Classic Plus Development Updates

[Snuffytime]

Hanging out for when this becomes available!

Feature Creep:
Has there been any thought given to setting a sound standard for the 'Bee beyond the 1-bit clicking of port 2[6]? Any of the popular sound generator chips of the 80s still available, or add something in to the FPGA?

Also, will there be enough room in the FPGA to add 1 or more sprites - handy for building a mouse-driven UI?

[MbeeTech]

Hanging out for when this becomes available!

Feature Creep:
Has there been any thought given to setting a sound standard for the 'Bee beyond the 1-bit clicking of port 2[6]?  Any of the popular sound generator chips of the 80s still available, or add something in to the FPGA?

I've had a preliminary look into adding a AY-3-891x compatible core into the FPGA.  Not committing to it at this stage.

Also, will there be enough room in the FPGA to add 1 or more sprites - handy for building a mouse-driven UI?

This is actually on the TO-DO list. I am planning to add (one)  'sprite' / hardware programmable graphic cursor, specifically thinking about mouse cursor.

[MbeeTech]

Hey all.

Over the last few weeks I've done a lot of development work and proving out of the hardware.

To start with, I've added 3 more screen modes (thanks to 'Someone' for the suggestions and details)
which will make porting of games from machines like the ZX Spectrum a lot easier.
(See 'Someone''s posts regarding 'Microbee the ultimate doppleganger')

I've also done a fair bit of software work and written a Bresenham based line drawing routine and somewhat
optimized it (more to do) for the Classic-Plus 4 bit plane 640x256 mode (see photo below).
Additionally, I've written a BMP file reader (4 bits per pixel ) routine including palette loading etc. 
Still lots more to do, but its coming along very nicely.

 

                 Line Drawing routine                                                                4bpp Bitmap load

[CheshireNoir]

Amazing work Ewan.
As always, thanks for sharing the progress with us. Can't wait to get my hands on one of these beauties when they are properly ready and available. Don't rush them. Release when you're good and ready.

Cheers!

John