OneBus emulator found by cah4e3

[codeman38]

For those who haven't checked cah4e3's dump blog recently, he's discovered an emulator for the OneBus NES-on-a-chip created by its manufacturers. This is the chip that powers both the Arcade Action and the DreamGear 75-in-1.

Apparently, it's manufactured by the Taiwanese company VR Technology.

Now here's the interesting part, however: If you go to the About box, you'll find out that this emulator was developed by... ::drumroll:: JUNGLETAC! There's a credit to "DJJungle", and a link to a web site that's no longer operational, but which at one point had some very dodgy stuff on it (including a full MS Office ISO!) judging from the Internet Archive.

[Awesome Panda]

In other words, the OneBus is essentially a modified Famicom with better graphics capabilities. A bit lazy of QSL to make only about 5 games have these better graphics, although given that the games suck anyway it's not a big deal. Also, one thing I find odd is that in British1500's videos of the DreamGEAR 75-in-1, the recording mysteriously glitches up at Harbo(u)r and then starts working normally after that.

BTW, if JungleTac made that emulator then QSL probably obtained the rights to develop games on it. (which I'm assuming considering that I have a Famiclone with games from both companies)

Oh, and I had to LOL at "designed by wise wang."

[codeman38]

Cheetahmen

Dec 10 2010, 02:21:43 PM

In other words, the OneBus is essentially a modified Famicom with better graphics capabilities. A bit lazy of QSL to make only about 5 games have these better graphics, although given that the games suck anyway it's not a big deal. [/quote]Pretty much, yeah-- the only other difference is that the OneBus has graphics and code interleaved, while on the Famicom/NES they're in separate ROM banks. Hence the name "OneBus"-- it doesn't need two memory buses running in parallel.

Cheetahmen

 

BTW, if JungleTac made that emulator then QSL probably obtained the rights to develop games on it. (which I'm assuming considering that I have a Famiclone with games from both companies)[/quote]Probably, yeah. Now I'm curious whether there was any deeper relationship between the two companies-- for instance, DreamGear has used JungleTac games in some of their clones, before going to the Trump Grand ones.

[taizou]

wow, i never expected anything like this to show up. wonder where he got it from?
my guess would be that Jungletac might have made it for their own use, as opposed to it being an official emulator used by every OneBus developer.. or maybe it was, who knows.

incidentally i have a OneStation cart with F22 on it, and another with "Chess" (an Othello hack, also on the Famicom Yarou 54), and the menus on those carts are more like the Famicom Yarou series than the jungletac menus in other OneStation carts, maybe theres a connection there? but all the other games are just standard famicom stuff - no OS cart that I know of contains Qi Sheng Long/Trump Grand's original games. so i'm not sure.

[Awesome Panda]

codeman38

Dec 10 2010, 03:06:12 PM

Cheetahmen

Dec 10 2010, 02:21:43 PM

In other words, the OneBus is essentially a modified Famicom with better graphics capabilities. A bit lazy of QSL to make only about 5 games have these better graphics, although given that the games suck anyway it's not a big deal. [/quote]Pretty much, yeah-- the only other difference is that the OneBus has graphics and code interleaved, while on the Famicom/NES they're in separate ROM banks. Hence the name "OneBus"-- it doesn't need two memory buses running in parallel.[/quote]I figured there'd be something to do with memory buses, although given my rather limited knowledge of that I wasn't sure how they did it.

Also, I could be wrong but I think the only games to use this hardware or whatever it is were by JungleTac and QSL. Mind you, it could be that JT owned the engine and (along with using it for their own systems) licensed it out to certain Famiclone producers, some of which QSL happened to work for. Incidentally, I wonder if there are any earlier versions of JT games with simplified graphics.

[codeman38]

Incidentally, I swear I recall reading somewhere in the past that someone had tried to dump a JungleTac famiclone, but it used some weird non-standard mapper that wasn't emulated. I'm guessing now that it must've been the OneBus. Someone ought to try dumping one of those again now...

taizou

Dec 10 2010, 03:46:09 PM

wow, i never expected anything like this to show up. wonder where he got it from?
my guess would be that Jungletac might have made it for their own use, as opposed to it being an official emulator used by every OneBus developer.. or maybe it was, who knows.[/quote]There's an earlier version downloadable in the compiler tools on VRTech's site, which is also credited to DJ Jungle. No idea where cah4e3 got the version he has hosted, though.

[Awesome Panda]

I just noticed something, the ROM header of Taizou's 101-in-1 Arcade Action II says that it runs on the UNL-OneBus mapper, which is strange considering that all of the hacks run perfectly fine on Famicom hardware. (well, if you consider perfectly fine being gimped versions of other games in this case )

[taizou]

well i guess theres nothing to say a OneBus ROM can't consist entirely of normal Famicom games.. only a few on the DreamGear use the extended colour mode anyway, that might have been a later addition to the hardware. the actual 101 in 1 cart only works on the famiclone it came with though.

[Barver]

Now this is what the Aladdin Deck Enhancer should have been; actual enhancement!

It would be cool to see some good games get made for this thing.

[Awesome Panda]

Barver

Dec 11 2010, 06:35:14 PM

Now this is what the Aladdin Deck Enhancer should have been; actual enhancement!

It would be cool to see some good games get made for this thing.[/quote]Or (arguably) better yet, hacks of good games with better graphics. I think this is what Hummer Team's games should have used. Hell, I'd do it myself if I could.