Posted on June 25th, 2007.
Get your own DIY game console kit from ThinkGeek for just $200.
Written by best-selling game development author Andre’ LaMothe, the included book is your complete guide to developing games, graphics, and media applications for the Propeller Powered Hydra Game console. The book assumes you have only basic programming experience. It covers all aspects of the Propeller chip from its architecture to using the Propeller Tool IDE for programming in both Spin and assembly language, with numerous demo programs to use as starting points for your own games. Included on the CD is all the source code and executables for all the included games, demos, tools and examples. Additionally, “Hydra Tiny BASIC” based on the “Tiny BASIC” specification originally published in “Dr. Dobb’s Journal” in 1975 is included. With this classic version of BASIC you can write programs directly on the Hydra without the need for a PC! Simply load BASIC into the Hydra or on the included game cartridge and you are up and running with nothing more than your TV and keyboard.
My son professes a desire to be a game designer when he grows up. At 12, I’m not sure he’s quite ready for this yet, but it sure is cool. Essentially, what we have here is a revisioning of a classic 8 bit computer/game console circa 1983. A Commodore 64 or Apple II for a new generation (or an aging and somewhat nostalgic generation). If only it had been designed to be compatible with one of those ancient devices, so classic games and applications could be used on it.
[via BoingBoing]
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