Saturday, September 22, 2012

Check out my portfolio website

http://www.bazz1.com

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Writing a Qt Image Plugin, 8Bit Indexed Images

I decided to write something on this since I just broke my ass to get this working. I am converting BGR555 4bpp SNES images to 8bpp RGB24 indexed for my QT Program. There are a number of things you need to simply "try"/"know" before getting the EFFING thing to WORK! So, since I've already done the ass-breaking. Let me show you..

STEP 1) Learn how to write a QT Image plugin.. http://doc.qt.nokia.com/qq/qq17-imageio.html
Simply edit the downloadable code so that the read/write functions reflect what you want to do...

Here are the finnicky things you need to know for 8-bit indexed QImages..

After creating a QImage img, you MUST img.setColorCount( int n), or your results will be CORRUPT. setColorCount sets the amount of colors to index with.
 Note: you don't have to actually set any colors at this point...

You are now free to index pixels with setPixel(x,y,colorindex);


random ass note: if you want to get the pixel index, use img.pixelIndex(x,y);
random article, hopefully your frustration now = 0 :)

Saturday, September 24, 2011

What's Left...

It took some modifcations to the ROM reading code, but I can now dump roms.. =] So.. this is not me playing a ROM from the internet.. I actually dumped this off of a REAL game catridge :) MY next plan is to hack the cartridge so I can upload code to it...

Saturday, September 17, 2011

: D

SNES Cart Connector Wired to Gameboy Cart

I know its ugly.. but not as ugly as you!!! lol jk




The MBC5 capability is not plugged in yet.. First I will test communication with SNES carts by reading ROM header.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Updates...

For the first time I have reassembled the firmware. It took a lot of effort but it is working. I added a MODE feature to the unit which can set the flasher for Gameboy or SNES, for different operations when reading/writing ROM/RAM...


You may also notice the "Disk Path" button.. this is also new. Actually, I wonder why this wasn't implemented before lol. When you click this you can set and save the base directory from which you would like GBFlasher to operate. -> where you save and load files from.. :)

Moving on.. I have soldered the SNES Connector as well as approx. 30 wires.. For the connector I had to saw off sides of the perfboard so that it would fit between the brackets, allowing the connector to sit closer to the board..

The following pics are my AVR programmer programming the new firmware with SNES mode capability, ensuring that my re-assembled and 'hacked' firmware is functioning correctly; 


The 2nd pic is the SNES connector with "CrAzY wIrEs" , which I have begun attaching to the MBC5 cartridge. 

I am using an MBC5 catridge because the Atmega8515 doesnt have enough i/o to do the job. there are 35 i/o on atmega8515, gameboy connector uses 32 i/o, atmega uses about 29/30 for the gameboy. well out of those 32 io, only A0-A15 are assigned, we still need A16-A21!!! So.. We use the MBC5 like a gameboy does, and instead of sending the MBC5 to ROM, we forward it to SNES address lines.. (which are gonna go to SNES Cart ROM/RAM)...