Microcontroller and Video Games

Thread Starter

Frankur

Joined Dec 6, 2017
1
Hi people, I'm a fan of video games and old electronic devices. I would like to create a retro game and put it on a microcontroller but, I don´t know where to start. If you guys have any documentation or websites I would appreciate you share them with me. I'm interested in everything involved in video games like the display, sound, etc.

Note: I know embedded C.

Thank you.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Hi people, I'm a fan of video games and old electronic devices. I would like to create a retro game and put it on a microcontroller but, I don´t know where to start. If you guys have any documentation or websites I would appreciate you share them with me. I'm interested in everything involved in video games like the display, sound, etc.

Note: I know embedded C.

Thank you.
Generally speaking microcontrollers are unsuited for video games. There are several reasons for this, lack of a suitable amount of memory to represent an image, lack of computational capabilities like multiply and divide, and lack of speed. Many microcontrollers can address one or two of these limitations, but few can address all three. You might be able to do something with an ARM based board or even better with a GPU board used for Bitcoin mining or advanced vector graphics.
 

Ian Rogers

Joined Dec 12, 2012
1,136
Hi people, I'm a fan of video games and old electronic devices. I would like to create a retro game and put it on a microcontroller but, I don´t know where to start.
On "an..other" Forum I was involved with such a thing.. We used a mega ( Arduino) and TCPM (sound) and a TFT connected to a self made Joypad... We are on our forth game... BUT!!! I wasn't happy with all the fus and just bought a Pi and a GameHat and just loaded it up... GameHats are @ £30..
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
I don't doubt that you can do amazing things with limited resources. Had the TS not said specifically microcontroller I would have no reason to post. Using a microcontroller has a specific set of features that make doing a display problematical -- that's all.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Huh? OP said "microcontroller".
I know the OP said microcontroller. I'm telling you what was available to use in the era of simple games like pong. My point is that it would be difficult to use a microcontroller to implement any system with a graphic display. Not impossible, but certainly difficult given the manifest limitations of the microcontroller
 

BobaMosfet

Joined Jul 1, 2009
2,110
Depends on the capabilities of the MCU.
I have used STM32F407 to generate VGA signals.
There’s my next project. Demonstrate Pong game using STM32F407.
I have an original chipset for pong from a pong game. An ATMEGA168 could easily do pong, or even space-invaders, if it had a ram chip for VRAM and gate-circuit for display.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
I have an original chipset for pong from a pong game. An ATMEGA168 could easily do pong, or even space-invaders, if it had a ram chip for VRAM and gate-circuit for display.
Well yeah, it's that external stuff outside of the microcontroller that makes all the difference. I never said impossible, I only said difficult without some things not normally found inside a microcontroller. If you really want to push the envelope I'll bet that @danadak could do it with the appropriate PSoC, but that is pushing the boundaries of what I would consider a microcontroller.
 
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