HN Explorer

17 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 59.8 ms ] thread
Arjuna
At this time, unfortunately, I think we may have hammered the server. I'm seeing, "Error establishing a database connection."

Here's the "Text-only version" from Google's cache:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hYtWJw...

Here's the "Full version" (i.e., with images) from Google's cache:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hYtWJw...

mmastrac
Shame it doesn't actually cache the images. Really interested to see what this one looks like.
jgrahamc
You can generate TV signals in software on an Arduino: http://blog.jgc.org/2011/05/playing-pong-on-pair-of-candy-ca...
enneff
In a similar vein: http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/craft/
q3k
Linus Akesson ('lft') is probably one of the hackers I admire the most. In a few years he went from a sound-only demo on an ATmega [1], via generating VGA [2] and PAL [3] video demos on the same platform up to implementing custom digital logic including a processor and shader-based graphics accelerator on an FPGA [4].

At the same time, he is a really talented musician, and uses his hardware knowledge to augment [5] and build [6] custom instruments.

He just keeps churning out concentrated awesomeness and hackery.

[1] - http://www.linusakesson.net/hardware/chiptune.php

[2] - http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/craft/

[3] - http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/phasor/

[4] - http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/parallelogram/

[5] - http://www.linusakesson.net/chipophone/

[6] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV6IFOVY-go

enneff
He's certainly the real deal.
bio4m
I think the site may have been hosted on an 8-bit homemade computer :)
bhhaskin
I love "labor of love" projects like these. Thanks for sharing.
ChuckMcM
One of the fun 'first' projects in most FPGA classes is building a simple VGA display. What is interesting is that a period specific graphics display for the Z80 would probably be something like Cromemco Dazzler[1] with its 32 x 32 pixel color display, or the Super Dazzler.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromemco_Dazzler -- yes I owned one of these boards at one time :-)

adestefan
Cromemco and the Dazzler was the pieces of hardware that were the basis for most of the local news weather graphics that were seen on TV in the 80s.
Pinn2
Neat! Would a 1-bit computer be 8 times easier?
KSS42
No, it would be 8 times harder.
aswanson
Awesome, I want to try this on a Spartan 6.
coderjames
I've actually been thinking about doing exactly this for a 68K-based computer I'm building. This will be a big help! Awesome project.
aprdm
Very nice! Would be a great project for an FPGA also, wouldn't need all of these wires :P