RE: RATbox interest

I am wondering how many folks here have the Fluke 9010? There might be a
use for someone with more time free than most to write an application
program for the serial port on that to do some of the Ratboxs functions.
The advantage with the Fluke is it runs at system speed and would thus
catch glitches, whereas I assume the Ratbox runs quite a bit slower than
that. Or could we get some specs?

On the other hand I could use the Ratbox with an 8080 as well for my old
Midway games...

John :-#)#

At 10:49 AM 9/29/1999 -0600, you wrote:
>You should be able to use it on any 6502, 6809, 6800, or Z80 game. (or
>computer - apple II, Atari, commodore, etc)
>Anything the processor can get it, the RATbox should be able to get to.
>Checksums on ROMs is pretty straight forward. If your getting a bad checksum
>on a ROM it's usually a bad ROM, decoder, or buffer. If you have a logic
>probe (we are also thinking of building one on the RATbox) you can look at
>the chip select pin on the ROM and toggle the ROM through the software (the
>toggle ROM button turns it on for 1 sec then back off)
>There are also ways to check the data pins (everything will be described in
>the docs)
>With the game board in the machine, you will be able to monitor all the
>inputs (coin, buttons, trakball, etc) and toggle any of the outputs (coin
>counter, start led, etc)
>You will also be able to populate video memory with data and see it on the
>monitor. (we will have some built in ones for vector monitors so you won't
>have to figure a pattern out by hand or worry about sending the beam off the
>screen)
>
>This is also why we will be making the source code available for the
>software, so anyone can customize it anyway they want.
>
>-jeff
>
>-----Original Message-----

From: Tom Cloud [mailto:computerspace@hotmail.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 10:18 AM
>To: vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu
>Cc: jhendrix@Quark.Com
>Subject: RE: RATbox interest
>
>
>Jeff, I too would be interested in one. I have a few questions about
>it though...
>
>Can it be used for b/w raster games (or raster games in general or
> only for vectors?
>Can a non-assembly programmer like myself use one pretty easily to
> debug a dead board? Or do we have to be assembly lang. hackers
> to make sense of its output?
>If it finds errors in the checksums, will it point out a possible
> piece of bad hardware? (i.e. location of the bad chip or whatever)
>
>Thx for any info...looks to be very cool.
>
>Regards,
>Tom Cloud
>
>
>
From: jeff hendrix <jhendrix@Quark.Com>
> >Reply-To: vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu
> >To: "'vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu'" <vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu>
> >Subject: RE: RATbox interest
> >Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 15:26:42 -0600
> >
> >Currently our target price is $199 (that will include an assembled board,
> >the parallel cable and the power supply to run it)
> >
> >I used visual C++ 6.0 to write winRAT.
> >The API library will be generic, so controlling programs can be written on
> >any platform.
> >Currently the board requires a parallel port, but once we get it done we
> >are
> >thinking about building a serial adapter so it will run on all the other
> >platforms in the world.
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
>
From: Christopher X. Candreva [mailto:chris@westnet.com]
> >Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 3:11 PM
> >To: 'vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu'
> >Subject: Re: RATbox interest
> >
> >
> >On Tue, 28 Sep 1999, jeff hendrix wrote:
> >
> > > I know this might be a little premature,
> > > but I'd just like to get a head count on how many people might be
> >interested
> > > in the RATbox?
> >
> >I'ld be interested. How much do you expect it to cost ? And just what chip
> >IS that on the board ?
> >
> >While I'm bugging ya -- what did you write the Win 9x software in ? I'm
> >trying to guess how hard it will be to port. I don't knomally keep a Win 9x
> >capable machine in the workshop.
> >
> >-Chris
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > > -jeff
> > >
> > > I'll probably have pawn off one, or both, of my girls to help pay for
> >the
> > > initial run. I just want to make sure we make back enough so I can get
> >them
> > > back. ;-)
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: jeff hendrix [mailto:jhendrix@Quark.Com]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 11:28 AM
> > > To: 'vectorlist@lists.cc.utexas.edu'
> > > Subject: CATbox? RATbox!
> > >
> > >
> > > I guess I'll let the CAT out of the bag.
> > > Here is the project Anders and I have been working on.
> > > I threw this web page together in a matter of seconds, just so we have a
> > > brief description of what this thing does.
> > >
> > > http://www.diac.com/~jeffh/rat/
> > >
> > > We are VERY close to having it working, we get something like a 1% error
> >on
> > > RAM writes when we write all 1's to a memory location. So we are trying
> >to
> > > nail it down.
> > >
> > > -jeff
> > >
> >
> >==========================================================
> >Chris Candreva -- chris@westnet.com -- (914) 967-7816
> >WestNet Internet Services of Westchester
> >http://www.westnet.com/
> >
>
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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Received on Wed Sep 29 12:11:28 1999