XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Discuss general Uzebox topics here: features, wish list. nice to have, etc.
User avatar
Jhysaun
Posts: 214
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 12:32 am

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by Jhysaun »

I would be if I were better at communication in general.
Ha! That's how I feel about myself too. :D I blame the internet for my lack of decent English skills.

We should just do what the Blender Art Magazine does and have a collection of tutorials put into pdf form.


>J
Lerc wrote:I intend to use my powerful skills of procrastination to ensure that when I get to making things, the chips will be available.
lightfoot256
Posts: 119
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:53 pm
Location: South Yorkshire, England
Contact:

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by lightfoot256 »

Reading through the free parts of the manual (available from the site) it looks like the video modes support a lot less features than those on uzebox; notably a limit of only 3 8x8 sprites in most of the modes, however it does have bitmapped modes (even though they're only 80x112 pixels :-p). It also seemed to indicate only vertical scrolling in tile maps - although I realise these are relatively new features of uzebox they could also have been implemented on XGS and the manual just needs updating.

I like the fact the manual pulls all the useful stuff together; I've read a lot of his books before and they're quite easy to read, I definitely think uzebox could do with something like the manual (in ebook form - who reads physical books anymore? :-p)

I just don't feel the magic with the XGS that I do with uzebox; I dunno what it is, but the XGS just feels all closed and commercial, with the uzebox all I can think about is rolling my own and being proud of it :-p. I still think the shot of the usebox on the orange wirewrap board looks better than the finished PCB kits but no-ones done a black PCB yet (I always loved XFX's components due to their black PCBs :-p).
PlayerOne
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:45 pm
Location: UK

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by PlayerOne »

I'm kind of always interested in new stuff to mess around with, even to the extent that I don't finish messing around with the old stuff first. :) (Since the Uzebox I have also acquired a Dingoo A320, which I have also mostly failed to do anything with.)

I've always been put off the XGS systems by the price, though. I had to think twice - and still wait for a moment of weakness :) - before getting the Dingoo, and that's quite a bit cheaper, although not really the same kind of thing at all. The "advantage" of the Uzebox is that you can get it in much smaller increments, which don't feel so painful.
lightfoot256
Posts: 119
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:53 pm
Location: South Yorkshire, England
Contact:

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by lightfoot256 »

I'd never seen the media page before:

http://www.xgamestation.com/media.php

Looks like he went through some serious prototyping stages, right from Z80 to FPGA, Arm, and now onto PIC/AVR and Propeller.
User avatar
TonyD
Posts: 134
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:23 pm
Location: Newcastle, UK
Contact:

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by TonyD »

lightfoot256 wrote: Looks like he went through some serious prototyping stages, right from Z80 to FPGA, Arm, and now onto PIC/AVR and Propeller.
Andre's book "Black Art of Video Game Console Design" shows his early Z80, 6502 and 6809 designs, as well as the SX28 (PIC micro lookalike) console design used for the XGamestation Pico console. But I found it strange that the Z80, 6503 and 6809 designs didn't have any video sub-systems but other than that the book is a very good read, full of useful snippets of information and would recommend it to anyone interested the hardware side of video consoles.
User avatar
uze6666
Site Admin
Posts: 4801
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:13 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Contact:

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by uze6666 »

R.I.P XGamestation. Seems Andre has thrown the towel in 2016.

Makes me think of all we accomplished since the launch almost 10 years ago...who would have tough. Pretty awesome! 8-) And since I still ship about 100+ kits year-over-year to Adafruit I reckon interest is still pretty good (even if it's totally buried in their thousand of products inventory :lol: ).
User avatar
D3thAdd3r
Posts: 3221
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:00 am
Location: Minneapolis, United States

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by D3thAdd3r »

A lot of good guys around here and that makes all the difference in the fun and motivation. I don't think XGS even in it's prime ever matched the community here. Uzebox is a pretty amazing little story. Eh, I must believe there is more to come!
roadster
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 27, 2014 2:02 am

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by roadster »

Andre is still around, he has a new website http://www.ic0nstrux.com/
User avatar
uze6666
Site Admin
Posts: 4801
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:13 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Contact:

Re: XGS AVR Better than the Uzebox?

Post by uze6666 »

Long live Atmega consoles!!
Post Reply