sark02 wrote:
Hugh Aguilar wrote:
I think a game-machine based on the 6502 has potential to find a market, even today.
https://thec64.com.
That machine is not intended to be programmed by the users. It just runs legacy C64 cartridges.
A person could make his own cartridges, but this requires being able to burn EPROMs and build a small board, which most teenagers aren't going to do. Also, you would still have to program in 6510 assembly-language --- you wouldn't get 16-bit registers or an enhanced instruction-set --- not too many teenagers are going to accept such a primitive processor as the 6510 in the year 2018.
sark02 wrote:
Quote:
but you want the game-machine to be as simple as the C64 so teenagers can figure out how the graphics and music work so they can write their own games
Teenagers who want to write games, and then share those games with their friends might not want to learn the details of a computer made before their parents were born. Something like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGmXxpIj6vs might be more appropriate.
I watched about half of that video. This is not interesting to me --- it wouldn't have been interesting to me when I was a teenager either.
That guy is presenting a scripting language that is designed for developing games. The message being presented to the teenagers is that they are too dumb to learn how the hardware works, so they need several layers of software between them and the hardware --- they are told that all they can do is to memorize the code-library functions that their scripting language provides them, but they can never do anything creative themselves.
Personally, I'm not very good at learning to use software written by somebody else. I really prefer to write my own software. I can learn how hardware works --- in the C64 days, everybody was required to learn how to work with the video and music chips --- that was a lot more interesting, and it provided an opportunity to be creative in writing software.
I'm not entirely opposed to code-libraries, so the users don't have to reinvent the wheel every day --- but they can result in all of the games looking alike, because all of the games used the same code-library functions --- they can stifle creativity.
sark02 wrote:
So here we are, now the kids are programming games straight into their browser windows... or downloading a state-of-the-art 3D game engine and building rich worlds to explore. How dare they.
So we need a 64-bit x86 dual-core desktop-computer, and a browser and internet connection, to write a video game such as Ms. Pacman?
Also, you describe a 3D game-engine involving "rich worlds to explore" as being state-of-the-art --- you're describing first-person shooter games, that are essentially mass-murder fantasy.
What I was describing was something similar to the C64 except with 16-bit registers and an enhanced instruction-set (the M65c02A or something like it) --- writing a game within such a system would be fun and challenging --- when people do something creative they feel good about themselves, which is the point.