1 minute ago, x16tial said:
I asked multiple times on that other thread for the specs, which don't seem to be forthcoming. Sometimes you have to operate on incomplete information, so yeah, assumptions are being made, but to some extent, they're being forced, because the information is being withheld.
David will ultimately make the decision of course. Above all, I think 2 platforms is a mistake. If it wasn't a mistake, why doesn't every 8 bit enthusiast develop for the Apple II, and the Atari 2600, and the Vic 20, and the C64 all together, and the others? If you have to code something more than once, that means you're going to code less individual things. I want more Titles, not more versions of the same Title. If it's decided to do the X16, so be it. But both is a mistake, in my opinion, the and X8 sounds like the better idea, but we're not being allowed access, unofortunately.
I doubt it is a matter of anyone is trying to hide the specs. I think it is a matter of they just haven't been provided yet. It's been a couple days, give it time.
59 minutes ago, x16tial said:
X16 runs at 8Mhz -- 12 Mhz is better
X16 has a TON more RAM -- this doesn't matter with fast SD speeds, that same 8k can be swapped from SDCard rather than switching banks
X16 has twice the video RAM -- this might be the worst part, it means only 1bpp for 640x480, but tricks with sprites, charsets, etc would probably compensate
X16 has 4 expansion slots - provide an i/o bus on the X8?
X16 has a Yamaha sound chip - add on expansion with said i/o bus?
X16 has an IEC disk drive port - this is really kinda silly. nice nostalgia, but let's be real, who is going to use this?
X16 is infinitely more "hackable" - make the X8 more hackable, provide that i/o bus. and how about tools to make reprogramming the fpga easy?
X16 has SNES ports - not needed with the usb port
X16 has PS/2 - usb is better
I agree 12 MHz is better. More RAM would be better than fast SD based swapping, but it's much less of an issue than trying to load overlays from a 1541 for sure.
Having an IO bus on the X8 is going to be an issue of cost. Almost every line on the edge connector has to map to an IO pin. More IO costs more money. The reason the price of the X8 is able to be as low as estimated is because it can be built with a certain FPGA with a certain level of IO, logic elements, block RAM, etc. Increasing any of those will result in a more expensive bit of hardware.
Agreed on IEC. It is nice from a nostalgia perspective, but it's not like the fast loaders that depend on 1541 are going to work on X16. The best reason I can see for IEC is not disk drives, but perhaps printers if anyone has those they want to use.