The SD2SNES now supports SUPER FX! Possibly...

[Triaxis]

What if instead of coding for Super FX support you were to take an actual super FX chip, mount it to a PCB and plug that into the USB port of the SD2SNES. There is a game called Winter Gold / FX Skiing that used the Super FX GSU-2 and its very inexpensive that could be harvested for SFX2 chips. Someone could sell it as an ad on

From what i understand the super FX chip is very complicated so if we cant reverse engineer it why not de-solder it

[ApolloBoy]

What if instead of coding for Super FX support you were to take an actual super FX chip, mount it to a PCB and plug that into the USB port of the SD2SNES.

Uhhhh what

[Triaxis]

This is my idea to bring super FX support to the sd2snes

[ApolloBoy]

This is my idea to bring super FX support to the sd2snes

I know that, it just happens to be an utterly bizarre idea that's rather impractical...

[ZellSF]

Missed 1st of April by quite a bit there.

[Triaxis]

You're probably right, super FX games on actual hardware will always require the original cartridge. Thanks for the feedback.

[Ed Oscuro]

SNES pin signalling (probably parallel-like) over a modern serial interface with probably totally different voltages and timing? Okay.

[opt2not]

dammit I just lost a bushel of brain-cells reading this thread.

[darcagn]

There is a game called Winter Gold / FX Skiing that used the Super FX GSU-2 and its very inexpensive that could be harvested for SFX2 chips. Someone could sell it as an ad on

Why harvest the chips and ruin the original game? Maybe we could solder a WiFi card to the inside of an original SuperFX game and have the SD2SNES communicate with it wirelessly with a USB WiFi dongle.

[ZellSF]

If we're taking this seriously... From sd2snes FAQ:

Q: Can enhancement chip XY be realized using a pass-through adapter with the original enhancement chip on top?

A: The only enhancement chip where that would work is the DSP series (DSP1-4, ST0010) which are already supported natively. All other enhancement chips have the game ROM “behind” them and control access to it, which a cartridge plugged in parallel to the sd2snes cannot do.

[darcagn]

If we're taking this seriously... From sd2snes FAQ:

Q: Can enhancement chip XY be realized using a pass-through adapter with the original enhancement chip on top?

A: The only enhancement chip where that would work is the DSP series (DSP1-4, ST0010) which are already supported natively. All other enhancement chips have the game ROM “behind” them and control access to it, which a cartridge plugged in parallel to the sd2snes cannot do.

That answers a different question though--all that is saying is that the sd2snes wouldn't be able to communicate with a SuperFX chip via cartridge pins. The OP is suggesting that we remove the chip from the cartridge altogether, meaning you could wire up any of the pins you'd like.

The real problem here is doing it through USB. If you re-engineered the sd2snes board with the right solder pads, you should be able to make one that's capable of using a SuperFX you solder on. But no one has made such a product so far.

[Ed Oscuro]

Actually that seems to be on the same path, specifically the final sentence, you're suggesting (and which I suggested earlier), which is that the SuperFX has to be able to directly signal the main CPU in the same manner as a chip on a regular cartridge, rather than being separated by SD2SNES or USB circuitry / signalling. As I understand it, get the flash and other circuitry of the SD2SNES in serial behind the SuperFX to provide that cartridge ROM/RAM (?) access, and get some pins for the SuperFX to connect to the same pins as the original.

[Pasky]

I always hate the idea of harvesting chips from another game. Especially for repros or something silly such as this.

[trap15]

The SFX has been fully reverse engineered anyways, just reimplement it on the FPGA...

[Pasky]

The SFX has been fully reverse engineered anyways, just reimplement it on the FPGA...

Not to mention SD2SNES is open source.

[Ed Oscuro]

The SFX has been fully reverse engineered anyways, just reimplement it on the FPGA...

Oh, nice!

Actually on this site - http://sd2snes.de/blog/status - SuperFX GSU1/2 is listed as a "work in progress," with a note somewhere that StarFox is running slow. Hopefully in the final release you get a fast-enough FPGA that can be run faster than the original chip, with no overclocking concerns.

[trap15]

Pretty much everything about the SNES is now pretty well-understood thanks to bsnes, tbh. I'd be surprised if anyone found anything that wasn't what was expected/documented.