First project: merging two systems into one. Details inside

[Gohdan]

Hi everyone! I'm new here, though I've had this idea for about a month now. I'd like to finally get some feedback for the initial planning phase. In a nutshell, I want to take the internals of my Wii and PS2 and put them in a same case. I would be using a fat PS2 so that I could install games to its harddrive. The Wii (and Gamecube) games would be stored on an external drive. The details are still a bit unclear, but I have in mind what I'd like the sequence to look like:

1. I press the power button on the system. The PS2 would turn on. I would have a keyboard attached to the PS2 ready to go.

2. I would be presented with a menu from which I can type in the name of the game I want to play. I can type in a PS2, GC, or a Wii game title. Once I press 'Enter' on the keyboard, the system should determine which console to boot up based on what tag the title I typed in has (GC, Wii, PS2).

3. The system will then continue the loading process of a game from the PS2, or switch to another system and turn the PS2 off once everything is ready to go.

Now, I realize this is going to take more than some hardware config. A friend and I can take care of the tagging system in step 2 as well as any programming work required. I would like your guys' opinion on how feasible this whole thing would be, recommendations, and your honest opinion on this sort of system. A couple immediate issues that come to mind are:

a. Verification system for dealing with typos
b. Implementing a type of imagery so you could see the game box art before launching.

These are easily dealt with, but don't have to be immediate things.

Any questions/critiquing is more than welcome!


Edit: Forgot to mention, I'm using Nintendont for the Wii. I'm about to order a fat PS2, so I have no experience with loaders for it yet.

 

[grossaffe]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

I'm not sure I follow your plans on this. Are you saying that you'll type the game name into the PS2 and it will be able to boot it from the Wii?

 

[Gohdan]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

I'm not sure I follow your plans on this. Are you saying that you'll type the game name into the PS2 and it will be able to boot it from the Wii?

Yep! Although in retrospect that sounds silly. It might be better to have a Pi (or a regular computer) that can interface with both of these consoles in the case. Admittedly I don't have experience with Pi. My engineering friends do, and they could help. :]

 

[grossaffe]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

Okay, so let's say hypothetically you are using a Raspi or something along those lines as a master system. How does it communicate with the PS2 and Wii to make the selected game run?

 

[Gohdan]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

The power ribbons for both consoles would be attached to the master system in some way. Depending on the platform you select a game on, a current will be sent to the correct ribbon and turn on the proper console.

I don't have experience on a hardware level unfortunately, so sorry if the above sounds silly! Now I realize how complex this project could get. Even if I'm successful with the soldering, there's still the interfacing of game selection; there doesn't seem to be any way to tell either system which game to run. At least not easily. I'd have to write some custom stuff and even then there would be no guarantees. It would get very messy down the line.

It would have been a great project. To run all those games in native form - and super conveniently - would have been awesome! But it just doesn't seem worth it in retrospect. I appreciate you taking the time to entertain the idea though. :]

 

[Ishwhale]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

It seems like just having a machine that runs emulators would be more up your alley. Because you plan just install the games digitally instead of using the actual media, it doesn't really justify all that work to run native hardware...if it is even possible. Make a cool case for a raspi that emulates the stuff you want.

 

[grossaffe]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

Powering on the proper system by means of a selector is certainly feasible. Booting up the selected game from that system is a bit more on the difficult side as you have to go beyond switching on the power of a blackbox. I've got some ideas about how the master system could boot up the selected game, but its not something a hobbyist would be up to.

 

[Hermaphroditus]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

Powering on the proper system by means of a selector is certainly feasible. Booting up the selected game from that system is a bit more on the difficult side as you have to go beyond switching on the power of a blackbox. I've got some ideas about how the master system could boot up the selected game, but its not something a hobbyist would be up to.

Would those ideas be to emulate controller presses in sequence depending on the game? 'Cause that's about the only way I would think right away of how to do it.

 

[grossaffe]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

Powering on the proper system by means of a selector is certainly feasible. Booting up the selected game from that system is a bit more on the difficult side as you have to go beyond switching on the power of a blackbox. I've got some ideas about how the master system could boot up the selected game, but its not something a hobbyist would be up to.

Would those ideas be to emulate controller presses in sequence depending on the game? 'Cause that's about the only way I would think right away of how to do it.

No, I was thinking more along the lines of looking at the source code of the homebrew game loading apps (I'm looking only at the Wii side at the moment since I haven't messed with the PS2 scene) and investigating about a way to have it auto-boot a game. Where it gets the info on which game to auto-boot is the next question. Depending on how easy it is to send messages to the homebrew app, you might be able to send it a command, but you still have to wait until the system is booted up and waiting for such a command. The other idea I have would be to have the system responsible for choosing the game have write-access to the HDD and write the game to be loaded to a file that will then be read by the game loader app telling it which game to load up.

 

[Prog]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

Powering on the proper system by means of a selector is certainly feasible. Booting up the selected game from that system is a bit more on the difficult side as you have to go beyond switching on the power of a blackbox. I've got some ideas about how the master system could boot up the selected game, but its not something a hobbyist would be up to.

Would those ideas be to emulate controller presses in sequence depending on the game? 'Cause that's about the only way I would think right away of how to do it.

No, I was thinking more along the lines of looking at the source code of the homebrew game loading apps (I'm looking only at the Wii side at the moment since I haven't messed with the PS2 scene) and investigating about a way to have it auto-boot a game. Where it gets the info on which game to auto-boot is the next question. Depending on how easy it is to send messages to the homebrew app, you might be able to send it a command, but you still have to wait until the system is booted up and waiting for such a command. The other idea I have would be to have the system responsible for choosing the game have write-access to the HDD and write the game to be loaded to a file that will then be read by the game loader app telling it which game to load up.

Mod the source and have it send some code via A/V out and then accept ASCII from the controller port?

 

[Ishwhale]

Re: First project: merging two systems into one. Details ins

couldn't you use a dpdt?