What's the point of the MiniMig?

[alexh]

alexh wrote:
Then maybe a couple of days for disk/tape emulation through the PIC

Sh!t did I say that ;-)

AJCopland wrote:
The internals shouldn't care where the stream of binary data was coming from as long as it was getting that data in the format that it expected.

At the data rate it was expecting etc. which would be the research bit that takes a couple of days. But you'd implement SNA (memory snapshots) and emulate floppy disks first.

[HenryCase]

alexh wrote:
At the data rate it was expecting etc. which would be the research bit that takes a couple of days. But you'd implement SNA (memory snapshots) and emulate floppy disks first.

Would it matter? I mean, I've used Spectrum emulators before that have tape 'snapshots' like the *.tap files for the C64 emulator mentioned by freqmax. The games loaded instantly. As long as all the data was loaded into the correct parts of RAM, I don't think you need to emulate the data rate too closely. Check this video out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKu9qreiI3E

[alexh]

HenryCase wrote:
Would it matter?

Yes.

HenryCase wrote:
I mean, I've used Spectrum emulators before that have tape 'snapshots' like the *.tap files for the C64 emulator mentioned by freqmax.

Snapshots are MEMORY snapshots, not tape snapshots. Spectrum emulators do have compressed tape samples but they are called *.tap or *.tzx files.

The games loaded instantly.

That's cos they are memory snapshots. Dumps of memory after the game has loaded. The dumped data is just loaded back into RAM (which on an emulator would be almost instantaneously) and jumped into. Definitely the easiest thing to try first on an FPGA implementation.

As long as all the data was loaded into the correct parts of RAM, I don't think you need to emulate the data rate too closely.

Snapshot no, tap / tzx yes.

Check this video out:

If you notice he quadrouples the clock speed of the spectrum (3.5 - 14) and then quadrouples the playback speed of the audio sample thus keeping the timing 1:1.

Might be a coincidence but he doesnt demonstrate a game with a turbo loader.

Leads me to think that data rate is still important.

[whiteb]

alexh wrote:

If you notice he quadrouples the clock speed of the spectrum (3.5 - 14) and then quadrouples the playback speed of the audio sample thus keeping the timing 1:1.

Might be a coincidence but he doesnt demonstrate a game with a turbo loader.

Leads me to think that data rate is still important.

http://personal.auna.com/casariche/k7zx4/k7zx4.htm

How does this work ? and does it work with ZX hyperload schemes that were put onto cassette ?

[HenryCase]

alexh wrote:

Check this video out:

If you notice he quadrouples the clock speed of the spectrum (3.5 - 14) and then quadrouples the playback speed of the audio sample thus keeping the timing 1:1.

Might be a coincidence but he doesnt demonstrate a game with a turbo loader.

Leads me to think that data rate is still important.

You're probably right that the acceleration of clock speed shown in that video needed to be a certain rate to match the tape speed. It shouldn't be too hard to get the basic timing right, and then the speed up the loading process in a similar way.

If a Spectrum emulator is on the cards, here are a couple of programs that may be useful:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/taper.html
Can be used to see tape loading timings.

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/tools/amiga/SpecDisassemb20b.zip
Spectrum Disassembler for Amiga. Useful if there are any games that don't work.

[Crom00]

Alex's points about the possibility to run various retro systems is a good one. IT's just too early for that level of development as there are maybee what... 10 minimgs in existance? Moving along to get 10 units made and sold here on Amiga.org to get some level or tinkering done on the thing.



As to the low cost of Amiga keyboards, game controllers, etc. I've had a hard time as most parts show up on ebay and are pretty expensive esp. when buyng from UK. If I was in the UK I'd be in a better place as it seems there was a mass appeal for the Amiga.

On any weekend here in the us you can pickup PC mouse, keyboard, memory card for $3 usd. I can't do that with AMiga parts.

For the American Amiga user Scart (one of the great benefits of being a European Amigan) does not apply so we rely on scan doublers, 15.75 khz monitors, and 1084 monitors FOR RGB.

Also the fellow selling the CO-CO Amiga scan doubler does not have any AMiga units for sale. He's currently working out some issues with an Amiga version right now.

[Krusher]

What's the point?? Well it made me come out of hiding, it was more then 3 years ago since my last login on this site, but the whole Minimig appearance woke me up I guess  :lol:

For me, it allows me to have NEW hardware instead of having to rely on 2-3-4th hand used hardware which DO start to fail. I'm following Minimig closely (and CloneA) because I still like the Amiga and it's concept, and yes there is WinUAE and Aros and the like.. but it's not an hands-on Amiga, Minimig is! Although it's not perfect (yet) it's closer to the feel of a real Amiga then anything else.

Dennis, thank you for making this possible!  :-D