14-10-2026, 01:48 AM
G'day Ewan,
Thanks for keeping this thread going. It's been great following the progress and reading the support.
I'm gearing up on my understanding for the new models before release and absorbing any information I can get from these threads and random discussions. My goal is game development on the new bees and producing content hopefully similar to the Amiga or the new ZX Spectrum Next. As the new Bees currently lack hardware sprites, I do have questions on the hardware to see if there are work arounds -
DISPLAY
1. With HDMI at 640x480 @ 75Hz, what refresh rate does software see? Is it ~50Hz or 75Hz?
2. Is there a vsync or raster interrupt, and which CPU receives it?
3. Can the bitplane display start address be changed, for page flipping and vertical scrolling?
4. Which character heights work in bitplane mode?
GRAPHICS
5. Is the PixBlt blitter still planned? Or was it finished?
• Does its source need to be in video memory?
• Is there any off-screen video memory?
• Does it support masking?
• Can the Z80, the 68K, or both drive it?
6. Do the hardware helpers (4-plane colour write, masking, OR/AND) work from the 68K side as well?
7. Is there any roadmap for more sprites?
68K
8. In Z80 mode, can user code run on the 68K alongside the firmware? If so:
• How is it loaded?
• How much spare 68K time is there?
• Is there shared memory or signalling between the two CPUs?
9. Can 68K code access the sound FIFOs, palettes, colour RAM and sprite registers?
10. Does the 68K have linear access to the bitplanes?
• How many wait states does each access cost?
• Roughly how long does a full-screen fill or copy take?
• Are the bitplanes in FPGA block RAM or external memory?
SOUND AND INPUT
11. What sample rate(s) will the stereo FIFOs support? Is an AY core still a possibility at some point?
12. Will the original parallel-port joystick work? Are USB gamepads a possibility?
Thanks again, and no rush. I know the assembly side is flat out.
Cheers,
Simon
Thanks for keeping this thread going. It's been great following the progress and reading the support.
I'm gearing up on my understanding for the new models before release and absorbing any information I can get from these threads and random discussions. My goal is game development on the new bees and producing content hopefully similar to the Amiga or the new ZX Spectrum Next. As the new Bees currently lack hardware sprites, I do have questions on the hardware to see if there are work arounds -
DISPLAY
1. With HDMI at 640x480 @ 75Hz, what refresh rate does software see? Is it ~50Hz or 75Hz?
2. Is there a vsync or raster interrupt, and which CPU receives it?
3. Can the bitplane display start address be changed, for page flipping and vertical scrolling?
4. Which character heights work in bitplane mode?
GRAPHICS
5. Is the PixBlt blitter still planned? Or was it finished?
• Does its source need to be in video memory?
• Is there any off-screen video memory?
• Does it support masking?
• Can the Z80, the 68K, or both drive it?
6. Do the hardware helpers (4-plane colour write, masking, OR/AND) work from the 68K side as well?
7. Is there any roadmap for more sprites?
68K
8. In Z80 mode, can user code run on the 68K alongside the firmware? If so:
• How is it loaded?
• How much spare 68K time is there?
• Is there shared memory or signalling between the two CPUs?
9. Can 68K code access the sound FIFOs, palettes, colour RAM and sprite registers?
10. Does the 68K have linear access to the bitplanes?
• How many wait states does each access cost?
• Roughly how long does a full-screen fill or copy take?
• Are the bitplanes in FPGA block RAM or external memory?
SOUND AND INPUT
11. What sample rate(s) will the stereo FIFOs support? Is an AY core still a possibility at some point?
12. Will the original parallel-port joystick work? Are USB gamepads a possibility?
Thanks again, and no rush. I know the assembly side is flat out.
Cheers,
Simon