Hello everyone,
I would like to know if you, or if in your opinion, a multitude of people would be interested in a dedicated console that effectively played carts from many different systems in one contained unit. Whether it would be done by existing carts themselves or by ROM's on some storage unit isn't the real focus yet ( it would be neat to do both ), but basically the idea is that you have a system that you can plug in a NES, SNES, Hu Card, Genesis etc. cart into and turn on without any sort of selection process.
There would be a generic controller that had a mapping for every system, or the use of special connectors would allow for console specific controllers to be hooked up.
I know that some dedicated gamers have shelves of consoles everywhere, and the wire snaking that results is a great hassle.
So, the basic question is, do you think this community would have enough interest in justify making many of them? From a personal standpoint, I would take on the project just for myself, but I'd like to know if there is a larger interest.
Now, this isn't something I would be taking up right away because I'm still only an undergraduate in Computer Engineering. However, by the time I've completed two bachelors ( computer science and engineering ) and have a master's in engineering, I feel I would definitely be technically competent to take on this task.
Yet, I ask this ahead of time because I just want to know if this grand idea is just a silly one, or if I could really count on a considerable number of people wanting it.
As far as the size of the task goes, it really depends on what kind of access I'll have to processor architectures and their instruction sets, and I'm thinking that if this project were tackled by one person, it would probably take a decade of work. I realize a FPGA NES is in the works by Kevin Horton, but I want to do a console that consolidates all of the gaming goodness into one console.
Now, in my mind, I've fantasized about making it a group project, where several competent software and hardware engineers dedicate their free time to this project, but that may be unrealistic. However, I don't think I'd have any problem getting testers for my hardware
I also realize that Messiah has produced the NEX and has a lot of professional resources, but I think the fear of being sued would be too great for them to even fathom a project of this scale.
Anyway, post and let me know if this is something you would be interested in it ( in the distant future ). Thanks