Arduino Based SNES emulator?

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rcullan
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Arduino Based SNES emulator?

Post by rcullan » Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:47 pm

Is this possible? To run real SNES hardware (controllers and cartridges) on an entirely Arduino based platform? I have been thinking a lot about this recently and am interested in tackling the project. Though the hardware side IS my forte... I am not a programmer by trade so I will likely need some help.

Looking at the hardware there is some definite concerns. First off the 62 I/O pins on the cartridges drive the requirement that we would need at least 2 Arduino Mega(s). Secondly, all the Arduinio microprocessors are an 8-bit base structure and the SNES is 16bit. So this also would require at least 2 arduino Mega's working in parallel (and maybe a 3rd). I will assume for the sake ov conversation at least one for the game data and the other for graphical processing. This would also require a custom shield to have a cartridge/controller interface and inputs for an additional power supply (500 mA from USB wont do the trick here). But this project has some head starts. ZSNES is my favrotie SNES emulator and its all written in C which matches with the Ardunio, so the software side may not be too huge

What does the community think? Is it possible? Any interest in this?
I build rocket parts for a living... really

ProgMetalMan
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Re: Arduino Based SNES emulator?

Post by ProgMetalMan » Sun Jan 20, 2013 5:20 pm

Arduino isn't the only Microcontroller. There might be one better suited to this need.
ShockSlayer wrote:Proggy's right.
ttsgeb wrote:mfw prog was not only right, but 100% so.

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rcullan
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Re: Arduino Based SNES emulator?

Post by rcullan » Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:33 pm

Yes but the convenience is the arduino is already build and has libraries for TV video and out output. So its a nice head start. I never said the microprocessor was the best for this goal. Just a cheap and convienent alternative
I build rocket parts for a living... really

ProgMetalMan
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Re: Arduino Based SNES emulator?

Post by ProgMetalMan » Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:10 pm

It won't be convenient when you have multiple relatively slow 8-bit processors decompiling 16-bit 65C816 machine code and recompiling it in AVR machine code. It would be far, far more trouble than it's worth.
ShockSlayer wrote:Proggy's right.
ttsgeb wrote:mfw prog was not only right, but 100% so.

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stuntpenguin007
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Re: Arduino Based SNES emulator?

Post by stuntpenguin007 » Sun Apr 07, 2013 2:08 am

I don't know a ton about this topic, but I'd say an FPGA would be more practical. I don't think an arduino could handle everything. The NES has been cloned onto an FPGA a few times I think. Here is one of the FPGA NES clones: http://danstrother.com/fpga-nes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also you were mentioned needing lots of I/O. Have you used a shift register before? You can use them to expand your I/O. Here's a video I found that shows the use of shift registers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EthZQ-0aDoQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
SNESP WIP
Case - 50%
acquired parts - 90%
assembly - 0%

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