Help, new and have a couple of Qs
NintendoWiiBoy
Posts: 7
Hey, I am looking into programming for a career. I was wondering what you guys think I should get. I am just now taking programming courses in college, and I want to start putting my skills to use. I was thinking about the HYDRA dev kit, but I don't know if I should get that or XGS. Which is easier to program?(I need to start off pretty easy) So I have 2 questions.
1) Which should I purchase?
2) What programming language is it in? Do they have their own language?
Thanks in Advance,
NintendoWiiBoy
[noparse]:o[/noparse])
1) Which should I purchase?
2) What programming language is it in? Do they have their own language?
Thanks in Advance,
NintendoWiiBoy
[noparse]:o[/noparse])
Comments
2) The Hydra is normally programmed in Spin and in the Propeller's assembly language.· Spin is a language similar to C or Pascal designed specifically for the Propeller.· The Propeller can also be programmed in C and Forth, both of which are 3rd party compilers and are not free, but are inexpensive (around $100).
By the way, you should delete your duplicate message.· Use the X icon in the upper right-hand corner of the message box.
Post Edited (Mike Green) : 11/26/2008 7:41:29 PM GMT
NintendoWiiBoy
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I do have the Propeller demo board and like it a lot. The one thing that makes me recommend the Hydra is that most of today's modern video game are based on multi-core processors. The xbox360 is a triple core PowerPC and the Playstation3 uses the Cell processor which has 8 cores. Getting your head in the parallel processing mindset from the start will provide you with a great advantage.
Parallax documentation and support staff are awesome too.
In terms of career advice for programmers....there are two fields in which American's will always spend money: Healthcare and Entertainment. If you can build skills that are applicable to one of those fields you should be in good shape for the long term. Focus on understanding how stuff works and how to abstract that knowledge to new problems in the future.
Good luck.
You're better off starting with the Hydra, compared to the XGS, as the XGS you have to do the video display driver timing yourself, whereas, with Propeller based boards, the Propeller has a lot of display drivers already available, that are just plug and play so to speak.
like the drivers that OldBitCollector is using for his SPYDRIVER game [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
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NintendoWiiBoy
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NintendoWiiBoy
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The Hydra (and Spin) would be a little easier, and more likely a little more fun.
The accompanying book/CD have a lot of good examples and explain a lot of concepts. If you have programmed on a PC, some of them will be at least a little familar.
If you want to see what the code is like, I would suggest going to the "Projects" stickie (at the top of the forum, and look through a few threads). Some/most have code posted. As Mike Green said, it is similar to Pascal or C, and if you have coded in either should make sense.
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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite
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NintendoWiiBoy
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Be warned: Propeller programming is addicting! You'll find yourself staying indoors
and making other Propeller related purchases once you get hooked. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
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New to the Propeller?
Getting started with a Propeller Protoboard?
Check out: Introduction to the Proboard & Propeller Cookbook 1.4
Updates to the Cookbook are now posted to: Propeller.warrantyvoid.us
Got an SD card connected? - PropDOS
One nice thing about programming an embeded system like the HYDRA is that you know exactly where every bit is going. The system is small enought that you actually can. You also·don't have to worry about the OS or·another program stealing system resources in the middle of something.
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·</Parallel Universe>
is there a way I could make money off it? I mean, I know I can sell it, but chances are, it won't sell. And 200 bucks is a lot of money(on a walmart salary) to put into a project like this when your only one person. I don't have a team or anything, it's me and only me. Also, how good can you get the graphics in this thing? anyone have a way to give me an idea what I can do with this? I want to make a zelda type game, would HYDRA be able to hold it(memory and graphic wise)? Sorry, like I said; I am new and just trying to get a general feel for this. Thanks!
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NintendoWiiBoy
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NintendoWiiBoy
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Now as far as making money with games -- I get this question 10-15,000x a year. Learning to be a professional game programmer takes some time, and a LOT of discipline, so expect 2-5 years to get good at 2D game programming, and 5-10 to get good at 3D, there is a LOT to learn, along the way, the only way to make money realistically is to write games for the iPhone and/or try and do FLASH games for contract work. Developing a AAA HALO type game is 10 years of work and teams of 200-300 programmers. But, if you write some complete games on the HYDRA; pong, asteroids, pacman, etc. then you will be in a far better position to try something like FLASH or iPhone (objective C and Cocoa) to make money.
That said, be realistic in your goals, and learning embedded programming and game development in general can only help you in every type in programming endeavor you might every try.
Making money is really hard, you have to make a commercial quality product, market it, advertise, fill orders, do tech support, basically run a business. Now, there are exceptions to this rule, eg. the 30 something year old that was an ATM programmer in day, wrote a game Prism or Trism, or something like that for the iPhone, next thing you know he made $250K. But, that one success represents 1000's of failures. But, we wouldn't be here if we didn't think WE could be that one success, but you will have to work for it no matter what [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Andre'
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/18/iphone.game.developer/index.html
I agree with Andre...writing games is not easy. Have fun and enjoy it...the money will come if you focus on something you are passionate about learning and doing.