I have worked with electronics and software for years and some of you guys simply impress me. The things you think and put together is just amazing. You have all my admiration. Keep on the great work. From a future customer.
Awesome! Thanks for the updates, it's very exciting to see how far this has come. And great to be able to have a full replacement that supports modern video standards along with legacy stuff for us CRT nuts
Very very great project! With this device we can save many more Commodore computers!!! Jack Tramiel will honor you in heaven! :-) Best greetings, your Doc64!
This is great to watch. One of these days I'd love to breath life into old Vic-20 machines by doing something similar with a VIC-I replacement. Maybe you'll beat me to it! ;-)
Really love the 80 col support for NovaTerm. NovaTerm had another 80 col driver possibility using the C128 in C64 mode but I understand it was a bit buggy with linefeeds or some such thing. Looks like this has been resolved with your driver? I was thinking it might be another part of NovaTerm's code at fault.
This is looking really good. If you are looking for anyone to evaluate, I'm in the UK, I've got a working PAL 250407 board with a modulator replacement and GAL PLA chip. I've also got 2 PAL C64C machines which have no modifications to them at all (250469 boards with the 8565 VIC-II).
Hoping it will be available soon, and also the small version will not cost an absurd (not sure how much parts it needs and how much they cost); it's amazing to know you can have a 100% compatible replacement for the aged VIC-II processors. I hope a 6560/6561 replacement will follow (and maybe 264/TED and C128 "VICs" too)...
@Randi Rossi I have an idea which you may have alluded to in the video. But have a daughter board that replaces the RF module that of course retains the stock S-Video/Composite video, but also acts as a passthrough for HDMI, by using a HDMI ribbon cable from the Kawari, with its own mini HDMI at the rear port of the case. This also will provide a solid mounting point to the motherboard , while also reducing the height profile of the Kawari for a thick HDMI cable.
Y, that would solve some issues for sure. Although it would add even more cost to what might already be a costly board. But maybe I can add a ribbon cable connector to make the differential pairs available for a future daughter board that replaces the RF modulator.
Looks awesome. A few questions: 1) Do you think it will work on a C64 Reloaded MKII? 2) My LCD monitor and TV can only accept 60Hz signals, even over HDMI. Would I be able to switch into PAL mode, but still output a 60Hz signal or would I still have to use my Framemeister to convert? 3) Similarly, will I be able to use my old 1702 NTSC monitor, but still be able to take advantage of the PAL mode? Keep up the good work and take your time!
Nice to see analog video. Note that for the VIC-II on PAL the phase angles for a color on odd lines is not exactly the mirror of the angle for that color on even lines. For example if you make all even lines red (color 2) and all odd lines dark grey (11), the mixed color will be slightly different from the one you get when you make all odd lines red and all even lines dark grey. Good luck with your project!
I'm using 135° and -135° for even/odd lines in the color burst phase. Seems to look okay through my upscaler but someone will have to try on a real PAL monitor to make sure I got it right.
Do you have any plans to make a replacement for the VIC-20's MOS 6560/6561? There is a huge demand for these chips. Great work! I'm very excited about this project.
I had hoped to hear more about enhanced Sprite capabilities. Also the static nibble ram used for color in "text mode" is hopefully being put on the FPGA, and implemented at (at least) 8 bit width so that it can be used to supply more info to the Video System without stealing cycles from the 6510.
Can you give us an idea on component costs? I don't so much care about what you might charge (which isn't an easy question to answer for obvious reasons), but the cost of the components themselves. This is a great design, and I'm glad you're thinking about cost. It reminds me of what I've read about the mentality at Commodore, from what Bil Herd has said. They always thought about cost to the nth degree. That was long the Commodore mindset, and the reason many of us (or our families) were able to afford these computers back in the 80s. "A computer for the masses, not the classes" as Jack Tramiel would say.
Your ghosting issues are most likely cause by signal reflections on your video cable. 1. Make sure your cable is 75-ohm Z0. 2. Make sure your circuit's output impedance is 75 ohms. Also, using a passive splitter (Y-cable) is a great way to cause horrendous signal reflections.
Hi Randy, I think this is a great project. I really think you should keep the advanced graphic modes and extra video memory. Maybe some discussion and polling on exactly what the preferred modes should be. But I like the extensions being offered. In someways, I think this is a better, more organic expansion of the C64 lineage, rather than new projects like Mega65, or Commander X16, as interesting as those projects are. Will this VIC-II maintain compatibility with other RAM and CPU upgrades? Thank you.
There are 2 game devs who I think you should consider giving Kawaris to. Jon "Kodiak" Woods of Parallaxian fame (and the Kodiak64 blog) and John Henderson of the visually stunning C64 "Wild Wood" game.
Great project and awesome work! From a end user point, price is not a problem (except it's rocket high), since it's not a consumer goods, I just need to buy one and it work for a long time. The size and how good it fit the existing board is a problem, also the micro HDMI connector is annoying since not popular as standard HDMI.
I think it would be a good Idea to also include SID Emulation to have Sound in the HDMI Output, too. As the FPGA can listen to the complete BUS snooping Data which was intended to go to the SID should be possible.
The VIC-IIe has 48 pins, so you need a slightly different board. Also there are some extra signal which the VIC-IIe handles which also need to be dealt with.
14:00 I used 80 columns on an Amiga on a TV, so I am sure you can get 80 column neatened up on a composite port. I certainly hope you keep working on control of color registers. Hooray for NTSC/Pal toggle!! Eager to see how that RGB 1080/1084 monitor support works.7:00 why would one not want Hi-Res and how would that make it cheaper? How do we email you Randy?
There's a lot of wasted space in my 80 column mode because I kept the horiz/vertical timing the same as 40 column mode with border. So every character is squished into the same space as half a regular character is which would probably not be the case on Amiga (or C128's VDC). If timing was different, the letters/pixels would be larger but I took the easy route. If you remove extras like Hires, color config and EEPROM stuff, the core will fit on the slightly cheaper X4 model. So I was thinking a cost reduced version without bells and whistles would be possible.
@@r3rossi Can that potentially be altered? We don't need a ton of border. Without HiRes, or 80 columns, what's the point? Oh, maybe as a cheap Vic-II replacement? PS Laced mode would be fun for 640x400.
I just rewatched your part 4 and part 5, and I would like to see how the hardware sprites from C64 normal (video) memory integrate with the special/new screen modes and the changes in color palette, Best would be if they used the original palette of the chose VIC-II chip, and kept their resolution, just over/underlaying.
Y, the lo-res sprites are made visible in the hires modes but operate as they do in lo-res. Background collisions operate differently and there is probably some weirdness with multi color modes I haven't discovered yet.
@@r3rossi if you manage to make sth like scanlines in OSSC then your Kawari will be amazing. The point is that C64 games were not designed to be played in such perfect quality,
Man, want that. Got a 1084 ready for it. Gotta try blinkenlights starwars on that novaterm driver. If you want a tester I have PAL and NTSC c64's and I'll pay.
I suppose so but I don't expect it to happen much. I added some new graphics modes that use the added video ram but I'm not sure how practical they would be to code a game for. 'Super' sprites could be added but I didn't change anything with sprites. I stopped making my own extensions to focus on being a replacement first and foremost. The ability to rewrite the way the VIC behaves is something you can play around with and my extensions are one example of what is possible.
The driver just has to set the right attributes on the character cells. So interpreting ESC[32m for example was already handled by Novaterm. I'm not sure what other types of escape sequences it supports.
You could sell this Composite core code. I’ve not found any decent examples and am loathe to try and implement it myself. VGA, there are many, Composite, not so much.
@@r3rossi Will software NTSC/PAL switching still be possible? I've forgotten but does the new board include color and dot clock clock generation bypassing the motherboard?
Close. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in my last PCB run so I need to do another with a correction. Hard to find the parts too. I want to put at least 10 together to send out for evaluation before I commit to any more. I will make another video once they are ready. I figured people would get tired of hearing about something they can't get their hands on so I will put our an update once everything is ready (either to buy or self build)
