New 16-Bit console coming !!!! ????

<a href="http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?s=2e81764336c3841651ee5f808688ad95&threadid=50172" target="_blank">http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?s=2e81764336c3841651ee5f808688ad95&threadid=50172</a>

Unlike systems from Nintendo and Sony, XGS developers face no legal or financial restrictions with XGameStation. There's no official license, no royalties to pay, and no guidelines to follow. Users are free to let their imaginations and ambitions run wild, which is what the system's designer, LaMothe, is working to provide - the freedom for the individual to once again call the shots.?

This is indeed a drastic departure from the usual license hell in the console games industry. The XGameStation is 16-bit video game console, and games are played off custom cartridges that you burn yourself.

The XGameStation kit comes with the XGameStation console itself, an eBook on CD that starts from the basics digital engineering and takes you all the way through building your own video game system and writing games for it. The system comes pre-assembled, but you get all the plans and documentation necessary to build your own if you want. Additionally, you get all the software and tools necessary to develop for it.

There are a lot of expansion MODs planned right now like the Xbox controller interface or the CompactFlash card reader module. At the moment it?s not possible to order an XGameStation, but pre-orders will begin soon.


official site

<a href="http://www.xgamestation.com/index.php" target="_blank">http://www.xgamestation.com/index.php</a>


The XGameStation has an estimated street price of $99, which includes the XGameStation, the eBook, all necessary power supplies and cables, one blank cartridge, and the complete SDK (software development kit supporting C, assembly language and our own XGameStation BASIC)."


"The processing power of the XGameStation is approximately 10x that of the Super Nintendo (SNES),and it's graphical capabilities are approximately 50-200% more advanced than the SNES. [Hehe, which would still make it ALOT more powerful than NeoGeo] Moreover, the graphics subsystem was specifically designed to draw upon the best parts of the Atari 800, Apple II, Super Nintendo, and Commodore 64, the systems that drove the computer and video game revolutions"

for $99 i'd take one.

This seems really cool, I have a friend who developes video games, but the only people who were desperate enough to hire him was the xbox people. he told me he wasn't hurting for a job THAT badly. He would probably like to hear about this, I'm interested too, gonna check the website out. Oh, and if you ever see a game for this system called MAL, be sure to check it out, that would be his, and its really cool.

At first I thought 'Whats the point? Why not just make a PC game', but I guess the idea of coding for a fixed-architecture, cartridge-based macine is fairly cool, and not something most budding coders get the chance to do (apart from, mabye the GP32).

I do have some reservations about the games that come out though. I can see myself having to wade through a pile of really bad hombrew turd-fests before finding that 'hidden gem'.
A bit like rummaging through PSone games at a 2nd hand shop really.... only (hopefully) cheaper.

Oh yea, and I guess one of this forums Neo-Nazis will want to point out that this ain't exactly Neo Geo news and should be in the Unrelated section. But it's not bothering me....
EDIT: looks like it already is: <a href="http://www.neo-geo.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=021879" target="_blank">http://www.neo-geo.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=021879</a>

<small>[ August 08, 2003, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: toy_brain ]</small>

Cool. I will get one of these as soon as it's available.

Sounds like a great idea. Thing is I know a select few would push for something like this, but the majority of the market wouldn't. Let's hope I'm wrong.

When is it coming out?

Color me VERY intrigued.

Lord knows what kind of talent this sort of thing could spawn, especially if the documentation and supplied tools are well-written and designed.
I wouldn't mind killing a few weeks trying to cobble together my own shooter.

the people at that forum are a bit harsh no?


seeing as im sick of the next gen systems with the compleate crap that most companies release, il definately be looking out for this.

Frame Gride 2:
When is it coming out?

Click to expand...

12-12-2003
The Revolution is Coming.

That's what it's says in the main page.

If all goes well with this system, I'll purchase it.

Is there any way to develop homebrew games for the Neo in a similar fashion? I seem to remember someone making a game for the Neo 64 (Neo Sparks, but I don't think it ever saw release), and I think someone (JK?) got a Neo emulator to run Columns (Genesis), right?

Since emulators are legal to own, does this mean it'd be possible to develop homebrew Neo games even if they technically couldn't be played on the home system?

I'm grateful for Playmore and glad that the Neo is still going strong after all of these years, but with the recent lawsuits, would Neo homebrew development still be inside the realm of legality?
Just curious...

- Kyle

12/12/03... that kicks ass.. I would deffintely purchase one.

Despite claiming 16-bit capabilities, if you read through the entire site, it would appear that you can only make games similar to Commadore64 and Atari 2600....

Oh man , please let this not be another Vaporware console.

So why the hell hasn't someone made a development kit for our precious Neo yet??

ResOGlas:
Despite claiming 16-bit capabilities, if you read through the entire site, it would appear that you can only make games similar to Commadore64 and Atari 2600....

Click to expand...

That really doesn't surprise me, over at IntellivisionLives.com they claim the Intellivision was the first 16-bit console ever.

if i can put pac-man asteroids and galaga roms on those carts i would buy it

kc:
if i can put pac-man asteroids and galaga roms on those carts i would buy it

Click to expand...

You might as well just buy an Atari, it's cheaper....and legit.


Edit: I didn't look at your sig before I posted, so I didn't grasp the sarcasm.

<small>[ August 09, 2003, 12:05 AM: Message edited by: ResOGlas ]</small>

ataris pacman vs. arcade pacman

think about that

kc:
ataris pacman vs. arcade pacman

think about that

Click to expand...

Despite claiming 16-bit capabilities, if you read through the entire site, it would appear that you can only make games similar to Commadore64 and Atari 2600....

Click to expand...

rather get a supergun

ResOGlas:
Despite claiming 16-bit capabilities, if you read through the entire site, it would appear that you can only make games similar to Commadore64 and Atari 2600....

Click to expand...

Also says this though
'The processing power of the XGameStation is approximately 10x that of the Super Nintendo (SNES), and it's graphical capabilities are approximately 50-200% more advanced than the SNES'

I'm kind of confused.

im with lithy

Processing power is 10x that of SNES, while graphics capability is 50% to 200% more than SNES.

that is how I read it, anyway.

If that were true, it would put this thing at approx. just under NEO GEO levels in graphics ability while more than NEO GEO in processing
power.

It's not very clear though, as it doesn't give info about hardware sprites, background layers, color pallete / colors on screen, scaling & rotation, etc. although we know it has a 25 Mhz 68XXX processor which is faster and more powerful than Neo's 12.5 Mhz 68000.

<small>[ August 09, 2003, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: shinsurfer ]</small>

Have I seen a dual PSX controller ports ?