Would an Homebrew Console Be a Realistic Venture and What Would you Need ?

[shadowprophet]

I don't know. To me something just seems narrow minded about snubbing a homebrew console idea just because if its similarities to a pc. in the same turn that would have been like the wright brothers asking do we need airplanes, And some small narrow minded group of people standing up and saying. No we already have boats and trains.

The whole Idea that a big $#@!bersome pc is a suitable replacement idea for a true homebrew console. just doesn't cut it.
In the same turn and in fairness bill gates could have asked does the world really need an X-box and the world could have Said, No we already have at least one Big ugly pc in our homes, why do we need another.

[snkrock25]

there already is one. its called the dreamcast. idunno if you missed it. but this site is named after the device.

[shadowprophet]

there already is one. its called the dreamcast. idunno if you missed it. but this site is named after the device.

ummm. Somehow, I think you missed the point of this entire thread. But thats okay, nobodys perfect

[bm4n]

You just described 100% a modded Xbox...You can do w/e you want and its almost the same as PC programming...This "dream console" you keep bringing up, Wrag, is not really a good idea. If you want to make games use what we have which is PCs, Xboxes, and now XBLA via XNA on the Xbox360. All powerful, all useful, all relatively simple to learn...Why make a new machine that will fail because it will have no commercial games when we already have 3 great platforms?

[Vangar]

That console your talking about is a PC =P. In fact a homebrew console wouldn't work because so many people have PCs that do the exact same.

EDIT: About the plane thing. We couldn't fly before without planes, what could we do with a homebrew console that we can't do with a PC?

[jaycee900]

Why do people keep saying the PC is the best console...the PC is infact what its letters are standing for 'personal computer' note the computer word at the end, a console in pure gaming terms means just that a 'console' that only plays games i.e master system, snes, playstation, xbox etc. A computer is an object that do several things i.e atari st, amiga, pc, mac, c64, speccy etc

So Wrag knows what he means when he states a homebrew console, but he also means completely open source, where as the xbox and dreamcast are not open source even though they already have emulators and homebrew on them.

But anyway, but on topic, IF there was a chance of an open source console being made just for that purpose then firstly and probably it wouldnt happen as the hardware would have to be at a profit to be worthwhile unless its a joined project with each unit being sold at production cost for the community.
Spec wise at least 1ghz cpu, 256mb gpu, 256mb ram, a sd slot is not practicle on a console, CD drive, dvd is not really needed, 4xusb slots for controllers/and or mouse, keyboard combo, cheap sound card and rgb scart, vga connectors.

[dejkirkby]

I kinda agree with Shadowprophet here. Stating that a PC or a modded Xbox does this isn't really answering the question. That would be like telling Microsoft "We don't want the Zune because we have the iPod or telling Sony we don't want the PS3 as we have the Wii (Well maybe not with the 2nd example.)
The specs I would really like for this project are as follows.
1ghz or higher processor, preferably AMD.
512 DDR2 ram
40+GB HDD
2 usb ports, I think that would be adequate.
Any sort of TV-out
Any decent sound card.
On a serious note, if this project ever saw the light of day I think the support for it would surprise a lot of the big software houses.

[knownX]

why limit yourself to a console. Like he said up top pcs are the best console. ever changing pcs get faster and faster and for homebrew it is limitless a console was a good thought but if so you would need to be upgradeable to fit the needs of a very wide crowed and the pcs done that pretty well.

[inlovewithi]

Enough with the PC. All I want is a console that would aloud me to play all of my old system on my TV, using S-Video, without having to take them out of the closet. I think that's the point of the article. That's why I've been thinking of getting an X-BOX. Because of stress, I rather have things simple, just turn the power on, and pick the game I want to play. Computers complicate things, and they're noisier, and requires a lot more configuration. I would have to set my computer closer to my TV, and have to deal with the resolution every time I'll have to use it. I'm getting stressed out just thinking about it. I now want to live in a bubble and not play any games for 2 years. Just give me an X-BOX that sits next to my TV.

[Turn2]

I understand wraggster's post, but I think all of the answers here just answer the question rather than avoid it. I don't think there is any money to be made by developing manufacturing and marketing a dedicated homebrew console. it is much easier to use a pc or the like (my idea a cheap one) that is fast enough to run all of the emus. As far as actual game develpment goes any developer of games with out millions to spend or the equivilent of the hours of work needed to use up those millions would not ever need anything larger than a maxed out 1 Ghz range PC to run the games. Take a look at how long it takes to develope a homebrew dreamcast game.

I think the best you could do is to create a line of Console type cases with a built in power supply made to match the case and be able to mount lets say a baby ATX board and standard PC parts to a persons liking. Just make the boxes with the USB ports on the front and some type of PCI or AGP cable to plug into a slot so that the card can be mounted parallel with the MB.

If someone actually makes a mint off of this please find me and spare a guy a million.