Slashdot Mirror
XGameStation Designer Talks Specifics
Thanks to GameZone for their interview with Andre LaMothe about the XGameStation, the DIY, programmable game console theoretically due this December, but likely somewhat delayed. Although details of the XGameStation are still being finalized, LaMothe describes the specific technical details: "I think the ARM7 is going to be my choice as the final main CPU at 33-66 MIPS, and an FPGA GPU that does basic sprite, character, and bitmap graphics in 4-256 colors, with 1-4 Megs of RAM", and goes on to evangelize the software: "We will surely encourage people to port as many games and emulators as possible to the XGS. I am mainly concerned with getting MAME, Intellivision, Atari 2600, etc. ported ASAP."
He's going to have some trouble getting a MAME port with only 1-4MB of RAM to work with. Even games with relatively simple hardware go over that easily: pacman needs about 6MB just for the emulator core.
On the other hand, if the graphics chip is thoroughly customizable, we might see some dedicated single-system emulators that use the built-in graphics and are designed with low-memory situation in mind. Could be pretty cool.
I'm sorry, but I think I'll see bitboys videocards before that "console" makes it to the market.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
One of the Computer Architecture projects I did for college consisted of using a programmable Xylinx board (~$1000), hooking it up to a monitor and then hooking two orginal NES controllers and playing pong on it. It was one of the most incredible learning experiences I ever encountered. We wrote our own processor, uploaded it to the board, wrote our own compiler and assembler and then wrote our own version of pong. We also had to program a chip for our video controller and NES controllers. Needless to say, it was a very expensive game of pong.
If the XGameStation is coming out for somewhere around $200 and allows users to manipulate hardware as well as software, I say that's a great deal. Granted, I'm sure that it won't be as robust as a Xylinx board but the educational benefits are still excellent, even if you're not going into games.
I think I'd have more respect for Andre LaMothe if he wrote fewer books and more games. But, like all the other industry hangers on (Ernest Adams, Andrew Rollings, Chris Crawford) he hasn't done a game in years, yet writes books and gives seminars about how to do it. A dollar spent on these books is a dollar wasted. All the facts you need are online, and if you don't have the drive to find them online you don't have the drive to be a games programmer. His market is wannabe losers. He's only doing this project because he's saturated the book market with his 3rd rate tripe.
Now, this project is "cool", but it has all the commercial potential of N-Gage, without being quite as powerful a system. MAME? A 33MHz ARM7 can maybe run a few of the old 8-bit games and that's it. This system is about as powerful than a GBA. Running games is not its forte. And you'll learn nothing about "designing consoles". Buyers of this won't become the designers of PS5, unless PS5 reverts to 2D graphics. Mind you, using an FPGA, the 2D graphics will be REALLY flexible. Whooppee.
Personally, I'm probably going to pick one up if only for the enjoyment of self-challenge - with the limited power of it (cpu/ram) what exactly can I pull off? As a programmer, what tricks will I need to use and learn in order to push this machine to its limit? And in a more commercial environment with more powerful hardware, how can I use what I've learned from developing on the XGS to improve my applications?