Today I Built A Games Console

Chaos

Chaos

Chaos

Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
5,589
Forget about your cell architecture and multi core nonsense, check out this bad boy -


Cpu - Ubicom Sx28 running at 80 Mhz
Gfx - No dedicated gfx hardware
Sound - No dedicated sound hardware
Controller - None of your wireless nonsense atari 2600 joystick support



As you can its pretty basic and I dont think Microsoft will want to patent any of it :)

The design came from the book The Black Art Of Game Console Design and if your interested in this kind of stuff then I would highly recommend it.

This is just a simple console although it has no dedicated sound or gfx hardware you can still do gfx and sound with software prorgamming.
Its kinda the same idea as the old Atari 2600.

I wanted to learn more about electronics and assembly programming so thats what got me interested in this.

Here are the components -



And here is the finished console as you can see its running a basic racing game, PGR eat your heart out ;)



The goal of the book is to give you the theory to built your own console, so once I learn more thats what Id like to do, maybe in the future I can make something with a little more horsepower.

The homebrew console is something that seems to be taking off, the guys who designed this have made a bigger and more powerfull console and detailed how they made it. There next project is to use a new chip by parralax called the propeller which is kinda the same idea as sonys cell arcitechture with mulltiprocessing.

Anyway if anyones interested I have set up a new website with more details and if you fancy giving it a try then if you have any probs I'll help you out on my site - www.homebrewconsoles.com

Please note im not in anyway affiliated with the author or his products I just found his stuff really interesting and thought others would to.

Ok im off to see if I can learn how to program this and one day hopefully I wil be able to make my own game.
 
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I had this down as recommended reading from University a while back, glanced through it and saw the part on consoles, but it's not really something I'm into.

Well done you for doing it though.
 
Very interesting. At one point I fancied going into games programming (didn't we all), but found programming quite tedious, quickly realising it wasn't for me. The proliferation of persons with such skills put me off too, and hence I'm currently studying Physics.

Anyway, I digress. Sounds a great little project. The racing game is pre-programmed is it? Sorry, I've very little knowledge of such systems. Looks a bit like Pole Position :)
 
Yeah the little racing demo is pre programmed its just an example to show you what you can do, It comes with full sources and a tutorial on how the guy programmed it. Theres other source code on the cd for various other things, Im new to assembler programming so it will probably take a while to pick it up, its not ment to be as scary as people think.

Once you start programming for something like this you quickly relise how skillfull the old atari 2600 coders where, I have a lot more respect for them, they did things with chips that no one thought possible.

I might try and make a pong game, should be fun if I can get it to work :)
 
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I did some homebrew stuff for the GBA. Not really interested in building my own hardware but I like the idea of homebrew console games.
 
Chaos said:
Once you start programming for something like this you quickly relise how skillfull the old atari 2600 coders where, I have a lot more respect for them, they did things with chips that no one thought possible.
Click to expand...

"Hey Hey 16k, what does that get you today? You need more than that for a letter, old skool rampaks are much more better!" (?)


EDIT: BTW, well done on the console, damn fine job there.
 
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That is cool, where did you purchase the book from M8, here or America if you don't mind me asking. I would be interested in something like this as I want to learn more about electronics and think it would be cool. Cheers.

Anthony
 
Got the book from the UK , popular internet book seller dont think I can name it as its a competitor, its £28 email in trust if you cant find it.
 
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I have 0 games :)

Hopefully I can knock up something in a few months, some others who built the same circuit have made some cool stuff.
 
acharris said:
Thanks for your reply. I found it straight away. Thanks again.

Anthony
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If your looking for a good beginner electronics book I would recommend
Starting Electronics 3rd Edition by Keith Brindley.

The Black art book I mentioned earlier is aimed at beginners to electroics however I still found some things hard to understand so another beginner book complements it.

Then if you want to learn more you can check out the Art Of Electronics by Paul Horowitz, Winfield Hill

Im planning on putting some simple breadboard circuits on my site so hopefully it will be usefull to beginners, I myself am pretty new to electronics still have a lot to learn :)
 
big round of applause from me dood !

the atari 2600 ruled :D

i have bookmarked your site and i look forward to seeing what you do in the future

Well Done !

EDIT: if you can get Crystal Castles running on it, i'll buy one !

are you taking orders ?? lol
 
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