Two types of minimal computing - don't get them confused:<p>There's "pack as much power as you possibly can into a minimal computer" - that's raspberry pi.<p>There also "drive tiny, minimal CPUs to do amazing things at the edge of their specifications cause it's cool and fun" type minimal computing - that is this device.<p>People who don't understand the distinction will always say "Huh? Why is this interesting? I don't get it.... a raspberry pi is the same size and more powerful."<p>If you really want to be knocked out, see how the ESP8266 CPU in this device is able to generate a wireless NTSC video signal with zero extra components <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSiRkpgwVKY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSiRkpgwVKY</a> and then the next level Charles Lohr takes it to color <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcez5pcp55w" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcez5pcp55w</a><p>Put another way, the ESP8266, with nothing more than a wire connected to it, is able to generate a broadcast TV signals and display 3D graphics on that broadcast TV signal.<p>The ESP8266 was also tested by Charles Lohr to have a wireless CPU to CPU range of 1 kilometer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekSsi83-x8M" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekSsi83-x8M</a>
This is super cool - especially note the history = <a href="https://basicengine.org/history.html" rel="nofollow">https://basicengine.org/history.html</a>
This is really cool, I especially like how commodity most of the parts are.<p>The 8-bit micro era, for me, was where personal computing really began. Suddenly the market gave people access to computers at an affordable price that empowered them to create their own tools[0] with BASIC, which they often booted directly into. They were simple systems that didn't try to manage your life for you, or act like you didn't really own them, or give you the safety scissors version of computing. That sort of experience is sadly quite lacking today.<p>And this thing is significantly more powerful than most of those systems, but still acts like one of them. I think it's great.<p>[0] And play games. Don't discount the value of that, many a child convinced their parent to buy them a computer so they could play games and ended up teaching themselves to program because it was empowering and they could create their own games.
For anyone interested in building one, one of our user's published the project as a complete kit including PCBs, parts and stencil.
See <a href="https://aisler.net/p/HVNNCYON" rel="nofollow">https://aisler.net/p/HVNNCYON</a><p>Disclaimer, co-founder of aisler here but not affiliate with the BASIC engine project
Seems closer to an Intel i386 in specs, no? To think this is now retailing for 10 euros ;)<p>In any case, an entire generation of game developers back in the day cut their teeth on BASIC. And many of the fundamentals of arcade era game design can still be gleaned from those ancient manuals ;)<p>Vintage BASIC<p><a href="http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html</a><p>More BASIC Computer Games<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/More_BASIC_Computer_Games_1980_Creative_Computing" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/More_BASIC_Computer_Games_1980_C...</a>
If you're interested in it, you may want to check Duinomite:
<a href="https://www.olimex.com/Products/Duino/Duinomite/" rel="nofollow">https://www.olimex.com/Products/Duino/Duinomite/</a><p>The disadvantage of using VGA is that if you actually want to use it for showing your kids how much fun we had once then, they might not be able to appreciate it when you connect the device to a large screen - it doesn't look too nice and a CIRCLE draws a (jagged) ellipse...
This project is just fantastic for me and for the coding club sessions I organize.<p>I just have to figure out how to use the usb keyboard mentioned in the optionnal component and find screens able to show a PAL or NTSC signal.<p>It is a great and wonderful job, million thanks
I've read about old books for programming a BBC Micro with BASIC, where the games were in books written as code you would have to type in yourself. This book in particular caught my attention: <a href="http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/eug/revs/collins/Bbc_Micro_Wargaming_000.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/eug/revs/collins/Bbc_Micro_Wa...</a><p>I feel like the answer is obvious but I'm going to ask anyway: if I were to take the programs from one of these books and code it into this machine, is it likely to work?
I wonder if the 5-bit audio output in this device would be good enough for some old-school speech synthesis. To go really old-school, maybe something like the Echo synthesizer [1], which I have fond memories of using on an Apple IIe at school in the late 80s and early 90s.<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.festvox.org/history/klatt/part29.au" rel="nofollow">http://www.festvox.org/history/klatt/part29.au</a>
Very cool. I especially like the video encoder in the static ram chip. That is a neat hack. I've got a simple HDMI interface in an FPGA that does something similar but it is 10x the cost.<p>I expect to see a lot of these sorts of systems in the coming months/years.
While on the subject, handheld Arduino console: <a href="https://gamebuino.com" rel="nofollow">https://gamebuino.com</a><p>Has anyone here tried it? I’m thinking of getting one.
The assembly video (<a href="https://basicengine.org/hardware.html#_assembly" rel="nofollow">https://basicengine.org/hardware.html#_assembly</a>) is really neat. I like how he made the SMT ICs easier to test by bringing out all the pins to nearby pads. That lets you easily test for bridges and good connections at the cost of board space.
I have played with a similar BASIC board [1] - it is indeed a lot of fun and (unlike RPi) brings back the feel of first personal computers. One can easily teach a kid programming using such a thing.<p>[1] <a href="http://geoffg.net/maximite.html" rel="nofollow">http://geoffg.net/maximite.html</a>
I didn't realize it at the time, but I first learned to program using BASIC on the TI-85. BASIC might be a poor language for learning computer science concepts (or so I've heard others opine), but I haven't encountered a language that was as approachable and intuitive.