hmmm where did you go to get the consoles etc.
How would you upload to the cartrages.
The console looks to be a little limiting but if you can make music
files on the console and can somehow have them extract to mods or
something or whatever its in and play it on a standard media player
like winamp I know there are people that would like to program music for it.
Its a bit small though we really need to make something which will do
a bit more than play simple arcade stuff.
At 07:50 a.m. 16/02/2011, you wrote:
Let me answer some of the questions raised here about the console
system I'd proposed earlier.
First off, the games that would be available (initially) are the
demo games that come with the system, modified of course to be
compatible and playable by the blind user.
There's a list of them, and I've not looked recently, so don't
remember what they all are, but based on their sources, it doesn't
look too terribly difficult to add audio cueues to the games to make
them at least mostly accessible.
As to the question about programming, the console's cartridges are
programmed in either a form of assembly, or a basic-like language,
both of which are used liberally in the demos that come with the
system, as well as an entire programming book, in ascii form on the
cd that ships with the development system, so it's all
accessible. The games themselves will need to be written to the
cartridges before distribution, and the cartridges can be given the
ability to allow writing by the console (for saved games and the
like) Understand, these games are not going to be up to the quality
and standards everyone is used to on the pc, it's an 8-bit (or
16-bit) processor, and can multitask, but these capabilities aren't
state-of-the-art (it uses a tv for output for god's sake).
The basic consoles as sold to end users will have all the
capabilities of the developer ones, only they won't have blank
cartridges, or the programming languages, or the manuals describing
the hardware and/or software used for programming. The cartridges
are rather small by today's standards (128K is the default one,
though I think there's a larger one available which has 512K of
memory on it) This would be truly a console system, and all
limitations thereof, this is not a pc, with gigibytes of ram, and
terrabytes of storage. On the other hand, it is cheaper than a pc
($200 for the entire system) and it would allow a lot of visually
impaired folks to experience the thrill of having their own console
system that needs no visual assistance, though the games would be
playable by sighted folks as well, since that's where it's being
targeted for now anyway.
I've personally not (yet) seen one of these systems, but I'm told
they're aproximately the size of a playstation 2 (the early models,
not the compact versions that came out later)
After having gone over the source code that comes with the demos,
and read the manuals for the programming languages (both assembly
and basic-like languages) it looks to me like it is perfectly
adaptable to our usage. I just wasn't sure there would be a call
for such a console device in the current blindness community.
I honestly have no problem with anyone who decides this is too
limiting, and says no deal, that's fine, that's why I asked first.
I was probably going to get one anyhow, because my 9-year-old son
would absolutely love to have uch a gaming console, one that we can
program ourselves. I have no doubt he'll get his 200 bucks worth of
enjoyment out of it.
If folks on list think this is worth persuing, then I'll definitely
look into what it would take to do the job. If it isn't, then I'll
just leave it alone until my son and I get around to working on it
for our own use.
Me personally, I'd love to have a console game system of my own that
I know I can play, even if it doesn't have the latest and greatest
hardware/software/sound built-in to it, just because I had fun with
our atari 2600 system, and I think allowing others to experience
similar joy would be well worth the time and energy to implement it,
but that could be just me.
Anyway, thee it is, nothing special, just something to have a lot of
fun with, so again, if anyone thinks it's worth persuing, let me
know, and I'll consider it as a whole when sufficient replies have come in. :)
Hope this sparks some discussion, I'd be interested in the
plus/minus debates that arrise from it.
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