Acetronic MPU 1000 + Compatibles

[kikusui]

I would love to see a core for this system. Sold in the UK as the "Acetronic" & known elsewhere in Europe under several different names. I remember this as the very first gaming system I ever played on.

14180__545x305_20171107_094847.jpg (88.42 KiB) Viewed 12353 times

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1292_Adva ... deo_System

[Vic20-Ian]

These pong type and simple graphics games are fun. Some were 10 variants of Pong, others a bit more advanced

I always wanted the one with the motorbike jumping game that ran left to right on three lanes on the top middle and bottom of the TV to build up speed then jump barrels I think.

[Grabulosaure]

I would love to see a core for this system.

1292 Advanced Programmable Video System, aka Acetronic MPU 1000, Interton 4000, OC-2000...

Here it is :
http://temlib.org/pub/mister/C2650.rbf

Sources :
https://github.com/Grabulosaure/C2650_MiSTer

There is an "Interton" mode for this kind of game consoles and an "Arcadia" mode which uses another video chip.
While "Arcadia" is more advanced, but compares poorly to conteporary consoles, older "Interton" is IMHO more interesting
as it still looks a bit like Pong chips.

Simple games work fairly well, more advanced ones which depend on exact timing of interrupts, or object collisions don't work as well.
I'd like to connect the SGS2636 video controller to the FPGA with level shifters to properly characterise that chip.
(Datasheet is 4 pages long and emulators don't work well and cannot really be used as references)

[kikusui]

Simple games work fairly well, more advanced ones which depend on exact timing of interrupts, or object collisions don't work as well.
I'd like to connect the SGS2636 video controller to the FPGA with level shifters to properly characterise that chip.
(Datasheet is 4 pages long and emulators don't work well and cannot really be used as references)

I had no idea that there was a work-in-progress core for this console! Thank you Grabulosaure.
Would having the machine to study & probe help you at all? They seem to crop up here in the UK quite frequently and are relatively cheap.

[manta]

Simple games work fairly well, more advanced ones which depend on exact timing of interrupts, or object collisions don't work as well.
I'd like to connect the SGS2636 video controller to the FPGA with level shifters to properly characterise that chip.
(Datasheet is 4 pages long and emulators don't work well and cannot really be used as references)

I had no idea that there was a work-in-progress core for this console! Thank you Grabulosaure.
Would having the machine to study & probe help you at all? They seem to crop up here in the UK quite frequently and are relatively cheap.

I have a spare Fountain console if needed?

[KremlingKuthroat19]

Your wishes have been granted! Grabulosaure just released his VC4000 core yesterday! Arcadia 2001 will be released sometime down the line as a seperate core.

[chrisy]

I missed the release of this until it was updated today! Works quite nicely although I have some minor issues:
* "Start" and "Select" appear to be reversed, even after I mapped them directly on the core.
* Although it elected to use the analogue stick, the movement on screen appears to be digital. I don't know quite how analogue the real controllers are, but the core is definitely taking digital movement only in the games I have tried. I will have to plug the real Acetronic in to compare directly how the controller operates in certain games to confirm this. It could be I've messed something up with my controller config.

Adding to this, specific games:
* Air/Tank Battle (Combat) the controls appear to be completely wrong as pushing left is moving forwards, which I think isn't how it is supposed to work.
* Pinball appears to be running too fast (I've only played this one on real hardware newly recently so may be mistaken, but I don't remember it being quite so quick)
* Maths - well, nobody wants to play this and aside from it probably virtually impossible without the original controller and overlay (or maybe using a keyboard as the controller, which I couldn't get to work either), it does something weird with the Load Programme button to get into two player mode and that button isn't simulated on the core.

[Grabulosaure]

I missed the release of this until it was updated today! Works quite nicely although I have some minor issues:
* "Start" and "Select" appear to be reversed, even after I mapped them directly on the core.
* Although it elected to use the analogue stick, the movement on screen appears to be digital. I don't know quite how analogue the real controllers are, but the core is definitely taking digital movement only in the games I have tried. I will have to plug the real Acetronic in to compare directly how the controller operates in certain games to confirm this. It could be I've messed something up with my controller config.

Adding to this, specific games:
* Air/Tank Battle (Combat) the controls appear to be completely wrong as pushing left is moving forwards, which I think isn't how it is supposed to work.
* Pinball appears to be running too fast (I've only played this one on real hardware newly recently so may be mistaken, but I don't remember it being quite so quick)
* Maths - well, nobody wants to play this and aside from it probably virtually impossible without the original controller and overlay (or maybe using a keyboard as the controller, which I couldn't get to work either), it does something weird with the Load Programme button to get into two player mode and that button isn't simulated on the core.

For the tank, you can swap X/Y orientation of the joystick.
Original joysticks were analog (a RC timer), but quite different from modern joysticks with centering. I've tried to have an option between absolute and integrated positions. Not quite right.
Maybe the clock frequency is too high. I've made many measurements with an actual SGS2636 (a ceramic chip from 1978...) connected to a MiSTer and wait states between the CPU and video are now quite precise. There are many undocumented behaviors that were taken into account in some games.
This core has a few non-working games (such as chess, or one of the pinballs). I should also add support for Elektor games.

I have an original game console (Occitane 2000), but didn't try it yet.
Anyway, thank you for the interest in this quite forgotten hardware.

[chrisy]

For the tank, you can swap X/Y orientation of the joystick.

That works, thanks. Odd that game would have the controls messed up.

Original joysticks were analog (a RC timer), but quite different from modern joysticks with centering. I've tried to have an option between absolute and integrated positions. Not quite right.

Olympics is quite a good one to test on. In game 1 the bat is supposed to sit at the point the joystick is pointing to. On this core in absolute mode it treats it digitally and the position jumps from middle/top/bottom making it impossible to hit the ball (unless you get very lucky!).
In integration mode you can creep it around but it isn't the same as the real controller.
I think it would be better if the core treated the modern analogue stick as if it was the real one. The user can worry about the centring At least this should be an option.

Maybe the clock frequency is too high.

I think this may be right. I made some videos here ages ago just from the RF output (apologies for the bad picture quality but my recorder didn't particularly like it): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... AfSjMBLFse
The timer on SuperMaze is running slightly faster on the MiSTer than it is in the video - I started game 17 at the same time as the video and my time was up when the timer on the video was only at about 75%.
Also the background noise on Tanks doesn't seem the same as on the MiSTer (the sound effects are fine).

It wouldn't surprise me if different variants of this hardware genuinely ran at different clock speeds. I'm comparing to the MPU1000, and I also can't be sure that the ROM dumps I'm using are the same as the physical carts I have.

Can I make another suggestion? Can you dedicate some keys on the keyboard to Game Select/Start - maybe F1/F2. Having them on the controller is quite nice for convenience, but I feel that I should be pressing buttons elsewhere to do these as they are on the console itself (silly I know - but also useful for controllers that don't have the required 14 buttons, when most games only need one or two).

Anyway, thank you for the interest in this quite forgotten hardware.

Thank you for creating the core!