Commander X16

I think internet/ethernet build into motherboard will be great. For playing multiplayer games online with friends. Also some kind of 2D virtual world / social network / MMO RPG / Scifi MMO will be cool. I am reading Neal Stephenson Snow Crash and He was inspired by C64 network game called  Habitat. Metaverse is world like from movie Ready Player One - Oasis. On Atari we have FujiNET based on ESP Wifi module. Also Wifi will be good for load uploading files to and from X16 SD card using PC or MAC etc. Wifi modules cost few USD. Like coffee latte or so. It will be nice feature.

Metaverse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse

Habitat C64

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_(video_game)

FujiNET

 

For me, it's a feature that is best implemented as an expansion card (or maybe through the user port?); otherwise feature creep will increase cost and make the X16 ship a lot later. Besides, the added complexity means troubleshooting and support get trickier, so it's better to have a simpler platform at first and get it right.

However, I would say guidelines on how to create APIs for the X16 and expansion cards could be enough to ensure different implementations of ESP32-base expansion boards behave well together and with software that will use them. Having clear guidelines will also spur hardware development for the X16, which would be nice.

I agree - this would be a great feature for an expansion card.

And I'm probably not the only one who wants to build one just for the fun of it, so please don't take that away by including it on the mainboard. ? Seriously, though - I don't think that this would be likely anyway. Including a Wifi module that could probably emulate the whole rest of the system without breaking a sweat would feel like a weird design decision to me. (Yes, I suppose the VERA hardware could probably do that too, but going for an FPGA solution for the video was a necessary, or at least quite reasonable, compromise in my opinion.)

Come to think of it, a Snow Crash / Cyberpunk themed Habitat-like game for the X16 would be really cool.

I regret I couldn't join Habitat because of different country and situation. I like the concept of Oasis a lot. I'm glad I was able to join Active Worlds. And I hope I will expiriance something similar to Habitat with X16.

I am very interested in developing such an expansion card, too. This would be my first pcb(waaaaaayyyy - sorry, Peri...) project. I have done a lot of tinkering around ESPs though I am only an enthusiast.

That said, are there more people interested in doing so - and when is the design stable enough so that this interface card can be (at least physical) designed? 

13 hours ago, TheUnknownDad said:

That said, are there more people interested in doing so - and when is the design stable enough so that this interface card can be (at least physical) designed? 

I try to join the facebook group but there is no answer yet.

I'd like to see first, if others have picked up this idea already and supporting them would be most effective. But nevertheless - being the Mr. Feature-Creep I am, what would you think should this card support?

My plan would be to integrate an ESP32 so there are lots of possibilies. Ideas comming to my mind:

• 
  Act as a modem (not RS/232)
  


• 
  having local storage for downloads
  


• 
  providing special transfer software
  


• 
  act as a cartridge so there is an easy way of accessing special transfer software (if this could be done with these cards - I don't see that from the "specs" so far)
  


• 
  Webbrowser proxy mode - do modifications so C64 can handle the site but special features still working
  


• 
  support modes for acting as a multiplayer gaming client AND server (offloading the TCP/IP-part of it)
  


• 
  provide API for multiplayer gaming
  


• 
  support download to (virtual) disk - especially normally attached (virtual) disk drives
  


• 
  open source design, software and hardware
  


• 
  target price of production:  €25 (sorry, I'm german) for PCB and parts, self build kit
  


• 
  ...
  


• 
  (please add your features here)
  

From the few specs regarding expansion cards that I found so far, there are some questions arising:

• 
  Ok, we get memory mapped I/O with 32 Bytes, but...
  


• 
  can we actually implement banked ROM?
  


• 
  can we access system memory directly from the card?
  


• 
  ...
  

So, who is up to this project?

8 minutes ago, TheUnknownDad said:

So, who is up to this project?

I am in no way able to help out with physical production, but I might be able to help out with writing software. Btw, I am from Denmark

That's great. Software support is essential - I am still more into software but keep getting better at electronics.

Are you already in the facebook group?

5 minutes ago, TheUnknownDad said:

Are you already in the facebook group?

Yes I am, have been since it started ?