standard gameboy advance cartridges but cannot save games. It does come bundles with composite out so you can play games on your television.

For those that may be interested in further gamebox developments, I do know someone who has helped me compile all of this information and has started a blog which will begin rolling out more info on the gamebox units very soon. I will post the blog url here when the site is ready.


I just bought an SD card Jamma board which offers XXX in 1 CPS etc.

After looking at the board for a while, I realized that its a JZ4755 based SoC, similar to the Gamebox above.
Some photos:

The board

3806a Jamma board with SD by sheedl, on Flickr

Its a pretty simple board layout, mine isn't even fully populated - i'm missing the VGA decoder side of things.
Can run off USB power, or Jamma, or PC PSU.

Has an SD card slot for adding roms, and also USB for controller apparently, although I'm not quite sure how to interface that yet.  I may take a trip down to the market and see what kind of skanky usb game controller I can pickup for 20rmb to see if it will talk.

Current draw is a bit over 500ma as my sacrificial laptop didn't quite like playing with it over usb and moaned quite a bit about that.
I told it to play nicely though, and its behaving now.


I stuck a serial port on the board to see what I could get out, and its running an embedded os - MINIOS.  This does seem to be available, and there are some tools out there for flashing via USB, so I will be taking a closer look at this now I have a similar board.

Serial port connected up (I had to macgyver bits as I don't quite have a proper set of electronics parts at the office as I keep taking them to South Africa hehe)


3806a Board by sheedl, on Flickr

Pin 1 is gnd, pin 2 is TX, pin 3 is RX. Speeds are 57600, 8,n,1 no flow control.

Heres the obligatory boot sequence to show that it does indeed work:


Serial output from the 3806a board by sheedl, on Flickr


Next up will be dumping the flash though so I can see whats inside, and probably doing a better job at the connections.
Plus a bit of googling for data sheets, programming tools etc.


Engenic's website page for the JZ4755 is here -  http://en.ingenic.cn/product.aspx?ID=57
Rockbox page on the chipset range - http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/IngenicJz47xx

Looks like the Dingoo-Tech A380 tools will work for playing with it.  Anyone else interested in this kind of stuff and wants to help?

I'm almost getting to the point where I reckon I just design my own board, and spec it as I need it, sigh...  Mind you I prefer software to hardware, as I'm more of a developer than otherwise..


Never seen this model! It's a far cry from their first revision. You can check out the first release at their homepage.
http://www.gamebox.hk/pdetails.asp?id=69

May i ask where you purchased this one and how much it cost you? I've really been out of the loop in terms of reversing harware. There is however quite a few guys on a few forums, mostly spanish that are still tinkering with the console units. They have gotten a little farther than you.

There's a 60 page thread a Elotrolado
http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_hilo-oficioso-gamebox-1001-nuevo-cacharro-de-dealextreme_1554119

another in Zonadepruebas which details one guy successfully forcing the console into usb download mode by shorting some pins. two other forum members have already dumped most of the firmware.
http://www.zonadepruebas.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?start=0&topic_id=11418&forum=8&viewmode=flat&order=ASC

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #169 on: May 10, 2012, 12:08:25 am »
Bit late on the reply here, but that isn't a game box.

I live in China, and have been buying samples of whats available locally to see if I can knock up something decent.

The board above is a first revision one - wasn't too stable.
Subsequently I found one with VGA and USB support (for writing additional rom files into).

I've been looking at redoing the firmware on it, as the hardware seems decent.

Looks like they use DMENU, and a bastardized version of FBNext recompiled for MIPS.

I have a post on the hardware here with some pics - http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/2012/03/king-of-game-jamma-board-reverse-engineering/

Its a JAMMA board, so plug n play replacement into an Arcade Machine.

Emulation is reasonably decent, and if I can get into rewriting the firmware I can add more rom compatibility.
Currently it does NeoGeo / CPS  / GBA

No documentation once again hehe, and they were trying to be sneaky by etching off the chip number on the board.  Not much use when usb boot pops up the model number though.


As like the above one this seems to be mostly based off the MP4 designs, except using more GPIO ports for the various buttons.

Works really well though, and extremely stable.  I've had some working in my office for a few months solid now.
Really have to play more in the reverse engineering side though...

Can sell some if people are interested - I bought a bunch off the factory as the min order qty was > 1...

Lawrence.


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #170 on: May 10, 2012, 09:43:12 am »
This is starting to sound quite interesting. What's the estimated price per unit?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #171 on: June 03, 2012, 10:40:12 am »
Sorry for the delay in replying, I've been busy building 20 Arcade machines for a client :)

I've been doing a little more digging into the OS side of things, looks like its not quite Linux - its booting off of MiniOS -> app

From my notes -
OS seems to be MINIOS
RAM - k4s561632d-tl75 = 16M X 8BITS x 2 banks (128m ram?)
ROM - H27UBG8T2ATR = 4G Nand Flash (MLC)

Seems like the software currently on there is a bastardized version of FBANext.
Screen output is via SDL

I've tested this with some FBANext specific roms that aren't CPC1 or NEOGEO, and they work, so that seems to be a good guess :)
I've also found an X-Scale (MIPS) version of FBANext which compiles.  Next up, I'm going to dump the current firmware, and then try flash my own.

Pricing will be reasonable, but will need to charge for all the work I'm doing on top of the board price.

The boards are really really really stable though - I've been running them solid for a while now (eg weeks on at a time in my own machines), and no issues with crashing.  The audio output could probably do with a heatsink on there, but other than that, its ok.

Will update my website with another post soon.  I've been doing quite a bit today on the software side.

Pricing will probably be in the $100-150 range




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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #172 on: June 03, 2012, 12:43:02 pm »
Pricing will probably be in the $100-150 range


Sorry in advance for all my questions:

1. What's included exactly?
2. Will this be completely JAMMA compatible (no external dedicated PSU)?
3. Can the gamelist be edited somehow, preferably by drag and drop in Windows onto memory card or will it be a fixed one?
4. If 6 button Fighting games are included, will this have a kick harness or non-standard JAMMA with buttons 5-6 on the JAMMA edge connector?
5. Are games known to be "problematic" running perfectly on this, (CPS2 shmups like Progear)
6. Will the menu support a vertical as well as horizontal menu?

Thanks!  :cheers:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #173 on: June 03, 2012, 02:50:59 pm »
what kind of emulator does this "gamebox" use again..MAME?? :dizzy:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #174 on: June 03, 2012, 03:56:49 pm »
what kind of emulator does this "gamebox" use again..MAME?? :dizzy:

Seems like the software currently on there is a bastardized version of FBANext.
Screen output is via SDL

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #175 on: June 04, 2012, 08:53:33 am »
The board I've been buying (lots of!), has 4G Flash onboard, but no SD.

You can mount the Flash as a FAT32 partition by plugging in a USB cable.
You can then copy games over, and hope they work.

Currently I need to dump a full copy of the current firmware so I can take it apart a bit.
I succeeded in getting the boot loader and other things clearly identified dumpwise, but need to double check a few things before I make one the sacrificial goat and flash stuff to it.

Its designed from ground up to be a jamma replacement.
It takes power from JAMMA  - no external PSU.
It can output via VGA or the standard JAMMA out, which is convenient.

I also got another (slightly different) one today, which I'll be dissecting.

Software wise - its slightly deficient, but thats remediable.
The current software compile is aimed at "it works, its good enough" vs our nitpicky - OMG!!!! forced to 30fps!!!  I must commit hari-kiri now lest I profane the SF gods!

That is solvable though.

For the most part I find emulation speeds to be quite acceptable, although some of the audio is a bit wonky on some roms.  Thats not the hardware though, thats the software.

Currently no 6 button support. 

If I could get enough people interested (probably 100+ pre-orders sort of level), then I can have the factory make some board revisions.  There are spare GPIO's available onchip, so doable with a revised design.

Currently its FBANext bastardized Chinese edition missing bits edition, so its got some wierd ass bugs and rom support.

CPS1 works
CPS2 works
CPS1-SYSTEM-DASH works
NEO-GEO works
Psyko - works
Cave (PGM) - FBANext supported stuff works eg ProGear (although could be slightly better if we changed the Z80 emulator in use)

The menu system doesn't recognise some of the rom's that work; its obviously doing some kind of lookup for game photo's internally on the FS so it "recognizes" files.  Once I get a proper dump of the NAND I'll be able to get a better look.

The FS is YAFFS2, so I need to make a full dump.
Then write some code to iterate through the dump page by page, remove the pages that are marked bad in the dump (as the 4750 doesn't do ECC in its NAND support the way the bootloader expects it to), then write out the revised  NAND Dump. 
I then need to check where the MTD structures are, then identify partition start and end, and then dump that.

Then once I have those written out on disk as separate files for each potential FS, I need to try mount in yaffs2 and see if it can be mounted, and what I've screwed up.


I have some current rom dumps I've made, but I'm not 100% sure on success yet, as the usb_boot doesn't quite support the NAND format that the board actually uses (it uses an 8096 byte + 488 byte block size), but the uboot doesn't support 8k sizes properly, so munges things.

I can dump correctly (I think), based on looking at the current partial NAND dump's I've made

So far I've identified code segments in the following area's:


0x00000 - 0x0840 ? bootloader
0x02000 - 0x2840 ??
0x04000 - 0x4840 MINIOS kernel (bootloader?)

Sample dump of base memory of NAND below:

USBBoot :> nreadraw  0 1024 0 0

Code: [Select]
00000000  ff 55 55 55 55 55 55 55  ff ff ff ff 01 00 11 04  |.UUUUUUU........|
00000010  00 00 00 00 21 e0 e0 03  00 00 e9 8f 21 e0 20 01  |....!.......!. .|
00000020  00 80 1d 3c 00 40 bd 37  00 80 19 3c 90 06 39 27  |...<.@.7...<..9'|
00000030  08 00 20 03 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |.. .............|
00000040  1b 43 02 3c 83 de 42 34  19 00 82 00 0f 00 02 3c  |.C.<..--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--.......<|
00000050  10 20 00 00 40 42 42 34  82 24 04 00 1b 00 44 00  |. ..@BB4.$....D.|
00000060  f4 01 80 00 50 c3 03 34  21 60 a0 00 12 48 00 00  |....P..4!`...H..|
00000070  1b 00 69 00 f4 01 20 01  12 28 00 00 02 10 25 71  |..i... ..(....%q|

I've been running the nreadraw dumps through a simple parser (without the code offset segments)
like so:

sfk filter raw.txt +hextobin raw.bin

with http://stahlworks.com/dev/index.php?tool=hextobin

Then running

hexdump -C  raw.bin  to get a prettified dump like above

---

From the Spanish forum (translated by google):

12 bytes are recorded on the NAND indicate the configuration of the same: if the bus is 8 or 16 bits, is shared or not, the page size and number of read cycles required. According to data stored on the NAND (FF 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 FF FF FF FF) configuration that leaves here is: FF: The bus is 8 bits. 55 55 55 55 55 55 55: bytes of checking to see if the bus is shared or not (55 is 01010101). In our case, is shared with the SDRAM. FF: 3 cycles of row. FF FF: Page Size: 4KB FF: not used. All this, as expected, coincides with the data we have from the NAND.


I'm using the following for usb_boot config:

Quote
[NAND]
BUSWIDTH            8    ;The width of the NAND flash chip in bits (8|16|32)
ROWCYCLES    3    ;The row address cycles (2|3)
PAGESIZE            8192    ;The page size of the NAND chip in bytes(512|2048|4096)
PAGEPERBLOCK    256    ;The page number per block
FORCEERASE    0    ;The force to erase flag (0|1)
OOBSIZE        448    ;oob size in byte
ECCPOS        6    ;Specify the ECC offset inside the oob data (0-[oobsize-1])
BADBLACKPOS    0    ;Specify the badblock flag offset inside the oob (0-[oobsize-1])
BADBLACKPAGE     0 ;Specify the page number of badblock flag inside a block(0-[PAGEPERBLOCK-1])
PLANENUM            2    ;The planes number of target nand flash
BCHBIT        8    ;Specify the hardware BCH algorithm for 4750 (4|8)
WPPIN        0    ;Specify the write protect pin number
BLOCKPERCHIP    0    ;Specify the block number per chip,0 means ignore

[END]


NAND is a 4G HYNIX -

HYNIX_H27UBG8T2A 3.3V 32Gbit NAND
4096M x 8bit

USB_Boot NANDquery gives:

 ID of No.0 device No.0 flash: //
 Vendor ID    :0xad  (Hynix) //Manufacturer Code
 Product ID   :0xd7  (Device ID) // Device Identifier
 Chip ID      :0x94  //Internal Chip Number
 Page ID      :0x9a  //Page Size/BlockSize/Redundant Area
 Plane ID     :0x74  //Plane Number , ECC
 Tech ID      :0x42 //Tech / EDO /Interface


-----
Manual says:
3.3V Bus Width x8
2 Planes of 1024 blocks.  Each block has 256 programmable pages.  Each Page 8640 bytes (8192+448spare)

If I check the byte sequence against the HYNIX chipset documentation I get the following from the numbers:

3rd Byte Dev ID

0x94=0b10010100

00 -  Internal Chip Number 1
01 -  4 Level Cell (cell type)
01 -  2 pages programmed at once
10 -  Interleave supported, Write Cache Supported

0x9a=0b10011010

10 - 8kb page size
0 10 - 448 Bytes (redundant area size)
1 01 - 2M Block Size (without spare area)

0x74=0b 0 111 01 00

01 - 2 Planes
ECC level - reserved.

0x42=0b01 000 010
010 32nm Nand
0 EDO Supported
0 SDR NAND Interface

---

The prelim dumps look correct though, but bootloader won't let me go to a specific page without screwing up the dump location+numbering, so, so far I've been doing dumps via copy / paste of portions of code iteratively from the start.

eg from

nread 0 81920 0 0  (copy, paste to new file)
then

nread 0 163840 0 0  (copy from 81920 -> end, paste to new file)

repeat...

bit tedious doing that for all 4G!

Would be nicer to have proper piping access on Linux, instead of having to use crappy Windows only tools.

I'm getting there though.
I also have a working compile environment going, so when I do finally get a FS dumped correctly thats mountable, I can go ahead, wipe it, then compile up Linux or similar.

Then I can use this as a base board to emulate anything vs only what the board designers half assedly added.

I do enjoy this kind of thing though, and I already got quite far last night on this.

eg

Quote
strings *.bin
UUUUUUU
@BB4
4 "--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--
C$!(
$!0@
$! @
c4%8C
M4!0
4 "--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--
xK   T
k)=l
7;%_
'! 
B$+
 Prepare to Download MINIOS.
 Ingenic Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Loader Version V1.0
1: Bad Block
2: Bad Block
Uncorrect ECC Error
 Jump to 0x
 Launch...
Uncorrectable error occurred
stat = 0x
oob_size =
read 61th page error!,read next page
read 62th page error!
Stop here,please check nand status!
@` @
@z@@@r
@@gX@
wH@@
; @@
@@?0P@


So, NAND format must be close to correct or correct, as I have actual readable text from the bootloader in my dump.

:)


I believe that this board and the gamebox board will turn out to be fairly similar software wise - same cpu, diff hardware i/o, but otherwise I'm expecting minor differences, so a lot of the work on that, or on the Dingux a330 / a380 should be portable to this without too much change.

Its a bit technical, I know, but basically - I like the hardware.  Software isn't quite there, but thats fixable, and I know how to do it, and am working on it.


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #176 on: June 04, 2012, 08:58:35 am »
Er "--BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type--" isn't in my dumps, so I think the board software is doing some cackhanded autoreplacement on something in my post!

Ignore those parts, as they aren't part of the notes.


Have been reading up on my MTDNAND structures also, as thats going to be necessary to verify stuff / split apart cleanly.
This is dry, but good reading:

http://www.kernel.org/doc/htmldocs/mtdnand.html

Some of this might be useful also - http://imxcommunity.org/group/imx28andimx28evk/forum/topics/nand-boot-attempt-no-bcb-error-0x80508001?xg_source=activity

Mostly as its also same chip in use, and I'm not quite sure on the ECC side of things / BCH values, so its often good to read other peoples attempts to solve issues as often its the same stuff people go through again and again...
« Last Edit: June 04, 2012, 10:18:19 am by shanghaiguide »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #177 on: June 04, 2012, 01:47:17 pm »
 :applaud: Very nice work! It's good to have someone working with a standard set above the usual "knockoff copy BS" that China mostly offers with bad frame skipping etc.

I have been eyeing a 19in1 PCB for a while but this sounds better even better. I prefer having the original PCB for most of my games, but some are too rare to hunt down today.

6. Would it be possible to have a menu that can be changed from horizontal to vertical? Just porting Advancemenu (or have it as an option) to this hardware would be a great frontend as it picks up any new game rom on each reboot.

7. Will all games run in native res/refresh rate?


Note: Progear is CPS2 and not PGM. For good games to try in the PGM driver, check out DDP DOJ or Ketsui which both lack any slowdown on original hardware.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #178 on: June 04, 2012, 03:01:58 pm »
Great work. Nice to see a newer board being taken apart and put back together with the purpose of improving the software side.  Software on the xxx in 1 boards have not advanced much over the years.   :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #179 on: June 04, 2012, 04:42:50 pm »
I also have a newer board my staff ordered for me (but didn't tell me about), which I need to *not look at* until this one gets further, lest I get distracted.

The 2nd one is more expensive, lacks VGA, and USB though, so I think I like my cheaper more usable one :)

More notes on my reverse engineering on the current one here -

http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/?p=850

I have pretty much every arcade XXX in 1 available locally, as I've been selling them (post testing to see whats actually good). 
The 19 in 1 has a horrible UI that doesn't like sitting in a game, and exits out as soon as you so much as blink. 
Me no likey, but it is a third the price of the newer boards...

It does have defender though, and I did just order some 4 way sticks, and...  ---fudgesicle---.. Just made another machine...

I also have a 60 in 1 in a cocktail at the office.  The 60 in 1 is crap slow booting up (minutes!)


So..., I think its best I get this one up and running, so I can crosscompile an ancient version of SDL MAME or similar then its the same thing, but... better :) or something else, or fix the current stuff better or.. or...   go to sleep as its almost 5am here in China.

Quote
It's good to have someone working with a standard set above the usual "knockoff copy BS" that China mostly offers with bad frame skipping etc.

I know why that happens, and its because they don't speak to the clients, so don't know people complain about it.
Its also because the dev houses are secretive ---daisies--- when it comes to giving out any info, even when it is all based on existing open source stuff..  Sigh, so even if you did offer to assist them, they're like - WHY?  You wants our source doesn't you.  Noo its my ring, er source code.



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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #180 on: June 04, 2012, 05:29:10 pm »
Am curious if this is the illegal clone of Clay's latest board, in which case I would frown about it being talked about here.

But, if it is the revoked 128-in-1, then I wouldn't have a problem as I am genuinely curious as to the progress they were supposed to make in fixing the bastard.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #181 on: June 04, 2012, 06:40:27 pm »
Am curious if this is the illegal clone of Clay's latest board, in which case I would frown about it being talked about here.

And what board is that?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #183 on: June 05, 2012, 12:08:26 am »
I *very* much doubt it, as this board 95% based off the Ingenic reference sample MP4 / Tablet design.
That url doesn't work, (site doesn't load) so can't see pictures to check.

The board I'm working with doesn't have SD.  The previous board which did have SD wasn't stable (2 samples died, and were crash prone when working), so not an option. 

The previous board was also ingenic MIPS SoC based design too, so also most likely nothing to do with Clay's work, unless he is also using the reference designs from Chinese SoC manufacturers and claiming as his own work. 
In which case tsk tsk .

No idea though and I'd need to see his board to tell you my 2 cents...

Photos and some initial dev work of the current one I refer to are here:
http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/2012/03/king-of-game-jamma-board-reverse-engineering/


King of Arcade by sheedl, on Flickr


and here

http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/?p=850

Photos in situ (wiring is finished now, this is during initial testing!)


Electrical work in Arcade Build (light off) by sheedl, on Flickr



Rear of board

Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr

Board Buttons with USB Boot ease of use :)


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #184 on: June 08, 2012, 08:45:30 am »
Wow you rock Shanghaiguide.

My experience is with*nix not embedded but it'd be awesome to see what you can do with one of these.  I was looking at getting either the King of Kung Fu or the other board to diddle around with.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #185 on: June 08, 2012, 10:43:07 am »
Shanghaiguide, how much did the board cost you and where can i get one? I have some limited embedded hardware experience. contemplating on getting one although i don't even have a arcade cab at the moment.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #186 on: June 08, 2012, 03:08:46 pm »
That url doesn't work, (site doesn't load) so can't see pictures to check.


Site works fine for me. It might be your firewall, the big one.  :lol


Shanghaiguide, how much did the board cost you and where can i get one? I have some limited embedded hardware experience. contemplating on getting one although i don't even have a arcade cab at the moment.

Here is the website of the manufacturer. I can't find the actual product...It must be too new and not listed yet on there. It looks like you can make a product inquiry on the website though.

http://www.chowhe.com/index.php

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #187 on: June 09, 2012, 11:57:19 am »
Can PM me if you want to order.

I'll have my website up soon ( retrosticks.com ), still getting the staff to add stuff in there, then I need to turn it all into English.

I've been buying samples of different boards from different manufacturers here, so far the "King Of Game" seems to be the best for modding software wise, and again, its quite stable.

I've been buying samples of pretty much everything that I can get my hands on here, and checking what I deem acceptable.  There is a lot of dross :(

I also bought and took apart a "Blue Elf 2012" board as I got one of those this week.

Its quite similar to the King of Game, but older CPU.

This one is ARM based, but looks like a much more expensive board to produce.  No USB, No VGA though (in the one I bought, although there is a version with both that I found, but probably won't buy).  Not sure why they didn't go with a SoC version, unless they basically have been using the same design since day 1.  (Most probably..)

Its a slower CPU - PXA270.  Roms come on a SD Card, which is FAT formatted.
I didn't see a serial option on the board yet, but didn't check too carefully.  Probably its similar to the Ingenic chipset, and will turn out to use a usb bootloader.

I have to say I prefer the ingenic MIPS one though, even though I'm *way* more familiar doing ARM dev stuff.

Some photo's here -


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr

I've had a quick look at the SD card files, one file is called something .dat (its all at work, so can't remember exactly what), the rest are rom's or similar.
Again, looks like FBA is being used, vs MAME or similar.

I'm guessing this is going to be common to all the arm / mips based embedded solutions vs the typical x86 based (the larger GameBox et al - (not the gamebox referred to in this thread)).

If anyone is interested in assisting me with the firmware side please feel free to ask.  The more people, the faster it might go!
My plan is to port a better emulator version, and then sell the board with that :)


« Last Edit: June 09, 2012, 12:05:38 pm by shanghaiguide »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #188 on: June 12, 2012, 09:45:09 pm »
I can help a little if I know what to look for.  What's the OS it's running?  Is it still minios?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #189 on: June 13, 2012, 12:20:29 pm »
Yeah that's the second version of the Blue elf.  The first one had the SD on the board and it was in some weird locked format.  Could you dump the image of the SD and post it somewhere for me to look at?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #190 on: June 15, 2012, 12:49:55 am »
If anyone is interested in assisting me with the firmware side please feel free to ask.  The more people, the faster it might go!
My plan is to port a better emulator version, and then sell the board with that :)

What is the current emulator and what is "better emulator" you want port?

Have you ever compiled MAME for any of those boards? Where did you get the source code and toolchain?

I'd be interested to see how my MAME build (Android) works on that board, but you'll need to compile it yourself.


Don't say you are going to sell it. This is MAME friendly site and selling MAME is not fair towards people who gave it to you for free.


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #191 on: June 15, 2012, 08:55:23 am »
Quote
What is the current emulator and what is "better emulator" you want port?

To quote myself, as you didn't see/read what I wrote above -
Currently its FBANext bastardized Chinese edition missing bits edition.

Its a MIPS based SoC - Ingenic JZ4755.  I have a cross-compiler toolchain already.   If you read my posts above and took a look at some of the links, you'd see I've been doing a bit of work on that already.  I also have source for FBANext on ARM (which is similar enough to MIPS to be usable without too much hassle to port).  If you want to help great, if you're just going to be one of those people that shoots things down, then not interested.  Go play 1942 instead then ;)

Quote
Have you ever compiled MAME for any of those boards? Where did you get the source code and toolchain?
I haven't compiled MAME for a while, but I'm going to assume its not going to be too much different from when I did it on Linux years ago.
MAME isn't allowed to be sold commercially - as MAME licence explicitly doesn't allow commercial activity, so I could either compile the binary, and have a download available + source, so people can add themselves, or just ignore MAME support.  

Crosscompiler toolchain is available on the ingenic site, but if you want a copy, pm me, as it may be faster downloading it from me.

Quote
Don't say you are going to sell it. This is MAME friendly site and selling MAME is not fair towards people who gave it to you for free.

If I invest the time in reverse engineering the board, porting stuff to it, making custom firmware, and improving it, yes I will be selling *that* firmware or board+firmware (most probably as an improved board version).  Other emulators are GPL, and GPL has no objection to people making profit off of derivative work.  

This is no different from any manufacturer these days selling Android phones or other hardware stuff based off of open source.  Yes, the source is all free, however, putting it all together, and making it all work takes time and effort, and skills, and I will be looking to recoup my time at least.  
Source will be available once I get a bit further along, via GIT or similar, as I've done with my openipcam.com site in the past.

Any more questions Mr Oraap?
« Last Edit: June 15, 2012, 09:03:20 am by shanghaiguide »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #192 on: June 15, 2012, 10:16:43 am »

To quote myself, as you didn't see/read what I wrote above -
Currently its FBANext bastardized Chinese edition missing bits edition.

Its a MIPS based SoC - Ingenic JZ4755.  I have a cross-compiler toolchain already.   If you read my posts above and took a look at some of the links, you'd see I've been doing a bit of work on that already.  I also have source for FBANext on ARM (which is similar enough to MIPS to be usable without too much hassle to port).  If you want to help great, if you're just going to be one of those people that shoots things down, then not interested.  Go play 1942 instead then ;)

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware "FBANext" is emulator. I see you've encountered internet goblins before, I'm not one of them.


Quote
I haven't compiled MAME for a while, but I'm going to assume its not going to be too much different from when I did it on Linux years ago.
MAME isn't allowed to be sold commercially - as MAME licence explicitly doesn't allow commercial activity, so I could either compile the binary, and have a download available + source, so people can add themselves, or just ignore MAME support.

Do you expect you can compile PC MAME source code for ARM or MIPS platform without making any changes? What libraries are you going to use for video and audio?

I thought you gonna say you will be using MAME4all (0.37) source code originally ported to GP2X (ARM) and later to PSP (MIPS). That's what I'm using and in that case I believe it would be easy to port my MAME build to your board, which is much better than the original port.


Quote
Any more questions Mr Oraap?

Later, it's your turn now.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #193 on: June 15, 2012, 11:33:24 am »
The hardware is fairly close (but not quite identical) to the A380 hardware, which has an Linux compile called Dingux available.
There are *plenty* of ports for most major emulators for that.

First I need to dump the current firmware on the device though, as i need to be able to go back to the *original* when I screw up.  As this is highly likely when creating new kernel etc (assuming I go Linux), then its nice to be able to reuse the board if I give up or need to use it for an arcade machine or something!

The board doesn't have a LCD controller onboard, unlike the A380's - it talks to a Chrontel 7026B which then does our VGA I expect.
http://www.chrontel.com/products/7026.htm

My best initial bet (after dumping nand), or just saying  :censored: it, and making one a sacrificial board :( is to find a linux driver for the Chrontel and compile that in, then play the flash stuff to the board game and see if I can make it happy.

Once I have that going, then I need to map out all the GPIO ports in use currently for the various buttons and sticks, then start compiling up software and making it tick.

I think I'm going to trace out serial first though so I can see whats happening.

At some point in the future will be able to look at software, but I'm not there yet.  For video, most likely its going to be SDL based, as both the mini-os and linux stuff use that for video output.  Audio is fairly straightforward - its already supported in the BSP, so should work without too much hassle.
I think if we go linux, its alsa, but haven't checked too carefully just yet.

The work for this will be quite similar to the work being done on the GameBox in this thread - the black machine with controllers referred to originally, as its also the same SoC, and fairly similar hardware layout.


If you're interested in helping, can add me on Skype: computersolutions.cn




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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #194 on: June 15, 2012, 12:06:09 pm »
I see. I've done some of the stuff you're talking about, actually have my own Linux build, and funny enough it's called "gameBox":
http://www.oocities.org/ze_aks/myos.html

However, I'm afraid I can't help you much in your current phase as I don't have the hardware. If there is something you think I might be able to help you with just ask.

Not sure how it fits in your plans, but have you considered using Android? I just found out in my Android thread there is Android based PC for only $50 bucks. http://apc.io/

I'm not using Skype. We can talk here, or alternatively you can post on my forum:
http://smf.webng.com/crazytilt/
« Last Edit: June 15, 2012, 12:10:13 pm by Oraap »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #195 on: June 16, 2012, 01:11:22 am »
Got quite far last night before sleep got the better of me - basically passed out in front of the computer, woke up, went to bed! (ok, not uncommon for me, but still...)

I emailed the guy doing some of the work at zonaeuropas, and he emailed back with a dump from the Gamebox.  That was a huge help, as I now had 2 dumps to compare.

I need to wait for a response from him as to whether his is NREAD_RAW or NREAD dumped, but I think they got some stuff wrong (they put wrong file sizes to things).
If I use mine, his dump makes more sense, so i think I'm correct.  Need to get a reply from them before I can see though, as it might just be bad translation for both of us (we're google translating to talk!).

Looks like my dump stuff is turning out to be correct.
I compared raw dump and non raw dump, and the data looks correct for both (although the raw_dump is obviously larger due to OOB block stuff thats not used by us).

Page 61, and Page 62 in MINIOS are important - those contain the flash size.
If your settings are wrong, thats wrong.

I got this, which is correct for my hardware.

USBBoot :> nreadraw 61 24 0 0
Reading RAW from No.0 device No.0 flash....
0x00000000 :00 20 00 00 c0 01 00 00 00 01 00 00

00 20 00 00 = 8192 PAGE SIZE
c0 01 00 00 = 448  OOBSIZE
00 01 00 00 = 256 PAGE PER BLOCK

My hardware NAND chip details:

USBBoot :> nquery 0 0

ID of No.0 device No.0 flash:
Vendor ID    :0xad
Product ID   :0xd7
Chip ID      :0x94
Page ID      :0x9a
Plane ID     :0x74
Operation status: Success!


I know that the first 8k of the NAND is the chipset bootloader, as thats in the data sheet for the chipset in stone.

This is what I found so far for my dumps

Quote
0x00000 -> 0x02000 = NAND Boot code (NAND.BIN)    8K
0x00A00 -> 0x01200 = Next bit of code (CODE_1.BIN)  2K  BYTE / Pattern 21 20 00 02 00 16 93 92
0x01200 -> 0x01600 = Next bit of code (CODE_2.BIN)  1K
0x01600 -> 0x02000 = MINIOS_BOOT.BIN /  FE FF 87 14...
0x02000 -> 0x1EA00 = ?? 34 bytes, then empty. / FF FF FF D0 1E 6F B7 F5 52 DD 5E CD 10 76 AB 5D A0 3C 77 08 8C A3 DD 0F 7B 74 34 A3 CF FB B5 D0 3D 41 0C 43 91 8A E4 8C 1F 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1EA00 -> 0x1EA0B  = 12 bytes Page 61 NAND size
0x1F000 -> 0x1F1FF = ?? unsure, but data bytes. FF FF FF E2 4E 7B A3 3C 2D 49 89 8B 9A BB 30 F0 04 4B FC 3D 82 D2 DE 48 13 CC C7 83 37 04 4B FC 3D 82 D2 DE 48 13 CC C7 83 37 04 4B FC 3D 82 D2 DE 48 13 CC C7 83 37 D7 5A FE A9 26 then FF..FF
0x1F200 -> 0x1F204 = 12 bytes Page 62 NAND size
0x1F800 -> 0x1F9FF = ?? same as previous unsure sequence, repeated twice, so must be significant..
0x1FA00 -> 0x1FA0F = 10 bytes of 0
0x1FE00 ->  0x1FE3F = 40 bytes  Start/ End is similar to our unsure, looks like probably code?  Need to run through mips decompiler to check i think - FF FF FF D0 1E 6F B7 F5 1D 2A 39 E5 6E 72 DE C4 7E A9 EF 73 D0 83 AE 10 94 06 D4 E0 1C D7 5A FE A9 26 83 AE 10 94 06 D4 E0 1C D7 5A FE A9 26 83 AE 10 94 06 D4 E0 1C D7 5A FE A9 26 FFFFFFFF

0x80200 - 0x8c7ff?  (probably to 0x80200+64kb) = 0xc600 bytes MINIOS?  see  i2c and chipset stuff in that.  (called it i2c_nand - I think dump should probably be 64kb, but rest of data is FF's so can pad out if you want)

0x100200 - Filesystem :)


Files found in there so far:

mobile_tv.bin
desktop.bin
udc_battery.bin
sysconfig.bin
toolsbox.bin
calendar.bin
ebook.bin
worldclock.bin
russblock.bin
fmradio.bin
recorder.bin
mp3_compress.bin
viewer.bin
jpgdec.bin
pngdec.bin
bmpdec.bin
gifdec.bin
AudioTag.bin <-- significant, means case sensitive
vplayer.bin
fplayer.bin
aplayer.bin
video.bin
alarm.bin
gameplay.bin
gba_lib.bin
nes_lib.bin
snes_lib.bin
md_lib.bin
ticru_lib.bin
dcDecoder.bin
dvEncoder.bin
dcdv.bin
mpcodecs_ad_liba52.bin
mpcodecs_ad_hwac3.bin
ffmpeg64.bin
ffmpeg_vd_mpegmisc.bin
ffmpeg_vd_mpegmisc2.bin
ffpmeg_vd_mpegvideo.bin
mpcodecs_vs_libmpeg2.bin
ffmpeg_vd_svq3.bin
mpcodecs_vd_realvid.bin
aux_task.bin

I need to see what the FS is, but it looks like I'm at the point where I can definitely extract stuff from the firmware and write back to it. (Or fairly soon at that point).  I've already dumped out parts to separate files now, and am giving those a look.

Quite happy, as this is good progress.

I also did some reading up on the Chrontel side of things (eg our video out, as no LCD vs other Dingoo's or similar), should be fairly easy to use - you send it messages over i2c bus to initialise basically, and then the BSP stuff just assumes its an LCD.

I have sample code for that already, untested.

I should be able to get linux on it if I want soonish also :)
First I need to test out some theories - eg extract a file, change, rewrite to nand, and see if the firmware still works, or I need to do some crc stuff.  Looking good though.







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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #196 on: June 16, 2012, 06:55:15 am »
Cool progress, shanghaiguide.  :cheers:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #197 on: June 16, 2012, 07:39:39 am »
Thanks Emphatic -

Are people interested in seeing more posts on this here?

The previous 2 posts are rather negative.

I have got my own blog where i can put this, but it did seem pertinent to the flow of the thread to me.
Guess I'll gather up what I've written here, and stick it somewhere else if people are unhappy.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #198 on: June 16, 2012, 08:20:17 am »
I'm thrilled to see your progress so far shanghaiguide. Please keep the posts coming!! I'm not quite sure what the hell the other guys problem is.

 Maybe most of this stuff is a little over my head but I know that I'm learning and there are other people from other forums following this well as I've seen it mentioned on them.

It is nice to have this documented here.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #199 on: June 16, 2012, 08:23:34 am »
Quote
I don't know how nicer to say your posts lack justification and are in the wrong thread.

This thread is about the Gamebox (originally).  Thats an embedded MIPS JZ4755 board.  Which is pretty much the same as this board here.
The gamebox people were interested in reverse engineering to add features...

Quote
And in return you ignored my question and wasted my time with unnecessary information.
I answered your questions, you went off on a tangent about MAME for some reason.

--


Quote
So how does you board compare, and why do you think anyone should choose it over, say:

- $10 bucks 1GHz PC?

- $24 bucks Raspberry Pi?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

- $49 bucks Android PC?
http://apc.io/


Do any of those have JAMMA?

This board is designed from the outset to be used in an arcade machine.
It has a Standard Jamma interface.  It runs off of the 5v/12v PSU inside an arcade machine.
It also has USB to access NAND storage.
It also has VGA out.

Its not "my" board, its a readily available board that a few people have.  Usually called the 188 in 1 or the King of Game or Kung fu King or similar.

You're really rather antagonistic to be honest.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #200 on: June 16, 2012, 08:45:49 am »
To everyone else.

Thanks for your support :)

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #201 on: June 16, 2012, 11:41:23 am »
As apparently I'm just a chinese bootlegger or something, and Oraap really either doesn't read english properly (as _all_ his questions were answered in this thread) or he's just a :tool:

I've put my next set of findings back on my blog here:

http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/2012/06/jz4755-jamma-board-reverse-engineering-part-3-king-of-game-board/
Those that are interested can go look there. Sigh..

For what its worth, I'm not a chinese bootlegger :)   I'm not even Chinese!
I have been posting on here for a number of years now, and bought the book many many moons ago too.

Even my first post on this thread about the GameBox stuff goes back to 2011, so its not like I suddenly jumped in here and was spamming sales stuff.
I've also been posting on this forum for a number of years now, its not like I suddenly popped up out of nowhere, and suddenly started posting..
Sigh.

Quote
- "Pricing will probably be in the $100-150 range."
If you look at the thread - people specifically asked for board prices.  Again, I don't make the board, I have zero to do with the board, except for buying a bunch off the factory for my own use. 

Quote
- "Pricing will be reasonable, but will need to charge for all the work I'm doing on top of the board price."
Thats in reference to the future when /if I actually get the work done, can reflash boards, can make improvements, and sell that as a package, eg board+better rom. Its not an enticement to sell or buy anything yet, and its similar enough to a lot of other people doing similar stuff.  Classic example of this would be the NEO-GEO Universal Bios.   If I've overstepped a line talking about that kind of thing, then apologies, but I really don't think I have.

CheffoJeffo - comments?

Quote
- "If I could get enough people interested (probably 100+ pre-orders sort of level), then I can have the factory make some board revisions."
I'm in China.  I can speak Chinese (again, I'm not Chinese).  This isn't even the business I'm in to be honest, we do Websites, and IT stuff, but I can organize things like that.  Again, its not a sales pitch, its a comment on whats doable.  If you really think I was spamming for sales, you're mistaken.


Quote
Plus, the info about sleep schedule and daily activities... that was awkward, wan't it?
I don't think we all have to be robots, do we?   I like my style of writing, and others do too.  Informal, but informative is what people usually tell me.



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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #202 on: June 16, 2012, 12:42:45 pm »
You are suspect. Your daily activities, your future plans, connection with factories, buying/selling huge quantities... I tried to be subtle about it, even ignored when you kept talking despite my bona fide warning. -- In any case, I believe you now. You convinced me.

Uh, junior, you are not in a position to warn anybody or dictate how or what they post.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #203 on: June 16, 2012, 12:51:36 pm »
Quote
- "Pricing will be reasonable, but will need to charge for all the work I'm doing on top of the board price."
Thats in reference to the future when /if I actually get the work done, can reflash boards, can make improvements, and sell that as a package, eg board+better rom. Its not an enticement to sell or buy anything yet, and its similar enough to a lot of other people doing similar stuff.  Classic example of this would be the NEO-GEO Universal Bios.   If I've overstepped a line talking about that kind of thing, then apologies, but I really don't think I have.

CheffoJeffo - comments?

Not my board, so not my call, but the rules are that you can't offer to sell anything here that you don't have a right to sell.

I like the technical talk and am interested to see where you can go with this.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #204 on: June 16, 2012, 01:34:35 pm »
Quote
Not my board, so not my call, but the rules are that you can't offer to sell anything here that you don't have a right to sell.
I should be perfectly ok then, if / when at some undetermined point in the future I get a lot further along, finish, get my shiyat into gear   :blah:

Quote
I like the technical talk and am interested to see where you can go with this.
Thanks.  Its quite a lot like like detective work, I enjoy making progress on stuff like this, plus I get to (l)earn "l33t" skills in reverse engineering and reading fun fun fun data sheets. I started out as an embedded systems guy in the early 90's in South Africa, but then moved to China to do IT, so this is hobbyist level stuff for me, to keep my skillset up to date :)

My last "self induced" project was similar work on IP Camera stuff - reverse engineering hardware, and seeing how it ticked.  I setup a community site for that myself after the posts on that took over my blog commentwise.  

I'll probably do that with this board at some point, but I guess another few posts won't hurt.

Back to the specs/future dreams   :lol  

The board is a dual core* @ 400mhz, underclocked to 336mhz on this.
*white lies.  It does have a CPU+GPU though, so technically its "dual core".
The video chipset has hardware rotation, and the chip has a frame buffer, so rotation looks doable.  Its MIPS vs ARM, but I think this kicks Raspberry PI's ass in terms of CPU, mostly as thats an ancient ARM5 core, and this has MMU etc..

What makes this interesting for me (and others I guess), is that unlike most other Chinese SoC's this one has actual documentation, and BSP's freely available.  Thats highly unusual.  Most of the time you need to beg, borrow or steal, er I mean acquire torrents / rapidshare rar's of said items.

I'm nowhere near anything practical yet.  Right now its a 2nd weekend working on it, but lots of good interesting progress.
Linux is going to be fairly easy to port as its 99% Gamebox GBX-0001 equivalent or 90% A380 Dingoo hardware, and the major work has already been done for that by others, so its mostly tweaks to get their stuff booting.  

We don't have SD though, and no screen or serial, so its going to be a case of make extremely sure I don't screwup, otherwise I'll be out a board if I go too far wrong...  

I'm not sure yet whether I go linux, or replace the emulator(s) used by the current MINIOS by rejigging the firmware, and sticking another better compiled one inside.  The latter looks like an easier route for now.  As to using Android on this,  64M ram is not really enough to run another emulation layer on top of an OS. Its never a good idea imho, unless you have oodles of CPU+RAM to spare.
 
In this case its MP4 player chipset hardware with fairly decent NAND size, ok RAM size, semi decent video for its class, so whatever the Dingoo or GameBox BGX001 does at the moment will be fairly similar speedwise.  Its the same thing as those 2 in a different form factor, but with JAMMA.

Definitely room for improvement on current speeds emulated though.




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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #205 on: June 16, 2012, 03:33:20 pm »
I don't get the "JAMMA interface + old computer is cheaper" argument at all. Sure, that's one way to go, but it's no plug & play JAMMA solution like an Arcade multiboard. It just doesn't compare.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2012, 03:42:11 pm by emphatic »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #206 on: June 16, 2012, 04:03:03 pm »
Not only is it not easier, the whole $10 pc mobo things are not nearly as reliable as the mult boards either IMHO. The emulation sucks but I cant kill the hardware.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #207 on: June 16, 2012, 05:28:58 pm »
Does somebody have a decent, and supported JAMMA encoder running to CGA at $15 ?
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #208 on: June 16, 2012, 05:32:31 pm »
I already own 2 J-Pac's + a MAME computer I never use. Why? It's because I don't want to have wires and an extra PSU etc all inside my cabinet. I've had a Gamebox already (I sold it again along with a cabinet) and except for not being fast enough to be running all the games I wanted it to run it was a really good little piece of hardware. I prefer to run Arcade PCB's as they are more convenient to handle, a $10 PC with a J-Pac is clumsy as hell.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #209 on: June 17, 2012, 11:22:50 am »
I have no idea what you're talking about, Oraap.  :dizzy:

Perhaps a new thread should be better that doesn't have

* Gamebox for TV as the confusion seems to be overwhelming
* composite video (doesn't work in a JAMMA cabinet)
* BlueTooth (see above)
* USB (no excess wiring please)

My GameBox (or rather, AdvanceMAME 0.106 on this hardware) couldn't run Galaga 88, D-Donpachi, Progear, E.S.P. Ra.De. etc without major frameskipping. If someone are willing to optimize an Open Source emulator to effectively use the King Of Game board hardware to run these games and more @ 100% speed with no issues, well then I think that is a much more appealing thing to get for my non-commercial needs than a PC that has a bloated O/S and needs hours of my time for the endless hassle that is a MAME PC. I have my PCB's in storage and seldom change games, so putting all of them into a small PCB that I can use when I have friends over etc would be very nice.

Also, where in the world are the $15 JAMMA controllers?  ::)

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #210 on: June 18, 2012, 11:42:34 am »
Title of this thread: "Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console"

No. The title of the thread is GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-

So back to the subject at hand here. Funds are a little tight right now. I'm hoping to pick up some form of this gamebox to have a gander at how this works eventually though.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #211 on: June 18, 2012, 03:17:18 pm »
Back on subject. With the help of a game shop friend of mine, i was able to get samples of the portable gamebox shaped like a GBA and the ND3000 model which is shaped like a ps2. Wasn't able to get the GBX model or the Jamma one just yet. I did find out who is actually manufacturing the GBX models though and they associate with an old friend of mine. If i can get him to introduce me to them, I plan on picking their brains on the project.



« Last Edit: June 19, 2012, 03:46:13 am by NIVO »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #212 on: June 18, 2012, 10:20:30 pm »
As I've pretty much decided I'm building a new box with a JAMMA harness instead of (or begrudgingly, alongside) a traditional MAME setup....

...yeah instead of using Android and tilting things - how balls-ass stupid of me....  ::)

...I'm intrigued by what shanghaiguide is doing. Yeah, a lot of what he's saying is going over my head but I'm following along as best as I can. Maybe we can encourage him to start a separate thread as empahtic suggested and therefore there's little confusion and less fuel for the fire for those, for some reason, interested in further GAMEBOX discussion.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #213 on: June 19, 2012, 12:36:23 am »
I've moved it to http://forum.retrosticks.com as this thread is pretty much toasted due to said  :tool: spamming it with irrelevant stuff.
The guy doing the Gamebox stuff in zonaeuropa is posting too there, so I expect progress :)

At the moment I'm looking at buying a dev board as I really need the minios source side for some of the stuff, and can't find.
Looks like its about 800rmb odd for a dev board, so not too bad.



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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #214 on: June 19, 2012, 03:54:14 am »
the rides over for now. I did what i could to clean up the spewtum in here. Continue on fellas. :cheers:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #215 on: June 19, 2012, 04:12:55 am »
Thanks for the cleanup, but now a lot of posts make no sense.  :laugh2:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #216 on: June 19, 2012, 07:00:52 am »
I think its better to have no sense, than nonsense heheh >:D

Thanks for cleaning it up!

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #217 on: June 19, 2012, 07:11:36 am »
In case it wasn't clear, Orapp/DriverMan has been banned again.
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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #218 on: June 19, 2012, 01:14:24 pm »
 :applaud:
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #219 on: June 19, 2012, 05:25:59 pm »
 :applaud: :applaud:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #220 on: June 19, 2012, 08:03:46 pm »
 :applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #221 on: June 19, 2012, 10:10:43 pm »
In case it wasn't clear, Orapp/DriverMan has been banned again.

Darn, I found this video too late.   :duckhunt




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« Last Edit: June 19, 2012, 10:14:15 pm by PL1 »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #222 on: June 21, 2012, 12:33:00 am »
I really hope this thread didn't die just because the spam ended?  :dunno

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #223 on: June 21, 2012, 06:34:26 am »
No, its not dead, its er, resting.

I know nuffink about no parrots neither.


Back onto offtopicness - I have successfully dumped the rom properly, worked out the layout, and even worked out how to rip apart the minios.bin and res.bin files.
I have put that stuff up on http://forum.retrosticks.com though, as it was getting a bit tedious with Volde^H he who shall not be named spamming the  :censored: out of this thread.

So far progress is good, I can now start either compiling my own goodies + sticking into the current bin file, or going linux.  I shall see :).

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #224 on: June 21, 2012, 08:08:49 am »
Whatever has the least overhead.  It'd be awesome to get an older version of MAME going that still had enough under the hood for some of the CPS1/2 games.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #225 on: June 21, 2012, 09:38:34 am »
No, its not dead, its er, resting.

I know nuffink about no parrots neither.


Back onto offtopicness - I have successfully dumped the rom properly, worked out the layout, and even worked out how to rip apart the minios.bin and res.bin files.
I have put that stuff up on http://forum.retrosticks.com though, as it was getting a bit tedious with Volde^H he who shall not be named spamming the  :censored: out of this thread.

So far progress is good, I can now start either compiling my own goodies + sticking into the current bin file, or going linux.  I shall see :).

the good news is, i was able to get another variant of the gamebox called the ND3000 along with an odd gameboy advance SP clone which uses the same cpu. The bad news is, the ND3000 is dead. No video from it at all. Warmed up some solder points on the board just to see if it was anything loose. Nothing.

Strange thing is, there is a model of the GBA SP that does run cps1 games and has a micro sd slot. The model i have here plays GBA games from onboard memory and can also emulate nes games.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #226 on: June 21, 2012, 12:45:18 pm »
I have successfully dumped the rom properly, worked out the layout, and even worked out how to rip apart the minios.bin and res.bin files.

 :applaud:

The model i have here plays GBA games from onboard memory and can also emulate nes games.

Does it output RGB?

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #227 on: June 21, 2012, 01:02:05 pm »
I have successfully dumped the rom properly, worked out the layout, and even worked out how to rip apart the minios.bin and res.bin files.

 :applaud:

The model i have here plays GBA games from onboard memory and can also emulate nes games.

Does it output RGB?

MY unit doesn't output anything. It does however, have an AV out jack. If i were able to get anything to output on this unit, i would have had a second look at possibly doing an RGB mod for it. I can sucessfully plug this into my pc and see the console as a mass storage device. Just get no sound or video on the screen. :(

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #228 on: June 21, 2012, 01:15:48 pm »
If its dead dead, try flashing it with the Gamebox linux port

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByvCAHD9EnZhWFIyMi1OUXYzTVk

I'd open up  the box first and take some photos though, post on here with chipset details, ram and flash size so we can see if would be suitable first though.

Also the GBPlus /GBASP units - I'm pretty sure that its a different ARM SoC in those.

The Gamebox is MIPS - similar, but not quite the same!


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #229 on: June 21, 2012, 01:29:22 pm »
If its dead dead, try flashing it with the Gamebox linux port

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByvCAHD9EnZhWFIyMi1OUXYzTVk

I'd open up  the box first and take some photos though, post on here with chipset details, ram and flash size so we can see if would be suitable first though.

Also the GBPlus /GBASP units - I'm pretty sure that its a different ARM SoC in those.

The Gamebox is MIPS - similar, but not quite the same!

Yeah, i plan to put this on a flatbed scanner a little later on and get some hi res scans of the board front and back. As for the GBA, this one uses the same igenic soc that is used in the gamebox consoles. I managed by pure mistake to get it to run in usb bootloader  mode by holding a few buttons down while putting in the usb cable. Gotta figure out that button combination again.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #230 on: June 21, 2012, 01:55:42 pm »
yup found it. holding the down arrow + A+B while turning on the gba with the supplied usb cable attached boots her up into usb bootloader mode. Device shows up as JZ4750 USB Boot Device.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #231 on: June 21, 2012, 09:31:55 pm »
flatbed scanner doesn't seem to be working properly any more. Ended up taking some decent pics of the board front and back. The pics are pretty damn big so i didn't bother adding the img tags to these. Click the links below to have a look.



« Last Edit: June 21, 2012, 09:34:04 pm by 404 »

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #232 on: June 21, 2012, 10:35:43 pm »
I like that - would almost  make a good dev board - has most appropriate bits n pieces, although 88,89 for uart appear to be disconnected.

Can I bug you for a photo of the box and the plastic case also (so I can try find it locally and buy one)?

I'm assuming this is the GBA one, as I don't see a tv encoder chip, and the SoC is going straight to what I'm assuming is the plug for the LCD top GBA panel + buttons?

Nice photo - everything is nice and clear!


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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #233 on: June 21, 2012, 10:56:53 pm »
I like that - would almost  make a good dev board - has most appropriate bits n pieces, although 88,89 for uart appear to be disconnected.

Can I bug you for a photo of the box and the plastic case also (so I can try find it locally and buy one)?

I'm assuming this is the GBA one, as I don't see a tv encoder chip, and the SoC is going straight to what I'm assuming is the plug for the LCD top GBA panel + buttons?

Nice photo - everything is nice and clear!


This is actually the console board, i haven't opened up the GB board. Kinda weary on messing with the GB as it actually works and its somewhat fun.

Yeah, it's a crying shame that it doesn't work. I can hook it up to my pc and see the contents of the board. I spent a few minutes prodding around the board to look for any obvious signs of a jumper to enable usb boot mode.

Here is a link to the ND3000 commonly reffered to as the PII Station.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/nd-3000-game-station-console-set-with-usb-sd-hdmi-av-out-2gb-65977

Here is a list of the common variants of the gamebox GBX

PII or PV Station ND3000
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/nd-3000-game-station-console-set-with-usb-sd-hdmi-av-out-2gb-65977

Gamebox 380 NJ-3801
http://www.ec21.com/product-details/NJ-3801-Game-Box-380--4903292.html

Gamebox Advance portable. The gamebox branded models play arcade games and have a micro sd card slot just above the cartridge port. The other Igenic based gameboy advance clones play gba and nes games and do not have a microSD card slot.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/3-lcd-gamebox-advance-game-console-mp3-mp4-multimedia-player-w-tv-output-tf-silver-2gb-81512

VBox II NJ-3802
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/vbox-ii-nj-3802-game-console-set-with-sd-av-out-2gb-65976

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #234 on: June 22, 2012, 04:36:07 am »
Names are sometimes meaningless unfortunately, as the factories make them, and importers name them.
I have found them though.

I may get one of the GBA ones, they're dirt cheap.

Seem to be a few variants already for the "GameBox"

Looking at retail here I think I found yours:

Gamebox (original)  - which is made by 小霸王 in Shenzhen.
ND-3000 - I think just a different case?
NJ-3802 - 2g flash has wireless joysticks - 4 players, 315rmb with 4 wireless sticks (extra sticks +30) looks xboxish stylewise
NJ-3801 - aka the fugly model. - supports up to 4 players. 280rmb with 3 ps2 style joysticks (wired).

GBA SP "clone"  2G NAND - 138rmb (I think i order one to mess with, at that price, can't complain if its not actually the JZ soc..)
Has a RTC (real time clock), also a cheaper one avail with 1G flash for 99rmb
Press R for time set to assist with some games that didn't work - eg Pokemon in home screen.
Hold R + SELECT  key to soft reset / return to home folder from emulator. A for confirm, B for return back
L+R for USB boot.  Don't delete all the files in the NAND, or need to reflash.


Not sure I'll get any (except the gameboy one), as I think will be ok with current hardware for development (or get a proper dev board).


Some pics.














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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #235 on: June 22, 2012, 09:13:57 am »
I think all of them are pretty interesting in their own ways. If i had money to just throw away, i would get one of each. I've always been into weird and obscure electronics.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #236 on: June 22, 2012, 12:22:04 pm »
I'd like to see the 3801 or 3802 opened up.  Seems like getting mame or something on there should be pretty simple with linux available.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #237 on: June 26, 2012, 06:23:36 pm »
Pics of the GBA clone. While in USB Boot mode it shows up as a JZ4750 but the processor is clearly labeled a JZ4725B on the board. Only 128mb ram.



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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #238 on: June 27, 2012, 07:05:20 am »
@404 -

I bought one, disassembled, mine turned out to be a  ChinaChips CC1600 :(
I have another one coming on Friday, so hopefully that turns out to be JZ47xx based, otherwise I will have to commit to buying a dev board sadly.

You showed me yours, so I'll show you mine  ::)


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr



Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr


Untitled by sheedl, on Flickr

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #239 on: June 27, 2012, 07:44:43 am »
sucks that it's not a gamebox. Still, looks like pretty interesting hardware. How do the games play? Tried any other roms on it?

the gamebox is clearly labled as a gamebox. Have a look at the video below. You can see the clear differences in labels, brandings and the micro sd slot.


shanghaiguide

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #240 on: June 27, 2012, 08:50:31 am »
I could look at the video below in another country, but not from China  :banghead:

Government   :censored: :soapbox:  :angry: :cry: :blah:

I never had a GBA so don't really have anything to compare it to.
Tried a couple of games - they are all annoying BS intro stuff, text, click a, more text, click a.. spent about 5 minutes doing that in 3 or 4 games (nothing wrong with the unit, its the games that had the annoying intros!), then the battery gave out.
I don't have a charger, as they shipped the wrong cable, so won't be able to take a closer look till Friday.

This one also doesn't have TF or USB like the one I asked my staff to buy, and gave the exact link for purchase to.  So, will file this in the not so useful pile for now.
Will see if the "charger" is a usb style cable or not, if so will put it in boot mode and see if it will talk.

The ChinaChips ones use an *identical* bootloader to the JZ series, so shouldn't be too hard.  I think Ingenic and ChinaChips either collaborated, or Ingenic bought the SoC off of ChipChips for the JZ47xx series.  Not sure, but I do know that they're more separate now than they were before, as they've diverged pathwise since.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #241 on: June 27, 2012, 09:10:02 am »
I could look at the video below in another country, but not from China  :banghead:

Government   :censored: :soapbox:  :angry: :cry: :blah:

I never had a GBA so don't really have anything to compare it to.
Tried a couple of games - they are all annoying BS intro stuff, text, click a, more text, click a.. spent about 5 minutes doing that in 3 or 4 games (nothing wrong with the unit, its the games that had the annoying intros!), then the battery gave out.
I don't have a charger, as they shipped the wrong cable, so won't be able to take a closer look till Friday.

This one also doesn't have TF or USB like the one I asked my staff to buy, and gave the exact link for purchase to.  So, will file this in the not so useful pile for now.
Will see if the "charger" is a usb style cable or not, if so will put it in boot mode and see if it will talk.

The ChinaChips ones use an *identical* bootloader to the JZ series, so shouldn't be too hard.  I think Ingenic and ChinaChips either collaborated, or Ingenic bought the SoC off of ChipChips for the JZ47xx series.  Not sure, but I do know that they're more separate now than they were before, as they've diverged pathwise since.

hopefully the great firewall of china doesn't block this link. has plenty of pics of the gamebox model

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/3-lcd-gamebox-advance-game-console-mp3-mp4-multimedia-player-w-tv-output-tf-silver-2gb-81512

still haven't been able to find any usb boot drivers for win7 x64 so i haven't been able to tinker with my model. would have at least liked to dump the firmware from it. the nes emulator could prove useful down the road.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #242 on: July 09, 2012, 12:37:19 pm »
I would think building a MAME version for minios would be easier.  Shanghai, if you want to PM me I'll see if I can figure something out.  I need to know a bit more on the HW though....if I've got like a USB slot for a KBD or something.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #243 on: July 09, 2012, 04:18:30 pm »
i've pretty much put this stuff on hold for the moment. haven't looked into getting replacement hardware and instead have been focusing on getting myself some sort of cabinet to actually play mame with first. Once i have that sorted out, i may try to pick up another nd300 or gbx model to tinker with.

a little update from the official gamebox side, i believe i briefly mentioned earlier that a mutual friend had email correspondence with the gamebox guys. he did forward me their email and i asked them about the status of their gamebox in regards to future development etc. two days later they shut down their gamebox.hk domain. hope i didn't jinx them or something.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #244 on: February 14, 2013, 12:39:19 pm »
Hey folks....just a heads up, I haven't forgotten about this.  Still plugging away.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #245 on: February 14, 2013, 01:29:28 pm »
Hey folks....just a heads up, I haven't forgotten about this.  Still plugging away.

I did manage to collect and document a few more of these units but gave up tinkering with them shortly thereafter. I really would have liked to have gotten my hands on one of those igenic powered jamma units though.

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Re: GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-
« Reply #246 on: March 14, 2013, 03:03:56 pm »
Hold out for  my arm based one ;)