MAME oscilloscope plays Star Wars arcade game
Flickr user Moose2000 hacked a sound-card and MAME into an old oscilloscope and now the thing plays the Star Wars arcade game (with super-sharp vector art)! Link (via Wonderland)
Flickr user Moose2000 hacked a sound-card and MAME into an old oscilloscope and now the thing plays the Star Wars arcade game (with super-sharp vector art)! Link (via Wonderland)
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While the idea is awesome and in theory you should be able to create some type of images using a scope/soundcard I seriously doubt this works. Maybe I don't have enough experience with scopes but there is no way to create such complex images.
Perhaps our friend Braschlosan hasn't been in involved in coding or electronics design. The original cabinet used vector graphics, so that should be sufficient evidence for the uninitiated.
There's a video on youtube showing what appears to be this same setup running asteroids:
">http://youtube.com/watch?v=pkZcWJoUfYM>
Brashlosan:
Most scopes have an X-Y mode that uses the two inputs to control the position of the beam, with a third discrete input to turn it on and off.
I did something like this at university. We built Z80 based 8-bit micro computers and then hooked up D-to-A converters to control a scope to use as a screen.
Most of us got a few lines and maybe some text on the screen, but my mate shamed the lot of us by having a Cobra MkII (from Elite) spinning in 3D. He had coded up a wireframe system for it in a couple of nights (hi Matt if you are reading this). Utterly brill, and unsurprisingly won the class prize for best demonstrator.
Paul
Paul:
That would be the Cobra Mk I, or Mk III. As we all know, the Mk II never made it out of the factory.
Yes, Elite stole much of my childhood :).
Congratulations Cory, this is officially THE best BB article ever! The throne has been usurped from the exciting StarForce kerfuffle a couple of years ago.
Sinclair:
*doffs hat* :o) You are of course correct.
Either way, he was a ruddy clever chap.
Paul
shouldn't there be probes plugged into the scope?
If its not tektronix, its crap
/ just teasing
//oregonian
The X, Y and Blanking inputs are often on the back of the scope. Don't know why, but that's where they are on my Telequipment scopes...
coop
I used to collect vintage oscilloscopes. At one point, through random knob tweaking, I was able to get my monstrous 1939 Dumont scope to display a rotating wireframe cylinder. I'm sure that this was partially due to the increasing flakiness of its components, but I was still impressed by it. So yeah, I'll call this legit.
For the record -- the person who did this mod is a friend and I trust him implicitly.
For the record -- the person who did this mod is a friend and I trust him implicitly.
How does it compare to the Gamecube port?
Really, this is awesome, and slightly poetic, as "Tennis For Two," which is now commonly recognized as the first video game, was proto-PONG on an oscilloscope.
Here it is in motion, for the hatas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9chSXes_Pw
For the doubters, here is further display of what is capable on a regular oscilloscope in X-Y mode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1eNjUgaB-g