VTech Genius Leader Development Kit - an unofficial software development kit (SDK) for Z80 based VTech "Genius LEADER" learning computers (aka. "PreComputer", "YENO MisterX", "Genio" or "Compusavant"). This project is in no way affiliated with the VTech company. This is a pure hobby project, everything is provided as-is.

This project is still heavily work in progress, but quite usable. For some working proof-of-concept stuff, visit the Hackaday project page and get started using the zipped snapshots of "VGL CP/M" and other SDCC code examples.

Target platforms

pc1000
	- VTech PreComputer 1000 [US/UK]
	- YENO Mister X [DE]
gl2000
	- VTech PreComputer 2000 [US/UK]
	- VTech Genius LEADER 2000 [DE]
	- VTech Genius LEADER 2000 PLUS [DE]
	- VTech Genius LEADER 2000 Compact [DE]
	- VTech PreComputer THINK BOOK [UK]
	- YENO Mister X2 [DE]
gl4000
	- VTech Genius LEADER 4000 Quadro [DE]
	- VTech Genius LEADER 4004 Quadro L [DE]
	- VTech PreComputer POWER PAD [UK]
gl6000sl
	- VTech Genius LEADER 6000 SL [DE]
	- VTech Genius LEADER 7007 SL [DE]
	- VTech PC PRESTIGE [US]
	- VTech PC Navigator [US]
	- (YENO COMPUSAVANT [FR])

Newer models ("CX" series, circa 1999 onward) use a completely different system architecture, namely a CompactRISC CR16B CPU. Refer to the VCXDK for those models.

Files

• examples: Some demonstrative use cases and experiments
• include: Hardware drivers and a rudimentary libc environment
• tools: Scripts that help development

Getting started

• Clone this repo to some nice place
• Make sure you have SDCC (Small Devices C Compiler) installed
• Make sure you have MAME and "Genius Leader" ROMs installed if you wish to use emulation
• Enter an example directory (e.g. "monitor")
• Look at the Makefile and configure the desired target system and configuration flags
• Run make cart to compile a cartridge ROM file that can be burned or loaded into MAME
• Run make emu to start MAME with the compiled cartridge
• Run make burn to burn the cartridge ROM image to an EEPROM using MiniPro
• For speedy development you can connect a 5V TTL USB-to-serial adaptor to the VTech's parallel port (TX to BUSY, RX to DATA) and upload "apps" using make app and make upload (device must be running the monitor ROM)
• Take a look at the ParallelBuddy Arduino sketch which allows accessing files from SD card or from network

History

• Started as a stand-alone reverse engineering project in late 2016
• Incorporated the code into the Z88DK repo Development branch (see z88dk.org, platform "vgl")
• Re-visited the whole project using just SDCC in 2019 (see Hackaday project page)
• Several sub-projects emerged (CP/M, DOS, serial loader, bus buddy, ...) which I now try to develop under a common development environment
• As of 2020, the VGLDK hardware drivers have become much cleaner "pure C" implementations than the previous Z88DK assembly versions
• CP/M for Genius Leader 4000 series has been completely re-written in 2023-08

Further Reading

• Hackaday project page
• Discussion on the Z88DK forum
• VTech hardware development
• Alexandre Botzung dissecting the YENO COMPUSAVANT
• VCXDK for newer VTech models
• VTech on Fandom

2023-08-23 Bernhard "HotKey" Slawik