Vec keyboard

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 10, 2006, 12:42:52 PM11/10/06

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Just finished the prototype board for Dan's (kokovec) PS/2 keyboard
interface -

www.vectrex.biz/KEYVEC_1.jpg
www.vectrex.biz/KEYVEC_2.jpg
www.vectrex.biz/KEYVEC_4.jpg

Found a nice mini keyboard in black which goes quite well with the Vec -

www.vectrex.biz/KEYVEC_3.jpg

(the computer module lives !!!!!)

Richard H.

Jeroen

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Nov 11, 2006, 4:46:36 AM11/11/06

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Richard Hutchinson schreef:

nice, now we need software to use it, and a production line for the boards,

i always liked the c64 game where you had to type a text before it hit a
laser, typing of the dead used this concept on the dreamcast
(http://superfami.com/tgs992/sega_booth_typing_of_the_dead.jpg).

Jeroen

Steril707

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Nov 11, 2006, 11:03:22 AM11/11/06

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Awesome job, Richard...That black keyboard looks perfect in front of
the Veccie..

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 11, 2006, 1:28:57 PM11/11/06

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Thanks, I like converting circuit diagrams into PCB's.

I've had just 6 prototype boards made but will make more if they are in
demand.

Dan's circuit / software works well, it's so strange seeing text come up on
the Vec's screen as you type.

>That black keyboard looks perfect in front of the Veccie..

It was just a cheap one from EBay, as mine were either USB or wireless.

Richard H.

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 11, 2006, 1:34:01 PM11/11/06

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>I always liked the c64 game where you had to type a text before it hit a
>laser

Yes, I vaguely remember that too.

I hope a programmer can get a mouse working, that'd make a cool controller
for analogue games.

Richard H.

parabellum

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Nov 11, 2006, 1:45:31 PM11/11/06

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I second that, it looks as if the keyboard was designed especially for
the vectrex.
Nice work Richard! :)

Steril707 a écrit :

Roberto Nerici

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Nov 11, 2006, 2:27:37 PM11/11/06

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> nice, now we need software to use it, and a production line for the
> boards,
>
> i always liked the c64 game where you had to type a text before it
> hit a laser, typing of the dead used this concept on the dreamcast
> (http://superfami.com/tgs992/sega_booth_typing_of_the_dead.jpg).

I don't know the C64 game, but I've got and played Typing of the Dead,
as it was ported to the PC. You can now get it from "Home of the
Underdogs" if you are interested
(http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=4973)

It's a completely bonkers idea for a game, but I'm rather fond of it.
IMHO, the VecVox would be well up to matching the voice "acting" (ahem)
of the original.

Roberto/.

FURY

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Nov 11, 2006, 3:26:56 PM11/11/06

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Very cool! Can I have one? : )

George

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 12, 2006, 3:07:31 AM11/12/06

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The following were the first to request, so will receive one soon -

1) Dan (kokovec)
2) Chris Romero
3) Jeroen
4) Alex
5) George

Richard H.

FURY

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Nov 12, 2006, 6:00:35 AM11/12/06

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Thank you!

George

Chris Romero

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Nov 12, 2006, 10:37:40 AM11/12/06

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Thanks Richard!

--

Sincerely,

Chris
cromero at romero dot org

"Richard Hutchinson" <richard.h...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:QISdnSZRZuHMS8vY...@pipex.net...

Jeroen

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Nov 12, 2006, 11:03:34 AM11/12/06

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Richard Hutchinson schreef:

joepie, great

Vectorzoa

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Nov 12, 2006, 11:43:03 AM11/12/06

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> >
> joepie, great

Thanks Richard! ;)

Vectorzoa

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Nov 12, 2006, 2:17:52 PM11/12/06

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Misc Hardware gurus.

Parabellum has recently added analogue support to his emulator via the
mouse, and right now the hot topic is the keyboard with everyone
dreaming of a Vectrex mouse. I suspect the mouse interrupts might be a
drain on the poor veccy so I have a suggestion. Please let me know if
it has potential. ParaJVE holds two values both -128 to 127
representing the analogue signal of the joystick.

Now on the real Vectrex mouse interface is it possible in a tiny chip
to handle the signals of a real mouse to increment and decrement these
same two X and Y values in the adaptor as the mouse sends its ticks?
Then present these values back as the analogue signal? This way the
Vectrex would only see the two analogue values of the X and Y savings
its processing cycles. (The mouse would now appear as an analogue
joystick) The tiny adaptor chip could convert not only the PS2 plug
but also the nature of the signal effectively from a time based digital
pulse into a constant analogue signal.
Effectively the opposite of ParaJVEs technique and allowing Star Sling,
Patriots III and any other analogue stuff to benefit instantly from a
Vectrex mouse interface.

Thoughts?

Cheers Alex (lazy software guy passing the buck to the hardware gurus,
but making a fair point about processor swamping. ;)

maccallan

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Nov 12, 2006, 3:52:23 PM11/12/06

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i think for mouse to analog vectrex input we could use a simple avr or
PIC µC to read the mouse signal and output voltages between -5V to 5V
for the vectrex to read. i could do that if somebody has a game concept
for mouse?!?
thinking of StarSling, Patriots III and Art of War already perfectly
singing this concept ;-)

so maybe logo II with mouse support,alex?

john

Jeroen

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Nov 13, 2006, 7:14:08 AM11/13/06

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Steril707 schreef:

> Awesome job, Richard...That black keyboard looks perfect in front of
> the Veccie..

I found this keyboard on a dutch site:
<a
href="http://www.marktplaats.nl/index.php?url=http%3A//computer-hardware.marktplaats.nl/toetsenborden-muizen-en-joysticks/56006529-klein-qwerty-toetsenbord-nieuw-in-doos.html%3Freturn%3DeJwliksKwyAUAO8SMMv4oxtFSnsT2wiKVh%252B%252BB0lbevcaspqBGW%252Bk%252BSYjLBqphZkw%252BP6MNhKB4Tw3CHV5%252BZ4JiveESy38XBaIcN2Lk%252FOKjhrTN8n0vdCQT4JD96EH3yfzNkgtEIb6aH1l6qJELiHVERumUdUMTk729wdM0i%252Bi%26df%3D1%26fta%3D">LINK</a>

I could pick some up if people are interested, no extra charge, just
the price+postage.

Kokovec

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Nov 13, 2006, 12:38:52 PM11/13/06

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Richard,

Unbelievably great job on the PCB!

First class all the way.

Kokovec

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 13, 2006, 1:09:55 PM11/13/06

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>Unbelievably great job on the PCB!

Thanks !

It's not the final design, I'm changing the shape of the board to make it
easier to cover in heat-shrink tubing.

Richard H.

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 13, 2006, 4:10:34 PM11/13/06

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You might be better using a serial mouse, I had a brief look at some specs
and
they use 1200 8n1 baud, which you could feed into a PIC's USART.

Richard H.

ke...@sourceoneinternet.com

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Nov 13, 2006, 11:36:22 PM11/13/06

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Many months ago, I worked on a port of a 6809 tiny basic for the
vectrex. I didn't take it very far, as the lack of a keyboard seemed
like a significant problem. That and the release of the excellent
Vectrex Logo made it seem not all that important

If Richard make the keyboard adapter available... it might be
interesting to take up the effort again. I have had a soft spot for
interpeted basic since my Vic 20 days.

Which reminds me, how about some Scott Adams adventure for the vectrex?
Infocom adventures would be stretch without some sort of storage
device but the Pirate adventure should work.

Nice work Richard!

Ken

Steril707

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Nov 14, 2006, 4:09:37 AM11/14/06

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ke...@sourceoneinternet.com schrieb:

i think the amount of displayable vectors on the vectrex would be a
problema with this... letters takes lots of vectors...so far i can
display around 180 vectors without getting wobble, so thats around 45
Letters, if you calculate four vectors for one letter...i am thinking
about the whole thing myself, but i dont think that a text adventure
would work well.. but if somebody comes up with something useful, all
the power to him ;)

Vectorzoa

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Nov 14, 2006, 6:46:17 AM11/14/06

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Mailman just called! I'm a happy chappy. (New vectorzoa blog entry)

Fantastic work Dan and Richard!

I agree with Steril it might be tricky, but hey that's the appeal of
the Vectrex! It is of course why rasters are used for text normally. 6
lines of large raster text is doable. (ala Logo menus) Sean managed a
many line game list menu on his cart. If only we knew a prolific
Vectrex developer who seems obsessed with releasing Raster based
concepts.... ;)

I'm not currently planning it, but the future is uncertain. Can anyone
planning on implementing Vectrex BASIC (using the keyboard concept)
most certainly with onboard cart RAM drop me a line if they get
serious? It's clearly an obvious project just waiting to be done now
and I would hate to duplicate effort. To recap, I will NOT be doing one
in the immediate future, but would like to know if anyone is so I can
spare myself dreaming about it. :)

Actually just started thinking as I typed. I like the idea of having
bitmap video RAM. I think that would be the main differentiator on such
a project (and very B.A.S.I.C.) Standard Vectors (-naturally, we are on
a Vectrex!) plus a 64x64 rastered bitmap sandbox might be a nice
feature..

Cheers Alex

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 14, 2006, 10:35:36 AM11/14/06

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>Many months ago, I worked on a port of a 6809 tiny basic for the
>vectrex

SH*T, I wish you'd said something earlier, you would have definitely gone to
the top if the list !!

I'm going to build more, but it'll take a few weeks to get the boards (from
China).

Email me your address and you can have mine (I have the circuit on
breadboard to use for the time being).

Richard H.

Peter W.

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Nov 15, 2006, 12:11:22 AM11/15/06

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Steril707 wrote:

> i think the amount of displayable vectors on the vectrex would be a
> problema with this... letters takes lots of vectors...so far i can
> display around 180 vectors without getting wobble, so thats around 45
> Letters, if you calculate four vectors for one letter...i am thinking
> about the whole thing myself, but i dont think that a text adventure
> would work well.. but if somebody comes up with something useful, all
> the power to him ;)

Why not use the handy built-in raster text routines inside the ROM?
That way you could display entre lines of ASCII letters with a minimal
amount of vectors.

Peteski

Steril707

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Nov 16, 2006, 6:12:54 PM11/16/06

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Peter W. schrieb:

one of those print commands eats up around 10000 cycles...a few of them
lead to the "wobble" very fast...check out the pre-screen to
vectrex-frogger for example...

generelly there is no easy way that i know of to display 'massive'
amounts text without the screen oscillating ....

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 19, 2006, 5:23:16 AM11/19/06

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I've ordered 140 boards, so I'll be able to supply anyone who wants one.
They won't cost a lot.

I'll hopefully have them ready to ship in 2 weeks time.

Richard H.

Peter W.

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Nov 19, 2006, 10:07:33 PM11/19/06

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I see...
I'm not a programmer but I know just enought to be dangerous. Obviously
I didn't know enough here.
How does then Debris get away with using huge rastered objects?

Peteski

Steril707

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Nov 20, 2006, 4:23:05 PM11/20/06

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hi Peter,

i have never played debris, but i know YASI for instance, and Alex
stated he could only display that much rastercontent with displaying
alternating rows frame after frame (frame 1= even rows, frame 2= uneven
rows etc)...so you get some flicker...

but well, to be honest, i am by no means an expert on raster
programming on the vectrex, (so far i have only done traditional
vectorstuff)...so if anybody proves me wrong i would be as happy as
everybody else here...

greets,
Michael

Steril707

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Nov 20, 2006, 4:23:58 PM11/20/06

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count me in ;)

Richard Hutchinson schrieb:

Roberto Nerici

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Nov 21, 2006, 4:42:26 PM11/21/06

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Steril707 wrote:
> count me in ;)

Me too!

> Richard Hutchinson schrieb:
>
>> I've ordered 140 boards, so I'll be able to supply anyone who wants one.
>> They won't cost a lot.

140?! I think that should do, yes.

Roberto/.

Richard Hutchinson

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Nov 22, 2006, 9:34:05 AM11/22/06

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>140?! I think that should do, yes.

It's just that it is quite a bit cheaper if you have PCB's made in bulk.

Richard H.

Richard Hutchinson

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Dec 3, 2006, 6:24:25 AM12/3/06

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Here's the final version -

www.vectrex.biz/Vec_PS2.jpg

Fully covered in heat-shrink, so no need to worry about greasy fingers or
leaving out in the rain ;-)

If anyone wants one, they're $25 inc shipping

Richard H.

parabellum

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Dec 5, 2006, 4:00:15 AM12/5/06

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This final layout looks terrific ... Brilliant job, Richard !

Richard Hutchinson a écrit :