Comments on: Console Development–No Really, Developing the Console Recently someone introduced me to http://www.xgamestation.com/browse_products.php?category=9 Its a really interesting looking (read: cell-like) piece of kit, and the other HW they have is pretty cool too. Also all the stuff they sell comes with a free copy of Andre Lamothe’s “Black Art Of Videogame Console Design”. If the book is $50, but the book + HW is $60, you might as well get the free HW as well ;) (disclaimer: I ordered a chameleon but it hasn't shipped yet co I can't promise its as cool as it looks) also cool looking: http://www.xgamestation.com/browse_products.php?category=2 http://www.xgamestation.com/browse_products.php?category=7 Recently someone introduced me to

Great post! Generating video signals from a CPU is pretty neat but have you seen how easy it is to do it on an FPGA or CPLD? http://www.eetimes.com/design/programmable-logic/4015149/Design-Recipes-for-FPGAs--A-Simple-VGA-Interface Plus, if you plug in an FPGA with enough block memory, you can implement your own "picture processing unit" tile-based scheme, mode 7, or whatever. Great fun! Great post! Generating video signals from a CPU is pretty neat but have you seen how easy it is to do it on an FPGA or CPLD?

Rob Ashton: For me, this project was mainly an exploration of areas of my own ignorance. Before this project, I did not know much ARM assembly, how to directly manage the linker, or how to optimize at the low level for ARM. This was really a creative way of learning a bunch of things. Reavenk: Andre's book is very good! You're right, it definitely deserves mentioning since it was not far from me the whole way through this project. His book goes from beginning electronics through CPU and embedded computer architecture--definitely worth the purchase. Overall, I think I learned how to approach game dev in a new way from this project. My system has a total of 256KB memory, less than the cache on some modern systems. I had to develop the most direct approach possible to each problem or feature. I could not afford abstraction, even as small as ARM code is. Also, I learned a ton about compression algorithms for images--it is rather difficult to fit much in 256 KB. So, really, you can learn a ton from building a console; it all depends on the design. Rob Ashton: For me, this project was mainly an exploration of areas of my own ignorance. Before this project, I did not know much ARM assembly, how to directly manage the linker, or how to optimize at the low level for ARM. This was really a creative way of learning a bunch of things.

Reavenk: Andre’s book is very good! You’re right, it definitely deserves mentioning since it was not far from me the whole way through this project. His book goes from beginning electronics through CPU and embedded computer architecture–definitely worth the purchase.

Overall, I think I learned how to approach game dev in a new way from this project. My system has a total of 256KB memory, less than the cache on some modern systems. I had to develop the most direct approach possible to each problem or feature. I could not afford abstraction, even as small as ARM code is. Also, I learned a ton about compression algorithms for images–it is rather difficult to fit much in 256 KB. So, really, you can learn a ton from building a console; it all depends on the design.

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By: Juan Sebastian/2011/05/09/console-development-no-really-developing-the-console/#comment-3760 Juan Sebastian Mon, 09 May 2011 14:16:34 +0000 Awesome! I love this sort of thing, even though I lack the knowledge to build one myself! Awesome! I love this sort of thing, even though I lack the knowledge to build one myself!

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By: Reavenk/2011/05/09/console-development-no-really-developing-the-console/#comment-3758 Reavenk Mon, 09 May 2011 14:13:26 +0000 (your 32 bit arm game console sounds fabulous, but your link is broken) ;-) Is there a lot of/any innovation/gain to be had here or is it purely a personal learning exercise kind of task? (your 32 bit arm game console sounds fabulous, but your link is broken) ;-)

Is there a lot of/any innovation/gain to be had here or is it purely a personal learning exercise kind of task?

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