- Joined
- Oct 3, 2005
- Posts
- 6,077
Wall of text incoming...
I'm building and selling my own game console. As in, an actual game console with purpose-built software on purpose-built hardware, not a Linux PC in a case. This is statistically a suicide mission, but I think it's worth doing anyway. Maybe I can explain. I want to make a good game console, because I think the big companies suck at it.
As a gamer I hate having to deal with all their bullshit. Why is the machine complaining that I didn't shut it down properly? Why is it pestering me to update the system software? Why am I downloading a terabyte of shit even though I put in a disc? Why am I waiting for things to install? Why does the controller cost $120 and always run out of goddamn batteries?
As a game developer I was baffled by some of the hoops we jumped through on Xbox and PlayStation. Why do I need to handle the Kinekt taking away someone's profile while they're playing? Why does an Ethernet-pull affect my single-player game? Why do I have to support suspend-and-resume, when the OS can't actually suspend my process? Who the hell designed these graphics APIs, and can I have whatever they're smoking?
I want to make a good game console, so it's worth defining what makes a game console good.
Obviously, good games make a good game console. Duh. But why do some consoles have lots of good games, and some just a few stinkers? I think the most important factor (aside from, maybe, the parent company remaining solvent) is the development environment. A good console has a good development environment. A good development environment makes happy developers. Happy developers make fun games. So a lot of the value in a game console is how it can make a game developer's job easier. That means simplicity, uniformity, predictability, and clear documentation are all wins. Complexity, unpredictability, spurious requirements, or mandated gimmicks, are all losses.
There's also a lot of value in specifically how a gamer interacts with a game console. They're buying it because they want someone else handling all the technical fussing. They want to put the game in the machine, hit the button, and go. If a console doesn't get that right, it's just a shitty PC in a little case. It also needs to avoid those other pitfalls that make it less fun - fragile controllers, long-ass installs, mandatory updates, stuff like that.
So, while knowing I can't compete on raw performance or production-value, I concentrated on what I could do really well. The result is called "Neki32". It's a 32-bit game console, designed to give everyone a nice experience. It's got a bog-standard ARM9 CPU hooked up to a USB-C power jack and an HDMI transmitter. It uses Sega Genesis controllers because they're dirt-cheap and I can source the plugs for them. The games are on SD cards and they load fast and don't flake out over time (no "go make a sandwich" Neo-CD loading screens here).

^^^ That's what the devkit looks like. The "consumer version" will have a nicer plastic case and decent packaging, once I figure out how to design either of those things.
I've got 5 of them on my desk at the moment and the materials for 30 more incoming. If you're interested in developing software, check out the manual and SDK available at the web site:
Send me a message too if this seems interesting to you! Hopefully I can build some momentum and get some great software on this little machine.
I'm building and selling my own game console. As in, an actual game console with purpose-built software on purpose-built hardware, not a Linux PC in a case. This is statistically a suicide mission, but I think it's worth doing anyway. Maybe I can explain. I want to make a good game console, because I think the big companies suck at it.
As a gamer I hate having to deal with all their bullshit. Why is the machine complaining that I didn't shut it down properly? Why is it pestering me to update the system software? Why am I downloading a terabyte of shit even though I put in a disc? Why am I waiting for things to install? Why does the controller cost $120 and always run out of goddamn batteries?
As a game developer I was baffled by some of the hoops we jumped through on Xbox and PlayStation. Why do I need to handle the Kinekt taking away someone's profile while they're playing? Why does an Ethernet-pull affect my single-player game? Why do I have to support suspend-and-resume, when the OS can't actually suspend my process? Who the hell designed these graphics APIs, and can I have whatever they're smoking?
I want to make a good game console, so it's worth defining what makes a game console good.
Obviously, good games make a good game console. Duh. But why do some consoles have lots of good games, and some just a few stinkers? I think the most important factor (aside from, maybe, the parent company remaining solvent) is the development environment. A good console has a good development environment. A good development environment makes happy developers. Happy developers make fun games. So a lot of the value in a game console is how it can make a game developer's job easier. That means simplicity, uniformity, predictability, and clear documentation are all wins. Complexity, unpredictability, spurious requirements, or mandated gimmicks, are all losses.
There's also a lot of value in specifically how a gamer interacts with a game console. They're buying it because they want someone else handling all the technical fussing. They want to put the game in the machine, hit the button, and go. If a console doesn't get that right, it's just a shitty PC in a little case. It also needs to avoid those other pitfalls that make it less fun - fragile controllers, long-ass installs, mandatory updates, stuff like that.
So, while knowing I can't compete on raw performance or production-value, I concentrated on what I could do really well. The result is called "Neki32". It's a 32-bit game console, designed to give everyone a nice experience. It's got a bog-standard ARM9 CPU hooked up to a USB-C power jack and an HDMI transmitter. It uses Sega Genesis controllers because they're dirt-cheap and I can source the plugs for them. The games are on SD cards and they load fast and don't flake out over time (no "go make a sandwich" Neo-CD loading screens here).

^^^ That's what the devkit looks like. The "consumer version" will have a nicer plastic case and decent packaging, once I figure out how to design either of those things.
I've got 5 of them on my desk at the moment and the materials for 30 more incoming. If you're interested in developing software, check out the manual and SDK available at the web site:
Send me a message too if this seems interesting to you! Hopefully I can build some momentum and get some great software on this little machine.