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Emulation

2009-04-06T20:16:00.004-04:00

The next stage of development doesn't require the hardware at all... until not until I need to care about performance. So to speed up development and the inevitable debugging, I have created a very quick emulator for my game.

All it does is simulate the video mode that I have created, so that when I write the right bytes to the right video memory locations, it will show up in my emulated window. This should get me to a point where I can at least develop my main algorithm. Then it will be back to the hardware for the final touches.

The emulator was a quick hack up using the Allegro games library. I used to develop some very simple DOS based stuff way back when. Really brings back memories :).

I still won't confirm what the final game will be... but I think it should become obvious soon (if you haven't figured it out already).

Stage 1

2009-04-04T20:24:00.004-04:00

I have just completed stage 1 of my super secret project. I made my own custom video mode! :)

Check out the programmer colours! :)

I think I may have messed up the timing a bit, but it works on my TV, so its good enough for now. I'll go back and fix it up later.

The next stage is where the real work is, now that I can display stuff to the screen. Its gonna be tough fitting it into the few cycles left over...

Success!

2009-03-14T15:26:00.006-04:00

Success! I flashed the Megatris demo app (Tetris clone) onto my chip, and below are the results. It was nearly flawless on the first powerup. I just mis-wired the sound output, so I didn't hear anything, but that was trivial to fix.

Now that the board works, I can get to writing some code!

I still need to add a second controller input, and the SD card slot, but both of those can wait for the moment.

My Uzebox Clone

2009-03-13T21:49:00.004-04:00

The Uzebox is an open source game console. Its very simple, using only an AVR microcontroller and a colour converter chip. I have begun my quest to build my own clone of this project. My clone is almost complete:

The next step is finishing off the wiring, and then testing with one of the ready-made games. After that, I'll play with some of the code myself... but that's for a future post.