Oh yeeeeeaaaaaahhhh! Great!!!

Yes, that's excellent news!

Congratulations! What you have done is abolsute fantastic!!! I am looking for a GUS PnP since months but I do not find anything for a reasonable price. I have bought one in 1996 and still have the original packaging..but the card itself is in a computer which I do not find anymore.. 🙁

I would be glad to order some cards in a second batch...!

Congrats on the progress...... You have done an awesomme thing.

Wavetable ROM also working. Turns out I had a bad solderjoint on that chip.
http://i.imgur.com/Lh4vDWV.jpg

So all main functions seem to be working for now.

That's the best possible present for the New 2017 you could give us! 😀
So, what's next?
Is it still possible to make cosmetic changes in the design?
Could you try out the 4Mb binary ROM we compiled earlier this year?

There are a few minor issues remaining and I'd like to fix the 'pop on reset' issue first. I'm currently recording the Second Reality soundtrack on the ARGUS and a GUS PnP for a comparision.
Cosmetic changes are of course possible and some minor ones will be done by me already.

Personally I'm extremely uncertain about the 4MB ROMSet - first of all the ROMMaker we managed to compile required an older version of the SBOS tables, second I never exactly figured out how to properly built ROMs (and/or check if the output we got would work in the end) and third (and most importantly for me) I'm quite sure it would break a few software titles (Duke3D being the most prominent one which looks for AMDGM_1_1_ specifically) - especially since no InterWave based cards ever were shipped with a different ROMSet.

Well, got that. At least some additional tests can be carried out later on a serial production card.

When I mentioned design changes I was referring to my post here: ARGUS Project thread - Now with gerbers and documentation in initial post!

This is just to remind, not to insist 😀

Case in point if someone can figure out something how to make 4MB ROMSets running - I'll be more than happy to implement that in the series run, I'll provide one of the 3 Prototypes if required or an ordinary GUS PnP can be used for that as well (GUS PnP and ARGUS only differ in that regard in just 1 solder jumper allowing for 29F800 chips instead of the proprietary IW78C21M1).
On the other hand ... in 20 years no one modded his GUS PnP for that, so I doubt there's too much general interest anyways 😉

About the silkscreen ... I'll see what I can do ... some parts are gonna be redesigned there as well.

I'll post a blog later on with things that are working, things I haven't checked yet and a plan for a future roll out. Also keep in mind, I can't and won't be doing all the prototyping and testing on my own (oversights might happen) - so one of the next few steps will be soldering the 2 remaining prototypes and getting them up and running 😉 Currently I think there are still 20 or so things on my list I want to get done for the series run, those will be mentioned in the blog post as well.

EDIT: Recordings here (OGG quality level 8 - sorry no FLAC, my connection sucks)
Second Reality Soundtrack on ARGUS: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9WAZV_Pqo7g … iew?usp=sharing
Second Reality Soundtrack on GUS PnP: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9WAZV_Pqo7g … iew?usp=sharing

As I have quite a lot of spare time (and funds) currently in Argentina I would be willing to mess with the 4Mb patchset. However I don't have the necessary programming skills - but I can compensate for that with the help of my Russian and Argentine friends as well as contracting outsource.

And you can count on me as a betatester for the ARGUS prototype - I'm at your service willing to contribute as much as I can 😀

shock__ wrote:

EDIT: Recordings here (OGG quality level 8 - sorry no FLAC, my connection sucks)
Second Reality Soundtrack on ARGUS: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9WAZV_Pqo7g … iew?usp=sharing
Second Reality Soundtrack on GUS PnP: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9WAZV_Pqo7g … iew?usp=sharing

Just listening to the files. That is an awesome milestone and achievement to get this far; you should be very proud.

Shock, the ARGUS sounds great. Congratulations on your feat. Now, where do I pre-order?

excellent news and update shock__ , are you Santa? 🤣

WOW! 😀 Great work!! Also like to have one 😉

Great to see this type of advancement with this project. Again, amazing work! I think I'll go back and re-read through the thread as well as your blog to freshen up on the details.

How much would a card cost?

Another minor update ... after fitting other 3.5mm jacks on the prototype I can also confirm that backplates fit nicely. There's one small issue (see the gameport not being flush with the PCB?) but it does the job for now and fixing the placement there should be a piece of cake.

http://i.imgur.com/BkeUcR2.jpg (cat tax included - Biggy the cat watching over Crystal Dream 2 if it's running properly ... I think he approved).
I think this is my final update for this year ... have a good transistion to 2017 😀

Been away the past week, and I come back to all this wonderful news. So much hard work is truly appreciated. Happy New Years and thanks for so much effort after a rough year.

Magnificent, impressive work !!! Congratulations with the achievement, it sounds and looks good.