January 07, 2011: Progress

So I guess first of all I managed to get a small program written for the Turbografx. I still don't have my flash cart yet so I've only been able to test it on an emulator:

/*My First PCE Program*/

#include "huc.h"

main ()
{
        set_color_rgb(1, 7, 7, 7);
        set_font_color(1, 0);
        set_font_pal(0);
        load_default_font();
        put_string("RetroChallenge", 9,12);
        put_string("2010 Winter Warm Up!", 6, 13);
        put_string("By Togart", 11,14);
}


I based this off of a good Hello World tutorial that I found. It was far easier than I could have expected, so now I will aim higher and try to get something moving on its own, or perhaps with controller input. The tutorials I have seen generally stop after this sort of an introduction, but I think I can find some other resources.

On a related note, it turns out that the CPU of the TG16 is a modified version of the MOS Technology 6502. Variations were found in many different early pc's and video game consoles, including the Apple][e, Commodore 64, Atari 2600, and Nintendo Entertainment System. I have been hesitant to put too much work into learning to program for such an uncommon, obsolete platform, but if it would translate to other related platforms, I'd be more interested. I know it wouldn't translate directly, as each CPU "strain" has its own unique optimizations, and I don't know how much different they would be, either. Something to look into, anyway.

I also got a chance to crack open the Game Gear today. First a quick video to show what's wrong with it:

some shots of it before, and the special security bit and screw:

And some words about what to do next:

I also got the other two TG16 consoles apart (the broken ones), and I didn't see anything immediately wrong with them. The fuses look good in both, so I guess I'll need to start checking voltages at various points to see if I can nail down where they're dying.

That's about it for today.