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XGameStation Console Tries DIY Angle
Alex Varanese writes "We've released new information about the XGameStation, a revolutionary new video game system which comes with a complete game development kit, and is trying to revive the magic of programming for systems like the Apple II, Atari 800 and Commodore 64. Unlike systems from Nintendo and Sony, XGS developers face no legal or financial restrictions with XGameStation. There's no official license, no royalties to pay, and no guidelines to follow." Any 'console' with vector monitor interface and Atari 2600 joystick adaptor add-ons is at least worth a second glance - it certainly looks a little unconventional.
Vector hackers should check out the Zektor ZVG. They've recently hacked MAME to run all the available vector games through it, but what I'm looking forward to is new software.
Dude - I have to say that I think this is just exactly what is needed today. While it's fairly easy to learn some common graphics/input API today (Java's Swing, GTK, etc.), these can also be daunting when trying to do something like a game. A simple system like this would be great for getting newbies to learn the ins and outs of a system. Yes, I know it will have its own API to learn, but I'm betting it will be something more like putPixel/getPixel/isButtonPressed than frame.getContentPane().getGraphics() or whatever.
...also, I plan on buying one, and I don't want to have only Tetris/Space Invaders/Mario along with my own creations to play on it. :)
I remember learning to program in BASIC on an IBM PC Jr. It was great! The darn thing even came with a book to teach you how to do it! (or, at least mine had a book - I was young, so my parents could have bought it as extra, and I wouldn't have known). Following that I found a guy who was big in to Apple Basic and Logo. More fun to be had.
But, the great thing about all that was - it was simple. There were no extra libraries to worry about, no difficult configuration (you friggin' booted to BASIC from a floppy), just a place to code and test.
Of course, I finally moved on to C, but that was way back in the days of DOS and Win 3.1. If I wanted to draw to the screen, I friggin' called the monitor interrupt to change video modes, and set the memory at 0xA00000...(wow, it's been a while - whatever that number was). Still "simple", although a great next step - after learning the idea of "programming", I learned something about the actual structure of a computer.
Basically (sorry for the pun), I think it will be great for newbie programmers to be able to get their hands on some simple hardware to just goof around with. It will be easier for them to learn more difficult stuff if they can relate to something they already know.
By the way, I'm also really excited that this project includes Andre LaMothe. "Teach Yourself Programming in 21 Days" was an awesome book (and the first place I ran in to assembly). The guy really does a great job of explaining things.
Finally, I have to say that I also hope people really work at games for this machine. I think it will be very interesting. Of course the first months of its release will be Tetris/Space Invaders/Mario clones, but I have a feeling that if someone with a little bit of game know-how got into developing something for it, there could be a rather interesting game released. Sometimes restrictions (i.e. on hardware abilities) produce wonderful things. (I wish I could properly form the analogy to classical music (even though I'm leary of arguing by analogy here), but I can't remember the names of movements/composers/styles to do it.)