New book on Video Game consoles

scherubino · Post by **scherubino** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:06 pm

Just got a new book on video game console hacking/design. It's called "The Black Art of Video Game Console Design". Where as Ben's book explains how to hack existing consoles, this one tells you how to make one from scratch and what all the parts do.

I'm only on the 2nd chapter but it is pretty awesome.

Motoman · Post by **Motoman** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:19 pm

I heard the book pretty complicated and not for n00bs (Like me

) Anyway hows it goin so far and can you explain further on what it talks about? I was contemplating buying one.

scherubino · Post by **scherubino** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:25 pm

I'd say it is kind of for a noob becasue the whole first part of the book is a lesson in electronics. All the parts of electronics: resistors, capacitors, transformers,etc... I'm still getting through that part - which is good because I need that backgoround. I've built portables from Ben's book in the past but never knew what all the parts did. This is filling in those blanks. So far so good.

scherubino · Post by **scherubino** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:26 pm

here's the link to amazon where they explain the book more. And give reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067232 ... e&n=283155

Klefmung · Post by **Klefmung** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:43 pm

With this, people could theoretically engineer a SNOAC, don't ya think? I am so buying it!

scherubino · Post by **scherubino** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:57 pm

we'll see, and I hope that's the case, but I'll have to wait till I get into the meat of the book to find out.

Klefmung · Post by **Klefmung** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:03 pm

When it comes to me, I will check it out, maybe we can get our heads together.

scherubino · Post by **scherubino** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:08 pm

sounds good.

Post by **Skyone** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:42 pm

Ah, ya!

I bought this book a month ago because HackerXjr wanted to make a console. Kind of a flake.

Scherubino, you want to try to get something out of this book and possible design something?

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:38 am

Klefmung wrote:With this, people could theoretically engineer a SNOAC, don't ya think? I am so buying it!

That would involve silcon chip design. Something far more advanced then basic electronics. I will say that you could redesign the SNES board to make it smaller, but enginer a chip, no I doubt anyone here has that kind of knowledge.

scherubino · Post by **scherubino** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:49 am

my goal basically out of this book is to make better portables. I see no real reason to reinvent the wheel, or in this case an Atari, NES, playstation, etc.. But just to KNOW HOW to do it would be great. I also want to expand my knowledge so I'm not limited to using the PSone or composite only screens. THis book goes over how to design video circuitry. That sounds pretty cool.

Post by **marshallh** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:05 am

Ah, yes, that would be Andre Lamothe, is it not? I have one of his excellent C programming books.

Once you understand what goes into designing a video game console, it isn't that hard to understand. You should take a look at Kevin Horton's FPGA Console of DOOOOOM, it's essentially a NOAC on steroids. You can either program FPGAs with VHDL/Verilog, or by manually designing logic gates yourself (I think Kevin opted for the latter.)

Also, IIRC Xilinx has the Spartan 3 start kit for under $200, great for anyone wanting to start out with FPGAs.

www.fpgas4fun.com has a section on how to generate an RGB signal from some VHDL code.

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:41 am

I want this book! It looks really cool. (and I want to learn more about electronics)

gamefunatic · Post by **gamefunatic** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:22 pm

jeroen wrote:I want this book! It looks really cool. (and I want to learn more about electronics)

i agree. "tax time" the guard calls, "tax time everyone pay your dues, the black art book will be fine"

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:56 pm

this sounds like a pretty cool book i know one of the devs on the gp2x boards is trying to make his own console from scratch