larrylemming
Member
Project: RP2C0X-XXXX, the Universal PPU Replacement
I'm pleased to announce that I am embarking on what will most assuredly be a long, difficult, and highly rewarding project -- a Universal PPU replacement.
WHAT? What this aims to do is to be a drop-in replacement for Nintendo Vs. and Playchoice systems. All of the PPU chips effectively had the same internal architecture; the major difference was the color palette used. My replacement will have a selectable color palette to be able to support all of the different variants.
There may be a chance this could also support home consoles as well, but that's not the priority here.
WHY? Because PPU's are undoubtedly going to become harder to find and more expensive as time goes on. Also, by design, several PPU's are needed to support the full library of Vs. games. I'm not trying to undercut the market for authentic PPU's by any means -- in fact, I expect my replacement will be the same cost, if not higher, than the market value of the original chip. I simply want to offer an alternative for collectors who want to play their games.
HOW? With an FPGA. My replacement will be a single FPGA and a video DAC together on a small board that will fit into the original PPU socket. It will contain its own video cable that will connect directly to your monitor, or alternatively could plug into a RGB-to-Composite converter for display on a television set.
WHEN? I don't have an exact timeline right now, but my hope is that I can start shipping by this time next year at the very latest. This is by no means my full-time job.
Raise your hand if you're interested.
Feedback is also welcome.
I'm relatively sure of one feedback I am sure to receive -- why not do an entire Unisystem/Dualsystem replacement board? The short answer is that I want to support Playchoice fanatics and potentially console gamers as well. The longer answer is that I might undertake such a project in the future but wanted to limit the scope of this one.
I'm pleased to announce that I am embarking on what will most assuredly be a long, difficult, and highly rewarding project -- a Universal PPU replacement.
WHAT? What this aims to do is to be a drop-in replacement for Nintendo Vs. and Playchoice systems. All of the PPU chips effectively had the same internal architecture; the major difference was the color palette used. My replacement will have a selectable color palette to be able to support all of the different variants.
There may be a chance this could also support home consoles as well, but that's not the priority here.
WHY? Because PPU's are undoubtedly going to become harder to find and more expensive as time goes on. Also, by design, several PPU's are needed to support the full library of Vs. games. I'm not trying to undercut the market for authentic PPU's by any means -- in fact, I expect my replacement will be the same cost, if not higher, than the market value of the original chip. I simply want to offer an alternative for collectors who want to play their games.
HOW? With an FPGA. My replacement will be a single FPGA and a video DAC together on a small board that will fit into the original PPU socket. It will contain its own video cable that will connect directly to your monitor, or alternatively could plug into a RGB-to-Composite converter for display on a television set.
WHEN? I don't have an exact timeline right now, but my hope is that I can start shipping by this time next year at the very latest. This is by no means my full-time job.
Raise your hand if you're interested.
I'm relatively sure of one feedback I am sure to receive -- why not do an entire Unisystem/Dualsystem replacement board? The short answer is that I want to support Playchoice fanatics and potentially console gamers as well. The longer answer is that I might undertake such a project in the future but wanted to limit the scope of this one.


