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

Firstly, anyone who nitpicks on a totally handbuilt computer has almost certainly not built their own, so their criticisms can be taken with a pinch of salt (that is to say while they may be valid, can probably be ignored... they're bust criticizing other people's work while you are actually getting on with building something) secondly if they HAVE designed/built their own computer (not just built up an arduino into a thing) then they are probably more likely to help you ("Hey, have you tried.... to get around..." etc.) than try and fault you. so the only reason to hide your project is to protect it from someone "stealing" it. but I don't think that is a concern, nor is anyone planning on releasing a new design of 8-bit computer/console that's not compatible with anything that's come before. what I'm trying to say in a long-winded way, is that this is an amazing project, and keep at it as it obviously brings you a lot of joy. my electronics projects are all currently stalled and finding the motivation to carry them forward it hard right now, so I applaud you!

I've reading up about the architectures and programming of computers and consoles from the 80s and early 90s lately, and have been itching to do a similar project of my own, but have been kind of floundering on where to get started. The fact that you pulled this off inspires that this sorta thing can be done.

Have you considered doing a series of blog posts going into more detail on each section of the console and your journey in getting each bit working, describing failures and successes both? I think such would be instructional to other people who want to do some similar homebrew computer/console hacking.

I was kind of surprised that your PPU design was frame buffered instead of line buffered, but I suppose I perhaps shouldn't be. I imagine the PPU chips of old were line-buffered because RAM was expensive in the 80s, and it was a good enough interface to control a scanline-based display. In my recent reading about the architecture of 3rd, 4th, and 5th gen consoles, I noticed that the 5th gen systems became fully frame buffered, as memory had become cheap and fast enough in the early-mid 90s. And a frame buffer certainly feels a bit simpler and more intuitive to think with than a scanline buffer.