I'm thinking about making a open source game console organization (OSGCO).

I looked at indrema's (what seems to be failed) game console but it would've been managed by a company not gamers.

My idea is to create a organization that manages development of open source game console schematics . So that anybody 'given the right parts' can make there own OSGCO compatible machine, and/or develop for it.

The console should:

play games instantly,

have decent graphics,

have online capabilities,

be mod friendly,

have compatibilities various grade system's (like 16-bit 32-bit 64-bit 128-bit),

be backward compatible,

be available to many people worldwide,

be PC compatible,

be easy to develop for,

use as many open source software available as a starting point,

and have a cool name.

If anyone has any ideas on how to do this, has any ideas about this, or has any info on this please post.

There are many bits of software out there that would help developing the core software for such a console. One (extremely infant) example can be found at rapidgame.sf.net (shameless plug).

You'll find others on SourceForge, Freshmeat etc, and you should certainly look at SDL (which is a much lower-level interface).

You probably want to draw up a more detailed list of requirements. e.g. I am confused by the stated requirement to be PC-compatible. What does this mean; that the console will run any PC game (relatively easy to do) or that a PC can run any console game? In the latter case, the game must be compiled to support all variants of PC hardware; to my mind, this defeats the point of using a pre-chosen set of hardware (i.e. a console), and it will certainly increase load times. It also seems to indicate that cross-platform support isn't going to be available, unless you are grouping other hardware (Sun/Apple etc.) in with PC.

The requirements are for the various schematics that will be produced. I generalized them for the benefit of the unknown. I don't know exactly the stuff that needs to be in the console just some major things that I know about.

The "have compatibilities various grade system's (like 16-bit 32-bit 64-bit 128-bit)" requirement isn't necessarily for the same console technical spec.

What I meant was I wanted it compatible with PC hardware DVD-RAM drives, mouses, keyboards etc...

But thats not necessary, if I can spit additional hardware specs out and get various people to produce and distribute them. It's just to give people many options on what they can add on to it.

so,

if you need some help please let me know.
I will be glade to help you!

That is a very interesting idea.

Maybe we can use some kind of uLinux with mesa and other stuffs.

you have a web page or mail list?

No, not yet can't decide on any mailing list hosting service yet. As for the website that will come later, I guess.

Please, tell me if you know of any good mailing list or website hosts.

it could be a really cool project! "build your own console" sort of thing, like those dudes that build their own mame arcade machines. the only problem is mame already has like a kajillion games.
you can't exactly install a pc game to your hdd, burn the game dir to a cd/dvd and then get it to play on the console...or could you?

Well, essentially a game console is a PC (not necessarily x86). Since it'll be open speculation, and I'm planning on having linux as the OS, emulation could provide some games.

mame after all is an arcade machine emulator.

If I wanted to emulate an x86 windows PC on It, that certainly wouldn't be new territory.

Also, I want It to be free and easy to develop for. (as easy as developing games can be, anyway).

Hello guys, I've been thinking the same thing for over a year now, and have already setup a site for such an organization at http://ogcs.forumer.com

Please stop by and add your input!

has anything become of this? Might I suggest SIGOSGC at this year's Siggraph?

No but haven't given up yet. And sure.

Hey everyone

This just a draft.

Open Source Gaming SIGOSG

The SIS intended to be a central point within ACM for all aspects of Open Source Gaming includes the discussion & development software and hardware. Part of this SIG’s primary mandate is to develop an online repository of OSG information, promote research and development and bring together developers, researchers by fostering interest in the community.

What do you think...?

That's Great. Although I had to look up on some of those abbreviations (ACM SIGGRAPH)
before I knew what you meant. I still don't know what SIS is.
Also, I think Open Source Gaming should be Open Gaming since Open Source refers to Software.

Really, I'm still seeing about ZephyrXero's organization. I think Zephy would love to hear your input.
He posted his site a few posts up. You should check it out. But if you could set up something I'd check it out too.

I might do my own thing only it would be more like "The DVD Forum Organization" the people who are in charge of DVD standard's like DVD Video, DVD Audio...etc. But, I think Xephy is trying to do that. Only diff is DVD Forum was founded by 10 companies.

I have lost interest in the idea. (I've gotten more into arcades)
I also think it was too idealistic to work In the real world.

But, if you're interested, ZephyrXero's Forum still talks about it.

To anyone interested:

My open source video game console project is still underway. We're gonna need help in just about every area you can think of, so if you'd like to join the Open Game Console Consortium, feel free to stop by our new forums sometime. Check out http://opengameconsole.org for details

Sorry to bump into such an old thread . But I am maintaining a site for open game console development. Go to http://openconsoles.org. I have also setup a forum , http://openconsoles.org/forums. I will also be adding tutorials there about game console development and related items. I am hoping that someone finds this useful , since this thread comes in google search list.


Regards
Sandeep Mathew