Hi Simon. Just a few more thoughts on s/w and h/w...
What sort of OS are you thinking of putting into the S^2? Obviously it's got to be SAM compatible - by swapping in a new ROM, copying it into RAM or what? But is the new machine going to jump straight into BASIC like SAM does, or into a CLI or even a (shock, horror) GUI? I'm for the CLI, as you can do whatever you like once you're there, tho that would mean you'd have to write a fairly comprehensive OS if it's going to be any good. Pre-emptive multi-tasking would be nice, tho things start getting tricky when you do that. Co-operative is easier, but not nearly so nice. (Anybody out there who _likes_ windoze?) Hardware scrolling and sprites would be _good_, but not perhaps essential. I think the scrolling is more important - if you take Amiga games, for example, most of them scroll the screen, but rather less use the h/w sprites, as they're not quite as useful as they sound on the cheap (non AGA) machines, since they are a tad limited, particularly in size and colours. >From what I can gather, DMA is very handy, but only if you've got lots of custom chips, like the Amiga, so I guess it's not essential, as I don't see you designing lots of custom graphics & sound chips... I think I said before about sound - make sure it's easy to use. Programming the SAM's sound chip is a bit of a nightmare. Oh well, there's my little contribution. Bye Nige
