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Case study

Supermodel: initial Real3D Pro-1000 image-generator emulation

Adds emulation of Real3D’s Pro-1000, the SCSI-attached image generator from which Sega’s Model 3 graphics hardware derives, to the Supermodel arcade emulator. It boots user-supplied Pro-1000 firmware from the SDK disc, emulates the board’s interrupt, JTAG and UART hardware, and exposes the firmware’s built-in monitor on the console. Nothing renders yet, and SCSI host communication is unimplemented.

Requirements and limitations

  • Reviewed at merge commit 4f5d686 of pull request #343, merged 2026-10-14, which adds a CPro1000 emulator class beside the Model 3 one. The PR boots the firmware to its UART monitor and accepts console commands such as help; it states that nothing is drawn, not even the start-up logo, and that SCSI communication is the next step.
  • Supply the Pro-1000 firmware images p1_p4.bin and p2.bin from the SDK disc; Config/Games.xml lists their CRC32 values, and the repository does not include them. The PR says the default scene and model data sat in a SCSI ROM that the SDK lacks and would have to come from original hardware that likely no longer exists; a synthetic SCSI ROM only gets past renderer initialization.
  • Supermodel documents builds with GCC and Make on Windows (MSYS2, with SDL2 and SDL2_net), Linux and macOS, and a Visual Studio project; the PR adds its sources to the shared Makefile rules and that project. No Pro-1000 test or rendering comparison accompanies the change, and this review did not build or run it.
  • Source comments describe the hardware findings as reverse-engineered working hypotheses drawn from firmware disassembly, logs of unmapped accesses and UART output, embedded SCCS module strings, address cross-references, part datasheets and the SDK manuals. Some registers and the JTAG scan chain remain unknown.
  • Supermodel’s source headers declare GPL-3.0-or-later; the firmware, SDK material and demo databases keep their own rights. The author’s X post credits Claude with doing the reverse engineering and writing the emulation, and credits co-author Ian Curtis with the earlier SCSI-interception demos; the PR does not mention AI tools, and REA use is not established.

About this entry

Type
Case study
Category
Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship
Independent reconstruction project
Targets
Firmware

Sources reviewed

The description was reviewed against primary sources. This does not establish runtime testing, security auditing or verified compatibility.

Primary sources

  1. Src/Pro1000/Pro1000.cpp GitHub · trzy/Supermodel · Revision 4f5d686
  2. https://github.com/trzy/Supermodel/pull/343
  3. Src/Pro1000/Pro1000.h GitHub · trzy/Supermodel · Revision 4f5d686
  4. Config/Games.xml GitHub · trzy/Supermodel · Revision 4f5d686
  5. README.md GitHub · trzy/Supermodel · Revision 4f5d686
  6. Makefiles/Rules.inc GitHub · trzy/Supermodel · Revision 4f5d686
  7. Docs/LICENSE.txt GitHub · trzy/Supermodel · Revision 4f5d686
  8. https://x.com/BartronPolygon/status/2110028302215999825
  9. https://x.com/BartronPolygon/status/2109806939718943205