A computer system added (SC-3000). End of the world?

3/21/2011 5:14:56 PM

By RetroRalph

I've been working recently on SG-1000 support as now with a mostly complete cycle accurate TMS9918 it made sense to add it. It's rather simple when you have all the devices it needs emulated at the cycle level. However SC-3000 has also been added....

SC-3000 is essentially a SG-1000 with an inbuilt keyboard, marketed as a home computer in the realm of Commodore 64 and MSX. I was surprised that there is no real functionality added to the SC-3000, no more RAM, no faster CPU, etc. And it's also surprising the amount of disinformation there is on the internet about the SG-1000, SG-1000II and SC-3000....which makes it hard to emulate all their real world peculiarities.

The keyboard emulation needed for the SC-3000 is also the same as the SK-1100 which is an optional addon for the SG-1000 and Mark III. Which is no surprise really, Sega basically just tacked a keyboard onto the SG-1000 and called it a home computer. It's probably no surprise the system was a bomb given such after thought by Sega. That said, it still had some interesting capabilities due to addons like the SF-7000 and the RAM carts. There is one game on SMS that will eventually benefit from the SK-1100 emulation added.

SC-3000 is very similar hardware wise to the very popular MSX, but the MSX is a bit more powerful. In theory it would be just as easy to add support for the MSX now. Thanks to the input system in RetroCopy it's rather simple adding keyboard support compared to how it was 6 months ago, which is good. Still some decisions to go about how to handle all the systems in RetroCopy. Eventually i may allow it so that you can remove the systems you don't care about so they aren't cluttering up the interface. If you only want a Mega Drive emulator, you can get it. But that is a bit away for now.

6 responses to A computer system added (SC-3000). End of the world?

Waxonator wrote:

3/22/2011 7:25:16 AM

Great! Eventual DOS emulation? There is always hope.

tommy1983 wrote:

3/22/2011 9:38:09 PM

The SMS game Ralph mentions that will benefit from SK-1100 keyboard support in RetroCopy is F-16 Fighting Falcon. Actually it is possible to play this game in a simultameous 2-player mode on two TV sets, linking two keyboards together using a special cable from the printer ports on the keyboards. As this is the only game that has this possibilty (and only the Japanese version of the game can do this), no emulator emulates it yet. Perhaps not a priority for RetroCopy either, as F-16 Fighting Falcon is (I'm sorry to say) an incredibly boring game, but perhaps one time in the future?...

The reason why I bring this up is I just discovered that there are actually many more Mark III/SMS games than this that has keyboard support. All games made in 1985, and most games made in 1986 have keyboard support! Even a few games that were made in Japan but only released in the West (where the keyboard was never sold and couldn't have been used anyway, as only the Mark III supports it, not the SMS) had keyboard support! (Which means you can play them using a SK-1100 keyboard instead of the regular control pad on the real console). With RetroCopy starting to emulate the SK-1100 keyboard it will be possible to take use of this function in the games. Just remember to update your game files, as I have just added the info to the Master System game database about which games (a total number of 25 if you just count the games, not all versions of them) that use the keyboard. Of course also all SG-1000 games have keyboard support (minus the Othello Multivision games).

Waxonator wrote:

3/25/2011 8:51:14 PM

Can you bring the tvs back in the next version?

panzeroceania wrote:

4/9/2011 4:11:09 AM

I saw that you mentioned the SF-7000. Does that mean it is currently emulated?

tommy1983 wrote:

4/13/2011 8:09:58 AM

The SF-7000 isn't emulated yet, but will be. It might be after v0.960 though.

panzeroceania wrote:

4/19/2011 8:44:46 PM

thanks for the info tommy.

I really appreciate your and ralph's work. Keep it up guys.