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GAMEBOX Multi-Game Platform TV Video Game Console -MAME-

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Oraap:


--- Quote from: shanghaiguide on June 09, 2012, 11:57:19 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 :)

--- End quote ---

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.



shanghaiguide:


--- Quote ---What is the current emulator and what is "better emulator" you want port?
--- End quote ---

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?
--- End 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.  

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.
--- End quote ---

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?


Oraap:


--- Quote from: shanghaiguide on June 15, 2012, 08:55:23 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 ;)

--- End quote ---

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.

--- End quote ---

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?

--- End quote ---

Later, it's your turn now.

shanghaiguide:

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





Oraap:

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/


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