Reply 160 of 161, by jansakos
Sorry for not posting any updates for some time.
First things first, I want to thank you all for your support and heartwarming feedback regarding the picovox. I hope that it is working correctly most of the time and that it has delivered what it promised. Thank you all very much.
Now, for some updates. I know that some of you are already awaiting a new firmware update with new features. I am really sorry, I had to take a break. But I do hope that soon I will continue with the development. Most of the changes are already available on GitHub, although the features are not fully implemented yet. Also, I have uploaded the release compatible with the Serdaco edition of picovox in case you need to reflash it for any reason whatsoever.
Regarding the current plans and ideas. As I have already written, I am implementing SIDLPT mode, which should not only work with a program suited for playing SID tunes, but also release patches for Innovation SSI-2001-supported games. After that, I would like to finally take a look at the MP3 playback I have already promised several times.
Some other things I would like to implement in the future too are some sort of MIDI handling (compatible with S2P to some degree) and maybe some more sound devices based on chip emulation. Among those also the Digispeech DS311 Plus.
Moreover, I will inspect the possibilities regarding joystick support. This will probably require some sort of expansion board (luckily, the expansion headers on both the DIY and Serdaco versions provide the same possibilities, hopefully enough for the expansion). I would personally like to support multiple types of joystick/controller (apart from gameport, I would like to implement also Atari standard, probably NES, SNES, Sega MS, Sega Genesis, etc.). In order to use most of the features, I should send more data to the computer than just simple direction and fire button information. Since I was not able to find any LPT joystick standard (and please, correct me if there is any), I have an idea for my own. It will work similarly to NES technology, meaning shift registers sending the current data. In order to use the capabilities of most of these controllers, there will probably be support for 4 analog inputs (with precision to 256 values) and 8 digital buttons. There will also be a simple mode (primarily in the FTL mode) compatible with the simple pinout (and converting even the more complex input devices to this one). But these are all just ideas, so feel free to share your thoughts.
With these in mind, I still have plans to add even PLIP emulation and some sort of SD-card reader, which could be used in DOS for simple file transfers. But these are just wild ideas that might be implemented in the future.
Once again, thank you all very much. I hope that the picovox is useful to you and that with the additional functionality it will be even more useful in the future.