VECTOR: Sega Vector Development Tools Project

Hi all,

On my commute to work (train), I've got about 2 hours a day to spend with my 
laptop, so I've been dedicating this time to constructing a development 
platform for the Sega G80 hardware.

There are many little projects under the umbrella of "development platform", 
so I wanted to see if there was anyone here interested in helping out, or 
just wanted to join in some of the technical discussion about how to achieve 
this.

Here's a brief (but not complete list) of goals and sub-projects:

- build a Sega vector paint program (sort of like the lost G08ed) that 
generates the vector information for a drawn "sprite"
-  modify MAME to accept programs that haven't been encoded by the sega 
security chips (basically program in the David Fish security free hack)
- disassemble parts of a Sega vector game to find useful routines
- write a small program that draws a box that changes color when a key is 
pressed
- write a small program that changes sounds played when a key is pressed
- come up with a technique similar to the one used with Eliminator 4-player 
that increases the number of inputs (maybe enough for a keyboard!)
- modify a C compiler and create a library of routines for sega vectors
- compile a small program that runs on the Sega Vector hardware in mame
- test programs on actual Sega vector hardware (I've got a few G08 monitors 
to spare if things go wrong :-))
- port a game to the Sega Vector hardware
- write a new game for the Sega Vector hardware

I've got some ideas and more details for each step if anyone is interested 
in joining in on this project.  Everything will be open sourced (no money to 
make on this project).  I can provide web page hosting for the project as 
well.  Right now I'm going off of MAME code and the Sega hardware reference 
that Al Kossow wrote.  I tried to request some code samples from Clay, but 
he hasn't responded.  Feel free to email me with any advice or information 
you may have for such a project, or if you'd like to take part.  Or we can 
just start a general discussion about the topic on vectorlist.

-- 
Mark Jenison