Pocket Dream Console

Preliminary page.

Wikipedia about PDC.

Some notes left out the wiki page:

* no game cartridges
* no (score) saving
* It seems like it uses 8x8 pixel tile map and sprites.
* Probably mono audio, not tested yet.
* No resume from automatic shutdown? (requires switching off and on) 	 
* Buttons do not use inverted logic levels. 	 
* There are some testpads that might be useful. 	 
* No clue yet if there's a write signal, which would be handy for in-system flashing and I/O port) 	 
* Volume buttons are wired to the main chip. 	 
* At least one trace from the main glob chip goes to a second glob chip. Perhaps that's an amplifier. 	 
* With a solder bridge, the mode can be changed from NTSC to PAL if neccesary. 	 
* Two TSOP-48 (flash?)ROM chips. Each ROM is probably 1Mx16 = 2 MBytes which would give a total of 4 MBytes. 	 
They are painted black to prevent identification. One of the chips reveals the text "64MB2" in lower-right corner. They are wired in parallel and a simple 74HC00 controls the Output-Enable signals for them. 	 
Pinout might be something like [[http://www.sst.com/downloads/datasheet/S71223.pdf]]. 	 
After disabling the second chip, nothing appears different until some games are started. When it tries to load the graphics, it reads random data.


PDC box, cable and batteries


Box opened


The PDC turned on (image is HDR tonemapped)


Battery lid and label


3 AAA batteries


Close-up of LCD


Deliberately crashed to show it is tile/sprite-based


After disabling second romchip (U3) and starting a game that uses graphics data from it


PCB top


PCB bottom