TeensyCEC

A collection of 80th game Console Emulators and Computer for the Teensy3.6 MCU

Teensy Console Emulators Collection

5 game consoles are currently supported: Atari2600 (teensyvcs), Philips Videopac/Odyssey (teensyo2em), Colecovision (teensycolem), NES (teensynofrendo/teensynes) and Atarti 5200 (teensy5200).
3 computer cores: Zx80/Zx81 (teensy81), Zx Spectrum (teensyspeccy) and Atari800 (teensy800)

All emulators support both ILI9341 TFT and VGA output using the uVGA library https://github.com/qix67/uVGA
Can be compiled at 144MHz,180MHz and 240 MHz (180MHz is best for all!)

Minimalrequirements:

• Teensy3.6 board
• ILI9341 display with touch screen (I use the 2.8 inches version)
• Analog joypad (Arduino or PSP like)
• 3 buttons (FIRE, USER1 and RESET)
• SDFAT library (https://github.com/greiman/SdFat)
• Audio library (part of the SDK)
• Optionnaly: i2c_t3 library https://github.com/nox771/i2c_t3

Optional requirements:

• VGA connector according to https://github.com/qix67/uVGA pinout
• 3 more buttons (for USER2,USER3,USER4)
• Digital 9 pins port for external joystick (Atari/C64 like joystick)
• I2C custom keyboard usin i2c_t3 library

Wiring

• see pinout.txt file in the project

I2C keyboard for computers emulators (optional)

• see pinout.txt file in i2ckeyboard sub-directory
• the I2C keyboard is using a separate atmega328p MCU handling the keys matrix

Installation

• Format the SD card as FAT32
• extract the content of SD.zip in the root directory
• there must be a sub-directorie for each emulator and the default callibration file for the ILI9341 touch screen
  • "2600" => for teensyvcs, put your Atari 2600 roms here (.bin)
  • "5200" => for teensy5200, put your Atari 5200 roms here (.bin)
  • "800" => for teensy800, put your Atari 800 cartridges here (.rom)
  • "o2em" => for teenso2em, put your Videopac/Odysssey roms here (.bin)
  • "coleco" => for teensycolem, put your Colecovision roms here (.rom, including coleco.rom)
  • "nes" => for teensynofrendo/teensynes, put your .nes files here, onlt 32k games are supported (galaga,xevious,mario1...)
  • "spec" => for teensyspeccy, put your ".z80" or ".sna" files here into sub-dirs or not ( max 48K )
  • "z81" => for teensy81, put your ".p", ".81"(, ".56") ".80" or ".o" files here, into sub-dirs or not ( max 56K )
  • "cal.cfg"
• insert the microSD in the teensy

Compilation

• Install SDFAT abd uVGA libraries for the Teensy (see links above)
• Because the standard Audio library is clashing with the SDFAT library, you need to remove SD streaming from the Audio library
  • locate play_sd_raw*,play_sd_wav* and play_serialflash_raw* and move them inside a backup directory
• load the emulator's ino file in the IDE and compile for 180MHz (or whatever best frequency)

Status and known issues

• teensycolem:

  • has sound!

• teensyvcs:

  • no sound yet
  • limited cartridge size support (due to ram constraint)

• teensyo2em:

  • no sound
  • only videopac G7000 games supported (due to ram constraint)

• teensynofrendo:

  • sound
  • up to 48k roms, not more!
  • Full speed
  • Issue with games above 32k for VGA output

• teensynes:

  • no sound
  • 32k roms only supported
  • needs a little bit of speedup but playable...

• teensy5200:

  • basic sound support
  • 16 and 32k roms

• teensyspeccy:

  • Z80 and SNA support
  • YM and preliminary buzz sound support
  • 48k games only supported
  • kempston joystick supported but on screen keyboard may not answer in some games
  • I2C custom keyboard support!

• teensy81:

  • zx80 and zx81
  • .P, .81 and .80 format support (rename .56 for Zx81 hires game that requires 48k or more)
  • I2C custom keyboard support!
  • HIRES support for zx81
  • zx80 support
  • YM sound support for zx81

• teensy800:

  • .rom support (no floppy yet)
  • I2C custom keyboard support!
  • basic sound support

• general:

  • menu not perfect!
  • touch screen precision to be checked (not sure if calibration works for all)
  • one joystick supported only
  • few bugs in GFX rendering (disturbance in VGA especially)

Running

• download the compiled project to the teensy from the SDK (only one emulator at a time is supported!)
• you should see the roms you copied on the SD being listed
• if you touch the screen while rebooting the teensy, you enter the callibration mode:
  • follow the instructions and click the red cross at each corner untill the procedure is finished
  • then touch the center and the menu will be displayed again...
• you can select the rom with up/down or via the touch screen or the touch arrows at the left
• you can start the game in TFT mode by pressing the FIRE key or clicking the TFT icon at the right
• you can start the game in VGA mode by pressing the USER1 key or clicking the VGA icon at the right
• while the game is running, clicking the touch screen will show up the emulator's keyboard/keypad for more interaction.
  • you can just click on the on screen key to perform the corresponding action,it will leave the keyboard also
  • e.g. coleco games typically requires a digit to be pressed
• You can then play the game with the analog joystick and the FIRE/USER1 keys
• press the RESET key to reboot the emulator and load another ROM
• while the menu is shown at startup you can also swap the joysticks and use the external one if it was wired.

Credits

I mostly ported the emulators from existing projects, all the credit goes to the authors of colem, o2em , x2600, moarnes, mc-4u, sz81, atari800,jun52 qnd nofrendo projects! Thanks a lot also to Frank Boesing for his ILI DMA library from which I started from and his great Teensy64 project https://github.com/FrankBoesing/Teensy64