game console

[Marks256]

I haven't been involved in desining something at this level but normally they're designed on computers and the first prototype doesn't resemble the final design that much. It's really messy and probably far from compact, it probably used many programmable chips and an LCD module, it was also a lot more expensive too!

That is half the fun!

 

[Sim]

wheres a good place to buy LCD screens. Gotta buy that too since I know i'll be needed that.

 

[Marks256]

Jameco has them, too. Just type in LCD in the search box, and then click on "Keyword". It should come up with a bunch.

 

[Sim]

57$????????? what!!!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

57$????????? what!!!

You haven't been paying attention!, it's already been mentioned that you will have to pay a LOT to make a limited custom games machine.

From the level of your electronics knowledge, it doesn't seem a very practical idea? - I would seriously suggest you buy a Gameboy and write games for that, there's plenty of information and tools available on the net.

Or if you do want to built one from scratch?, expect to spend the cost of a big heap of Gameboys!.

 

[Marks256]

Actually, $57 is a small price to pay for a nice, durable, LCD with complete data. Parallel LCDs are a lot cheaper, and they are a bit simpler.

I was flipping through my MPJA magazine a few days ago, and i found a really nice looking 20x4 LCD display WITH data for $10. MPJA is very nice, too. I only have ordered from them once, but i was fairly happy. Here is the stock # : 15364-OP and the website is www.mpja.com

 

[Sim]

After research this is going to be hard and will take very long time to make. I'll purchase this bad boy tomorrow then i'll need some help purchasing a microcontroller. anyone got any suggestions on a good one. I really don't understand how the code is going to output the LCD screen yet, once i figure that part out, i think im just about set.

 

[Sim]

Would it be easier to output to a TV or would it be same level of difficulty?

 

[Marks256]

In my opinion, LCD would be easier. I am not sure how to output to a tv?

 

[Sim]

Any other takers on that question?

 

[Madhouse]

My tip, get a PIC16 or PIC18 chip, some push button switches and a 128x64 graphical LCD (monochrome but they come in blue ). After that you don't need much more (4 AA's will run it for hours), and then get on with some programming (dev board and compiler around $100 for easy to use stuff). There are plastics materials around nowadays that even allow you mould your own case to suit!

That would be my approach, if you want something hand held and "unique"!

 

[Marks256]

Yup. Sounds good Madhouse!

 

[white spider]

what is so usefull about games any how?

 

[Madhouse]

Keep the kids quiet of course!!!!

BTW Not that I advocate that as a sole occupation for them!

 

[Marks256]

The BEST game EVER written was pong......

 

[Sim]

sorry to bring this SUPER OLD thread up, but I finally gotten everything but a GOOD dev board and compiler, where can I get one? Can someone gimme a link to a good one or even the best.

 

[Madhouse]

Well, if you are using PIC, I use the EasyPIC3, which has been brilliant. I've produced dozens of prototypes with it over the last year or so. Now it's the EasyPIC4 https://www.mikroe.com/en/tools/easypic4/ but basically an upgraded version of what I've got, I'm not tempted with the minor improvements....

"Mikroe" have an excellent forum, and the developers of the hardware are very active on the forum so you won't have any problems getting going with it. The programmer is very simple to use and 100% reliable. They offer a good range of software to go with it (BASIC, C etc) which I don't use - I use the PIC16 and PIC18 emulators from www.oshonsoft.com, but they appear to have discontinued development so I can't really recommend it, other than try the trial versions. It works brilliantly with the EasyPIC board.

Hope that helps!

 

[Madhouse]

BTW, with a PIC18 output to TV can be done really easily if you don't mind B/W display. One PIC chip, two resistors, a crystal and a phono socket (+5v supply as well) gives you everything you need AKA ZX81 style - 32x25 character display (40x25 possible) (256x200 or 320x200 pixel) with user-defineable characters for graphics, all interrupt driven so all you have to to is write your game and use your imagination - the display takes care of itself. Have written all the code a couple of years back and have some photos of it running on a dev board somewhere.... On top of that, for a game, you could simply "parallel" the PICs to generate RGB output - again something I played with. I also built an "intelligent" graphics controller with three PIC18's paralleled, which provided an 8 bit parallel interface to the external world, whilst providing 512x200 resolution mono display, with built in line and circle drawing algorithms (utilising limited UDG's). Wrote a "Snake" game on it which the kids loved!

 

[Stellarcore]

In highschool I remember looking at a PIC16F84 project for a Tetris and Pong game that produced an NTSC signal to be hooked into a standard television.

This might be a good project for you to try and build first, before you get into more complex projects like the one your describing.
**broken link removed**

This project has complete designs and instructions. Once you've got it working you can load pong or tetris into it, and after that you could try your hand at writing another game for it.

Once you've mastered that, you could consider designing your own handheld system that uses a graphic LCD, or maybe just a more sophisticated NTSC system..

Good luck, and have fun. Be prepared to spend hundreds of dollars on this stuff before you're through.

 

[Madhouse]

Take a look at Rickard's page - he inspired my experiments with PIC video,
www.rickard.gunee.com/projects/video/pic/tetris.php