RDI Halcyon - Exposed with Pics (lots of pics, 56k beware)

[98PaceCar]

@98PaceCar:
Congratulations for your find! This is awesome. I've seen a couple of RDI Laserdiscs (TQ, and the Football game) on eBay over the years, but never spotted a RDI computer, let alone a complete working system.

While I'm thinking about this, do you see any possibility to dump the contents of the two game cartridges (probably with the help of the dragons-lair-project.com guys, or the daphne.com guys, -> Jeff Kinder probably)? This would open the door for emulating the Halcyon stuff so the small number of laserdiscs left could be used used sometimes (although a lot of work would still be required).

Wow! This thread came up out of nowhere!

It's funny you ask about dumping the carts.. I spent some time trying to get them open without destroying them when I first got the system. I never was able to figure it out, but truthfully, I didn't try all that hard. I did dump the 2 eproms that are in the computer and have them safely archived though.

I've thought about releasing the roms before, but I never was able to decide if it was better to keep them to myself or release them. Since both of the games are available on other platforms, I felt the need to release them was not as important, but it would be nice to preserve them should something happen and being able to play the games without having to drag the system out would be nice.

I'd be interested in knowing what some of the other collectors of small run items think about this. It's been a hot button topic in the past and one that I've avoided, but I'm open to discussion if the interest is there.

[Vectorman0]

Wow! This thread came up out of nowhere!

It's funny you ask about dumping the carts.. I spent some time trying to get them open without destroying them when I first got the system. I never was able to figure it out, but truthfully, I didn't try all that hard. I did dump the 2 eproms that are in the computer and have them safely archived though.

I've thought about releasing the roms before, but I never was able to decide if it was better to keep them to myself or release them. Since both of the games are available on other platforms, I felt the need to release them was not as important, but it would be nice to preserve them should something happen and being able to play the games without having to drag the system out would be nice.

I'd be interested in knowing what some of the other collectors of small run items think about this. It's been a hot button topic in the past and one that I've avoided, but I'm open to discussion if the interest is there.

It's up to you, whatever feels right.

If you don't mind making them available to others though, I would encourage you to do so. I can only see it benefiting everyone.

[idrougge]

Nope. Time Gal was originally a 1985 laserdisc game by Taito (they made at least another about that time that I've seen) that eventually got ported to Mega CD, Laseractive, and Saturn.

The first port must have been the MSX port, using JVC's VHD discs.

[ProgrammingAce]

The chances of an emulator for the Halcyon are beyond remote. At the very least, you'd probably have to destroy one of the systems. Besides, as has been said before, the games are on other platforms. There's not much incentive for a coder...

[tteich]

Wow! This thread came up out of nowhere!

It's funny you ask about dumping the carts.. I spent some time trying to get them open without destroying them when I first got the system. I never was able to figure it out, but truthfully, I didn't try all that hard. I did dump the 2 eproms that are in the computer and have them safely archived though.

I've thought about releasing the roms before, but I never was able to decide if it was better to keep them to myself or release them. Since both of the games are available on other platforms, I felt the need to release them was not as important, but it would be nice to preserve them should something happen and being able to play the games without having to drag the system out would be nice.

I'd be interested in knowing what some of the other collectors of small run items think about this. It's been a hot button topic in the past and one that I've avoided, but I'm open to discussion if the interest is there.

Thanks, 98PaceCar. I'm happy you're at least considering to put some effort into dumping the ROMs. I think there is considerable interest in having the Halcyon emulated by means of the Daphne emulator, or MAME. This would make the system known, and prevent it from being forgotten in the realms of 1 or 2 collectors (Museum effect comes to mind). There are also probably a few dozens of Halcyon laserdiscs in collectors hands, and those could be awaken to life with an emulation.

I certainly don't expect you to destroy the precious cartridges, if opening them would mean to destroy them. Great to hear you managed to save the ROMs from the computer.

I could try to contact some of the DPL or Daphne guys to discuss possibilities how the contents of these cartidges can be saved. I guess they consist of a kind of memory, holding the program code, so it should be possible to access it as such and read out the contents. Just a few thoughts...

[tteich]

The roms wouldn't be of any use to anyone except other Halcyon owners, unless someone decides to write a Halcyon emulator (which would be very cool!).

I don't remember -did you ever play Thayer's Quest to the end to see what happens?

The LDs could be MPEG'd and with a "Halcyon enabled" MAME or Daphne one would be able to play them, including the voice i/f and everything. I'm already using Daphne to play my Arcade LDs, so playing real Halcyon discs could be possible as well. I have one of those Halcyon LDs in my collection, and would volunteer (once we have the ROMs and the cartridge code) to team up with e.g. the Daphne guys to work on an emulation.

[sabre2922]

Sweeet very nice

[tteich]

@98PaceCar:
Is there any chance you make some very detailed photographs from the inside (PCBs) of the computer (not the laserdisc player), in order to check which kind of processors/logic/custom chips it contains. This could give us some hints what kind of processor the ROM code is for.

I'd guess: the PCBs are basically the same which came with the TQ conversion kit and/or they are comparable with what was built in the Palcom MSX computers, which had the same laserdisc player interface.

[98PaceCar]

I don't remember -did you ever play Thayer's Quest to the end to see what happens?

I have to apologize, I completely forgot to do this for you. I was working on getting a set of disks that aren't bit rotted and was waiting for that before I played. I never did get the disks and forgot to play through it.

I'll drag it out sometime in the next week or so and get those pics for you.

@98PaceCar:
Is there any chance you make some very detailed photographs from the inside (PCBs) of the computer (not the laserdisc player), in order to check which kind of processors/logic/custom chips it contains. This could give us some hints what kind of processor the ROM code is for.

I should be able to do this the same time I play through TQ for Stonic.

I'm still not sure if I'm willing to release the roms or not, but would be interested in at least exploring the possibility a bit further.

[CosmicMonkey]

Nice one for the collection of pictures. I like to show this sort of stuff to my mates and the members of our Anime club. I mean, everyone's seen a Megadrive so it's not interesting. But stuff like this, Vistars, NPDP Gamecubes/Dolphin dev boxes etc. even seem to actually catch the attention of the non-gamers.

It's also nice when one of the lassies at the anime club asks me if this is rarer than ''that black Korean SuperNES-that-isn't'' (she meant the Super A'can). Success! someone's actually listening to me gibbering on about incredibly rare consoles and dev kits that you probably shouldn't be seeing....