Thinking about STMUzebox

Discuss anything not related to the current Uzebox design like successors and other open source gaming hardware
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makapuf
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:55 pm

Re: Thinking about STMUzebox

Post by makapuf »

Matej wrote:Ahh this is nice. How much cost such Bitbox board? Can I use C for games? Can I use MOD and PNG for graphics?
The bitbox is not currently for sale. I'm planning to, however (but not before a few months) : if things go well, I'll present an upgraded version "r2" (with many improvements from feedback gathered since the project went public). Nothing really definitive now, but the idea is to add some nice features while keeping the philosophy (32bits, single chip) : you can follow the mailing list if you want to follow developments (the ML is on the blog).

Of course you can use C for games, that's how mine are written (you could also use C++ ; other languages .. can be tried !)
You can use the "emulator" (a few .c files using SDL, nothing big) to develop games on your PC now.

for MOD you'll need a player (maybe I'll release one ) but the platform has the CPU to do this (XM not so sure). ( mp3 has been done on this MCU - but not running a game also).

PNG are not readable as is but you could load them to RAM, however remember you have 192k for everything, so other formats would be better(I use a Gimp exporter) - there is a tutorial on blitting graphics on the blog.

Things go slowly but surely !
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Matej
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:36 pm

Re: Thinking about STMUzebox

Post by Matej »

Makapuf send me please any news of Bitbox... contactmatej#&gmail
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makapuf
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Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:55 pm

Re: Thinking about STMUzebox

Post by makapuf »

Hi Matej ! Thanks for your interest.

To follow what's ongoing on the bitbox you can look either at the blog ( http://bitboxconsole.blogspot.com or the mailing list / google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bitbox-console).

We're currently designing a revision 2 of the board. It's relatively ambitious but still keeps much of the design (one-chip design same chip). Main changes (besides fixes) are : 15-bit color, stereo sound, dual USB host instead of minidin, better extension port.

Two (simple) games are currently existing and running on r1. Porting or r2 would be an afternoon work.

Design files are available on github, of course all of this is a work in progress.
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Matej
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Re: Thinking about STMUzebox

Post by Matej »

Thnx!
I will make some infos on Chipmusic.Org, Pixeljoint.Com...
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makapuf
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Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:55 pm

Re: Thinking about STMUzebox

Post by makapuf »

just a quick list of updates - I don't want to pollute the forum :

- bitbox rev2 (including USB gamepads/mouse/kb, 15 bit color and stereo sound) is ready & avail for sale (still completely opensource/HW)
- a gameboy emulator has been developed (on rev1, need to port it)
- video playing is avail (320x240 scaled, higher def should be possible)
- microSD bootloader almost done
- still much work to be done ! (esp. : games !)

welcome to your criticism and thanks for this community to have pushed me through doing this ;)
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schepers_cp
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Re: Thinking about STMUzebox

Post by schepers_cp »

this thread made me curious about where i can buy one, it sounds awesome to me~
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