Appearance and function match the final product, but is made with different manufacturing methods.

Looks like the final product, but is not functional.

Demonstrates the functionality of the final product, but looks different.

A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:

Introducing the Uzebox DTV (Direct to TV). It takes an awesome homebrew 8-bit retro game console (called a Uzebox) and squeezes it into a controller that plugs directly into your TV! All you need to supply are a microSD card and a 5V power supply (any modern phone charger should work).

If you are not familiar with the Uzebox, it is an open source (free to share), 8-bit, homebrew gaming console. It was created in 2008 by Alec Bourque, with the goal of having an easy-to build and easy to program system, with enough resources available to make programming games fast and fun.

There are seven years worth of games, tutorials, and community already built around the Uzebox.

Lots of familiar games

Plug and play

Just download a game onto a microSD card, plug the Uzebox DTV into your TV, and enjoy the retro goodness. With only a few exceptions, the source code for these 80+ games and demos are all available to download, compile, and learn from.

The chip at the heart of the Uzebox is an Atmel ATMega644, the same family of chip used in the Arduino. It is extremely easy to program, yet you can still do amazing things with it. There is also a forum where you can ask questions and participate in the game making community.

All your games on an SD card

Get coding games now

You don't need any electronics experience to start playing games. Just download a game onto a microSD card and pop the microSD card into the controller, and plug it into your TV. Enjoy the goodness!

When you are ready to start writing your own games that is easy as well. You don't need any assembly language skills. Everything about a normal game can be written in C. The Uzebox API has functions already written for doing most common things a game needs with respect to graphics, sound, and I/O.

There are tools for creating your own graphics, sounds, and levels for platform games.

The emulator running in windows

There is also an emulator to run Uzebox games on your desktop PC. This is great for when you are developing a game, because you can test each iteration of your game immediately after compilation, without having to even touch any hardware. The emulator even has a GDB server built-in for debugging code in your IDE. (If you're not a programmer YET and these acronyms don't make sense trust me that this feature is 100% pure goodness!)

You can also use the emulator to share your creations with friends that don't have Uzebox hardware.

What can it do?

The capabilities of the hardware are around on par with early 1980's 8-bit computers. A typical game will have

240x224 resolution

256 colors on screen

5 channel audio

X/Y scrolling

Up to 32 sprites on screen

There are however 12 different video modes including

120x96 pixel bitmap

240x224 256 color tiles and sprite modes

480x224 high resolution text mode

256x224 4 color vector graphics mode

What is under the hood?

The Uzebox is a complete two chip computer system. All the color TV graphics and sound is done by just an Atmel ATMega644 and an Analog Devices AD723 color converter.

Specs:

CPU: Atmel ATMega644

FLASH: 64KB (60K user 4K bootloader)

RAM: 4KB

EEPROM: 2KB

Inputs: 12 button SNES controller

Outputs: RCA mono audio + RCA composite video

NTSC conversion : Analog Devices AD723

It is comparable to a Hackvision with 2x the memory and higher resolution color TV output.

Why are we doing this?

Simmone and Andrew are both passionate makers and teachers.

Simmone is the coordinator at Hands on Brisbane and also teaches many of the workshops helping people learn new skills.

Andrew is a long term electronic tinkerer that creates things like The Asteroid Belt and games for the Uzebox like Tornado 2000. He regularly teaches people how to make electronic things. More to the point, over the years he has taught scores of people how to write computer games.

That is where the Uzebox DTV comes in. The Uzebox itself is an awesome platform for learning to write games on, however many people are intimidated by having to build it themselves. The Uzebox DTV is pre-built, so you can use it immediately, without having to know how to solder. It will help build the Uzebox community, and hopefully can help get YOU involved in writing games, and sharing them with your friends.