Updates to the Commander X16 with David Murray and Kevin Williams
Вставка
- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- David Murray and Kevin Williams show off the new network card and MIDI card for the Commander X16, as well as a sneak peak at some of the other upcoming hardware and software.
VCF Southwest is made possible by the efforts of the Vintage Computing Collective of North Texas, an 501(C)3 non-profit. Please consider a donation to help us continue to produce shows and content like this. www.paypal.com...
![[UA] NAVI проти G2 Esports | Blast Premier Fall Final](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QWlIm4FGESQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I think David nailed it with the X16. I wanted to get into lower level programming with some "simpler" hardware and make some games. As you start looking at existing systems you start hitting some barriers (older hardware not that reliable, dev tools a little outdated or difficult to use, graphics programming really challenging with mostly low color/res options, difficultly curve just a bit too high). Then some systems are too modern and meant more for IoT or electronics projects (RaspPi, Ard.). Most importantly, you kinda want to feel like your code is REALLY running on something and that you understand how it all works (hardware and all). I think the X16 really hits a sweet spot and there will be (and is) a community for it. I've had a blast coding for it. I made the Warlock's Dungeon game he briefly demoed and I learned a TON about lower level coding. I hadn't done much C in a while and certainly not for a 6502. It really made me appreciate every bit and byte being used and how to be efficient. This has helped me in my day job working with higher level languages more than I could have imagined. I couldn't be happier with this system and I thank David a ton for making this happen.
After missing out, I appreciate all these being shared. Thanks to vcfsw and the x16 teams!
Come on, repeat the audience questions!
I’ve been a huge fan of the 8 bit governor since 2017. I recognize that the channel is changing and the uploads are less frequent. But, I do like all the solar and diy projects that David is undertaking. I’m glad that he is still passionate about tech including the Commander X16 and his new arcade business, even if it’s not always content that I watch.
37:23 the chip is called 65C802. It is pin compatible with 65C02, but instruction compatible with 65C816 (of course, without the additional addresses). It was not commercially successful as far as I know and was discontinued a LONG time ago (I think this is what David was referring to). I only saw it in use once, in some electronic/scientific equipment, but I never saw any for sale, neither new-old-stock nor pulled from machines.
Thank you for your pointer to this video, would have never found it without you
@@petermuller608 You're welcome.
Wish we could have made it to this VCF. Maybe next year!
Great video! Personally, I'd love to see SpeedScript 3.2 ported to the X16 as a basic WP.
FYI - unbibium has posted the 3.1 version on Github... so not far away from 3.2!!!
I am greatfull this is being made, I'll buy one if sales lag and inventory needs cleared. Its not a main stream product its for the passionate 8-bit users. The emulator is nice the hardware would be nicer and I could use a sixth computer. I don't need a discounted on sale model I just want to wait until the passionate get theirs first. Post some sales goals and a timeline maybe. Being flooded with orders is not too good either.
Warlock’s Dungeon doesnt exist anymore anyone have a reupload?
Thanks for demoing End Of The Line BBS. If you had poked around, under Text Files, there's "Art Packs" at the bottom with several gigabytes of ANSI files.
EOTL is one of our favorites too.
Just went to the synchronet BBS list, Looking for "Commander Central"....
Ummm... I'm looking forward to use a BBS specifically for the X16, I just cant find the one they had; and I'm looking forward to using it.
Also can we play multiplayer games, not just with the network card.... but on a BBS?
Great Video too !
"GPU of the mind" - LOL!
It would be amazing if we could get a MiSTer FPGA core for the Commander X16.
I believe there is one in development
4:36 "I don't have to worry about youtube copyright stuff here" 🤣
We did end up with a copyright issue on this video.
Awesome "project", keep going and what an amazing community you have built, you should all be very proud.
Hoping to own a Commander X16 v2 one day, there's just something about running stuff on 'real hardware'.
i just want to edit text now ,, is it possible to do on the x16?
"X16 Edit" offers basic text editing. Not a full WP.
Absolutely, both X16EDIT and BASLOAD are built into the System ROM. That EDIT even includes mouse support! It's one plus on the X16 not mentioned often: actual mouse support (with BASIC keywords), and not a joystick-kind-of-as-a-mouse thing like many of us had back in the 80s.
@@Jody_VE5SAR Booo! Sounds sucky to me.
Has the SMC update issue been fixed? Currently, the SMC is stuck at v45.1, but the ROM and VERA are at v47. At least the last time I checked.
I heard Kevin talking about the radio card, would like to know more about it as to what radio module it uses...
Am I the only one who is interested in it???
thanks so much,.
Is the lack of proper screen capture for the picture-in-picture on purpose? I mean, is it to recreate an authentically painful ‘80s experience? ;-)
We were unable to get the X16's converted HDMI output to play nicely with our video capture setup. We even tried using a commercial grade scaler and couldn't get it working and we ran out of time before it was to start. We will work on it further to see if it can be resolved for next year, but we did the best we could, given the situation.
Nice progress and presentation!
I don't quite get the fascination with midi however. Having rendered audio you sidestep all those issues like not enough sound channels and Roland vs adlib sounding different
I believe it is fun throwing around "an 8bit computer wow!", but isn't it a bit of a stretch to say? How exactly is this just an 8bit computer, down to some very fundamental level? Because if there can be Sega Mega Drive killer games, and all sorts of productivity software with nice interfaces, seriously how or why is it 8 bit? Is it ridiculously limited in how much memory it can address? Or how precise numbers it can do math with? What?..
It has an 8-bit CPU with an 8-bit memory bus.
It always a red flag for me when a demo seems to be thrown together at the last moment and the hardware is missing parts or doesn't work.
Better is the enemy of good enough. Feature creep has strangles this project.
It's a hobby project. You work on it because you like it, not because you need it
Thus there is no such thing as feature creep on such a project
IMHO. Commander X16 is the worst thing that happened to my beloved The 8-Bit Guy channel.
Why? How?
To me it's the arcade thing.
🙂
But at least we still get decent videos like in the olden days sometimes, albeit at larger intervals.
I agree so much. My favorite part of the 8-Bit Guy channel was seeing specific retro pieces of technology presented in a well researched entertaining manner.
I really don't get the Commander X16 project in general. It's a computer for 45+ year old nostalgia nerds. The "educational" part of the project assumes that kids will have any interest in it. I have an 8 year old grandson, and anything that doesn't play Minecraft is never going to get 5 minutes of his attention.
The Raspberry PI plays Minecraft, and has a Python IDE installed by default for when he gets interested in programming. IMO it's a far better choice for an educational computer in almost all cases.
While I wouldn't go that far, I'm watching this right now and wondering... What the heck?
A new 8-bit platform is a cool idea, and while I think the X16 is overcomplicated, I liked the vision of cost reduced ones coming out over time, turning this into a decent hobbyist platform.... But we're looking at a MIDI card? So a super niche extension to what already is a super niche platform. Literally something for tens or maybe a few hundred people at most? Kevin's comment of augmenting MIDI onto future versions of the mobo are worrying in that it causes a fracture in the platform not long after the original backers have spent a small fortune on V1.
@@richneptune They could just skip straight to a cost reduced FPGA version right now, and save all the fapping about with the first version.
A Cyclone IV FPGA board is $35. It would probably replace this entire system, with the exception of some I/O. I suspect the cost reduced version will end up going a similar direction if it ever comes to fruition. So why not just skip all the middle steps, and start doing the FPGA development now?
@@harleyn3089 You're likely right, even a cost reduced version that uses real 6502, VIA and OPL chips would still need an FPGA for Vera, having a "real hardware" version for the purists and a FPGA version for hobbyists would be good enough.
It will be interesting to see if any of these chips get replaced with Raspberry Pi Pico drop-ins of some kind
What we really _needed_ was a portable machine like the Trs-80 Model 100 but of course you didn't give us what we asked for so... now we have nothing. Thanks but no thanks. I mean I'm happy for you but sheesh- this could have been a really great dffort instead of a mediocre effort.
I’d like to see the one you’ve built …. I’ll wait 😂😂