ChanServ changed the topic of ##yamahasynths to: Channel dedicated to questions and discussion of Yamaha FM Synthesizer internals and corresponding REing. Discussion of synthesis methods similar to the Yamaha line of chips, Sound Blasters + clones, PCM chips like RF5C68, and CD theory of operation are also on-topic. Channel logs: https://freenode.irclog.whitequark.org/~h~yamahasynths
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* cr1901_modern
waves to linkmauve I was wondering where you went actually :P.
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<Lord_Nightmare>
Foone: sean riddle cracked the riddle for how to dump the sharp sm590 electronically today (well, at this hour, technically yesterday)
<Lord_Nightmare>
he dumped the 3193A CIC, the 6113 key-only CIC, and the R.O.B.'s MCU
<andlabs>
so what is this about
<andlabs>
oh one of the NES cart mappers
<andlabs>
what's the iNES number?
<andlabs>
also there was a datasheet fo rthis for some reason
<andlabs>
also I guess I bought a sequential model 262 midi interface for c64 on impulse
<andlabs>
but it includes a catalog of sequential's computer products, which the current sequential doesn't like to talk about, since dave smith says that getting into peripherals is what killed the original company
<andlabs>
which is probably true
<andlabs>
anyway good night
<Lord_Nightmare>
sorry was away
<Lord_Nightmare>
good night
<linkmauve>
cr1901_modern, I went to CCCamp, then my server went down, then I got invited to spend a few days (which became weeks) in Berlin and it was amazing!
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<cr1901_modern>
linkmauve: Glad you had an amazing time and wb :)
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<andlabs>
the famous japanese pianist who wrote the music for the genesis game crusader of centy/soleil has his own expansion card for one of the MIDI modules I bought and now I must have this card
<andlabs>
and apparentlyt here's another one, VC5501W
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<Lord_Nightmare>
be warned: some of those yamaha and roland expansion cards were battery-backed SRAM based and only ever released on that format
<Lord_Nightmare>
and i suspect most of those are completely lost to time because the batteries only last maybe 10 years
<Lord_Nightmare>
unless someone was smart enough to back up the data
<Lord_Nightmare>
i don't think any of the 'official' yamaha dx/sy/tg series and roland d-50/uxxx series cards used sram except for the cards they sold as sram cards for backing up user presets
<Lord_Nightmare>
but some 3rd party cards definitely were
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<andlabs>
[15:32:10] <Lord_Nightmare>unless someone was smart enough to back up the data
<andlabs>
this has very likely happened for the major cards
<andlabs>
and since I'm mainly interested in the official cards...
<andlabs>
my favorite part is synthmania claiming the roland D-50 card patch data is available online as 'public domain'
<andlabs>
very major translation error for the italian native
<andlabs>
and even then I'm mainly interested in THIS set specifically because of the person attached to it
<andlabs>
crusader of centy is a great game with great music
<andlabs>
I have to double-check if the roland D-05 has all of the expansion cards as built ins
<andlabs>
*all of the first-party expansion cards
<m4t>
Lord_Nightmare: i guess it depends on the sram chip and its standby consumption, but i just got an old SNES game on ebay and opened it up. cr2032 battery still had >3v on it. dated 1998
<cr1901_modern>
I need to back up all my saves w/ the Retrode
<cr1901_modern>
but they never made a NES peripheral and the community is... nonexistent
<m4t>
i was just wondering how that could be done
<m4t>
hook up some test leads i guess and read it off with an arduino or somethin
<cr1901_modern>
Retrode can back up SNES, Genesis, and (in principle) N64 games. There are no adapters for Virtual Boy or NES games
<cr1901_modern>
(Idk how to source both "genders"- there needs to be a better word for this- of VB connectors though)
<cr1901_modern>
But considering PlanetVB found a way to make a low-qty run of the fucking link cable which was never released, I'm guessing they have their ways
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<andlabs>
oh
<andlabs>
and that reminds me
<andlabs>
ej5: are your FM chips new stock, new old stock, recycled, or clones?
<cr1901_modern>
(RomUniverse seems like a scummy site, but the linked tweet is still accurate)
<whitequark>
you can download a part of a torrent
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<m4t>
as long as they're not zips/isos. which unfortunately a lot are :(
<m4t>
i ordered a bunch of fm chips from china :o will be using acetone and a microscope to check some
<m4t>
bought a genesis as well to test ym2612's
<cr1901_modern>
Cool
<cr1901_modern>
Now I can hold off buying one :P
<m4t>
ill try to relay my findings, it'll be a few weeks tho
<cr1901_modern>
whitequark: Just checked, it seems nowadays if you download only part of a torrent (I last did it a year ago), a client will only allocate the required amount of space.
<cr1901_modern>
I seem to recall this not being true when I was big into torrents/fansubs (2008-12)
<cr1901_modern>
i.e. it'll allocate space for the whole damn thing
<whitequark>
yeah
<cr1901_modern>
So I retract part of my commentary :P
<m4t>
on linux the files will be the right "size", but are sparse files
<m4t>
rtorrent anyways.
<cr1901_modern>
I typically write torrents directly to an SMB share- idk if Samba takes advantage of that
<m4t>
*maybe* with posix extensions? idk
<whitequark>
my torrent client doesn't even create files i don't want
<cr1901_modern>
i.e. the client runs on my laptop b/c my torrent box is a long out of out date 32-bit PowerPC machine and I can't be arsed to update it w/ a headless client
<cr1901_modern>
Also doesn't help that nyaa and bakabt are dead
<m4t>
nice my first nas was a diy ppc405gp thingy
<m4t>
dinky af. 266mhz. doubled throughput by getting a pci card that supported csum offload
<andlabs>
also while the macOS kernel supports sparse files, HFS does not
<andlabs>
or maybe it does but the kernel won't creae them
<andlabs>
not sure about APFS
<andlabs>
as for ROM sites, I'm gonna start ranting about indie game devs here
<andlabs>
but I will say this is what happens when retro goes mainstream
<cr1901_modern>
Not to put a fine point on things, but indie game devs very much get screwed by distribution services, so I'm hesistant to really rant about them making things they enjoy
<andlabs>
since hobbyist computers are back in vogue I'm going to make a 68000-based computer where the first and most important design rule is "must prevent anys ort of DRM if possible, strongly discourage otherwise"
<andlabs>
cr1901_modern: oh no that's not what I would be talking about
<cr1901_modern>
I mean, yes, if I was making a retro system to sell to ppl (btw, that is NOT a viable product- see RetroVGS), I would make it DRM free
<andlabs>
but that is something I would like to get angry about because of remute's label handing out copyright strikes on youtube
<andlabs>
oh no, I don't mean DRM free, I mean DRM impossible
<andlabs>
slightly different goals
<andlabs>
are you an indie dev who wants to use a CPLD to prevent people from dumping the ROM for your niche game for your niche console? this computer is not for you
<andlabs>
and also yell at ROM sites just like Nintendo does
<andlabs>
there you've got me ranting about it
<cr1901_modern>
Pier Solar was dumped like 10 days after it was released anyway
<cr1901_modern>
There's a whole infosec conference presentation about it (CCC?)
<cr1901_modern>
Also, another lukewarm take: You'll never get a cartridge-based system to sell ever again.
<andlabs>
lol I would totally expect fonzie to bankrupt himself suing CCC if it was there
<andlabs>
considering how he tanked the rest of the company
<cr1901_modern>
Idk much about Watermelon games
<andlabs>
they went under
<cr1901_modern>
I know Tiido (Genesis guru for those who don't know) designed the copy protect CPLD
<andlabs>
but apparently bought the rights to distribute vixen 357, which is an entirely separate tangent that I wamt to yell about
<andlabs>
I was using cartridges as an example
<andlabs>
I'll put it a different way
<andlabs>
I was a long-time contributor to TCRF
<cr1901_modern>
Weren't they supposed to be creating a beat-em-up anyway?
<cr1901_modern>
(Sorry multithread)
<cr1901_modern>
(I'm listening to you)
<andlabs>
I can never really feel psyched about getting into the Amiga or Atari ST knowing now about all the awful hidden messages
<andlabs>
hidden content to make you depressed
<cr1901_modern>
There are a few asshole messages hidden in Amiga games, but I never thought it was that bad
<andlabs>
ON TOP OF stupid floppy disk copy protection that is derived from the fact that no one ever standardized the floppy disk technology so I'm not even sure how I can make a dump of some arbitrary disk
<cr1901_modern>
most of them IME are people asking others to wait to pirate
<cr1901_modern>
RetroVGS was an unmitigated disaster
<andlabs>
anyway as for your question
<cr1901_modern>
and vaporware
<andlabs>
fonzie used a NDA to try to silence his employees about mistreatment and then slowly over time everyone left
<m4t>
"Eventually members of the AtariAge.com forum discovered that the new prototype was another fake after finding that the motherboard visible in the clear case was actually an HICAP50B CCTV capture card rather than a game console motherboard."
<andlabs>
there's now a longform essay video about it
<andlabs>
lol
<cr1901_modern>
mind linking it for me for later?
<cr1901_modern>
Tanglwood seems to have been made by a decent bloke
<cr1901_modern>
err Tanglewood*. Tanglwood is (was) a ski resort in the Poconos, Fruedian slip
<andlabs>
Tinglewood
<andlabs>
I don't have a link to the documentary, ask Flygon or Sik or the Tanglewood guy
<andlabs>
andlabs is an angry pirate part 45365542
<andlabs>
I just can't get into these rants because it ruins the rest of my day
<cr1901_modern>
I have a mostly unlimited outrage machine
<andlabs>
right now I'm trapped at work running through a list of things that should not have tkaen an hour
<andlabs>
more than an hour
<andlabs>
all I can hope for is one very specific Genesis prototype lands into my hands...
<cr1901_modern>
All the power to you and thank you for your service
<cr1901_modern>
I do not have the funds to buy a prototype or dev hardware
<andlabs>
I'll say it again: if there's a Sega prototype that needs to be purchased let me know =P
<andlabs>
probably not in the short term; I need to set money aside for my upcoming vacation
<cr1901_modern>
whitequark: I had a fun-yet-horrifying idea: combine smoltcp, a USB 2.0 host that understands MSC, HTTP(S) server, torrent code, and SMB/NFS code. You have a headless seedbox without the "overhead" of Linux.
<cr1901_modern>
(I know this is a terrible idea)
<andlabs>
still curious about the OPL chips
<andlabs>
are they new stock?
<andlabs>
are they clones?
<cr1901_modern>
old stock or fakes I would imagine
<ej5>
andlabs, it's from china so it could be anything
<andlabs>
lol
<ej5>
yeah still puzzling over the timing problem
<cr1901_modern>
andlabs: Hopefully A Certain Prototype that now officially doesn't exist because someone opened their mouth gets dumped soon.
<andlabs>
meanwhile the other day I found out that a bunch of analog synths all use chips by two specific companies
<ej5>
it doesn't help that the 82c611 chips are probably factory rejects because at least 1 has weird problems
<ej5>
i'm not happy with that part at all, and i'd like to replace it with a CPLD
<andlabs>
what is the 82c611
<cr1901_modern>
MCA bus controller
<andlabs>
ok
<andlabs>
anyway I was going to say
<cr1901_modern>
ej5: I will support you if you make it a CPLD
<ej5>
yeah it's just a bus interface, it makes it slightly easier to support MCA if you're used to ISA
<cr1901_modern>
If you choose to make the core in nmigen I can help you with nmigen qs :P
<ej5>
MCA isn't really that tough of a bus, unlike everything everyone says
<andlabs>
meanwhile I found out that the same two companies made a whole bunch of analog synth chips
<andlabs>
Curtis and SSC specifically
<ej5>
cr1901_modern, nmigen?
<andlabs>
I can't seem to find how to buy stock of these chips
<andlabs>
and the former company still manufactures them
<andlabs>
but I do wonder how much it would cost to make an analog synth board and how much it would have increased the cost of a console at any point in time
<cr1901_modern>
IBM's attempt to lock in the market
<andlabs>
Roland MPU
<cr1901_modern>
ej5: nmigen is an HDL meant to be ergonomic and easy to use that takes advantage of Python 3 features. It abstracts FPGA family difference and has a nice built-in method for creating a self-contained build-script
<whitequark>
not completely abstracts btw
<whitequark>
just enough for common tasks to stop being a nightmare