Matty & Mattie Portable (Matej.Tech)

Discuss anything not related to the current Uzebox design like successors and other open source gaming hardware
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Matej
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:36 pm

Matty & Mattie Portable (Matej.Tech)

Post by Matej »

I am starting my own open source console project.
Webpage will be: http://www.matej.tech
Forum will be: forum.matej.tech

I will call my game console "Matty" as it is nickname for my real name Matthew (Matej).

I have choosen minimalistic and ultracheap ARM sbc board but one with good documentation
of SOC. And yes whole board is very well documented (fully opensource). So in future
there is possibility of own manufacturing derivate of it!
I know there is Raspberry Pi and other very nice complex SBC boards. But this one is very retro.
This board is by very well known manufacturer (they can produce 1000s boards) but is highly
underestimated. Manufacturer of SOC writes on their page long time support for it (2025).
So I have decided to support it!!! And other reason is I allready own 2x at home...

Some early specs:
32Bit Risc ARM CPU / 454MHz
64 MB RAM
TV PAL/NTSC video output
720x480 pixels (NTSC)
720x576 pixels (PAL)
16,777,216 (24-bit color depth)
Pixel Processing Pipeline (PXP)
1 USB High Speed Host
Three buttons
60PIN GPIO
Stereo headphone DAC with 99 dB SNR
SDcard
Linux


Compare to Nintendo 64:
CPU: 64-bit NEC VR4300 (MIPS R4300i) running at 93.75 MHz
GPU: 64-bit Reality Coprocessor, running at 62.5 MHz
Audio: 16-bit, stereo, CD quality
4 MB RDRAM (Rambus DRAM) on a 9-bit 562.5 MB/s bus, upgradable to 8 MB with Expansion Pak
ROM cartridge (Nintendo 64 Game Pak) bus running at 264 MB/s
Resolution: 240p (320×240), 288p (384×288), 480i (640×480), 576i (720×576)
Color palette: 16,777,216 (24-bit color depth), 2,097,152 possible colors (21-bit color) on screen

Compare to Commodore Amiga 1200:
CPU: Motorola MC68EC020 + MC68881 FPU
SPEED: 14.18758 MHz (PAL) / 14.31818 MHz (NTSC)
RAM: 2 MB Chip RAM, expandable to 10 MB max (2 MB Chip RAM + 8 MB Fast Ram)
GRAPHIC MODES: 320×200 to 1280×512 max
COLORS Palette: 16.7 million
On screen: 256 in normal modes, 262144 in HAM-8
SOUND: 4 channel 8 bit PCM, stereo output
IDE hard drive interface, composite video out, RF out, 2x Atari joystick/mouse ports
BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5” floppy disk drive

So it is not so powerful as todays PCs or RPi3 but it is very powerful as retro game console (like N64, PS1, Jaguar, 3DO, CD32).

Price?

Price will be max. 19Euro / 20USD. Also there will be 3D printed case (for sale or you will be print it by yourself or in nearest 3D printing service).
I plan to have there forum for development, cms website, wiki page and every half year PDF MattyMagazine. I also will do
some coding / pixelart / chipmusic competitions there too.

More infos to come. All developers will be welcomed! I will make also MattyTeam (LinuxDistro,Games,Ports,Language Translations,Magazine).
There is allready linux image for that board so we will just add GUI there.
There will be place for other diy software houses / developers (download games, apps from my page).
Also games/apps will be donationware/levelware. If you will love game (or few levels) you will be able to buy
it on SD card with nice box and manual / or buy extra level pack for your fav game or simply you will send paypal donation directly to author...

Tools for development:
C++, C ,Pascal, Basic, Lua (for example http://liballeg.org/)
TileStudio / Tiled - sprites+map (PNG, MAP)
Milkytracker (XM,MOD) - music

MattyLinux will be small normal Linux derived from + very vry simple gui (game loading menu, gamepad settings etc).

Please welcome to discuss your ideas here.

As I am CAD engineer I will do full documentation for case...

Have a nice day.

Matej
Last edited by Matej on Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
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D3thAdd3r
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Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:00 am
Location: Minneapolis, United States

Re: Matej.Tech - Matty

Post by D3thAdd3r »

It will run Doom I think, and I will buy any console that runs Doom :lol:
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Matej
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:36 pm

Re: Matej.Tech - Matty & Matie Portable

Post by Matej »

You can allready buy it! For all developers here you can buy original "Matty" (Olimex iMX-233-Micro).
EU
https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXi ... e-hardware
US
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... ND/3601084
List of distributors (WORLDWIDE):
https://www.olimex.com/Distributors/

You can get Matty everywhere!!!

There is no audio out on board. So you need wire two pins. So yes it is DIY game console :D!!!

BTW it allready runs doom pretty fast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR3N2SycEXM

Here is how big is Matty (in the middle, red prototype enclosure) vs. Raspberry PI2 (left) vs. Raspberry Pi Zero (Right).
So Matty is very small and cute (smaller than original RPi).
Image

First We should make linux distro image, than nice game console like enclosure (3d printed) + buttons.
I will burn fuses, wire audio out by myself or there will be tutorial on http://www.matej.tech.
Also I will make few consoles kits for EU market in future. So you will get enclosure, board (burned fuses by me),
stereojack, pins and cable and USB retro gamepad...
And maybe in future we can make our own version of board (white pcb, stereojack on board, wifi for multiplayer via gpio)!!!
As it is fully opensource.

I like ports and emulators but I think Matty will be powerful for our own games too!
And it is Linux. So easy to use some C++ game library and MOD files and Tiled, Tile Studio.
For 3D maybe some 3D engines from DS or TinyGL!

During weekend I will setup cms, forum...

Also I am thinking about "Mattie" = Portable Matty (composite TFT+battery+gameboy like 3d printed case and buttons)...

Let me know if you want join MattyTeam or MattiePortableTeam...
Fabiano Traple
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Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:07 pm

Re: Matty & Mattie Portable (Matej.Tech)

Post by Fabiano Traple »

Just to help you! :)

Here you will find example of hardware designed in Eagle.

https://github.com/ftraple/retrobit

any questions or suggestions just ask! ;)

https://github.com/ftraple/retrobit/blo ... tWhite.jpg
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Matej
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:36 pm

Re: Matty & Mattie Portable (Matej.Tech)

Post by Matej »

Fabiano Traple wrote:Just to help you! :)

Here you will find example of hardware designed in Eagle.

https://github.com/ftraple/retrobit

any questions or suggestions just ask! ;)

https://github.com/ftraple/retrobit/blo ... tWhite.jpg
Thank you Fabiano. Can I link your RetroBit Matty version on my site? (Can you call it RetroBit Matty??? As PC or Android or 8bit MSX. Different manufacturers - one platform. People will know that they will be compatible to each other...) Or add on description RetroBit - Matty Compatible Platform... Something like that. Gamepads are USB or DB9 or screws/pins??? Looks amazing! Are you going to make few boards or PCBs? When yes I will buy 2x...
Fabiano Traple
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:07 pm

Re: Matty & Mattie Portable (Matej.Tech)

Post by Fabiano Traple »

Hi Matty!

You can do what you want with this hardware design, it is totally free! but, I will appreciate if you give me some credit! ;)
I plan to use for DB9 connectors to the joysticks.
I intend to do some boards to test the design, but for now I have no resources and time available to it. :cry:
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Matej
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:36 pm

Re: Matty & Mattie Portable (Matej.Tech)

Post by Matej »

Nice I like DB9 Sega like connectors. Gamepads are really cheap.
I will do 6x PCB for experiments. I can send you 2x...
Also I will make link to your gitHUB and special category in forum for
development for you... Have a nice day.
-Matt-
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