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Video Game SDK in Hardware
stm2 writes "Alex Varanese just released the XGameStation, a new homebrew video game system designed to teach its users how to build and program their own video game machines from the ground up. From their PR: "The expansive eBook, written by LaMothe himself, covers everything from introductory electronic theory all the way up to computer architecture, as well as a complete coverage of each of the XGS ME's subsystems. Imagine learning everything about how a video game console is built and programmed from scratch: designing and printing circuit
boards, generating TV signals, external device interfacing, and much more.". They have two posters, as well."
Who is this Alex Varanese person? I've been watching the XGS since back when it was due out for XMas last year, and I thought it was mostly just LaMothe behind it... Book, Hardware, Site, and all.
Andre Lamothe Launches XGameStation
A quick cruise of their product info tells it all.
- 80 Mhz processor
- Sound chip programmable like a C64 SID
- NTSC *and* PAL capable in the same module
- Atari Joystick ports *and* RS232 ports.
- Expansion Port / Cartridge Slot
- Built in Debugging Support
- 128K SRAM
- "4Kx12 WORD" onboard Flash Ram
For a learning kit this thing is fantastic. For the more adventurous hobbyist, its seriously lacking in features.
Still I was hoping for at least stereo sound, more ram and crude 3D capabilities; something more like a playstation instead of an NES. The price is right for all the stuff you get with it, you're stuck making tetris clones and rewriting MULE all afternoon.
This doesn't necessarily mean that the graphic capabilities are worse than the NES or SNES, but that the system includes no GPU or built-in modes for handling sprites and such.
The direct pixel-level control via software basically dictates that the resolution/quality depends on your ability to correctly utilize the CPU according to your needs, which in no way implies that all of your games will look like the Atari 2600 at best.
It's a very DIY solution, and not at all unlike what game developers of the 80's had to go through to squeeze the last ounce of performance out of those machines.
Yeah, no kidding.
...
The book is a great read, but whats more fun is looking back in a year at the little pile of junk in the corner, with its 240 game titles, and realizing 'holy shit, i wrote all those'.
This is exotic hardware, and while it isn't necessarily 'powerful' in the same sense as some PC archictures (you know, where there are millions of programmers to compete with), the fact remains that the neverending attempt at defeating Moores Law resonating through PC-land is a sure-fire way of losing all the fun in life.
This little box, with its tight fittings, is something fun to do something fun with. To be continued
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Yeah, but I want to do the hardware building part, most likely with my own little tweaks and such. What fun is that if it comes with a ready made one?
It looks like they made a great little home-brew machine with a simple two layer board that I could mill and drill on my home CNC and drill press, and an eBook explaining why they made the decisions they made so you'd have a head start on deciding which tweaks you could make.
They bill this SDK as a "System Development Kit" instead of a "Software Development Kit", but then they go ahead and give you the system already developed and built. That's no fun.
The direct pixel-level control via software basically dictates that the resolution/quality depends on your ability to correctly utilize the CPU according to your needs, which in no way implies that all of your games will look like the Atari 2600 at best.
At 80 MHz and a typical horizontal resolution of 7.2 MHz (roughly 320 pixels per scanline), this leaves only 11 cycles per pixel. I'd like to see what kind of sprite compositing engine you can implement on a microcontroller in 11 cycles per pixel.