Uzebox Omega open source games console

[danboid]

The Uzebox is a DIY, fully open source hardware and software 8 bit games console, comparable in spec to the early Nintendo consoles. It was designed to be easy to write games for and easy to build, even a total electronics beginner is capable of building a Uzebox. I can say that for a fact because it was my first electronics project and I was able to build one.

Apart from its fully open source design, the Uzebox is also notable for its software generated video and audio output. It is also the fastest 8 bit games console, running faster than the Agon Light 2 and even the 16 bit SNES according to benchmarks and I'm pretty sure it was the first 8 bit console to get WiFi support. It was first released way back in 2008 but it unfortunately it remains relatively unknown.

Some of my fave Uzebox games include:

Starduino - a demake of Starfox. Possibly the most impressive 8 bit game I've ever seen.
Tornado 2000 - like Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar.
Flight of a dragon - A well animated platformer with parallax scrolling
Joyrider - Like an 8 bit GTA.
Alter Ego - a fun puzzle platform game.​

There are many more and nearly all of them are open source.

UzeboxPC is a port of CP/M that runs on the Uzebox and the Uzebox has recently gained basic C64 and Apple II emulators. I can operate my Linux machnes via telnet running on my Uzebox

The original Uzebox design uses two chips, an ATMega644 microcontroller and a AD725 video conversion chip. The Uzebox Omega is a cost reduced redesign of the Uzebox PCB that no longer requires the AD725 chip, making it a more affordable and easier to build single chip games console. I'm selling kits if anyone is interested in building a Uzebox Omega.

https://uzebox.org/wiki/Omega

https://uzebox.org

[danboid]

The Uzebox has had a Winamp/XMMS alike wav player for well over a decade but it only recently got updated to support SDHC SD cards. You haven't been able to buy an old SDSC SD card new for quite a while so most people couldn't run Uzeamp until this update.

https://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11593

More recently, the Uzebox now has the beginnings of a BASIC interpreter, which is only of any use to those who own the Uzebox PS2 keyboard adapter which allows you to attach a keyboard to its SNES joystick ports. Its not had much optimization yet and its missing several important features but it already runs the Retrodesks's mandelbrot BASIC benchmark faster than a BBC.

https://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11422

Uzebox BASIC will be more useful when it has UART, video, SPI RAM and joystick support. Of course, games are best written in C or asm but it'll be fun to be able to write simple apps and games on the console itself.

This weekend I have rewritten the wiki page for how to install the Uzebox dev tools under macOS. The old instructions were way too long winded.

https://uzebox.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Software_Installation

I've also uploaded macOS binaries of the Uzebox emulators to the Uzebox forum, for Intel Macs at least. I don't have access to an Apple Silicon Mac.

https://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11605