New to this!

[James_Booth]

Hey folks!

I'm a student living in the UK and I love 8-bit and 16-bit gaming (I've got my NES back home). In any case, I'm thinking of buying a Uzebox over the summer and attempting to make some games. However, I've got some questions:

1) Does the programming software work on a Mac or only on PC? (Not really a problem as I have both).

2) If I ordered a kit from Adafrut http://www.adafruit.com/products/134), would it work here in the UK?

3) If not, is it possible to get a fully-compatible PAL version?

4) Finally, what storage medium does the Uzebox use? I've seen the SD card reader in the back - is that how you play games on it once it's finished?

Thanks for your help,

James B


(P.S.the more info I get the more likely it is that I buy one!)

[uze6666]

Hi James, welcome to the Uzebox community!

1) Does the programming software work on a Mac or only on PC? (Not really a problem as I have both).

The Uzebox uses the GCC open source stack, so you can code on Linux, Mac or Windows. AVRStudio runs only in Windows (that's Atmel's native IDE for AVR development). I also only use Windows, so I can only provide help on that platform, but we have quite a few folks here on Max and Linux who can help.

2) If I ordered a kit from Adafrut http://www.adafruit.com/products/134), would it work here in the UK?

The Fuzebox has been out of stock for almost two years, so don't count on them. The good news is that a new kit called the EUzebox will be available shortly. It's made for the EU and has a SCART connector, so it's gonna be perfect for you. Check out this thread for more info.

3) If not, is it possible to get a fully-compatible PAL version?

Check point 2. Although it technically uses NTSC sync, it works fine on PAL TVs.

4) Finally, what storage medium does the Uzebox use? I've seen the SD card reader in the back - is that how you play games on it once it's finished?

Uzebox use regular SD cards. For development you have two options. 1) you test with the Uzebox emulator (uzem) and then you drag the ROM file on the SD card and it's flashed using the on-chip bootloader. 2) you'll need an ISP programmer to flash the ATmega644 MCU with you code. In any case you'll need an ISP programmer. Most folks test on the emulator because it's just more convenient and fast.

Hope that helps and looking forward your games!

-Uze

[Harty123]

Hi James,

Hey folks!

I'm a student living in the UK and I love 8-bit and 16-bit gaming (I've got my NES back home). In any case, I'm thinking of buying a Uzebox over the summer and attempting to make some games. However, I've got some questions:

1) Does the programming software work on a Mac or only on PC? (Not really a problem as I have both).

It works on both. But with the PC you have less trouble with the tools like AVR Studio.

2) If I ordered a kit from Adafrut http://www.adafruit.com/products/134), would it work here in the UK?

Normally yes! For Europe I have designed a special (E)Uzebox with SCART interface. The shipping cost in Europe is lower...

3) If not, is it possible to get a fully-compatible PAL version?

No. This makes no sense, because you have to change the Kernel and recompile all games in this case. NTSC is usually not problem with european TV sets also, because the most of them accept NTSC and PAL.

4) Finally, what storage medium does the Uzebox use? I've seen the SD card reader in the back - is that how you play games on it once it's finished?

With the gameloader you can boot stored games from a SD card without any additional programming adapter.

-Harty

[James_Booth]

Thank you for your help; I believe I have been in contact with you concerning the EUzebox.

In any case, I'm quite new to this - however it sounds interesting

Is there somewhere where I could start, concerning the C programming language? I'm going to purchase the EUzebox once it is available however I wish to get some practice beforehand,

James

[Harty123]

Hi James,

Thank you for your help; I believe I have been in contact with you concerning the EUzebox.

In any case, I'm quite new to this - however it sounds interesting

Is there somewhere where I could start, concerning the C programming language? I'm going to purchase the EUzebox once it is available however I wish to get some practice beforehand,

James

You can use the Emulator instead of a real Uzebox for your first steps. With the emulator it's possible to test your programs (and existing games too) on the PC.

-Harty

[derek21]

Hi, I want to know if is normal that the uzebox can read only Uze and How i can convert hex to Uze .
Someone tell me something about packrom but i can t open a notepad file with it..... i need more details

[uze6666]

I made a wiki page on the subject: http://uzebox.org/wiki/index.php?title=Packrom. Check it out and let me know if you still have problems.

-Uze

[derek21]

i don t know what means "cd" and i need win avc or avr studio makes all??

"Then CD to the location of the HEX file and execute (packrom.exe must be on your system's PATH):

packrom arkanoid.hex arkanoid.uze gameinfo.properties"- i don t understand

[uze6666]

That means Change Directory. I've update the wiki page so it's hopefully more clear. You don't need to build anything, you can download pre-compiled tools from the source repository (if you're on Windows). Check the wiki page for details.

Hope that helps

-Uze

[derek21]

I solved. thank you so much!:)