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Help picking a system to develop on

Started by Foobar of Integers Jan 3, 2007 at 11:14 PM 10 replies 1.2k views

Original Post

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:14 PM

This sounds a tad weird, I know... I'm looking to learn more about low level stuff, maybe try my hand at writing a graphics library, write a bit of assembly, etc. I'm looking for a machine to develop for, one where I have full access to the hardware, preferably no operating system to deal with, the ability to code in a language I'm comfortable with (in other words, C, so that shouldn't be an issue) and a "normal" style of graphics, not tile-based like the GBA and SNES and such. It would also really help if there was an emulator for it, since I can't really go out and buy something to play with for a few months. I've already looked into the GBA, since it's easy to get a development environment up, but it's too limited, I want something more similar to an old computer.

Dancin_Fool

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:32 PM

what do you mean by " a "normal" style of graphics " ?

yaustar

129

yaustar

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:36 PM

"normal style" as in a simple frame buffer? In that case, use the GBA in Mode 3 or 4.

http://www.mdh165.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/docstuts/Chapter2_Graphics.pdf

Foobar of Integers

Author

Foobar of Integers

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:37 PM

by "normal" I mean that the system has a regular ol' framebuffer that I can write bytes to in order to set pixels. I know the GBA can do that, it's just abysmally slow compared to the tiling modes...

Edit: But thanks for the PDF, I'll check it out anyway.

yaustar

129

yaustar

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:47 PM

Unfortunately there isn't else to fall back on that completely fits your requirements (points at emulator).

Other possibilties:
GP2X, DS, PSP, DOS, GP32, Atari 2600, XGameStation.

Dancin_Fool

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:47 PM

You could take a look at brew on mobile phones. Though it'll probably be lower performance then gba or snes.

Foobar of Integers

Author

Foobar of Integers

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:49 PM

The XGameStation is basically what I want to use, I just can't afford one... So I'm trying to work around that.

yaustar

129

yaustar

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:54 PM

This is a pretty long stretch but the GP32 does have an emulator but it only runs at 40 mhz rather then the hardware's 133mhz, however it might be enough to get you going while you are waiting.

GP32: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP32

GeePee32 (emu): http://users.skynet.be/firefly/gp32/project/geepee32/index.htm

Foobar of Integers

Author

Foobar of Integers

Jan 3, 2007 at 11:56 PM

The GP32 looks good, I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

Ravuya

298

Ravuya

Jan 4, 2007 at 1:59 AM

I still far prefer the GP2X to the GP32, if only for the increased processing power and nicer SDL port.

You can boot the GP2X into a raw hardware mode (outside of Linux) from what I've read, though.

My other recommendation is to take up PC ASM and bone up on SVGA.

Ravyne

294

Ravyne

Jan 4, 2007 at 2:18 AM

The PC is a good bet. Get an old clunker and load up FreeDOS and start hacking some graphics routines. ModeX is certainly a learning experience, mode 13 or any of the linear framebuffer SVGA modes will give you an easier start though.

The GBA in one of its bitmapped framebuffer modes is also fun. I got some basic primitive drawing routines up and running in a matter of hours.

The dreamcast is also a very well documented system. Both Framebuffer and 3D hardware acceleration is available. I'm (slowly) working on a hardware accelerated OpenGL|ES implimentation for it.

Monder

137

Monder

Jan 4, 2007 at 9:02 AM

SDL will allow you to create a framebuffer you can read and write to as you wish so you can build yourself a 2D graphics library from scratch.

You could, as others have suggested, just use a PC with an OS that can give you full access to the hardware and use Mode 13h, Mode X or other similar things. You can actually run Mode 13h programs on XP, they execute in a special DOS emulator, if you want to do that you'll need to get hold of an appropriate compiler (e.g. an old 16-bit C compiler).

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