This is a very rough draft of an SDK that allows you to build WebTV approm and bootrom files using modern MIPS GCC tools. This is based on libdragon if you haven't noticed. I want to maintain compatability with libdragon as much as I can so you can easily port some (non-3d) N64 homebrew apps to WebTV. Possibly compile code that will run on both the N64 and WebTV to proove (at least in-part) Steve Perlman's claim that the WebTV is more powerful than the N64.
There's some hardcoded paths and oither thorns that you'd need to deal with. I plan on creating a Docker container so it's easier to setup. This is mostly in experimentation phase at the moment. Here's a list of what's currently included:
- Build system to create .o files for MAME and the box. Tested on MAME only right now.
- Registers defined
- Interrupt handling
- Basic video handling (drawing shapes and fonts)
- Hardware keyboard handling
- IIC handling
- Serial communication over smartcard bitbang.
- Setting the LEDs
- Audio output. Raw PCM samples or through a modified version of the Beatnik audio engine (RMF, MIDI, WAV, AIFF or AU)
- Build system to create .o files for the box. Tested on an INT-W200 only right now.
- Registers defined
- Interrupt handling
- Basic potUnit video handling (drawing shapes and fonts)
- Interpreting IR samples for the keyboard.
- IIC handling
- Serial communication over UART.
- Setting the LEDs
- Audio output. Raw PCM samples or through a modified version of the Beatnik audio engine (RMF, MIDI, WAV, AIFF or AU)
A Linux MIPS executable is built then its sections are extracted and formated into WebTV's ROM executable format. I'm using o1heap for the memory manager. I may add the option to use other memory managers in the future. miniBAE is used for audio processing. I have plans to use lwIP for networking.
The examples directory shows a few approms I've been experimenting with.
This is a port of 64doom to the WebTV classic (INT-W100) running in emulation. Doom runs at a smaller resolution and colors don't map correctly because the WebTV uses a different color space. The screen size will likely remain a defect for Doom on bf0 boxes but I plan to convert the RGB to YCbYCr in software.
WNI's Doom on the WebTV Plus and Echostar boxes used the Solo's gfxUnit to create a RGB lookup table, draw the screen to a rectangle and enlarge it to fit the screen. I will be doing something similar after I finish up other parts of libwtv and get to the gfxUnit code.
Controls should work now as well. There needs to be some debouncing work done if you use IR but keys should register.
doom-mame-libwtv-demo.mp4
An example of the Doom demo.
poopies-mame-libwtv-music-2024-12-27_00.04.57.mp4
This is an example of loading up the LC2 patchbank and playing WNI's chill jingle MIDI file. A fart WAV is played at a lower volume when keys are pressed. Make sure the video's sound is unmuted!
This is an example app that draws to the screen on the WebTV Plus (INT-W200). It shows the SSID, HD locking code stored in IIC NVRAM and some other info. It draws a poopie when you hit a key on the IR keyboard.