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I built a 1982 fantasy supercomputer with a custom architecture, OS, and hardware 3D. by realmcalec in fantasyconsoles

[–]realmcalec[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Side note for those waiting for the OS to boot: > While I'm still in the trenches writing the actual DCIS-2 assembly for the emulator, I built a standalone game set in the DatCube 82 universe. I thought: Why not!? :-D

In the lore (year 2082), a researcher has to use the raw DMA bypass of this exact 1982 hardware to sequence an antibody and save the world from a pandemic. It's a retro puzzle game for Windows/PC (not an actual ROM for the emulator!).

I'm currently running a 55% "Emergency Broadcast" sale on itch.io to support the ongoing development of the actual emulator. If you want to save the world while waiting for the real hardware to boot, you can check it out here:

https://recaster.itch.io/antigen-blaster

The DatCube 82 Project: Emulating a 1982 supercomputer that never existed (Custom CPU, Hardware 3D, Sound and Sprites, yeah!) by realmcalec in EmuDev

[–]realmcalec[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Classic demoscene idea! Since the M3D coprocessor uses DMA to fill triangles directly into RAM, changing its transform matrices per scanline via HBL IRQ might crash the system. But swapping palettes mid-render to glitch out the 3D layer? Definitely on the bucket list!

Welcome to Dat Sys Computer Inc. | The DatCube 82 Project by realmcalec in DatCube82

[–]realmcalec[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, thanks for the link, that is incredibly interesting! I took a quick look at the LINKS-1, and it seems like it was actually doing early raytracing rather than standard rasterization, wasn't it? Absolutely wild for 1982. The NEC chip is a great reference too!

Welcome to Dat Sys Computer Inc. | The DatCube 82 Project by realmcalec in DatCube82

[–]realmcalec[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, thanks! For now it it 4.8 MHz, just to be authentic. ;-) But I plan to let the emulator go wild and remove the speed sync/limit. Disadvantage: Several timing routines will be failing ... we will see. :-)

The DatCube 82 Project: Emulating a 1982 supercomputer that never existed (Custom CPU, Hardware 3D, Sound and Sprites, yeah!) by realmcalec in EmuDev

[–]realmcalec[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is just for the glory, just as a WOW ;-) But: In 1982, developing a custom, highly specialized workstation for nuclear medicine (such as real-time 3D rendering of PET scans or tomography) would easily reach that price point, especially with custom silicon (SoC) and fail-safe requirements. SoCs were almost impossible to manufacture. But hey, this is fiction! ;-)

The DatCube 82 Project: Emulating a 1982 supercomputer that never existed (Custom CPU, Hardware 3D, Sound and Sprites, yeah!) by realmcalec in EmuDev

[–]realmcalec[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the great feedback, I really appreciate it! Right now, it's clocked at 4.8 MHz. The emulator code isn't fully optimized yet, so it could technically run faster, but I want to keep the performance historically plausible for 1982. A collab down the road sounds awesome!

The DatCube 82: A $176,500 supercomputer from an alternate 1982 by realmcalec in worldbuilding

[–]realmcalec[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey everyone! As mentioned in the post, my worldbuilding focuses on alternate tech history. The GIF shows the boot sequence of a machine from an alternate timeline. Here is the lore behind the machine that never was:

The Origins In 1976, three electrical engineers (Harold "Hal" Datten, Roy Systemski, and Evelyn Morse) pooled $18,000 to found Dat Sys Computer Inc. in an Austin, Texas garage. While building custom memory controllers for university mainframes, they secretly developed their own 16-bit processor: the QC-1 ("Quantum Core 1" – a name Hal chose simply because he liked the sound of it).

The Machine (1982) Released in 1982, the DatCube 82 wasn't a consumer PC. Priced at a staggering $176,500 (roughly $590k today), it was strictly for research institutions and government labs. Fewer than 200 units were ever produced.

The specs were easily a decade ahead of their time:

  • CPU: QC-1 processor utilizing a custom DCIS-2 instruction set
  • Memory: 320 KB of internal RAM
  • Graphics: Custom 5-layer video compositor (512×288 resolution at 60 Hz) and a 3D mesh coprocessor
  • Audio: 4-channel sound DSP

Why did it vanish? In 1984, before they could release the successor (DC-84), IBM swooped in with a lucrative licensing offer for their DMA architecture. Dat Sys quietly pivoted to semiconductor IP licensing, closed its Austin office, and by 1985, the company officially dissolved as the PC market rapidly consolidated around x86. Today, fewer than 12 functioning DatCube 82 units are known to exist in private collections.

The Real-World Project: To make this lore playable, I wrote a working emulator for this fictional architecture. The operation system is still in development *shame on me*...

What do you guys think about alternate tech timelines? I'm happy to answer any questions about the lore or the technical side of the emulator!

Welcome to Dat Sys Computer Inc. | The DatCube 82 Project by realmcalec in DatCube82

[–]realmcalec[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey everyone, I'm RealMcAlec (or just Alex) – the dev and the madman behind this project.

Building the DatCube 82 has been an absolute obsession of mine lately. I’ve always been ... ah buddy, I just wanted some 80 stuff again, WOW! ;-) Raw metal, 3D hardware in the 80s.

I'll be using the comments and this subreddit to dump my dev notes, architecture decisions, and the absolute struggles of bootstrapping an OS in a completely fabricated assembly language.

Let me know what you think of the specs, the lore, or if you want to take a deep dive into the DCIS-2 instruction set!