Guru
Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4992
| Posted: 07:59am 13 Sep 2024 |
All,
Peter has created a very versatile platform around the RP2040 and RP2350 (pico) chips.
In the early days of PicoMite, life was pretty simple. There was a standard pinning of the chip that was supported. But since then, more and more hardware configurations became supported (audio DAC's, variable VGA pinout, etc..)
And people started playing with game controllers, and USB keyboards.
In summary, we have 20-50 more or less active members in the Pico "Community" that use 20-50 different hardware platforms.
Appart from the fact that it costs a lot of time to debug all these platforms with each release of MMBasic (an not all members have time to actively go through test runs with each MMBasic release), it is also a nightmare to make software that others can use.
I personally find this a roadblock with the games I have worked on. Should the game be controlled by PS2 keyboard ? Console ? USB keyboard ? NES controller ? SNES controller ? Nunchuck ? WII classic controller ? PS3 controller ? PS4 controller ? Game*Mite keys ? And similar (near future, or present) with the multitude of graphics modes on the RP2350 and the PSRAM yes or no.
I know it is far too late to make this call, but I would appreciate a narrowing down in all the options. Because I am not motivated to implement all possible variants (in programs) for maximum 1 user of each variant.
Why did to C64 build up such a huge collection of games: IT DID NOT CHANGE OVER 15 YEARS. You could write code for the base platform, and everyone could run it. As long as you kept to the basic machine.
I suggest we define the "2350 platform" and stick with it. If that platform is the OLIMEX, fine. Then that is what it is.
Volhout
Edited 2024-09-13 18:02 by Volhout
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