Conference rusure::nintendo

    I dunno Jason,
    
    Memory is cheap but $79 for a Meg?

    I think it's one megaBIT...  Read the cartridges carefully.

    	Whats a magabit?  1000 bits?  Never heard of it.
    			-=*>Jason<*=-

    I have heard that the graphics on the Sega system are better than
    the graphics on the Nintendo system.  Is this because Nintendo doesn't
    spend the extra time to make better quality graphics,or is it because
    the machine itself can't produce better graphics?               
    
    CE
    

    Can't a "meg" refer to either the memory, or the speed (megahertz)?
    
    Anyway, I'd be really interested if someone could find out just
    how much memory the system or gamepacks actually have.  And, why
    don't they add more memory too them?  Won't it fit?  Do they think
    that there's nothing more they can add? (I doubt this... if you've
    seen those screens in Zelda where you pick up the raft and boomerang
    and stuff you'll agree)
    
    Have fun
    
    -- Jim

Re: how much memory:  the system/base unit has 2K of ram, each game supplies
a video memory (usually rom) and a game rom.  Sizes of each vary.
Zelda is the biggest I've opened, and it uses a megabit game rom (271024
compatible), which is 128K bytes, and a 2K or 4K video ram that is apparently
reloaded from the game rom.

		Joe

	Hi Jim,

Re: the term "Meg"

	In common parlance, if someone refers to a computer system with a
    phrase such as:
		    "Yeah, This baby's got a Meg in it!"

    They mean 1 mega-byte of random access memory.

	In the Toy business "Mega" can mean (and does) virtually anything
    because it sounds good.

Re: Why not more...

	As Joe mentioned, some games have a 1 mega-bit rom in them.  This
    translates to 128 kilo-bytes of read only memory, or 1/8th of what is
    inferred by the term "Meg".

	However the 6502 (NES "buried" cpu) can only access 64 kilo-bytes
    of memory with it's 16 bit address bus.  Therefore the game makers
    employ "Memory Management", which switches sections (pages) of the rom
    onto the address bus, under program control.  So more program memory
    ($) means more memory management ($) and more cpu overhead switching
    pages (t), etc.

	But this doesn't really address you're complaint, which is the
    limited number of things on the screen (I Think?).  This is apparentlly
    a hardware limitation of the "PPU", NES's display generator.  For as
    Joe indicated, the video memory can be either rom or ram but is limited
    to 8 kilo-bytes maximum.  I don't know exactly how the PPU works but I
    believe it executes a list handed to it in the local(on board) memory,
    telling it what thing(which video memory locations) to display and
    where(what time in the scan) to display it.  Therefore the video memory
    gives you the things you could see in the game (and ram would allow
    more of these), but the onboard ram and PPU determine the maximum
    number of things in any 1 screen.

	I hope this isn't too lengthy or condescending, because I wanted
    this to appeal a broad (possibly naive) audience while informing those
    interested in details of the discoveries friends and I have made.

	Stra...

    
    re -.1
    
    	Aha !  Now we know why there's that pause every time we change
    quadrangles in Zelda. It also explains why, in SMB, once it's scrolled
    off the screen to the left, it's gone.
    
    	When you step back and take a boarder look at it, it's rather
    amazing (to me, anyway) that the engine is "just" a 6502. Constrast
    that with the fact that we use(d) 6502's in the DMV11, and it makes
    you wonder what could be done with a Motorola 68000 series chip
    or a MicroVax II or CVAX...
    
    	Thanks for the info!