We've had a couple of threads on that cheesy pirated NES roms system done up like an N64 controller but today I saw something new at the mall.
The eXtreme Box
Okay, imagine that someone shrunk an Xbox down to about 1/10th it's size, made the X shape on the top of the case blue but kept the green jewel. Slap on some Atari 2600 style controller ports and the ability to play NES games like Spiderman VS the Sinister Six from LJN. One of the wierdest things I've ever seen.
Funny that you add in the bolded. Why? Do you have an axe to grind and you figured a casual introduction would be to necrobump a thread from the stone age?
So about the example. Wow, I guess some people don't even give a second thought towards making consoles. It was probably made by some guy who was drunk off his ass.
It was made by Chinese knock off companies, it uses a Sunplus processor. These same companies also produce Famiclones (Clones of the NES) and actually improved upon its capabilities with OneBus architecture.
They aren't drunk, they just use extremely cheap components. Making a famiclone costs next to nothing. It was also the basis of Playpower, an initative to provide third world countries with NES based keyboards so they could have their own el cheapo computer at home. For these countries, the tech equivalent of a NES is huge.
It's supposed to mean "you necrobumped a 14 year old thread without thinking, and are now rolling with the narrative of 'i was starting a discussion' in an attempt to save face rather than taking it on the chin and admitting that you fucked up".
(Is that about right Scopa
?)
It doesn't help that your alleged discussion starter was "lol retarded" not once but twice. That's not exactly high discourse, know what I'm saying?
It was made by Chinese knock off companies, it uses a Sunplus processor. These same companies also produce Famiclones (Clones of the NES) and actually improved upon its capabilities with OneBus architecture.
They aren't drunk, they just use extremely cheap components. Making a famiclone costs next to nothing. It was also the basis of Playpower, an initative to provide third world countries with NES based keyboards so they could have their own el cheapo computer at home. For these countries, the tech equivalent of a NES is huge.
Your knowledge of obscure hardware never ceases to amaze, Red. What does the Playpower thing entail- a spectrum-style integrated keyboard + NES running some sort of basic OS ROM?
I mean if it's a "Super Console" then it clearly has our existing Normal Console Xboxes and Playstations beat. Everything is better if you prefix it with Super!
Your knowledge of obscure hardware never ceases to amaze, Red. What does the Playpower thing entail- a spectrum-style integrated keyboard + NES running some sort of basic OS ROM?
It was essentially a british initative to buy up famiclones that were in a keyboard and a basic OS in a cartridge. Chinese hacks produced their own takes on Windows, but they also included a BASIC interpreter.
EDIT: Actually through my research for this post i found out that there has been a follow up to this called Basic Engine. It ditches the NES for something equallty cheap but more modern: https://basicengine.org/history.html
There are several interesting features from both a hardware and software perspective. Take for example the VT03 chip: 50/60Hz, PAL or NTSC selectable Stereo sound! There are two APUs, the second is accessed in the region $4020-$4035
Optional "one bus" operation, i.e. a single ROM chip contains both PRG and CHR data. (Cartridges for the OneStation console probably use that feature.)
Timer interrupt facility, can count down PA12 or HSYNC (scanline) transitions High-colour palette mode; according to the datasheet, there are 121 possible colours. Colours specified in $3Fxx and $3Fxx + $80
Built-in bank selection hardware, change H/V mirroring in software ($4106 bit 0) 16-colour sprites and large sprites (16 pixels wide)
It's supposed to mean "you necrobumped a 14 year old thread without thinking, and are now rolling with the narrative of 'i was starting a discussion' in an attempt to save face rather than taking it on the chin and admitting that you fucked up".
(Is that about right Scopa
?)
Not sure about the not thinking part. I have to question the motives of a person who joins GAF 5 days ago and then necrobumps a thread from 2005 to say “that would be so retarded”.
I can’t help but suspect they are not here for genuine reasons. We’ll see. Time will tell.
Come on mate, it had to do with the topic. Necrobumping should only be a problem if I replied by saying something like, "And bananas are my favorite fruit".
I was just browsing around, looking for cool threads to discuss, then went to the beginning of the forums and found this long forgotten thread that I found cool, and figured "Hey, I can add my input on a console like that".
Then afterwards, everyone came attacking me for no reason. I guess this console was so reviled that even bringing it up heats up a flame of anger in the hearts of NeoGAF.
It was essentially a british initative to buy up famiclones that were in a keyboard and a basic OS in a cartridge. Chinese hacks produced their own takes on Windows, but they also included a BASIC interpreter.
EDIT: Actually through my research for this post i found out that there has been a follow up to this called Basic Engine. It ditches the NES for something equallty cheap but more modern: https://basicengine.org/history.html
There are several interesting features from both a hardware and software perspective. Take for example the VT03 chip: 50/60Hz, PAL or NTSC selectable Stereo sound! There are two APUs, the second is accessed in the region $4020-$4035
Optional "one bus" operation, i.e. a single ROM chip contains both PRG and CHR data. (Cartridges for the OneStation console probably use that feature.)
Timer interrupt facility, can count down PA12 or HSYNC (scanline) transitions High-colour palette mode; according to the datasheet, there are 121 possible colours. Colours specified in $3Fxx and $3Fxx + $80
Built-in bank selection hardware, change H/V mirroring in software ($4106 bit 0) 16-colour sprites and large sprites (16 pixels wide)
Wow, that's a little subset of the tech industry that I never knew existed- a DOS on a game console, no reason it shouldn't work, but such a surprise that it does. I'd even go so far as to say it deserves its own thread
The Basic Engine story is a quality read too if you have a familiarity with hardware hacking, worrying about the cent cost of chips takes me back to trying to spec out a baseball cap with head tracking functionality.
And a keyboard-integrated megadrive? Sounds retroactively amazing. I wonder if it still had the same tasty sound chip or whether they subbed in a knock-off.
Come on mate, it had to do with the topic. Necrobumping should only be a problem if I replied by saying something like, "And bananas are my favorite fruit".
You can generally offset the frowning if the post you necro with is of high quality and offers something insightful or relevant to reignite the discussion.
Otherwise you tend to become the discussion. Forums! \/
