Project Logs

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• Follow the new project!

  David • 04/03/2017 at 07:29 • 0 comments

  We are continuing this project for the Hackaday Prize 2017. Follow us here:
  https://hackaday.io/project/20874-gamegirl-part-ii-back-in-the-game
  

• Video update on the new prototype

  David • 01/11/2017 at 21:55 • 0 comments

  Here is a video from [Jean-André] showing the new prototype, along with some explanations on the software. Skip to 4:20 to see the Gamegirl starting up and 8:00 to see some gameplay:

  ---

  Support Libretro, RetroArch and Lakka through Patreon!
  https://www.patreon.com/libretro

  -David

• New prototype with battery and speaker

  David • 12/30/2016 at 22:30 • 1 comment

  We got the new assembled prototypes back from China and dispatched them to France, Switzerland and USA to the different developers, thanks to the hard work of [VRPC]. In the meantime, [techanic] also ordered a board from OSHPark and hand assembled it, which you can see in the photo above. This is really open-source hardware development at its best!

  The v0.2 prototype includes:

  • A battery with charger and 5V booster
  • A speaker with a mono amplifier
  • A power switch
  • Rubber and metal dome buttons from 8bitdo

  We are now trying to 3D print the case and figure out some kind of levers for the L/R buttons.

  Bonus video (look at the size of this console!):

  ---

  We do not take any money, but you can support the software that the Gamegirl uses.

  Support Libretro, RetroArch and Lakka through Patreon!
  https://www.patreon.com/libretro

  -David

• French interview on Open-Consoles

  David • 10/11/2016 at 07:26 • 2 comments

  We had an interview on Open Consoles, a French website dedicated to covering open source and Android portable game consoles, who had already covered us in June 2016.

  Thanks to the hard work and patience of Franck Thery, here is the interview in French:

  http://www.open-consoles-news.com/2016/09/interview-entretien-avec-les-createurs.html
  

  And here is an English version (Google Translate):

  https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=http://www.open-consoles-news.com/2016/09/interview-entretien-avec-les-createurs.html
  

  -David

• Call for contributors

  David • 07/17/2016 at 20:06 • 5 comments

  If this project has to be remembered, it should be as successful example of open hardware development. Indeed, it is not just the hardware which is open but the whole development process, with discussions and files being exchanged by more than a hundred users on our Discord chat.

  As an example of this openness the first working Gamegirl was in the hands of a contributor, [poulsen93] who took the picture above. And as the development advances we hope to provide more and more devices to contributors. You can contribute in a lot of ways, regardless of your experience.

  Beginner tasks

  • Art for future games
  • Advice for using the Gamegirl in classrooms
  • Review of existing software (Scratch, PICO-8, etc.)
  • Drawing of your dream game editor
  • Drawing of a game uploader
  • Improvements to the Lakka website
  • Writing on hackaday.io, Reddit, Twitter

  Advanced tasks

  • "Exclusive" games using LÖVE
  • 3D printing of a case and L/R buttons
  • USB-OTG on the Raspberry Pi Zero
  • Backlight dimming using PCM
  • Contributions to Lutro, Lakka and RetroArch

  And more! Ask on our Discord chat. ;)

  Bonus video:

  -David

• Voice of the Theatre

  David • 05/22/2016 at 20:54 • 3 comments

  If you have ever in a film theatre constructed in the 1950s, chance is they probably still use the legendary Voice of the Theatre speakers, maybe with some tweeter replacement. These speakers were made by Altec Lansing engineers and delivered unsurpassed efficiency, voice articulation and time alignment and have a very characteristic sound signature. The fact that these systems were entirely equalised by ear didn't remove anything from the enjoyment of the listeners.

  The analog audio output of the Raspberry Pis has a bad reputation. Similar to the cinema professionals of the 1950s, we don't have expensive sound measurement equipment. As such, we will try everything possible to get the best sound quality with our ears. Our subjective benchmark will be: it must sound good. The speaker will probably be a CDM-20008 for his flat low-frequency response (good bass) but it would be better if someone could buy a couple of them and compare them next to each other.

  To further improve the low-end extension (bass), @poulsen93 is currently making tests with a Helmholtz resonator (a can of Pringles) that you can see on the photo on the left.

  We are testing the amplifier on the photo on the right but we need help for noise hiss reduction as we can currently hear when the Pi is making complicated calculations or not. Don't hesitate to drop on the Discord Chat if you have some useful advice.

  -David

• It's a whole family of prototypes

  David • 05/20/2016 at 14:29 • 1 comment

  The package that was lost two weeks ago finally arrived in Vietnam... just after [Jean-André] had left the country. Talk about bad luck.

  Thankfully, other prototypes v0.1 are ready and will go to [@Travis Brown], [@poulsen93] and [@jonathan thornburg]. These are provided free of charge (display not included) thanks to the money provided by the Hackaday Prize.

  You can see on the left that we are currently experimenting with the audio amplifier. More on that in a future project log!

  -David

• The prototype v0.1 works!

  David • 05/12/2016 at 09:35 • 2 comments

  All goes according to plan! The prototype v0.1 has been soldered together and tested with a Raspberry Pi 2. Games run great under RetroArch and the buttons are buttoning up, just as planned.

  Well... the only hitch is that this prototype is currently lost in a package between Switzerland and Vietnam. Indeed, we were hoping to post better pictures and videos once the package had arrived but this one will have to do for now.

  In the meantime, we are preparing 2-3 more copies of the v0.1 prototype and designing the v0.2 prototype, which will look somewhat like the 3D render on top of this page (thanks @roymustang16!)

  The Discord Chat is very active, with more than 100 users. We are welcoming all contributors, regardless of the experience: the beginners can help with mockups of the LÖVE game editor and menus of the console and the developers can help with electronics, CAD and programming.

  -David

• 8Bitdo partnership

  Jean-André Santoni • 04/16/2016 at 15:02 • 1 comment

  [David] and I are happy to announce that 8Bitdo will be our partner in this project!

  If you are a retro gamer, chances are that you already heard about 8Bitdo. 8Bitdo is a company based in Hong Kong who produce very polished Bluetooth gamepads that mimic the look of our good old pads.

  We got their contact thanks to the libretro guys who are already collaborating with them.
  

  8Bitdo will help us about the buttons and the case. Finding good rubber dome buttons on the web is very difficult. Since they are experts about that, we are can be sure that the Gamegirl will have the best ergonomy we can afford.

  We don't know exactly yet how we are going to collaborate but they started sharing their CAD 3D files and agreed to provide us with some buttons so we can start prototyping. They adviced us to start experimenting with the 8Bitdo ZERO model that is described in details here: http://www.8bitdo.com/zero/design.html

  We are more and more excited to work on this small project because that's the kind of toys we would have dreamed to own as a child :)
  

  -Jean-André

• Why RetroArch?

  David • 04/03/2016 at 16:33 • 0 comments

  In this project log I will try to explain why having a pure RetroArch/libretro approach is technically cleaner.

  The libretro API is there to separate the frontend (graphical interface) and the backend (the emulators). Adding an external frontend on top of it makes little sense, since it is an additional layer that can't take advantage of the low level API.

  For example, with a frontend like RetroArch, you can display the current game in a small window while navigating the menu. This is not a very usefull feature, but it could become useful in the future to preview shaders.

  Now, let think about effort duplication. Emulator hackers spend a lot of time trying to optimize emulators for the RPi. We end up with a ton of different versions, all with their graphical interface baked in.

  If instead of that people focus on improving the libretro version of those emulators, this would benefit not only the RPi, but also all the platforms where RetroArch runs: PSP, Wii, iOS, etc

  All the effort spent in including individual games on a distro like RetroPie and a frontend like EmulationStation could be instead spent in simply porting those games to libretro. This would make those games compatibles to every device supported by RetroArch. This would also make those games cleaner, by separating the content and the GUI.

  Same goes for controller support. With a pure libretro distro, you get a centralised gamepad management. What works for games works for the menu. While with EmulationStation, the joypad code is duplicated. This is bloated.

  Graphical contexts are another example. RetroArch already does the work of setting up the context like VideoCore or Mali or X11. External frontends have to duplicate that code.

  There is no doubt that libretro should become the target platform if we want cleaner software.

  Now I will try to explain why Lakka is better:

  • Cross compilation : compile the whole distro in 2 hours on your PC and get the image.
  • Compressed auto expandable image : the OS image is 150mb.
  • Robustness : a read only system allows monolithic updates like firmware updates of commercial game consoles
  • Centralisation : a single git repo to store all the package recipies, patches, configs
  • Pure libretro : no bloat, consistency, no effort duplication, better integration with the GUI, better integration with the emulator developer community
  • Portability : Lakka supports more than 10 ARM boards, plus PC, with a single code base

  -Jean-André

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