open source game console (ghetto project)

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:59 am

Hmm, If you want any chance for this system to hold it own against the Pandora and GP2X. I think we should make our own motherboard for this system.

Also, I just got done with the drawing. I'll scan it into my computer, upload it to my photobucket, and post it here in the morning.

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:28 am

nightwheel wrote:Hmm, If you want any chance for this system to hold it own against the Pandora and GP2X. I think we should make our own motherboard for this system.

Also, I just got done with the drawing. I'll scan it into my computer, upload it to my photobucket, and post it here in the morning.

Make your own motherboard?

Who do you think we are nightwheel? Mini-ITX?

I don't think any of us have the resources to make our own motherboards.

@Nintendull: Good luck with the project. I'm not sure how useful its going to be seeing as most of the people who would be interested in this stuff will already be doing it on their PC's... Kudos to you for giving it a go though.

WhatULive4 · Post by **WhatULive4** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:18 am

nightwheel wrote:Hmm, If you want any chance for this system to hold it own against the Pandora and GP2X. I think we should make our own motherboard for this system.

You also just skyrocketed past your $150 price tag.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:07 am

The Black Box team made a motherboard- though I think it never left the bread-board state. It would be possible for simpler systems like that, but you wouldn't even approach the complexity of a mini-ITX.

Nintendull · Post by **Nintendull** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:56 am

@Neildo - wow......that.....is........impressive. I am so glad you posted here, we can definitely work something out. I can even compensate you. Wow...based off that sheet, I think you could bust some crazy stuff I have in mind.

@Triton - Thanks! Yea I am familiar with the vanishing part. Happens a lot!

@teraflop122 - dude nice find on the little valley

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:33 am

Yeah, I'm pretty good with pixelart too, I used to be into romhacking (a lot!) so I'm not only familiar with how games for consoles work, but also pixelart. I used to mainly hack pokemon gold, but I recently got back into romhacking (this time super mario world)

let's see if I can find some old stuff:

You'll notice I have not edited out the bird in that picture yet

gameboy color graphics, so that's 2bpp, keep that in mind. (max. 4 colors)

meh

some "pokemon":

environment screens:

the water sucks, because I messed up the palette

Oh the memories...

Post by **Sparkfist** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:41 am

If the console is going to be x86 based, you could make you're own motherboard but as mentioned would be expensive. If it is another CPU architecture, like the Black Box, it will be required.

From what I saw on the game ideas, you're planning on doing a lot of 2D and side scrolling games? If so you can get away with using technology like that that was in the Playstation and Saturn if you want a power house. Anything more would be over kill, and in the case of hardware design, Uber is not smart. I's a waste of time and resources.

I would suggest if you do want to make this thing possible to be real, you go with one of two architectures, either the x86 or the PPC. Both are very good, powerful and are time tested. Hell both the 360 and Wii use G5 (like) PPC CPUs.

If it's low level 3D, you're planning then you might not even need a GPU, For things that are below 32-bit video quality you could simply have a software GPU. This could make things easier but it could also at the same time create a lot of obstacles. Though if you want a hardware GPU, something like an 8MB graphics card would be more then powerful enough, hell the Dreamcast used that kind of power and it's video quality was in many cases better then the PS2.

To save you some time you should look into discussions that were made about the Black Box. Namely things like the controllers. You could go with a unique set up like a few people suggested (a 3 pin connection) or you can stick with classic connectors (like the DB-9). It would help to get a lot of non-sense out of the way early.

Well that's my two cents on the subject. Good luck.

Neildo_64 · Post by **Neildo_64** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:48 am

@Neildo - wow......that.....is........impressive. I am so glad you posted here, we can definitely work something out. I can even compensate you. Wow...based off that sheet, I think you could bust some crazy stuff I have in mind.

Thanks! Those sprites aren't evenly spaced or anything to actually use in something as a sheet, just fyi. I have tons of stuff on my desktop pc, but I can't get to any of it now. Maybe when I do, I'll post some more stuff.

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:18 pm

sorry that it's late Nintendull, I've been drawing a non-portable idea drawing (which is not finshed) for ya too:

HBN · Post by **HBN** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:22 pm

I'm a digital artist (And I've dipped my hand into low-poly 3D art once or twice. Great for logos.). Let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:32 pm

This sounds more like something that would be freeware, you cant expect to release a 2D or low level 3D-based console/PC/thing and have people interested. Not to sound like an ass, saying there's going to be a lack of interest, but you're a decade or two too late to try and market this. If its running on a PC with SuSE, or the like, its not going to be much more than a virtual console with a front end that plays custom games.

If I were whoever's going to be captain of this ship, I'd make a choice as to how advances the games are going to be for this, find an outdated, underpowered mini-ITX board with the proper amount of power. Then look into buying them in bulk for cheap, and writing a game-oriented firmware to run on it. Running an out-of-the-box copy of Linux just seems like the easy way out, and seems counterproductive. Even if you base your firmware off of the Linux kernel, it'd be a distro based around games programmed specifically for it. I personally think that'd raise the curb appeal, as you now have something new with a specific purpose.

And nightwheel, not to discourage you, but the physical features don't really mean much when you dont have much consensus on what's happening on the inside.

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:41 pm

soundwave wrote:And nightwheel, not to discourage you, but the physical features don't really mean much when you dont have much consensus on what's happening on the inside.

I Know, But I'm just throwing out some ideas. Whats wrong with that?

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:56 pm

nightwheel wrote:
soundwave wrote:And nightwheel, not to discourage you, but the physical features don't really mean much when you dont have much consensus on what's happening on the inside.
I Know, But I'm just throwing out some ideas. Whats wrong with that?

Nothing, but if you'll look back, you'll notice the first things people thought about with the Black Box and Grand Theft Portable, and similar projects, more effort seems to be put into packaging the product than actually making it.
Sorry, didn't mean to sound condescending.

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:10 pm

soundwave wrote:
nightwheel wrote:
soundwave wrote:And nightwheel, not to discourage you, but the physical features don't really mean much when you dont have much consensus on what's happening on the inside.
I Know, But I'm just throwing out some ideas. Whats wrong with that?
Nothing, but if you'll look back, you'll notice the first things people thought about with the Black Box and Grand Theft Portable, and similar projects, more effort seems to be put into packaging the product than actually making it.
Sorry, didn't mean to sound condescending.

It's ok. To be honest I have more confindence in this project than i should. But I think we have a really good chance of pulling this thing off. We have a lot of people who know how to program, work with electronic components, and other stuff. But the key is can we keep focus on compleating this project to see it through.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:01 pm

Right there is the biggest issue to over come. Can people stay interested in this project long enough for it to bear fruit? I saw the Black Box, and I saw the other projects spring up in it's shadow. In all seriousness I don't have a lot of confidence that it will make it far past concept.

Reason being you have a lot of people that are doing this for the sheer fun of it and if they're not having fun they can just as easily walk away as when they walked in. Soundwave's comments about deciding on what this thing is going to do and what kind of hardware it's going to use is only one part. Think of the arguments that could go back and forth over it.

If a strong and well thought out plan is hatched, a good number of people climb aboard, it might be able to take off. It just wont be that easy, you're going to have to have a strong leader in this and it might not be who originally conceived the idea, and the leader needs to make his/her point clear enough to be sure that others understand why that's going into the project.

Whom ever it is that takes charge better have a foot that their not afraid to put down.

P.S. The test hardware could be an Xbox, it is a striped down computer after all.