Wondering if the power was there to run mame on vectrex32.
Just saw Malban post mame connected to a custom vecfever cart to display vector games running on mame on a pc/mac.
http://vide.malban.de/14th-of-april-vectrex-night
Pretty amazing!
My guess is that the Vectrex32 does not have enough power to run MAME.
The vectrex doesn't have to run MAME the article in question states
"This is a slightly modified MAME. Slightly modified in the sense – that it is able to connect to the VecFever and transport vector data via serial (USB) to the VecFever."
So the question is can the Vectrex 32 and it's basic interpreter do the work of the VECFEVER and take the vector data output from this modified MAME and put it through to the VECTREX itself so instead of some dudes cobbled together port of an arcade game you can run the actual code of the arcade game.
Somebody is going to have to write the code I guess. This is probably the place for that.
BASIC has the ability to read data from the USB serial port, and of course it has the ability to draw vectors on the screen. Someone would have to get a hold of the modified MAME and do some experiments.
If it turns out the BASIC interpreter isn't fast enough, I'd be open to the possibility of updating or replacing the firmware on the V32.
- Bob
I'd buy a V32 if someone sorted this out.
Sadly I lack the time/skills to do it myself.
Quote from: Vectrex32 on May 17, 2019, 09:53:33 PM
BASIC has the ability to read data from the USB serial port, and of course it has the ability to draw vectors on the screen. Someone would have to get a hold of the modified MAME and do some experiments.
If it turns out the BASIC interpreter isn't fast enough, I'd be open to the possibility of updating or replacing the firmware on the V32.
Cheeky question...
Isn't this something you could be motivated to solve?
As, I'm assuming, it would probably let you play 'Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator' on your Vectrex? Which seems to be one of your hopes for the V32... :)
First, I'm not convinced it can be solved. Secondly, I'm not convinced the effort in solving it would be worthwhile. There are other approaches, like adding X-Y inputs to the Vectrex, buying a vector arcade display (which is bigger than the Vectrex display) or just using MAME on a PC (where screen resolutions are now so high that the technical advantage vector displays had over raster is moot; granted, vector displays still have a charm that raster lacks).
From what I've read about the VecFever creator's approach to MAME, what he's doing is very labor-intensive and the effort needs to be repeated for each game. He hasn't found a general purpose solution, so there's no existence proof that one exists.
- Bob
Thomas did two approaches:
1) via the above mentioned serial cable. There a connected computer runs MAME and "pumps" vector information to the VecFever which in turn displays the vectors via a "proxy"program on the vectrex. Here you need a computer and a serial cable connected to the vectrex (vecfever)
2) via static binary compile
These are "translations" of the original arcade ROMs to "C". These C programs are compiled for the ARM chip the VecFevers hosts. Input/vector drawing and sound are passed to the vectrex. So basically these emulators (which is what they are) are running on theVecFever and using the Vectrex as input and output.
These emulators are on the VecFever and no additional hardware is needed.
These emulators are all build by Thomas (with help of diverse others, e.g. Graham Toal) and have NOTHING todo with MAME. They only use the same ROMS - as do the original arcade version.
Malban
Thank you both for the answers.
Some very clever stuff on the VecFever going on.