2021-02-23, 10:40
RetroArch development team have just announced that they for over a year have secretly been developing their own game cartridge USB adapter as open source hardware for Libretro:
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/intro...e-project/
I am still curious how Kodi's RetroPlayer / Game API development team think and feel about possibly integrating support for this adapter for game cartridges into Kodi in the future?
Not sure what the final name for it will be howwever they are currently calling their game cartridge USB adapter open source hardware by its stealth project codename which was "ProjectFuture".
The primary goal with making this game cartridge USB adapter as open source hardware will be to allow relativly inexpensive way for users to play games in emulators directly from their own original game cartridges, however users will of course also be able to make their own backup images of their own original game cartridges if the software would allow that.
As an fully free and open source hardware project under a OSHWA license it will consist of hardware design schematics, firmware, drivers and libraries to support it so that anyone with the skills can build one and integrate it into emulators. One of the developers of this device have posted on RetroArch's Reddit saying that the hardware parts to build the current prototype design cost around $20 when not buying components in bulk.
"RetroArch Open Hardware is our attempt to shake up this sector of the retro games market, and our effort to revitalize the DIY market and shift it away from proprietary solutions. Our first Proof of Concept hardware device is an N64 cartridge adapter that you connect to any device with a USB Type-C cable. It will be relatively cheap to assemble and much faster than any existing competing device out there that does the same task."
RetroArch developers (Sasa and m4xw) are of planing to fully integrate seamless support for it into RetroArch with its use of Libretro.
"We have some high-level goals we aim to achieve with this project. We want seamless integration with RetroArch. When you attach this to RetroArch, it should be hopefully as simple to play the game as it is on a real game console when you plugged in the cartridge. That’s the level of integration we are aiming to achieve with this project, and none of the existing solutions out there really fit the bill."
"When we mentioned before that we want RetroArch to be its own game console, we pretty much meant it. And being able to take your own game copies with you and run them with RetroArch seems like an obvious next step to take."
"We have come up with a completely custom and lean design so that the person aiming to build this for themselves in DIY fashion will be able to build these relatively cheaply. We are convinced the transfer speeds are far in excess of any other similar product out on the market right now, which is just as well considering the biggest N64 game out there is 64MB in size."
Note that while this new RetroArch open hardware is now announced it has still not been released so the schematics and code does not yet look to be available to the public(?).
https://www.libretro.com/index.php/intro...e-project/
I am still curious how Kodi's RetroPlayer / Game API development team think and feel about possibly integrating support for this adapter for game cartridges into Kodi in the future?
Not sure what the final name for it will be howwever they are currently calling their game cartridge USB adapter open source hardware by its stealth project codename which was "ProjectFuture".
The primary goal with making this game cartridge USB adapter as open source hardware will be to allow relativly inexpensive way for users to play games in emulators directly from their own original game cartridges, however users will of course also be able to make their own backup images of their own original game cartridges if the software would allow that.
As an fully free and open source hardware project under a OSHWA license it will consist of hardware design schematics, firmware, drivers and libraries to support it so that anyone with the skills can build one and integrate it into emulators. One of the developers of this device have posted on RetroArch's Reddit saying that the hardware parts to build the current prototype design cost around $20 when not buying components in bulk.
"RetroArch Open Hardware is our attempt to shake up this sector of the retro games market, and our effort to revitalize the DIY market and shift it away from proprietary solutions. Our first Proof of Concept hardware device is an N64 cartridge adapter that you connect to any device with a USB Type-C cable. It will be relatively cheap to assemble and much faster than any existing competing device out there that does the same task."
RetroArch developers (Sasa and m4xw) are of planing to fully integrate seamless support for it into RetroArch with its use of Libretro.
"We have some high-level goals we aim to achieve with this project. We want seamless integration with RetroArch. When you attach this to RetroArch, it should be hopefully as simple to play the game as it is on a real game console when you plugged in the cartridge. That’s the level of integration we are aiming to achieve with this project, and none of the existing solutions out there really fit the bill."
"When we mentioned before that we want RetroArch to be its own game console, we pretty much meant it. And being able to take your own game copies with you and run them with RetroArch seems like an obvious next step to take."
"We have come up with a completely custom and lean design so that the person aiming to build this for themselves in DIY fashion will be able to build these relatively cheaply. We are convinced the transfer speeds are far in excess of any other similar product out on the market right now, which is just as well considering the biggest N64 game out there is 64MB in size."
Note that while this new RetroArch open hardware is now announced it has still not been released so the schematics and code does not yet look to be available to the public(?).
