Re: VECTOR: Sega Vector Development Tools Project

Hi all,

I get back from vacation and am excited to see a bunch of emails about the 
topic, only to find that they are about the VIC replacement chip :-(

Clay hit the nail on the head; there was a VIC chip on the sega G80 raster 
boards that could be replaced with a VIC replacement board; not sure which 
came first (chick or egg), but that's what it's for.

Thanks Clay for providing those code samples!

I only got like one email from a vectorlist member about interest in this 
project, so I think I'll take this subject offline.  Probably make it a 
Yahoo! group (unless there is a better mailing list service that I'm unaware 
of?  Advice?)  Heck, maybe even make it a source forge project.

Turns out MAME already support a "no security chip" hardware configuration, 
so I should have support for a "generic" sega G80 program shortly.  Programs 
written for the Sega G80 must assume a certain hardware configuration (ie 
space fury targeted a hardware platform with a space fury sound board, etc), 
so for now the virtual target platform in mame will be a space fury system 
with an eliminator 4-player interface board on the front end.  Instead of 
creating a configuration for each possible hardware configuration (though 
there aren't *that* many), I'd probably have the mame driver generated 
automatically, and also allow for the games to use the other sega G80 sound 
boards, like Astro Blaster's or Space Odyssey.

Email me if you'd like to be on the development mailing list.

-- 
Mark Jenison