Well, at very least everyone will feel like they got their monies worth. Very few products are worth the money they cost, so I tried to add a lot of value to it and make it open, so people can add things. For example, I will do a super cart for it later that will give it added features via the cart port.
Also, at some point I will do a Hydra/Propeller game dev seminar either at parallax or here in silicon valley or both. Of course, we would have to figure out interest and logistics and see if at least 50-100 people wanted to come, how many hours, format, etc. But, some of you may know about my "Xtreme Game Developers Conference" I used to put on for about 4 years (1999-2003) and then sold it to Course PTR (2003-2004) which changed it to the XGDX, ruined it, and merged into their other media events in 2005. Point being, I don't mind putting together small development conferences since I have done so for many years for a few hundred people. So who knows maybe parallax and nurve can team up and have formal dev conferneces at some venue, and the pchip, hydra, xgs, and stamps might be on the menu to get enough bodies to make it worth the work to set up or whatever. But, definitely, if there is enough interest, its fun to have game dev conferences with a small # of people, less than 500. But, we will see what happens. Its been a few years since I produced a con, so I am getting the itch to do another and this might be perfect for it. But, first we might just start with a simple seminar or 2 and see what's up. Who knows my friend Sellam Ismail puts on the "Vintage Tech" con each year in silicon valley and might be a place to have a hydra-con as a side show at the same place and share the rooms, etc. then people can go to the hydra / propeller classes and also check out the vintage tech festival room there. Lots of possibilities....its all about synergy [noparse]:)[/noparse] Maybe we can get Chip to drag his focused ion beam toy down and do a demo, we can MOD some PChips at the atomic level [noparse]:)[/noparse]
I, for one... am fully game for anything sounding like a con for the hydra/propeller. I don't have a focused ion beam(sounds fun), but I have a ton of ideas and possible applications for the hydra and propeller alike...
I would gladly sell my 17 y/o (does not do dishes) and 19 y/o (does not do anything) for tickets to this event!
Maybe if the do it, someone could sponsor a "lottery"...
Oh well, whishfull thinking...
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Just tossing my two bits worth into the bit bucket
There is a whole section in the book that not only shows the parallax generic graphics API, but shows a demo of all of them and how they work. So, I covered that stuff early in the book on the basic stuff, then as the book moved forward, it gets more advanced and game dev concepts etc. are the focus and the graphics API becomes irrelevant. But, bottom line is that I have written more demos than you can imagine!
The VGA is driven by the serializer of the Pchip which is a function of how fast the pchip is running and the resolution, for example 640x480 is a 25.175 mhz dot clock which is pushing it. So its possible to get higher resolutions, but multiple cogs have to be used to get anything out to the serializer fast enough to do anything interesting. I think chip made a higher resolution VGA driver for example. Search for VGA in the forums.
The interface should be enough to build your own cards that do pretty much anything, serial, parallel (8-bit) I/O supported, plus power, networking, and a couple other lines. I mentioned before, I have about 50 game cards that I had built that I use to test demos and plug and play, they are so cool, the size of SD cards, but a little longer. As far as release date, everything has been done for quite some time, its just a matter of pulling it all together mostly in parallax's hands now, they are doing the manufacturing, so its a matter of integration.·The book has been done for a couple months as well as the hydra itself, and the editors are just editing and sending me chapters, by this week, we should have the 2nd to last chunk then in a week or 2 after, the final chunk, then the book is already laid out (the editor lays out as she edits), so its mostly a matter of getting it to the printer, its not that big only 650-800 pages looks like it will lay out to. Then its just an integration problem, we basically have these pieces that have to come together:
1. The hydra system.
2. The 128K mem card that comes with each unit.
3. The blank experiment card that comes with each unit.
4. Power supply, A/V cable, USB cable, mouse, and keyboard.
5. Game controller.
6. The physical book plus my CD with all the software, games, and demos.
7. The final packaging, in flux until all the pieces are physically in a box and they can do final sizing and lay out box artwork to final size and print.
8. Final ordering of a couple parts for manufacturing.
9. Final assembly and testing, I already delivered the entire testing suite a couple weeks ago, so they have that as well.
10. Shipping to happy customers [noparse]:)[/noparse] Hopefully, 10-20,000 of them would be me happy, so I can take a vacation for a couple days, my last week off was about 7 years ago!
So the only outstanding things are the book's final editing, parallax is going as fast as they can, but that's not the bottle neck, its just a lot of little details to pull all together, so it will all be done VERY SOON [noparse]:)[/noparse] Each day its getting closer and closer, like zeno's paradox, soon we will be at the smallest quantum amount of work, and the hydra will just instantly be done [noparse]:)[/noparse]
If anyone has any specific questions, you can ask them here, or email me at ceo@nurve.net.
Also, I was asked about the expansion interface by PhilPi, so here's one of the non-top secret chapters from the book (non-edited version). Also, when the Hydra ships we will put a couple chapters on the web page for the product for free download that have more content. This document is for those that want a head start building interfaces and expansion devices for the Hydra.
Thanks, after reading the legendary error that atari made with their game ports, if they just exported another pin or 2, it would have changed history. So I thought long and hard about it, plus I like serial stuff, but I like to be able to parallel stuff, its a MUST for memory based devices, for example, throw a SRAM on there, and some latching logic, and you can do a couple writes to update address, and read/write a sram at full 8-bits, which is nice. And you can override many of the lines and use them for control, like the networking lines, etc.
So I think this should be good enough for just about any expansion needs, and the loopbacks are a nice touch to be able to detect things are plugged in.
It'll be an open source downloadable object. I'm 3rd party and not by any means affiliated with Parallax or Nurve.
(HSS) Is a object I wrote for the propeller to handle complex audio synthesis and generating. I just wrote it with the Hydra and games in mind. ^^
I'm sure after the Hydra has it's release, you'll see many more great 3rd party objects and plug-ins for it by many creative and talented people.
(HSS) Will release shortly after the Hydra.
Many thanks to Parallax and Nurve for creating such a fun product.
I have never heard of the hydra sound system [noparse]:)[/noparse] but, if you mean are the sounds drivers we made for ADSR and PCM sound included, then YES, with full documentation, demos, etc. And yes, at the top of the 128K mem card there is more prototyping room, so you could theoretically add a dip chip and some passives, and add more functionality to the 128K card, everything about the hydra is about moding as well. So if something had the potential to be changed, moded, expanded, I tried to facilitate that in the designs of everything.
Comments
Back to graphics programming...
Andre'
Andre'
Vintage Tech?
...
Must... contain... urge... to... sell... soul... for... planetickets...
Anyway, I'm definitely going to buy the book, if not the Hydra itself.
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Don't visit my new website...
Maybe if the do it, someone could sponsor a "lottery"...
Oh well, whishfull thinking...
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Just tossing my two bits worth into the bit bucket
KK
·
One of the best features of the propeller are the graphics capability.
If you look at the ‘graphics_demo’ you will find and exciting array of graphics, sprites and animation.
Unfortunately the program does not gives any indication of their usage.
In other words is to the user to trial and error, no logical approach, no explanation of their usage, no hints.
Nobody has touch the subject of graphics, only text for the composite video and VGA.
That why some people compare the Propeller to the good old days of the Commodore 64 and VIC20.
Also another limitation is the memory capabilities.
All of this have a solution, the Hydra.
If you look at the description and future plans as described by Andr
Andre'
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Propeller + Hardware - extra bits for the bit bucket =· 1 Coffeeless KaosKidd
·
Looking at the photo shows a Composite video connector and a VGA connector.
My question is, what is the resolution of the VGA operation?.
Would work with basic resolution (640x480)·and/or higher resolution?
I would like to be prepared.
Andre'
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Propeller + Hardware - extra bits for the bit bucket =· 1 Coffeeless KaosKidd
·
***Srry for the other 2 threads, pressed wrong button, ahahah. I deleted them***
1. The hydra system.
2. The 128K mem card that comes with each unit.
3. The blank experiment card that comes with each unit.
4. Power supply, A/V cable, USB cable, mouse, and keyboard.
5. Game controller.
6. The physical book plus my CD with all the software, games, and demos.
7. The final packaging, in flux until all the pieces are physically in a box and they can do final sizing and lay out box artwork to final size and print.
8. Final ordering of a couple parts for manufacturing.
9. Final assembly and testing, I already delivered the entire testing suite a couple weeks ago, so they have that as well.
10. Shipping to happy customers [noparse]:)[/noparse] Hopefully, 10-20,000 of them would be me happy, so I can take a vacation for a couple days, my last week off was about 7 years ago!
So the only outstanding things are the book's final editing, parallax is going as fast as they can, but that's not the bottle neck, its just a lot of little details to pull all together, so it will all be done VERY SOON [noparse]:)[/noparse] Each day its getting closer and closer, like zeno's paradox, soon we will be at the smallest quantum amount of work, and the hydra will just instantly be done [noparse]:)[/noparse]
If anyone has any specific questions, you can ask them here, or email me at ceo@nurve.net.
Andre'
Andre'
Wow! There's more to it than what appeared at first blush. Obviously, a lot of thought has gone into this interface.
Thanks for the very thorough documentation!
-Phil
So I think this should be good enough for just about any expansion needs, and the loopbacks are a nice touch to be able to detect things are plugged in.
Andre'
Is the··(HSS) The Musical Propeller. (Hydra Sound System)·incorporated in the Hydra release?
Or is going to be an addon?
That's thicker than my college calculus book, and that's 450.
Well, at least it will be highly documented so you can just dive in and start.
It'll be an open source downloadable object. I'm 3rd party and not by any means affiliated with Parallax or Nurve.
(HSS) Is a object I wrote for the propeller to handle complex audio synthesis and generating. I just wrote it with the Hydra and games in mind. ^^
I'm sure after the Hydra has it's release, you'll see many more great 3rd party objects and plug-ins for it by many creative and talented people.
(HSS) Will release shortly after the Hydra.
Many thanks to Parallax and Nurve for creating such a fun product.
Thanks for the clarification.
Andre'