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Playpower.org

PLAYPOWER

We support affordable, effective, fun learning games. We're starting with an existing $10 TV-computer as a platform for learning games in the developing world.

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Developing New Software for the TV-Computer

Our Hacked NES Dev Cartridge

Genuine NES Dev Cartridge

One of Playpower’s major goals is to create an open-source development kit for creating new games on the $12 TV-computer.  Currently, it is far more difficult to produce new software for the TV-computer than on, say, the iPhone.  Programming for the 6502 generally requires assembly coding, which is straightforward to learn, but is not terribly accessible.

Open-source developers have provided some great tools for this purpose, however.  Specifically, cc65.org is a community producing free C compilers for 6502-based systems (including the NES).  We’ll hopefully post some functional code this week, after testing it in our development cartridge.

Also, feel free to drop by our demo this Thursday, Feb 19, at the UC San Diego Engineering Research Expo, which is taking place on the first floor of Calit2.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 3:03 PM and is filed under Code, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • There are many such software in the market now:)
  • Very interesting open source project. I am glad that there are people like you who make things better... :) Thank you.
  • mfarney
    Is this software gonna be free? Can anyone help develop it?
    _______________
    Mathew Farney - Web Hosting
  • Finally, I would suggest that once these "easily accessible dev tools" are in place, that you have a coding competition. I have followed the GBA, DS, and PSP homebrew dev scenes and they love a good competition. If you can get some sponsors to put up some nice prizes and set some ground rules, I think you would get a fantastic amount of great input. If it is all open sourced, we could use all the code as the basis for future development as well. Just some thoughts!
  • One of Playpower’s major goals is to create an open-source development kit for creating new games on the $12 TV-computer
  • Regarding the website, I would suggest ONE cms system only for everything - it is just not sustainable for a non-profit to administer here the main site, there the blog a 2 other wiki-sites... yet, you still dont have a user forum. I suggest you go some highly-integrated software like Bitweaver (www.bitweaver.org) - such a system gives you everything in once - and most importantly, volunteers who want to contribute will only create and administer ONE account for all their Playpower-related activities. I have experience with Bitweaver and can set up the site for you.
  • Hi Derek,

    I think an IRC channel on freenode would be helpful too!
  • Hi Kozuch,

    I have to agree with you! We've really been wanting to adopt some better community tools.

    If you know of anyone who might be willing to help us get our social toolset up (before Etech even...), definitely let me know: derek @at playpower.org. You think we only need forums? What else do you think would help the playpower community contribute effectively?

    cheers,
    Derek
  • PlayPower is a great project with some serious potential, it just need to really take off and get some publicity and developer attention. The half-broken wikis are not going to do this though... You just need to set up working stuff, updating this blog is a good begining and setting up a simple forum for gathering more community opinion input would be an effective and easy start too. I know you have your Google Groups, but links to those are burried god knows where.
  • Hi Robin,

    I think these are great suggestions! We could consider focusing our donation structure to raise money for cash prizes to the developers of open-source learning games. It might be a great way to build community and develop a canon of good content.

    I'm not entirely sure how we might create the web-based development platform you describe, however, I'll try to have some conversations about it. It's a great idea.

    Thanks for your support--and let us know if you'd like to sign up for our technical mailing list.

    cheers,
    Derek
  • Hey fellas,
    I just found you project from a link through a Dr Dobbs Journal email. First, let me say that this all looks like an incredible project! Keep up the great work! Second, in terms of "an easy/accessible development platform," I would like to suggest building a web-based dev platform. I have seen quite a few NES emulators and several that work in a web browser (via Java or some such). What a great chance for "casual" developers to sit down and doodle with open-source game development for a cause. Also, it would be a great foundation for collaboration. So, devs in the US and any other country could meetup online and work together from the same web page while communicating via chat or video chat. It would also be a great start to doing 8-bit game development training online. Finally, I would suggest that once these "easily accessible dev tools" are in place, that you have a coding competition. I have followed the GBA, DS, and PSP homebrew dev scenes and they love a good competition. If you can get some sponsors to put up some nice prizes and set some ground rules, I think you would get a fantastic amount of great input. If it is all open sourced, we could use all the code as the basis for future development as well. Just some thoughts!
    Enjoy,
    Robin
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