fp.

This is a bit of history that has always fascinated me ever since I found out in the nineties while employed at Accolade, where we were reverse engineering the Sega Genesis, that the VDP in the Genesis was a variant / descendent of the humble 70's TI TMS9918 (mentioned at the heart of the SG-1000 / Colecovision / MSX and more) - we made a lot of hay in our clean room reverse engineering effort using Texas Instruments data sheets for the 9918!

It is also casually mentioned that the TMS9918 inspired the VDP in the Famicom/NES but I haven't seen any direct proof because it also seems possible that the 2A03 was derived from Nintendo/Ikegami Tsushinki 'Namco Galaxian' inspired arcade board design notably used in Donkey Kong. It's an interesting thread and perhaps studying Galaxian arcade hardware and Donkey Kong hardware and contrasting it with the TMS9918 and 2A03 can establish some geneology for home and arcade VDP design in the early 80's

But it is clear that there was a pretty 'open source' attitude towards hardware IP at SEGA and Nintendo and elswhere in the early 80s.

kawsper•9m ago

Maybe it is nostalgia speaking, but the SMS had a great sound chip, and some amazing composers.

My absolute favourite song is from Ninja Gaiden "Escape in a forest" (starts at 03:36) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFoA0OICiB4&t=207s

Someone played that song with real instruments, and it's also amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arun9KuXImk

epcoa•3m ago

Probably a little nostalgia. The SMS sound chip is one of the cheapest and most primitive jellybean sound chip of the era (only 3 square waves, noise and no envelope generator either). That isn’t to say appreciating the art of doing more with less isn’t valid. It’s sort of like a MS Paint type of thing though.