Official BlackBox News Thread

Krepticor · Post by **Krepticor** » Sat May 20, 2006 10:44 pm

I have my design here

The controller would function as a normal controller and have a lightgun built in, one of he legs would fold up and the barrel would be that folded up leg

Also, I just placed a random button config. I just crammed as many controls in one so It ain't what I expect of the box

Post by **Triton** » Sat May 20, 2006 10:52 pm

i like it, very alien lookin ad stuff, im uber tired so woo! looks good ill pst more tomorrow

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sat May 20, 2006 11:01 pm

Sorry, but BlackBox is patented as BlackBox networking services. Their website is, guess what, www.blackbox.com ! I suggest slightly altering the name to, say, BlakBox or BlackBoxx (people like double x's).

CTFan

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:51 am

Someone will need to investigate the legal implications of the current name. As I currently understand it, there should be no trouble unless that company decides to put up a fuss. I doubt it will, though, because our BlackBox is unrelated and not a competitor.

You see, this console is named off of the flight recorders in aircraft, which have been called Black Boxes for many decades. There is nothing wrong with that.

Some of numerous websites featuring unrelated things called BlackBox:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/kaut ... /blackbox/
http://www.blackboxmusicfx.com/
http://www.blackboxwines.com/
http://blackbox-radio.blogspot.com/
http://www.blackboxstudio.com/
http://black.box.sk/
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/d ... ckbox.html
http://www.sanctuaryclassics.com/labels ... bsection=0
http://www.clickmazes.com/bbox/ixbbox.htm
http://www.blkbox.com/
http://toybox.150m.com/

Just for kicks, here is a picture of one of the first ever black box flight recorders (or at least the innards of the thing).

Take note of all the wicked awesome / retro computing elements.

Extreme_Jesus · Post by **Extreme_Jesus** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:19 am

this all looks pretty sweet

by the way how are you gonna make the cases and such?

how many are you gonna make?

Do you have any games yet?

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:35 am

You're here early, Extreme Jesus- so early that you will witness the very birth of iam7805's console, starting at conception. To the best of my knowledge no games exist yet.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sun May 21, 2006 8:14 am

Sounds like one ambitious project. Is the system really going to have the processing power to use a disc format like CD-Rom? I know they have one from the IDE64 project for the Commodore64, but I know there is a lot of the work is done by other chips.

As for the console case design. I know it might sound silly but I really like the look of the Atari Jaguar. Really as you can remove the CD-Rom if you want to and I think it's just a better layout then say the SegaCD (verions 1 or 2).

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Sun May 21, 2006 8:21 am

most of the designs for a controller i have seen have one or two joysticks, why would you want a joystick to play the types of games this will play and why would you want two a design almost like a snes controller wouls probably be the best for these types of games(6 buttons, l and r, and a d-pad)

i like this idea the more you post on it iam7805it sounds like you plan to follow it through, i cant wait to see it finished

Extreme_Jesus · Post by **Extreme_Jesus** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:19 am

the joystick does seem like it wouldnt really be needed on a console thats doind NES/SNES style graphics

i suppose it would be useful it you made something like Starwing

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:33 am

I wonder if could be possable to create a cart that has a program that can play RPG Maker games, or even Game Maker. This way, people could burn their games onto a cd, and allow the option of Loading a program from a cart then loading a game for the program via CD. This way, the console could be very easy to create games for, and also very open source. I mean, this isnt gonna be commercial is it?

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:37 am

Harshboy wrote:I wonder if could be possable to create a cart that has a program that can play RPG Maker games, or even Game Maker. This way, people could burn their games onto a cd, and allow the option of Loading a program from a cart then loading a game for the program via CD. This way, the console could be very easy to create games for, and also very open source. I mean, this isnt gonna be commercial is it?

Sorry, but I couldn't do that. At least not without some sort of emulation because Game Maker and RPG Maker use x86 architecture. Making the emulation nesecary to run it won't run very well on a 40mHZ processor, and its just something I'm not interested in doing with this console.

I'm probably going to sell it on the internet, but only if I can create it for a reasnable (sp wrong, i know) price.

Also, I don't see any problems with the name. I don't think that networking company has sued the people that made the Blackbox window manager, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Also @ Fanboy: So far I like you controller design the best, innovative, ya' know? But don't bother with making the PCB and stuff, because there's going to need to be extra components on there. Stuff like the encoder chip, etc, etc.

I'm going to pick the best designs later. So far Fanboy's controller and Triton's console design are winning.

Sword_Gun · Post by **Sword_Gun** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:48 am

So let me get tis straight.. Your building your own Video Gam System?

cool.

*cough* I Can Beta test stuff *cough* I have a Bad cold.

joevennix · Post by **joevennix** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:49 am

Oh, didn't think of the capabilities of the console in relation to the joystick. Analog sticks would not be necessary I guess, a dpad and a few buttons would work. A wireless controller would be cool though.

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:55 am

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/p ... ber=G14071

That's what i'm thinking of using for the analog sticks, so their not really analog I guess. I suppose its like a D-Pad with a joystick on top.

Fanboy · Post by **Fanboy** » Sun May 21, 2006 10:37 am

Makes my life easier... No need to hookup all those resistors... Also, thanks for the kudos on my controller design... I know the key thoughts behind the BB system, and simply used them to design the controller... Working on a console design too...