Hyrda Game Developement kit??

Hyrda Game Developement kit??

webfaction 10 Dec 2007 01:10

Hi,

I was just wondering if anybody here was familiar with the hydra game developement system. I came across it online and was wondering if it's a practical learning tool or maybe some sort of scam.

http://parallax.com/Store/Microcontrollers/BASICStampModules/tabid/134/ProductID/467/List/1/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName

Thanks alot

-webfaction

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

hartnell 10 Dec 2007 16:41

The people who make the Hydra Kit also are the makers of the upcoming 6502 console I've been telling everyone about. It's not a priority, but I want to clear some of the budget (eventually) to get our members some of these (the 6502s). — hartnell

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

Linkage2 10 Dec 2007 04:46

Well, I'm not the go-to person on this, but it looks fairly legitimate to me. And it'd be pretty cool to have your own little console to develop games for and fiddle around with, although the hardware and that in general looks pretty outdated.

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

u9 10 Dec 2007 10:43

I haven't seen it before, but it looks like a lot of fun :) The CPU is a 8 core processor running at 80MHz so you need to be good at optimizing ;) Each core can execute up to 20 MIPS.

Now I know what I want for Christmas :)

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

webfaction 10 Dec 2007 16:40

Thanks alot for the feedback on that guys.

I was also wondering if you guys think the experience is going to be helpful later on as i progress with programming and electronics? Just to clear things up i hope to one day get a job programming for a game developement studio and who knows maybe have my own someday.

thanks again

-Webfaction

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

hartnell 10 Dec 2007 16:47

Yes. Yes. Yes. You will be dealing with "bare metal." When you program a 6502 you are handing instructions directly to the microprocessor. See : http://6502.wikidot.com/6502-hello-world for a general intro.

Keep in mind though, the 6502 is only the greatest microprocessor in the world. Unfortunately, it was left to die after the SNES. However, if it had been updated, everyone would be able to program in assembly language.

— hartnell

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

webfaction 10 Dec 2007 18:28

Thanks a bundle Hartnell. I did some more reading on the 6502 i was suprised to see that universities are still using it to teach programming. I've decided to order the system and see what how much I can learn from it.I'm really hoping that it will give me a better understanding of how things work at a deeper level. It's really convient btw to have that tutorial and simulator already up and running. Thanks alot I really do appricate it.

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

hartnell 11 Dec 2007 05:41

Er, the Hydra isn't a 6502. The 6502 Kit / Console is currently in the works. I hope you knew this before you decided to order it. :P

I'm really hoping you read my post above

The people who make the Hydra Kit also are the makers of the upcoming 6502 console I've been telling everyone about. It's not a priority, but I want to clear some of the budget (eventually) to get our members some of these (the 6502s). — hartnell

— hartnell

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

webfaction 11 Dec 2007 20:39

Lol my bad i missed that. its ok i havent orderd anything yet. Do you happen to know when this is supposed to be coming out?

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

hartnell 12 Dec 2007 06:01

It was officially announced on their forums at least a couple of months ago. As far as I know, it's still "in development." It might take awhile because not only are they having to design a console from scratch (and make the manufacture affordable) they are having to write it's operating system (supposedly) and all related development software. You might want to contact them and tell them you're interested and tell them why. This kind of information always helps development.

— hartnell

Re: Hyrda Game Developement kit??

hartnell 12 Dec 2007 06:03

I also looked into the Hydra a bit closer. It seems to run on a multi-core processor, which is the wave of the future. I'd love to mess with one myself, but that's years down the road as I have so many things to complete first.

It would be good for learning considering the coming trends, but possibly not the best for the absolute beginner.

— hartnell