The hardware for my fantasy PowerPC console (that is how it's done, right?), renamed "Bobcat", has all arrived!

Now the only things I need are the JTAG debugger (this board has _no_ removable media or drive ports, only an EEPROM and some flash) and some motivation.

...and also lots of luck, because the last time I touched JTAG was 20 years ago, for a 68k assembly course. -_-;

#powerpc #fantasyconsoles

Today in roller coaster rides:

Down: I will likely never be able to emulate or build that freakish fantasy console I've been obsessing over because the hardware and code is ancient.

Up: Somebody built almost the same system _last year_.

Down: it's $1000.

Up: It's a whole-ass computer.

Down: it's a whole-ass Amiga with no GPU acceleration and limited FPU support.

Up: people are actively fixing all these issues!

This is a little exhausting, but fun!
#fantasyconsoles #a1222 #a1222plus

Galapagos 1 was envisioned as a full-on fantasy computer, which as I explored it more, started to feel more and more off-base, primarily because of the "terrarium" problem - to build a featureful computing environment you end up needing to build and package an entire jungle, which rapidly explodes into "rebuild the Microsoft Windows API stack".

The idea for Galapagos 2 would be to narrow things down to:

* A game engine that runs on Agon Light
* Prototyped on PC in Pygame
* On device is Agon Forth-based, super hackable
* Makes use of simple binary formats with similarly simple standalone tools - no singular IDE
* Multiple fixed graphics, physics and input kernels, static maximums on assets per scene
* Fixed, sample-based audio kernel (using the 4x2 channel tracker/DJ interface combo I came up with the other day, plus 4x channels for sound effects, for 12 total)
* Can work with assets on-device, PC development used as a supplemental bootstrap

And that's it! It creates a productive overlap of goals:
"portable, reproducible": satisfied by targeting a small but real device, with two implementations of the core code, one leveraging PC infra and the other machine-up
"extension": satisfied by being designed in a hackable way (Forth interpreter, simple formats)
"tooling": satisfied with fixed-function kernels and assets, narrowing the aspect of how to model data and present interfaces
"understandable": it won't need that much in the way of miraculous backend code or large build systems - instead it can be extensively documented

#retrocomputing #gamedev #fantasyconsoles

Seeing my game pop up on YouTube is such a cool feeling.

https://youtu.be/ijgHEzVanug?si=sFl4a6ZkMPxFx61F

#indiedev #indiegame #pico8 #fantasyconsoles

Is it possible to write programs for the Pico-8 in Assembly, C, or anything that isn't Lua? I haven't really found any good documentation on it so I have no clue if it's even possible.

#Pico8 #FantasyConsoles