An update to “List of Homebrew Video Games Consoles”

I’ve neglected my list of homebrew video game consoles, so here’s a update:

• www.xcores.orgMy friend Yvo’s site related to the awesome Xmos chip.
• mikronauts.comPropCade is a self-contained and affordable Propeller platform for emulating old computers (Z80, 6809, etc) and old game consoles.
• www.retrode.orgNot a console as such but a handy way feeding games to your SNES or Mega Drive / Genesis emulator from your original cartridges.
• www.4dsystems.com.auPoGa, a Portable Game Development console looking a lot like a SNES controller.
• www.chameleon-dev.comChameleon PIC 16-Bit and the Chameleon AVR 8-Bit are yet another Propeller based systems this time with the addition of a standard Microchip PIC or Atmel AVR microcontroller.
• www.fpgaarcade.comA site dedicate to recreating gaming hardware from the past in modern programmable FPGA devices.
• www.lucidscience.comA beautifully documented insight to designing and building your own classic console
• www.microvga.coma design offering a low-cost Microcontroller to VGA interface
• www.ladyada.netA new system from LadyAda offering a 320×240 TFT color display with resistive touch screen.
• rossum.posterous.comRBox: A diy 32 bit game console for the price of a latte
• www.linusakesson.net linusakesson “craft”

the original list is still here:

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Super Mario vs Xmos

Yvo Zoer of www.xcores.org has been making the Xmos XS1-G4 multi-core multi-threaded processor do some cool looking things …

All this on a single chip with no dedicated video graphics controller in sight.

I hope Yvo releases the source code and hardware details soon, so I can have a fire up my Xmos development board and have some fun.

Who knows it could snowball into another Uzebox or Xgamestation like community collaboration. Lets hope so.

List of Homebrew Video Games Consoles

You don’t need a Wii, PS3 or Xbox to have a great gaming experience. If you really want to get to know the hardware of a video game console then build one of the many cool designs available on the web (or if you’re really cool design one yourself). Some are one chip designs, some are multichip almost computer like designs and the others somewhere in between. Most are powered by 8-bit micros, one or two have 16-bit micros and a few use 32-bit micros.

While Uzebox is one of my favourite homebrew games consoles, there are a number of other projects out there:

• www.belogic.com/uzebox Atmel AVR
• www.innovativedevice.com Atmel AVR + CPLD
• avga.prometheus4.com Atmel AVR
• www.multilabs.net FPGA + PIC?
• www.propgfx.co.uk Parallax Propeller
• www.retroleum.co.uk Zilog Z80 + FPGA
• tinyvga.com FPGA VGA controller and add your own micro
• www.xgamestation.com the Daddy of them all, but commercial only – SX28, Parallax Propeller, Microchip PIC and Atmel AVR

If you know of any others please add a comment and I’ll update this list over time.