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Geek Culture / Gaming Console Development Progress Thread

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 01:30
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Hey guys, very sorry to double post to bump (i hate doing this) but i just wanted to give you an update on some stuff, as this is what this thread is for So as i just edited into the OP, i have officially named my console the Basic Binary Box, or B3.

Some other ideas i have for it are red, blue, and green LED's that one can make system calls to change brightness with.

Yet another idea is for the controllers. They will each have two shoulder buttons and two center buttons similar to the start and select buttons on an NES or SNES controller. There will on the left side be a horizontal analog slider that also acts as a button, and one that is vertical would be on the right.

So hope it wasnt a bad thing i double posted to bump this! I just had to tell ya all something

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OutdoorGamer
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 03:27
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Can't wait to see some actual building.

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 03:39
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That will happen hopefully within a few months I have yet to begin eh designing stage but im very near to starting that

Today I realized that you can lock a locked lock in a locker with a lock that is locked.
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tiresius
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 04:09
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Hi there-

I would never want to squash your enthusiasm, because I think making your own console is a cool idea. But from what I've seen on your other posts about programming I don't think you're ready.

What I do suggest, however, is getting something that will TEACH you how to build a console. They sell kits where you build the console, and program the games for it.

Here is one I've heard about:
Game Console Starter Kit 2.0 (Self Study Course) for $230
http://www.xgamestation.com/

Hope this helps.


A 3D marble platformer using Newton physics.
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 04:43
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the way i see it, this console of yours will be like the apple computer in a wooden case. if some important hardware people notice you and will want to finance manufacture your console, it will become like the apple II computer lol.

by the way (i might have missed this earlier in the topic so kill me if you have to ) , this console, like what level of gaming are you aming at? 2d? 3d graphics? what kind of controllers will you use? and what are you gonna base it on?

i actually reccomend making your own linux distro for the OS of this console and the games that are developed should focus on open GL because its a really underrated rendering system that needs more attention.

YO! i just remembered something Instead of using linux. you should use BSD! BSD is like super linux- father of linux call it what you want. but its just as good as linux (well its built on UNIX) and the thing is, while lot of software from 1 linux distro (ubuntu for example) might not be compatible with another linux distro (debian for example) 90% of all linux software from all the distros is compatible with BSD. Apperentley with BSD its even easier to make your own distro. Also there is a mode of BSD installation. where it will scan the hardware and build itself into the hardware (like it makes its own drivers just from what it learns from the hardware) you can also write your own drivers of course. you can modefy the GUI any way you want- like not just skin the gui, but change it around, make your own uniqe setup, have the start button placed in the middle of the screen change the way menus work and the whole structure of the gui all that good stuff.

finally from what i hgave been told, BSD has the best tech support among all unix operating system. Because linux is pretty popular, most of the croud on the forums, are these 12 yearold geek wanna bes and people who just used it for a long time and some people who actually know it. BSD support is fewer in numbers but it is exclusivley certified BSD professionals, who dont screw around. and will apperentley help you a lot

also if you learn BSD, you will master all linux systems and you will be more hardcore than those nooby linux users because you know BSD!!! you will be like this-->

I dont know anything about unix based OS all i did was use them a little, but a friend of mine is into BSD and he wants to be certified in it soon, so he got me into the idea of learning BSD whenever i get around to it.

so im just throwing out some ideas for the future. you should seriosley consider it. because writing your own OS for a gaming console is a pain in the ass. last person i knew who tried writing an OS. after a year, all he was able to do is make his laptop boot his modified unix kernel

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Libervurto
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 04:53
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This is going to sound noobish but if you're going to have four buttons on the controller face you could call them Earth, Air, Fire, Water. That'd be pretty cool to see the ancient element symbols on a control pad


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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 04:56
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Quote: "This is going to sound noobish but if you're going to have four buttons on the controller face you could call them Earth, Air, Fire, Water. That'd be pretty cool to see the ancient element symbols on a control pad"


not foolish at all. i actually like the idea. It could be like just a version of a controller for a certain game thats built under the game interface

i like that idea

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 06:04 Edited at: 14th Apr 2011 07:19
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@turesius Well those posts may be deceiving but i do think at heart i am a good programmer, i just tend not to work on a game properly and lose interest. Thus, i stop developing it, but here i will get to work on many aspects and what not, keeping my interest... When i need to (or want to) i can crank out some pretty awesome stuff in just an hour or two

@PAGAN That would be cool if companies were willing to manufacture it, currently i have strong feeling about this and have had them for a while!

Well i did mention the controller layout in a few posts above yours, but to better answer your question, it will have a protocol similar to that of an NES controller, i would look up NES controller protocol if you want to see what im talking about i will be using 2D graphics, however if this one becomes successful (and that's if i put it into production) then the nest one ill likely give 3D capabilities

And the OS development is currently my biggest thing to ponder over, the thing with a Linux distro is that i will have to write a C++ compiler for my console's machine code which would be a pain in the livin' butt! But then how am i going to write one in machine code? I will figure it out somehow

@OBese87
Quote: "This is going to sound noobish"
Not at all my friend, not at all This is an awesome idea! Just what symbol would i want to use for air?

@PAGAN I agree even more, maybe i could release typical controllers, then develop a really nice game that ties in with the symbols, and make the controller with those symbols

Here's what i have decided the logo should look like:



You can see the 3 lowercase b's for Basic Binary Box How do you all like it?

Today I realized that you can lock a locked lock in a locker with a lock that is locked.

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 07:02
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Quote: "similar to that of an NES controller"

nice- cheap simple nothing fany- i like that.

Also i dont know, about the c++ compiler you are gonna write, but seriosly once the hardware part of your console is complete, BSD seemes like a good bet to me, it can be completley stripped down of any unneseseary stuff, BSD can install itself the way its best compatible with your hardware. The thing can be installed on something as little as a 50 mhz i486 cpu, 2 mb of ram and 100mb of disk space (of copurse it would be completley stripped down)

BSD can run any linux game with proper software. you dont have to make your own compiler, you just have to allow it to work with some engines. that are supported by linux community.

but i guess writing your own compiler will be more efficient for a console. bust since games are initially developed on PCs, they will need to be recompiled anyway (or worse ported!) to be compatible with your own compiler.

also consider looking into something other than C++ many games these days i heard are made with C# Also i heard Delphi and Python are popular with game development these days. People like python in particulat because its kindof like a scripting language, like it dosent need to compile, it just goes ahead and runs the code. i am not sure but i think python is like a hybrid of programming and scripting. Well maybe its still just a wacky non standard programming language. because scripting languages as far as i know are usually intergrated into some kind of an engine or software. python, is just like a language i heard, it has its own compiler like thing where it dosent compile but just runs the code and stuff works.

I could be wrong about this, but thats what i heard about it as far as i am concernerned

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 07:08
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Well i meant i would need to make a C++ compiler because the BSD would be in C++ or x86 machine code, and my console will have its own machine code instruction set... Im also planning on making my own simple, DBPro like language. How do you like the logo? ^^

Today I realized that you can lock a locked lock in a locker with a lock that is locked.
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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 07:12
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Quote: "Well i meant i would need to make a C++ compiler"

O_o
good luck with that.


Tell me if there's a broken link to images in a thread I post, and I'll fix 'em.
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 07:22
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Yup, that's exactly why i dont want to use something that has been already made in C++. I want to make something myself, both would be equally hard but making one myself sounds entirely funner than porting BSD or Linux to my console... Did that sentence make any grammatical sense with 'entirely'? And dang it all i cant figure out whether to put it like 'entirely?' or 'entirely'?

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 12:32
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so basically you are programming the prosessor yourself and writing your own OS from scratch?

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Interplanetary Funk
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 13:47
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It's not too absurd to program a processor and OS, this might not seem comparable, but look at your calculator.
For that calculator someone has designed the hardware, others have programmed a reliable rtos for it to handle everything, someones programmed the screen drivers, the input functions and the math commands, and you can get these things for £5~

I don't see this as any different in all honestly, simply scaled up with some changes, there's a couple of big things that are different, but the majority of it isn't that unfamiliar to the concept above.
But I would avoid a c++ compiler for now and go for a BASIC on instead.

Also, I think the idea of the element symbols is a good one, they did a similar thing on the playstation controllers with the shapes, each one is meant to have it's own function (triangle was meant to open your inventory for example,) so I think that would be a good addition to it simply at a basic usability and aesthetics level.

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 17:15
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just in my opinion, if you base it on a custom BSD setup, it would be a lot easier and you will have better results.

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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AutoBot
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Posted: 13th Apr 2011 21:39 Edited at: 13th Apr 2011 21:49
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DBD - I know your not trying to focus too much on hardware right now, but this thing just blew me away and thought you might take interest. It looks awesome and entry level: http://www.lpkfusa.com/protomat/s42.htm

A video on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mz5O5LZXVE

PCBs are Printed Circuit Boards, can be used as a mobo/to connect components, etc. Here's a wiki article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board

So I honestly don't know all that much on this, I just came across the plotter video and figured that you'd probably need it for making a mobo for the console. After that you can just use other 3rd party components for everything else.

I think quite a few big companies have done it this way, even for old consoles. Take a look at the PS1 specs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)#Technical_specifications

Most of those components are 3rd party. The cpu was a RISC chip made by the LSI corporation, for example. I believe that Sony plotted out a mainboard design, then added the components.

So you're going to have to look into this A LOT if you want to go that route (meaning not using a 3rd party mobo, etc). Right now I'm just giving my view when I saw this. Not sure exactly how to plot a board, but there's probably some electronics topics out there and I think that a plotter is the tool to do it. I think its crazy expensive, though (around $20,000 accourding to Youtube comment). But you may be able to get some sort of student discount in one way or another.


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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 14th Apr 2011 00:23
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@AutoBot Haha actually hardware is my number one concern right now!

That seems as if it would be useful, but for printing PCB's i have already found a company that i can pay a setup cost then pay a very small amount, like 1 dollar for each PCB.

So all of this i have researched and know well I will be essentially 'coding' my chip by using an FPGA. So in the end everything will be third party stuff, i saw for the 45 nanometer process, a chip mask can cost up to 3 million dollars!

Today I realized that you can lock a locked lock in a locker with a lock that is locked.
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AutoBot
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Posted: 14th Apr 2011 02:20
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Alright, cool. I've just started looking into this and it's pretty cool how the circuits are made, which I never knew about before.


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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 14th Apr 2011 03:01
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It's fascinating!

Today I realized that you can lock a locked lock in a locker with a lock that is locked.
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 01:33 Edited at: 11th Jul 2011 01:35
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Woops accidentally edited something from my other posted in here!



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DevilLiger
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 02:23
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well like i said on the other post of a guy with similar thing going on too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(console)

hope the specs of this thing can help you out. To be honest most are using the Linux OS to cut time and money. hope you consider it. you can always just modify linux to your liking. "Open Pandora" uses Angstrom Linux.

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 06:23
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This seems more like it's being deved by a company, not a person...



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DevilLiger
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 14:11 Edited at: 11th Jul 2011 14:11
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open pandora? it was dev by maybe no more than a dozen people in the UK i believed. i can be wrong though.

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 20:25
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I see. But i am a single man!! My console's programs will run the console themselves, so no need for an operating system, just a relatively complex compiler for B3 Basic.



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Indicium
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 20:42
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You need some sort of operating system...

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 22:36 Edited at: 11th Jul 2011 22:37
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The game would serve the purpose! It would have to manage memory, IO, etc, and no multitasking so no process management would be needed. I would make the compiler take care of putting that stuff in the code so the programmer wont have to worry about doing so; B4 and the console in general are supposed to be a learning experience for the user, so the complex stuff will be taken care of by me. Though im willing to say im missing the point of using an OS. If i am, please tell me why i need one!! As far as i know the game will be sufficient to run the console. If i do need an OS, i will program one because i have always wanted to!



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Indicium
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Posted: 11th Jul 2011 22:50
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Well, you'll need an OS to actually load the game. The game can't load itself, unless you plan to give every game a sort of bootloader.

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 12th Jul 2011 00:22
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Ahh i see your point, i already had that in mind, i just didnt think of it as an OS.



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DevilLiger
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Posted: 12th Jul 2011 00:27
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yep, it's true you need one. you just don't need a complex one. just get one that will only load up simple things like on a ps3 or a 3ds for example.

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 12th Jul 2011 01:20
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I see



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