Uzebox fan writes

[danboid]

Hi Carra!

Cool project! I don't use Twitter or Discord and I couldn't find your email address (on github or your webpage) so I thought I'd open a github ticket ticket to give some feedback and ask a couple of questions if you don't mind?

I have to mention the Uzebox first. You do know about it right? Its the OG open source 8 bit console so I was a bit disappointed to not see it mentioned on https://www.vircon32.com/about.html. You should check it out if you've never heard of it and join the forums:

https://uzebox.org/

Its for people who like restrictions, weird platforms, retro computing/games and DIY electronics - I think that might include yourself?

The Vircion32 is much more powerful than the Uzebox but the Uzebox seems to still have a few advantages. First, its been around since 2008 so its got a lot more documentation, source code and games. It has had at least 30 different clones made in the last couple of decades. It is also a real, physical console that electronics beginners can build themselves for less than $50 and the Uzebox Omega only uses one chip.

I like pretty much everything about the Vircon32 apart from it using a variant of C. Most Uzebox games are written in regular C and compiled with avr-gcc, or you can use AVR assembly. You say in the FAQ that the Vircon32 won't support standard C so this another advantage for the Uzebox in my eyes at least. The Uzebox has its own C API but it uses regular C (or C++).

The only other thing I'm uncertain about is the CPU. Is the Vircon32 using a custom CPU? Why? Surely it would've made more sense to use a RISCV, ARM or another standard CPU to take advantage of existing toolchains? I'd like to know your thinking behind using a custom CPU if thats what you've done.

Keep up the good work!

[vircon32]

Hello danboid. Thank you for the kind words, and sorry I did not see this before. No, I did not publish my email (spam would become a problem) so if you don't use Twitter or Discord I guess it's ok to write this here.

I had never heard about the Uzebox but it seems interesting. It's cool that there are working physical boards and it looks like several games and demos exist. It's a bit too low spec for my personal tastes but that's ok. I'm sure there are enough people interested in this era. My guess is that Uzebox and Vircon32 are serving different niches and purposes.

Uzebox design is centered in being able to build a physical version easily and leveraging on related existing tools. Vircon32's aim is creating its design from scratch and keeping it self-contained, without depending on other technologies. That is why the CPU is custom, and why graphics don't use something like fixed-pipeline OpenGL but instead define their own operations and primitives. The reason for this choice is to make it easy for a single person to understand the whole system at a deep level. After all, real-world electronics, even just 8-bit level, are complex and quirky.

About development, Vircon32 could indeed support regular C (or any other language!), if someone writes a compiler for it. But that won't be me. That kind of project surpasses my knowledge.

Best regards.