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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.
Well, looking at the system, alot of work has been put into the design. Obviously, this gaming system wont go mainstream, but its definitely of interest to geeks. The only downside i can see is the low specs of the hardware, and the fact that the games will be somewhat akin to the games of the late 80's. (68HC12 micro, and an atari/c64/appleII like graphics system can only go so far). Expansion has been very well thought out and thats where this system shines. While retro gaming is having something of a comeback, im not sure if it will be a hit or not. Definitely interesting though.
Cool, something interesting to do with my osciliscope... Picked it up for free from my university, they were going to trash it, works great. I currently use it most of the time to display whatever is going to my speakers, but now I have an urge to slap together an interface that will allow me to do this... This could be fun... I wonder if I could do it with my sound card? Hmmmm We will see...
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
> The XGameStation Video Game System development
> kit. XGameStation is a 16-bit video game console
> designed specifically for both hardware and
> software hackers. The system outputs video and
> audio directly to any TV via composite video, and
> is compatible with PlayStation DualShock
> controllers. Games are played off custom
> cartridges that you burn yourself
That's from the homepage.
The cue that the vector graphics display isn't meant to be an abosolute standard might lie in the word "extension" plastered all over the website. And no, tireness is not an excuse for that one as I'm currently pulling an all-nighter to get some code out the door.
I touch computers in naughty places
Prepare to get sued by Microsoft if you don't change the name.
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Hmm, I like to code and I like to play games and I like to tinker with hardware.
However If I just want to play a game, I don't want to build the hardware first and then program the game.
I think the treshold is just a bit too high..
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.
This is designed by Andre' LaMothe, well known and regarded game programming author. Here is a guy who truly understands the spirit of video games, and is actually interested in spreading this knowledge and skill.
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.)
Seems like my 68K skills are not quite redundant yet. When Palm went ARM I figured that was the end of it, but now 68K is back in the garage so to speak. It's a good thing really, I wish that it had been around a year or so before I started trying to get into the games industry, I think that it would have made things alot easier. Putting a nice demo together would have made interviews go alot better.
I wonder if they'll release a "non-SDK" version, with a nice case etc. then you might actually be able to sell games for it.... then again...
theres also the GBA that has a large dev scene, and you dont even need to buy the hardware to get started for that, the emus work so well. or what abut the GP32, its completely open hardware.
i just wonder how successful this product will be, and i think a large factor to that will be the cost, which i cant see being cheap since its sales probably wont be that high.
I want 2D games back.
Notice it's called X-Game-Station, as in X box, GameCube, Playstation. They can get sued by all three!
got a scope for free? Tell me if you can get hold of any more... what a score!