The good old home computers...
Can't use the good old computers anymore on your VGA monitor? Or are they just to clumsy to put them on your desk? The replay board may be a way out. Originally it is used as platform for Minimig (running the Amiga on an FPGA), but why not using it for other computers, too...?
Mike from fpgaarcade.com,
designs and fabricates the nice replay board I am using.
Basically I started porting computers because of an other reason: to get used to this board. It is easier
to port a well described architecture first, especially as there is no need to start from scratch...
Click on the right picture to jump to my general replay page.
Replay Computing projects:
Started with porting Mikes VIC-20 core to Replay. Beside a PC-1500 it was the first computer I owned, so I was happy to have it available again on modern hardware and did several updates on his basic setup.
It will support all common extensions available, from "Super Expander" over "Programmers Aid" to all game cartridges and demos out there, in every possible memory expansion option. And it supports d64 files as well.
I post my status on the Replay forum on the FPGAARCADE website. You find some details about the Replay board I own here.
Click on the computer picture to jump to the FPGAARCADE forum page where I provide the latest news (external link!).
The C64 is the "big brother" of the VIC-20. That time, many kids like me bought one of these and used it for a fairly long time (if not went further on an Amiga or Atari computer).
I am sure I don't need to add a lot more words about this computer...
The actual implementation is quite mature, at least on a level similar to the famous DTV (the C64 in a joystick) and can use D64 files or (type 0) CRT files from an sdcard put into the Replay board.
Click on the computer picture to jump to the project page on the FPGAARCADE form (external link!).
Of course both cores include a full implementation of the 1541 floppy. It's the real thing, with all the hardware there. The analogue frontend
of the 1541 is replaced by a "floppy streamer" block translating d64 files into binary patterns similar a real floppy receives when its motor
is spinning (and a floppy is inserted, of course). So you can also use all the floppy speeders available (my favourite I bought is Jiffy DOS).
It is worth mentioning that you can also write to d64 files, not only read from it. So you get a complete setup to start developing VIC-20 or C64 programs with nearly no restrictions!
When clicking on the floppy picture you will jump to a thread on the FPGAARCADE forum to discuss file format extensions for the 1541 core (external link!).
I never owned a Speccy when I was a child, but a Commodore VC-20 and later a C64. I was always curious about this
Sinclair computers, so I recently bought a used Spectrum 48k on Ebay (which got a defect Z80 I had to replace first)
and started porting - basically I did not start from scratch, but from the ZXGATE code I found on the web.
Click on the computer picture to jump to the project page.
On my TODO list is a Apple II, a BBC Micro B and other computers as well. I saw already quite promizing projects out there, so there is the chance that I don't need to start from scratch...