Uzebox Micro Handheld

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CunningFellow
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Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by CunningFellow »

A breakaway thread from here http://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... 790#p16790


How small is too small?

What would people like to see?

I was aiming towards something a bit smaller than a gameboy micro with a 2.4" 320x240 LCD screen simply because there is a 2.4" LCD that is landscape

If you throw more hardware at the idea (a RAM and an FPGA) you open up to the world of old PDA screens (640x480) or even modern phonescreens (if you crack the MIPI/DSI barrier) that are naturally portrait mode.

In all these cases you can throw away the AD723 NTSC chip and the CD4021 button input chips.
CunningFellow
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by CunningFellow »

I take back what I previously said.

Looks like availability has gotten better in the last few years. Maybe thanks to the Raspberry Pi

http://www.bdtic.com/DataSheet/Innolux/PT035TN01-V6.pdf

Is available for $15 and accepts ITU-601

It is 3.5" which I personally think is a bit big for a device to put in your pocket, but its a lot better than the 5" to 7" which the next size up that scan along the long edge.

In this mornings searching I have not found any smaller than this that are available, cheap and landscape apart from the 2.4" I already have here.
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by D3thAdd3r »

CunningFellow wrote:I was aiming towards something a bit smaller than a gameboy micro
Personally I wouldn't want anything substantially smaller than the micro. It is already reaaaally small to control comfortably and I can imagine it might get more cramped when you go to put extra buttons on it.

RGB would be nice, and I think the biggest possible screen that fits is the best.
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uze6666
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by uze6666 »

CunningFellow wrote:I take back what I previously said.

Looks like availability has gotten better in the last few years. Maybe thanks to the Raspberry Pi

http://www.bdtic.com/DataSheet/Innolux/PT035TN01-V6.pdf

Is available for $15 and accepts ITU-601

It is 3.5" which I personally think is a bit big for a device to put in your pocket, but its a lot better than the 5" to 7" which the next size up that scan along the long edge.

In this mornings searching I have not found any smaller than this that are available, cheap and landscape apart from the 2.4" I already have here.
My memory is failing me, can you remind me what ITU-061 entails to? You can can feed it something like rgb using ntsc sync?
CunningFellow
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by CunningFellow »

uze6666 wrote:
CunningFellow wrote:I take back what I previously said.

Looks like availability has gotten better in the last few years. Maybe thanks to the Raspberry Pi

http://www.bdtic.com/DataSheet/Innolux/PT035TN01-V6.pdf

Is available for $15 and accepts ITU-601

It is 3.5" which I personally think is a bit big for a device to put in your pocket, but its a lot better than the 5" to 7" which the next size up that scan along the long edge.

In this mornings searching I have not found any smaller than this that are available, cheap and landscape apart from the 2.4" I already have here.
My memory is failing me, can you remind me what ITU-061 entails to? You can can feed it something like rgb using ntsc sync?
Yes - ITU-601 is RGB+Sync at NTSC frame rate. So you can just feed it the pins from the ATMega644 without the AD723/AD725

The smallest I have seen screens with this type of controller in the past is 5" that are probably intended for small DVD players and reversing cameras.

Just about all smaller screens are from PDAs or Telephones and they do them as 240xRGBx320 rather than 320xRGBx240.

3.5" is getting bigger than I would like for a small Uzebox but is bearable. For some data points

Gameboy Micro 2"
Gamboy 2.5"
Gameboy Advance 2.9"
Atari Lynx 3.5"

I think somewhere just under 3" is right for a handheld. When I made the asteroid belt I didn't have to use a landscape screen so I could choose whatever I felt was good and I went with 2.9".

I think the 2.4" of the Nokia E73 screen (the only landscape small screen I could get at the time) is maybe a little small.
CunningFellow
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by CunningFellow »

D3thAdd3r posted this picture in the other thread

http://uzebox.org/forums/download/file.php?id=2291

That is my new goal for a portable uzebox.

That small
That thin
Painted aluminium front panel
Silk screened "Uze and Watch" logo
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by D3thAdd3r »

CunningFellow wrote:That is my new goal for a portable uzebox...
It would be a nice device I'd need to own. Do you have any ideas on how to build the actual case out for it? I am thinking having shapeways print out the case might not be financially reasonable to a lot of people. I forget who was talking about molds, perhaps it was you, and that in particular is really peaking my curiosity lately. You can mold aluminum as well with what looks an easy to build forge but ha, that is another hobby in itself!

Also I did not see anyone mention what covers the screen. Obviously it has to be either plastic/acrylic(scratches like hell) or glass(my recommendation). With the right jig, cutting class is pretty easy to do in a repeatable manner I should think.
CunningFellow
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by CunningFellow »

D3thAdd3r wrote:
CunningFellow wrote:That is my new goal for a portable uzebox...
It would be a nice device I'd need to own. Do you have any ideas on how to build the actual case out for it? I am thinking having shapeways print out the case might not be financially reasonable to a lot of people. I forget who was talking about molds, perhaps it was you, and that in particular is really peaking my curiosity lately. You can mold aluminum as well with what looks an easy to build forge but ha, that is another hobby in itself!

Also I did not see anyone mention what covers the screen. Obviously it has to be either plastic/acrylic(scratches like hell) or glass(my recommendation). With the right jig, cutting class is pretty easy to do in a repeatable manner I should think.
Probably was me taking about molding the case.

Cut it out of renshape, pour in silicon to make a mold, pour in 2 part plastics to make the final case.

You would not mold the aluminium. You would get a flat sheet and form it in a die to raise the bezel then use a cutting die to cut out the window.

The logos would be silk screened on I think
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Jubatian
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by Jubatian »

Personally I don't like that much too small. I never keep anything in my pockets, even my (dumb) phones are just thrown in my bag when I go to places, it feels inconvenient and makes me worry that stuff falls off or maybe gets stolen. I usually only have a wallet and a folded up bag in my pocket when I go shopping without anything else. In a bag there is sufficient space to have something which has a conveniently large display.

I think the current selection of Uzebox games are neither too friendly for the idea: most use Mode 3, which is RAM tiles limited, making the characters small compared to the display, so I rather feel these fit for larger surfaces (television), it is important to have visible pixels, not for the retro thing, but since the graphics are designed so: big pixels, small actors. I think of games like the recent Tank Fu, the Adventures of Lolo demo, Bugz and Joyrider, I don't feel like those would be that enjoyable on a tiny screen. Maybe Tempest would work if it nicely retains its crisp vector feel.

So for this path maybe some changes in game design principles should also be done. Like experimenting with doubly scanned modes (half vertical resolution), going on a Mode 2 style way, to enable more sprites, not caring about blockyness (9 cycles / pixel at half vertical resolution would be nearest to square, 8 cycles per pixel would result in an identically clocked mode to the 160x100 CGA "fake" 16 color mode), with the goal of making large actors relative to the display size, and maybe even exploring different styles (with Mode 2 a nice thing is that the background may be independent of sprites, so parallax scrolling effects are more possible, and as I saw here Outrun style racing games were also attempted).

Not like it shouldn't be attempted, just some personal thoughts on this.
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uze6666
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Re: Uzebox Micro Handheld

Post by uze6666 »

I kinda agree with you regarding the small sprites vs a small screen. I tested many screens in the past few years and the 3.5" size is surprisingly good and confortable for most games with sprites > 2x2 like my Castlevania demo.
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