IntroductionIntroduction
Thank you for purchasing The Black Art of Video Game Console Design. We have worked hard to provide a unique, high-quality, and educational book that will both engage and entertain. Within these pages you will learn how to design your own game console as well as learn about the complete design of the XGameStation Micro Edition and Pico Edition. This is the world's first do-it-yourself video game console design book and will empower you to an unprecedented level of knowledge and understanding, whether you're a hobbyist, student, or both.
Installing the CD
The CD contains all the sources, schematics, tools, and content discussed in this book. There is no installer; simply work from the CD or drag the entire contents from the CD to your hard drive. Also, you may want to install one or more of the tools, especially Labcenter's Proteus PCB Design Tools, so you can look at the design examples from the book including the XGS Micro and Pico Edition game console designs in their native format.
Please read the README.TXT file at the root of the CD for any last minute instructions and changes. Also, each directory also has a README.TXT explaining the contents. The CD root for this content is laid out as follows:
XGSME_HW_CD - The main directory/CD root for this content (may be within another directory). \Datasheets - Contains datasheets for all chips. \General_Papers - Contains articles, papers, on SX and XGS programming. \Schematics_Circuits - Contains XGS schematics and circuits. \SX_Docs_Books - Contains SX related docs and eBooks. \SX_Key_IDE - Contains Parallax Inc.'s SX-Key Software. \Tools - Contains various tools for engineering. \XGSME_Sources - Contains source code, demos, games. \XGSME_Studio - Contains complete XGS ME Studio Software and manual. \XGSME_Tutorials - Contains tutorials on programming.
Caution - READ ONLY FLAG
This is a very important detail, so read on. When creating a CD-ROM, all the files will be written with the READ-ONLY flag enabled. This is fine in most cases unless you copy the files to your hard drive (which you will) and then edit and try to write the files back to disk. You will get a READ-ONLY protection error.
Fixing this is a snap. You simply need to clear the READ-ONLY flag on any files that you want to modify. There are 3 ways to do it. First, you can do it with Windows and simply navigate into the directory with the file you want and then select the file, press the RIGHT mouse button to get the file properties, and then clear the READ-ONLY flag and APPLY your changes. You can do this with more than one file at once by selecting a group of files.
The second way is to use the File Manager and perform a similar set of operations as in the example above. The third and best way is to use the ATTRIB command with a DOS/Command Shell prompt. Here's how:
Assume you have copied the entire SOURCE directory on your hard drive to the location C:\SOURCE. To reset all the READ-ONLY attributes in one fell swoop, you can use the ATTRIB command. Here is the syntax:
C:\DIRECTORY> ATTRIB -r *.//-->s
This instructs the command shell to clear the READ-ONLY flag "r" from all files "*.*" and all lower sub-directories "/s".
Getting Started
Before reading this document and experimenting with hardware and low level programming, I highly recommend you at least once page through the entire book to get an idea of the breadth and depth that will be discussed. Also, it will give you an idea of any materials that you might need as you actually implement and build hardware yourself.
Viewing the Schematics
The XGameStation Micro Edition and all the other designs in this book were designed using Labcenter's Proteus schematic entry and PCB layout tools. I consider these to be the best tools for the price and performance. If you wish to view any of the schematics for the XGS ME then you will need to install Proteus on your computer; you can find a copy of the installer in the Tools\ sub-directory. However, the latest version can always be downloaded from their site directly at
http://www.labcenter.co.uk/
What to Expect?
This book is for anyone who wants to learn the electronics and engineering behind video game console design. For many years I have looked for any single text that covers how to design game consoles and there simply is nothing available. Sure, there are hundreds of books on "game programming," but nothing on the hardware. And of course there are thousands of books on electronics, electrical engineering, and so forth, but no one has ever collected the information together to show how to make the special application of game console hardware. I think that many people are getting a little bored with software and a revival of hardware along with retro technology used as a teaching platform is a great way to get into electronics. So expect to have a lot of fun and learn a lot of cool things about the details of how things work. I promise to present it with the least amount of pain as possible, but there is no getting around—"hard stuff is hard"! Also, this book uses very simple math; high school algebra is all you need, so no calculus!
Who Are You?
With that in mind, this book assumes absolutely no knowledge of electronics whatsoever; however, a knowledge of programming in C/C++, BASIC, ASM, Java, or similar language(s) is required. This book will not teach programming; I assume you are familiar with the concept of programming and have done enough of it to get around fairly easily. You might be a programmer who wants to learn about video game hardware, or an electrical engineer who is interested in developing embedded systems with video and audio, or a game developer who wants to have some idea of how an Xbox works. All of you will find something in here.
General Outline of Book
The book starts off with "what's an electron" and ends up with developing a number of embedded game systems. While on this journey we touch upon everything from analog electronics, digital design, and computer architecture, to graphics hardware, memory management, and construction techniques to actually build things. Below is an outline of the chapters.
Section I—Fundamentals of Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Chapter 1—Introduction to Electronics, Electrons, and Light Speed
This chapter is a general overview of atomic theory and electronic devices, and introduces a number of electrical engineering concepts such as voltage, current, and resistance.
Chapter 2—Basic Analog Circuit Analysis
This chapter introduces basic circuit analysis techniques for DC steady state circuits and explains the use of very powerful Ohm's and Kirchhoff's circuit analysis laws.
Chapter 3—Analog Design with Discrete Components
This is the first design chapter where devices such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, and much more are used to create electrical networks that perform various functions.
Section II—Digital Electronics and Fabrication
Chapter 4—Entering the Digital Realm
This chapter covers basic digital concepts, Boolean logic, truth tables, and timing diagrams, and introduces various families of digital logic that are used in modern day digital design.
Chapter 5—Hardware Construction Techniques
The chapter briefly takes a detour from theory and discusses how actual electronic projects and circuits are constructed. Soldering, wire wrapping,...
