CreatiVEmu Forum

Hello!

My name is Mike and I live in Western Canada, where the CreatiVision does not meaningfully exist. I've done a few clones of TMS99xx-based hardware in the past: the ColecoVision (as a surface-mount clone called the Leako) and the Sega SG-1000 (as a through-hole clone called the Soggy-1000.) The CreatiVision is really interesting as a next step, because I can marry my working TMS99xx clone setup with a new CPU and new peripherals like a keyboard and tape. You can see my posts about the console clones here.

I've started on a CreatiVision clone (although I still need a good pun for the name) at the request of Cheshire Noir, who pointed me towards this forum. It'll be NTSC for starters, and based off of the mk1 schematic. Things have gone fairly well so far but it will probably be a few more weeks of checking (especially around how the phi, phi/2, etc signals work) before I'll feel confident enough to order a board.

Eventual long-term goals once I get it to work:

• Tape emulation using a TzxDuino Reloaded or similar piece of hardware
• mk2 compatibility and a knockoff Z80/ColecoVision adapter. Although I have kind of a rough idea how this should work already, I want to keep the project smaller for the first few revisions of the board before I add decode overrides.
• Page switching to increase the amount of work RAM, as I did in my SG-1000 clone (1k -> 32k)
• Clone keyboard and controllers; my first version will probably be tested with a nightmare matrix laid out on some protoboard, or a microcontroller-based adapter for a PS/2 keyboard.
• Figure out how to integrate a TMS9929 for PAL, or an FPGA F18A recreation for RGB VGA

Looking forward to asking questions about the hardware and finding out more from the folks who have been using it all along. Thanks for having me.

Hi,

this is exactly what i want, and after my Super Game modull i was thinking do it myself.

I like your board. To be honest i am a hardcore retro fan , so i like to use original chips or the modern version. The ram mod for the tms to not need 12 volt is okay.

The f18 is a great thing, i played with scrolling capabilities.

Regards

Mike

Hi and welcomw leadedsolder!

What a very cool poject! And "chapeau" for all the other things you have built!
@username@ and my humble self have built the CSL Cart, the PS/2 interface and the MegaSDCart - so if i can help, I will gladly share, what i know about the hardware... plz. feel free to ask, but by the looks of it, you allready figured it out :0)

Cheers, TOM:0)

You are VERY welcome! I look forward to reading your next posts and tutorials

Hi,

if the 32k RAM would be mapped like in The Laser2001 or Salora Manager, then using a simple switch one could switch between Creativision BIOS and CSL (adopted Salora Manager Bios...) :0)
Also including the CSL Audioboard Amplifier would allow using any Audiosource for SAVE/LOAD...

Cheers, TOM:0)

Scouter3d wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 18, 2023 12:16 pm

Hi,

if the 32k RAM would be mapped like in The Laser2001 or Salora Manager, then using a simple switch one could switch between Creativision BIOS and CSL (adopted Salora Manager Bios...) :0)
Also including the CSL Audioboard Amplifier would allow using any Audiosource for SAVE/LOAD...

Cheers, TOM:0)

I have plenty of room in the 27c256 I'm using for a BIOS, so we could definitely do switchable BIOSes. Is there a memory map for the Salora implementation? I haven't looked at the giant Salora threads yet, so I'm sure it's somewhere in there.

It seems like a really interesting take on the basic machine.

Hi Leadedsolder,

the CSL Bios is 16k (it includes BASIC 2.0) :0)

Here is a shrewd memorymap for the different machines...

But maybe you open a new thread for your cool project to get it all in one place..?

Cheers, TOM:0)

Hey! Welcome LeadedSolder.
Glad you made it here

John