   homemade games console system
  I've toyed with this idea for a few years now.heres the plan:create a homemade games console using selected x86 hardware.the whole unit is given a powerful cooling system and then overclocked.software is a custom built Linux stripped down to the bare bones required to run games. OpenGL, SDL and openALgraphic output is to standard TV inputs.What would this system cost to produce, assuming you make 1000 units?Will be kind of interesting to see what people here come up with.   
  Not to burst your bubble, but it's already in the works.   ;  And you could give a cool name, like "Crystal Tiger".  And you'd have all the biggest developers creating games for it, and an exclusive MMORPG as well!  You'd definitely need Half-Life 2 and Oblivion, because Valve and Bethesda would be all over this new system, right? [rolleyes]Also make sure your console has it's own magazine, because every piece of hardware needs an official publication before it can launch.[lol]Seriously, to sell even the 1000 units you're talking about you would need games.  Exclusive games.  And exclusive games that people would want to play.  And those just can't be developed cheaply enough to release on a system that isn't guaranteed a multi-million user install base at launch.If you're doing it for fun, go for it.  But don't worry about producing 1000 units because without some serious funding it will never be more than a hobby.   ;Quote:Original post by JBourrieAnd you could give a cool name, like "Crystal Tiger".  And you'd have all the biggest developers creating games for it, and an exclusive MMORPG as well!  You'd definitely need Half-Life 2 and Oblivion, because Valve and Bethesda would be all over this new system, right? [rolleyes]Also make sure your console has it's own magazine, because every piece of hardware needs an official publication before it can launch.Thank you for those links. I had all but forgotten about Crystal Tiger.   ;Quote:Original post by JBourrieAnd you could give a cool name, like "Crystal Tiger".  And you'd have all the biggest developers creating games for it, and an exclusive MMORPG as well!  You'd definitely need Half-Life 2 and Oblivion, because Valve and Bethesda would be all over this new system, right? [rolleyes]Reading over this thread is kind of sad, actually. It really reminded me of my own impossible projects when I had that kids age, and how fun they were as long as they lasted. Eventhough 99.9% of these impossible dreams failed (of course), the remaining 0.1% one succeeded, and eventually brought me to where I am now. I'm glad there weren't any internet forums back in these days, that would've been devastating.It's really frightening how incredibly cynical the business world can make a person.;  Making your own console is perfectly possible, though forget about it being powerful or indeed anything close to the currently generation of consoles.  I made a little 'console' using a propeller chip last summer, there's a bit of info here and here.  There's also the stuff over at XGameStation if you don't want to mess around with electronics and just write some code.  You could go for using x86 hardware but then you're just building a PC in a shiny box.   ;Quote:Original post by Yann LQuote:Original post by JBourrieAnd you could give a cool name, like "Crystal Tiger".  And you'd have all the biggest developers creating games for it, and an exclusive MMORPG as well!  You'd definitely need Half-Life 2 and Oblivion, because Valve and Bethesda would be all over this new system, right? [rolleyes]Reading over this thread is kind of sad, actually. It really reminded me of my own impossible projects when I had that kids age, and how fun they were as long as they lasted. Eventhough 99.9% of these impossible dreams failed (of course), the remaining 0.1% one succeeded, and eventually brought me to where I am now. I'm glad there weren't any internet forums back in these days, that would've been devastating.It's really frightening how incredibly cynical the business world can make a person.I did my best to help those kids, though. There's a boundary between ignorant ambition and unsurmountable idiocy. We can only help people on one side of that line.   ;Quote:Original post by MonderMaking your own console is perfectly possible, though forget about it being powerful or indeed anything close to the currently generation of consoles.  I made a little 'console' using a propeller chip last summer, there's a bit of info here and here.  There's also the stuff over at XGameStation if you don't want to mess around with electronics and just write some code.  You could go for using x86 hardware but then you're just building a PC in a shiny box.I once built a very simple Z80-based game system using a Spartan-3 evaluation board for the video output and Sega Genesis control pads (3 or 6 buttons) for input: the BartStation.   ;Quote:Original post by PromitQuote:Original post by Yann LQuote:Original post by JBourrieAnd you could give a cool name, like "Crystal Tiger".  And you'd have all the biggest developers creating games for it, and an exclusive MMORPG as well!  You'd definitely need Half-Life 2 and Oblivion, because Valve and Bethesda would be all over this new system, right? [rolleyes]Reading over this thread is kind of sad, actually. It really reminded me of my own impossible projects when I had that kids age, and how fun they were as long as they lasted. Eventhough 99.9% of these impossible dreams failed (of course), the remaining 0.1% one succeeded, and eventually brought me to where I am now. I'm glad there weren't any internet forums back in these days, that would've been devastating.It's really frightening how incredibly cynical the business world can make a person.I did my best to help those kids, though. There's a boundary between ignorant ambition and unsurmountable idiocy. We can only help people on one side of that line.I think alot of us tried our best to help them out.  Suggest a better alternative, instead of just tell them they're dumb.  They were smart kids, the knew more than the average 13 y/o, but they just had no clue how to get where they wanted to go and refused to listen to anybody.It was kind of sad, but also a hilarious return to my own naive childhood and the insane ideas that I had about game design.  Like the one where you started as a little kid and grew into an old man, and you lived in a fully-working city where you could get any job you wanted (from homeless to President) and things that you did created a chain reaction effect, so if you caught a ball in the stands at a baseball game you might be shown in a short clip on TV, and then somebody might recognize you later and so on...I had it all designed out in my head, so I KNEW it could be done.  You can have a million bit-flags per megabyte!, so I certainly had enough memory in my PC to store the millions of bit-flags I would need to create such a complicated world...   ;Quote:I had it all designed out in my head, so I KNEW it could be done. You can have a million bit-flags per megabyte!, so I certainly had enough memory in my PC to store the millions of bit-flags I would need to create such a complicated world...Of course it can be done, I already did it. Nice try, Joe. Or should I say bit flag #389,238,291,679?   