Tuesday, September 11, 2018

The search for for a 6800 based computer with bitmapped graphics.

My curiosity as to the speed of the MC6800 processor has been piqued, so I did some searching for 6800 or compatible machines with bitmapped graphics.  It seems the 6800 didn't have much of an impact on the more personal side of personal computers.

  • Most of the machines based on the CPU don't seem to have any graphics at all.  They are just text based FLEX systems.
  • There is a French FLEX system that offers a graphics board option, but I couldn't find programming info on the graphics board.  Even if I could, it would probably be in French.
  • The Dream 6800 doesn't offer high enough resolution graphics to be of use.
  • The Panasonic JR-200 uses a Japanese version of the 6802, which is 6800 compatible, but it's graphics are made with user definable characters.
  • The APF Imagination Machine has a 6847 VDP like other machines I support, but it's not set up as a true bitmap.  The hardware is set up to display hi-res objects, and there is limited RAM to hold those objects.
  • The 6803 will run 6800 code, but some instructions have different timing and it would require adding NOP instructions, or changing some instructions to try to match the 6800 speed.
  • An emulator could be written just for this, but it seems like a lot of work unless there's some actual hardware the code could run on.
I'm open to suggestions if anyone knows a system that could be used.  256x192 resolution graphics would be the best option.


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