Build Your Own 8-Bit Console

[Kuta]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/9617/?cpg=54H

Sounds like a great idea. If only I had the time! I wonder how difficult it would be to make games for it.

 

[ZikZak]

The official website of the manufacturer, a lot of interesting information:

http://www.xgamestation.com/

 

[vnvx]

Wow, that looks great. It looks like you can code in an easy high level language or go to assembly for the most speed. And the chip runs at 80mhz, so this is no weak system.

 

[ExCyber]

It's not especially weak (beats the heck out of any 8-bit era system and can probably give Genesis a run for its money), but the CPU basically must do everything. There's no real graphics or sound hardware; the CPU must generate everything 100% in software, which burns up a lot of cycles (although Propeller has serialization and clocking features that make this less of a pain than it would be on e.g. an SX or PIC chip) . However this also has the advantage that you're not locked in to one particular model of graphics/sound.

Incidentally, if you have the ability/desire to actually build your own, it could be much cheaper than buying the Hydra kit. The actual Propeller CPU that does all the work costs about $13, and the rest is pretty much just the power supply circuitry, connectors, a simple resistor DAC, and a handful of other resistors/capacitors in usual roles. I think the Hydra has an FTDI USB-Serial chip on there as well, which costs around $5; if you can settle for a regular serial connection a MAX232 or similar chip could be used instead. Parallax freely offers the schematic of their own Propeller demo board with has both NTSC and VGA outputs, so that could be used as a reference...

 

[vnvx]

It's also got Ethernet and USB, and comes with books on programming the console in BASIC and Assembly. Maybe a little overpriced for what it is in terms of raw hardware, yeah. But for people like me who love electronic engineering but barely know how to put together a circuit, this could be a lot of fun. They offer cheaper kits, too.

 

[ExCyber]

It doesn't have Ethernet, and the USB is essentially a substitute (but a nice one) for plugging it into an old RS232-type serial port; USB doesn't really figure into the system's capabilities. It's a nice package if you don't care to get the soldering iron out yourself and are mostly interested in that magical place where hardware and software come together, which is arguably the purpose of the system. It seems to include just about everything you need apart from a PC. I'm just making the point that if you actually did want to "build your own" as the topic title says, it's enough of a markup and a simple enough design that it's actually not a terrible idea if you already have some kind of workshop and parts box going. The book + sample code can also be bought separately for $40 if you want that as well (or if you want to do something nutty like trying to code a Hydra emulator).