[HN Gopher] The Book of CP-System [pdf]
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The Book of CP-System [pdf]
Author : ibobev
Score : 78 points
Date : 2022-12-02 12:51 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (fabiensanglard.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (fabiensanglard.net)
| jupp0r wrote:
| I wish people spelled out acronyms more. I was expecting a book
| about consistent and partition-tolerant distributed systems.
| corysama wrote:
| The entire site https://fabiensanglard.net/ is a goldmine of
| high-quality content.
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| The quality decreases as you go back in time. Some of the
| entries are embarrassing (both in terms of typesetting,
| language skills, and tablet/phone scaling) now but I like to
| keep them around so reminds myself and others that we all have
| to start somewhere.
| torh wrote:
| From having followed your site for many, many years, I look
| at it differently: It keeps getting better and better. Also,
| as you mention, it's a good reminder of what one can produce
| if one just put in the hours and keep at it.
| bombcar wrote:
| Thank you for that, by the way.
|
| I really enjoy watching writing and art develop over time
| (for example, web comics that run for decades like Schlock
| Mercenary or Penny Arcade).
|
| Sometimes the temptation to go back and rewrite or redraw is
| too much, but if so leave the old version available.
| jchw wrote:
| The quality today is definitely excellent, but I think you're
| being a bit too harsh nonetheless. Even the early articles
| are still good intrigue, and I think we can forgive the lack
| of more responsive layout in 2008-2012 :)
| greenbit wrote:
| Seems to be about Capcom arcade machines, 239 pages with lots of
| technical content. Nice pics of humongous 1980-era circuit
| boards. A nice addition to your file hoard if you're into retro
| computing.
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| Not to forget a complete, modern toolchain if you want to
| develop for it!
| spicyjpeg wrote:
| Proprietary arcade systems from the early to late 1990s, in
| spite of the admittedly ridiculous prices they sell for
| nowadays, are actually nice platforms for homebrew development.
| More often than not there is no protection at all against
| running homebrew software, as typically anti-piracy checks are
| implemented in the games themselves rather than in the
| hardware. Of course there is no documentation most of the time;
| even though MAME usually provides enough information to get
| custom code running, anything more complex than a simple demo
| will require further reverse engineering of the system. But
| figuring it all out is arguably part of what makes it fun.
|
| The current platform I am obsessed with is Konami's System 573,
| a PlayStation 1-based board introduced in the late 90s and used
| most notably in Dance Dance Revolution. I have been reverse
| engineering it and writing documentation as part of a joint
| effort for about a year [1], uncovering previously unknown
| details such as scrapped support for booting from a CF card.
| There is still plenty of work to be done; Konami released
| several expansion boards providing all sorts of functionality
| from MP3 playback to online connectivity, and those have been a
| hurdle to reverse engineer due to their heavy use of FPGAs.
| Nevertheless, we already have pretty much everything required
| to develop 573 homebrew games using existing PS1 SDK projects.
|
| [1] https://psx-spx.consoledev.net/konamisystem573
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| Thank you for sharing your discoveries. This will without a
| doubt save thousand of hours to multiple enthousiasts.
| avinassh wrote:
| What does CP mean?
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| "Capcom Play"
|
| Which weirdly is not mentioned on
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_System but only on the
| disambiguation page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPS1.
| bombcar wrote:
| The Amazon version was cheaper, and nice enough - note that
| Fabien recommends the Bookpatch version, but it's more expensive.
|
| https://fabiensanglard.net/cpsb_paper/index.html
|
| Recently discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33716928
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| Amazon is able to reduce the price thanks to the volume they
| move.
|
| I inquired a while ago about a bookpatch group order feature
| (volume order shipping to each individual). They said they had
| it planned but it yet has to happen. Best they can do now is a
| batch order but they mail to one destination and then that
| person would have to dispatch it. Sadly not doable for a one
| man operation.
| bombcar wrote:
| I think Amazon drops prices for competitive reasons - I know
| for some of my self-published works I got "paid" the same
| amount even when Amazon for inscrutable reasons decided to
| discount the book to customers.
|
| I do NOT think they bother printing multiple copies and
| warehouse them, I think it is very much print as many copies
| on demand as they need. I may be wrong here.
| torh wrote:
| I wouldn't mind the book price per se, but the shipping to
| Norway is whooping $304.50, so I guess I'll go for the Amazon
| version this time.
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| I don't understand their shipping price. Someone also
| mentioned that shipping to France is $200.
|
| Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about shipping
| prices :(!
|
| Too bad, they print with such high quality.
| breckinloggins wrote:
| I purchased the hardcopy and have been very pleased with it; it's
| been a long time since I've enjoyed a technical book so much.
| fabiensanglard wrote:
| Thank you for your purchase and kind words.
| zasdffaa wrote:
| Then may I recommend in addition Hacker's Delight. The 1st ed
| is most fun, 2nd ed has a lot more depth in certain areas
| (division IIRC) which you might choose to skip.
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(page generated 2022-12-02 23:01 UTC)