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Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time

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Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time

#92

Post by deniska »

stevenjohns wrote: post #4

This is something I wish I'd be able to do one day, but every time I look into getting into electronics I get overwhelmed. Can you recommend the materials you used when learning? Books or resources etc. This was a really interesting read, thanks for sharing.

I quite enjoyed Ben Eater's playlist on building a breadboard computer, made a lot of electronic concepts click for me.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLowKtXNTBypGqImE405J2...

Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time

#93

Post by dan00 »

noonespecial wrote: post #15
stevenjohns wrote: post #4

This is something I wish I'd be able to do one day, but every time I look into getting into electronics I get overwhelmed. Can you recommend the materials you used when learning? Books or resources etc. This was a really interesting read, thanks for sharing.

People invariable ask a form of this question every time an impressive project like this is posted. For what its worth(1), I think that "learn a bunch of stuff -> go build something cool on the first try" isn't quite the right approach. I think you have to set for yourself a series of tasks and then fight like hell to figure out how to accomplish them. Start with a single blinking led. Just google "how to blink an le…

> For what its worth(1), I think that "learn a bunch of stuff -> go build something cool on the first try" isn't quite the right approach.

There might be also some kind of misconception in the way that you're seeing something cool and now also want to get this cool stuff. But if you aren't interested in the fundamentals - in this case electronics - and don't have fun learning these by simple experiments - like you described - then it's neither worthwhile for you nor you will get to the cool projects.

Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time

#96

Post by bertman »

pkiller wrote: post #24
kotrunga wrote: post #20

If you wrote a book explaining how to do this, teaching the concepts, etc... I think a lot of people (or at least me) would be very interested!!! Great job

Thanks :) I've kept this project to myself and would only describe it occasionally to some coworkers and friends. I never thought that many people would find it cool. And always thought that people with more knowledge than me would find a lot of flaws. So it's really awesome to read yours and all the other comments. :) I don't think I could write a book, but I have though in writing other posts, giving more detail in…

> I don't think I could write a book

That's what you thought about building a video game console from scratch, and look how that turned out :) Awesome work!

Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time

#98

Post by janekm »

snazz wrote: post #28

As much as I enjoy quickly building circuits on a breadboard like in many of the photos, they’re hell to debug, because there’s so much that can go subtly wrong. It’s much easier with digital than analog circuits, of course, but it still can be crazy hard to logic-probe every connection to get it all to work. I have spent far too much time fixing little bugs in breadboarded circuits. The toughest issue I encountered…

I would argue that with the extremely low cost of PCB manufacturing (and... if you have access to it... assembly) it's easier now to just lay out a PCB and get it made. The trick is to build up a library of circuit "modules" (like... power supply section, battery charging, video output, etc) that get copy-pasted together. Of course there's the delay in waiting for the PCBs, which could be frustrating for a hobby project (I was lucky enough to live in SZ for a while where getting PCBs back 2 days after ordering is standard). But parallelising projects can be an effective way of dealing with that, and the variety on working on different things (and the joy of getting a PCB in the mail) can help to mitigate that.

Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time

#99

Post by ThomPete »

pkiller wrote: post #24
kotrunga wrote: post #20

If you wrote a book explaining how to do this, teaching the concepts, etc... I think a lot of people (or at least me) would be very interested!!! Great job

Thanks :) I've kept this project to myself and would only describe it occasionally to some coworkers and friends. I never thought that many people would find it cool. And always thought that people with more knowledge than me would find a lot of flaws. So it's really awesome to read yours and all the other comments. :) I don't think I could write a book, but I have though in writing other posts, giving more detail in…

Those other Articles will help you turn it into a book :)

Great work!

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