
DIY Single-Chip 2D Retro Game Console - 0xmarcin
http://www.voja.rs/PROJECTS/GAME_HTM/1_intro.htm
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tyingq
Very cool.

It's interesting to me that while some of these microcontroller chips (fast
enough to do vga) have been around 15 years or so, it's only in the last 5
years or so that people have figured out how to bitbang pretty decent vga
output from them.

And now that we have 100Mhz+ microcontrollers people are making really simple
devices that take advantage of it. I was pretty impressed with this $11 ESP32
gadget that replicates what an old VT100 would do, but with vga output and a
ps/2 keyboard. It also does retro games:
[https://www.tindie.com/products/ttgo/lilygor-ttgo-
vga32_v14-...](https://www.tindie.com/products/ttgo/lilygor-ttgo-
vga32_v14-controller/)

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makapuf
May I also mention my similar project
[https://github.com/makapuf/bitbox](https://github.com/makapuf/bitbox) ? Its
been a while I started and worked on it for a while. I'm considering re
starting doing games on it. Maybe in rust? Could be fun!

~~~
makapuf
I'm also thinking about a simpler / cheaper version. Still vga, 12bpp, maybe
no sd card (complex code, complex to solder, few reasons to use it),
cheaper/smaller, maybe single usb or classic nes (super simple to interface
with)

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vanderZwan
Very neat! Reminds me a bit of the Basic Engine[0], which is similar in the
sense that it is also a DIY ultra low-cost computer. This looks a bit more
involved than that project though, since there is a lot of custom hardware
involved.

Beyond that I guess the main limitation these days would be to find a VGA
monitor

[https://basicengine.org/](https://basicengine.org/)

~~~
unwind
Huh? This (the TFA, the "Single-chip 2D Retro Game Console") is single-chip,
all the work is done in software on a PIC microcontroller with 48 KB RAM. This
includes generating 16-color VGA-compatible video, with sprites, and 5
channels of sound.

The Basic Engine is based on the 8266 (4 MB of flash) and has a separate
hardware video controller chip, plus an I/O expander so at least three chips.
It has way more "custom hardware" than the TFA's board.

~~~
vanderZwan
My bad, my initial assessment was in terms of _" how much of this is off-the-
shelf and how much of this requires hardware customization"_. I had the
mistaken impression that the basic engine didn't need a custom PCB, and other
than that they both seemed to use off-the-shelf components. So in that sense I
thought this required "more" customization (even though, as you mentioned, the
basic engine requires more hardware). But I was wrong about that too, so
either way you're right[0].

[0]
[https://basicengine.org/hardware.html](https://basicengine.org/hardware.html)

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nmain
This is similar to the Uzebox, which also uses a single microcontroller and
full software video signal generation.

[http://uzebox.org/wiki/Main_Page](http://uzebox.org/wiki/Main_Page)

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agumonkey
I don't know about you but I find limited 2D video games .. more games.
Nostalgia, and emotional biases asides, there's a thing about the naked
abstract nature of these that appeals to the remains of my soul.

~~~
rootsudo
Because it draws on your imagination and creativity more vs being told this
world exists like so with games nowadays.

~~~
grugagag
Also because the pattern of the game is more visible and easier to grasp and
also easier to asses whether you find the logic of the game compelling or not.
And that combined with some creativity can take your mind/imagination
somewhere else. Games which are immediate depictions of reality or very
detailed kind of keep you right there, there's too much going on to give the
imagination some leeway. The same is true for films, music, etc.

~~~
agumonkey
I stopped gaming ages ago but the few I see in videos or at family reunions
bores me to death. The immense landscapes and rendering gives you basically
the same amount of control as zelda III (I'm exagerating). It doesn't
stimulate you much more if at all.

~~~
grugagag
I stopped playing gaming as well except for simple logic games (chess, board
games, word games, puzzles etc), but did play with some younger friends a few
games a while back and while fun they got boring pretty fast and didn't feel
compelled to play again. We played a game called Halo, it's a very immersive
game and it is well made but it did not engage creatively at all. You have to
shoot one another, that is the main premise of the game but it surely gets
complex, you have some missions, etc. The patters of the game is the same with
other modern action games - the shoot to kill type of game only what's changed
is the decorum, weapons, characters, but it's the same recycled idea over and
over. I found games that break that paradigm rarer. Anyways I'm not willing to
sink hours into video games, life is short after all

~~~
agumonkey
Halo is old already, but this line of games seems very similar. My cousin made
me play something quite recent (CoD or something like that) and it was a more
action paced Counter Strike without all the finesse. Something is lost in that
generation.

~~~
grugagag
Yes, last time I played that type of game was 10 years ago. I've seen the new
call of duty you mentioned and while it's realistic I don't find it too
interesting. Sure, it may be used for training for soldiers or something, that
type of simulator has good use cases but it leaves me cold.

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mosselman
It reminds me of Pico-8. Albeit it being a virtual retro console it does
encourage building games that have certain limitations. Some of the games,
such as Pico Tennis, are very fun to play in the browser on a phone even.

[https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php](https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php)

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Lerc
This is exactly the kind of project I was looking for to try out my idea of an
alternate palette to the standard RGBI

[http://blag.fingswotidun.com/2020/07/a-nicer-4-bit-colour-
wi...](http://blag.fingswotidun.com/2020/07/a-nicer-4-bit-colour-withhout-
fancy.html)

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verytrivial
The era-appropriate rendition of Golden Brown during the game is a lovely
touch, all coming out of a bit-banged resistor ladder! It's a shame game
development on this platform seems to also require era-appropriate levels of
concentration. That's a device to be proud of.

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dodo6502
This is similar to my project:
[http://www.dodolabs.io/](http://www.dodolabs.io/) Which is a retro 6502
portable game console.

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otto2
Voja Antonic, creator of this project, is also creator of the first widely
built and used personal computer in SFRJ (Yugoslavia in communist period)
named Galaksija, back in 1983. The very first computer magazine there printed
complete manual how to build it in its first issue, and so triggered personal
computer revolution.

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spicybright
Site looks to be down. Is there a mirror somewhere?

~~~
trymas
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200825090517/http://www.voja.r...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200825090517/http://www.voja.rs/PROJECTS/GAME_HTM/1_intro.htm)

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walkingolof
Neat, the Sinclair ZX80/81 had also largely software based video generation,
that on the ZX80 had the unfortunate side effect of the screen flickering
while typing since both reading input and generating the video signal was too
much for the poor machine. What a long way we have come...

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pjmlp
Jumping Jack, one of my first Speccy games.

