Uzebox Forums

Can you believe it?

Ten years ago (more or less a couple days), I released this little design called the Uzebox hoping - but never thinking - it would accomplish so much. Ladyada from Adafruit noticed my videos on Youtube and the rest is history as they say. That it attracted so many talented and passionate peoples is already satisfying in itself but the reason is even better - that inexplicable drive we have trying to do amazing things with almost nothing! Since my humble Megatris, so many things have come up since: awesome games, tools, ideas, discussions, tutorials, code contests, videos modes and of course so many hardware : Fuzebox, Avcore, Uzebox Jamma, DTV, EUzebox and many more DIY builds. Awesome.

To all I say bravo! I know I was personally absent in the past year or so but the community kept going and that's the best thing. For some reason, I know we still haven't tapped the full potential of that awesome atmega644 (that RLE mode comes to my mind ). I that will keep it going for a while. I have decided to start finishing what I had started one by one, the portable being the first. So you will see more of me again.

Share some thoughts, pictures, unpublished roms from the last 10 years if you have. I sure do have some myself and digging through them now.

I remember searching in 2014 for an 'open source 8-bit gaming platform' to play around with in terms of development. At that time I was working for an online retail company. Work was demanding and stressful. I needed an escape. Then I found the Uzebox community. I dug in and made a game. As best as I could. I shared my wares and the community was kind. It's a rare thing these days online. People just willing to help each other out without judging.

Apart from being nostalgic, and not really being around long enough to justify this rambling... I just want to thank Lee for providing quality documentation. If it wasn't for that, I would never have been able to publish anything.

EDIT: What sets this community apart from most others in the same space is the kindness and selflessness.

For sure one of the best things that attracted me to uzebox besides loving retro games and having an opportunitty to develop a game to a console is the online community that is extremely kind and understanding even having ppl from several countries that i cannot even imagine their culture. In my opinion it's really impressive!

I work as network administrator in a Chinese Shipping Company, my knowledge in programming was not so good, however, tried hard to create my only game and i remember to have the community helping and cheering for me, made me complete it

L4rry wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 9:33 pm I remember searching in 2014 for an 'open source 8-bit gaming platform' to play around with in terms of development. At that time I was working for an online retail company. Work was demanding and stressful. I needed an escape.

I can very much relate to your "finding Uzebox" moment. It has always been a fun escape for me as well, and spending time on it creates things instead of whatever semi-destructive things I might otherwise do and burn money on

L4rry wrote: ↑Wed Aug 22, 2018 9:33 pm I just want to thank Lee for providing quality documentation. If it wasn't for that, I would never have been able to publish anything.

Ah man I am, quite humbly, proud to have helped with what I could. I think it is basically everyone's goal to accelerate what the community comes up with to keep it fun. Right away when I started I was helped out by Alec to get direction on things and it saved me a lot of wasted trial and error(the period where I might have given up). Over the years so many have taught me something, or sharpened ideas, or otherwise just the general brainstorming and theorizing that keep things going in new directions. Very glad to have you around!

Gosma wrote: ↑Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:07 pm I work as network administrator in a Chinese Shipping Company, my knowledge in programming was not so good, however, tried hard to create my only game and i remember to have the community helping and cheering for me, made me complete it

Absolutely! It is fun to share stuff, and the surprise when someone pops out their latest creation is always exciting. When you know the feeling as different parts of a game start to come together, you can understand that feeling in another persons project. I don't think anyone here would be doing this without the community, but with like minded people cooperating..it almost seems like this shouldn't work this well..but it does, and it is awesome!

Uze,

I certainly have to say thanks for making the Uzebox and sharing it 10 years ago. There were two things that made the Uzebox special and stand out from the other projects bit banging video.

First it was very well done and very clean. Secondly and more importantly – you made documentation, a website and a forum. That is what really changed it from being a “neat hack” into a “product” that had a life beyond just few weeks or months of glory.

It is the website, the forum and the COMMUNITY that has let the Uzebox still be around and interesting after a decade. So I thank Uze and all the community members, past and present.

I also should apologise for being almost totally absent in 2018. I am finally on top of everything after the excitement I had in my life and now have a regular income stream that gives me some spare time and peace of mind.

I should be able to finish a game or demo that uses the RLE video mode. The mode itself has been complete since 2017, its just unused. I then have two more video modes up my sleeve that will hopefully make peoples jaws drop and make people wonder if I have discovered a hidden ARM inside the AVR and worked out how to unlock it

I missed the first 10 years of uzebox But I still wanted to express my appreciation for the creation and maintenance of this project. Not just creator Uze but community as a whole. My first topic here was titled "THIS EXISTS" and I think that expresses my feelings well.

diegzumillo wrote: ↑Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:47 pm I missed the first 10 years of best sausage stuffers But I still wanted to express my appreciation for the creation and maintenance of this project. Not just creator Uze but community as a whole. My first topic here was titled "THIS EXISTS" and I think that expresses my feelings well.

I've been aware of Uzebox from very early on, but I only started really using it recently. Here's for 10 more happy years! haha

Domney wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:17 amI've been aware of Uzebox from very early on, but I only started really using it recently. Here's for 10 more happy years! haha

Nice little machine, isn't it? Welcome on board!

It's nearly the 15th anniversary of the Uzebox! Does that mean the Uzebox will become a "genuine" retro computing platform when it turns 15? It's almost old enough to legally drink in the UK.

For the first five years or so it was "retro" but really it was new. That's not the case any more. Genuine retro joy is kicking in!

Wow time flies. Indeed it's now super-retro!