Development continues full speed on CPS3 core implementation. The image below is the first graphics rendering coming from the core. This is the output of the Score Screen layer I talked about in the previous post. To come to this image, a lot of the system architecture has been implemented.
I was expecting to be able to show the sprites too, but currently the sprite engine is only drawing that blue line after the III letters, which is obviously not right! It may just be a debug step away but I prefer to write the Patreon post now and continue working on it without keeping an eye on the wall clock.
The system has several DMA channels. We have started the implementation of the most critical and complex one. The plan is to finish all DMA and graphics work by the 16th of April. We may finish ahead of time, but I am choosing that date because I will not be able to post an update next week as I will be traveling to a technical conference. I am confident about showing more complete -if not fully ready- screen renderings on the 16th.
The core is compiling for MiSTer but it is not operational yet. The attached image comes from simulation of the video pipeline. As I said, because of SDRAM requirements of the games, the system will only work on MiSTer and possibly SiDi128. All the games are larger than the Analogue Pocket SDRAM, sorry about that! But the experience we are getting with this core will help bring other goodies to the Pocket.
Reverse Engineering
A quick note on arcade PCB and silicon die reverse engineering:
Patreon director Skutis completed his work on CAPCOM's DL-050-115V, used on several systems to drive the sprite double line buffer. Sweet!
A team member completed the schematics for Konami's Cowboy's of Moo Mesa. We will not tackle it until CPS3 is out. He's started working on Konami's Rollergames PCB.
We had a surge on Patreon subscribers during March! Thanks a lot to all of you and welcome to all new subscribers!