1. Design 6 Project: Michael Popoloski Jack Alvino Jon Lado

2.  We will design and build a functioning video game console.  The goal is to have a working hardware platform and one or more games that can be played on it.

3.  A lot of research was done for this project, mostly observation of other consoles  Researched how certain parts work and how a console did in a business sense (strengths and threats)  One article talked about basics of the USB, which can help with programming firmware on to a micoprocessor  Another article demonstrates the insides of a Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES  This helps by showing us the components in a retro console

4.  Another article talks about a kind of cartridge used for the SNES, Super Nintendo Entertainment System  This can give us insight on how to create and program a demo video game to test our console  One article mentions OnLive, a cloud based game store, which can be a threat to consoles (since it is for PCs and Macs) or benefactor to consoles who integrate it  The majority of the other articles talk about various consoles’ successes, which shows that there is always a market for video games

5.  Free and open source game platform.  Users can not only play retro games, but have a platform they can use to develop their own as a hobby.  The platform can be very cheap.

6.  We have chosen the Parallax Propeller chip as the platform for our console.  The Propeller has 8 independent cores, running at 80 Mhz.  We will use several peripherals including NES controllers and NTSC output for video.

7.  We looked at several alternative hardware platforms that could fulfill our functional design.  Several ARM microprocessors are widely used today for embedded systems.  However, the Propeller is cheaper and simpler to build a platform around, making it an ideal device for quick iteration of programs.

8.  We will use NES controllers to obtain input. They have a simple timing interface and are cheap to purchase.

9.  Socket mounted for using multiple SD cards if needed  Serial Peripheral Interface  Four connections between SD Card and Microcontroller  I 2 C Interfacing  Two connection serial bus

10. SPI INTERFACING  Higher data rates  “Duplex” capability  Data streams from master to slave and slave to master simultaneously I 2 C INTERFACING  Simpler wiring  Requires less effort and hardware resources if more than one slave is involved SPI Interfacing is likely a better option Better suited for data “streaming,” reading game data from card and saving game data to card

11.  NTSC is the type of video system used in North America  Using Propeller  Propeller can generate its own video signals  Transmits 32-bit chunks of video image data at a configurable rate  Must define what signals to output in propeller coding

12.  Composite cables can be used to view the video output  Most consoles use composite  Propeller also allows use of VGA for RGB devices

13.  Content management  Users should be aware of what is in said content ▪ ESRB Rating System  Distributed content must be free of copyright infringement  Device itself is a non-issue

14.  Economic  Marketing and manufacturing costs  Health and Safety  Prolonged use  Manufacturability  Materials easy to obtain  Sustainability  Having reasonable amounts of content packaged in  Adding new content in the form of games / services