gaming News - Page 16 of 19 - CNX Software

January 2, 2019April 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

FOSDEM 2019 Open Source Developers Meeting Schedule

FOSDEM – which stands for Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting – is a free-to-participate event where developers meet on the first week-end of February to discuss open source software & hardware projects. FOSDEM 2019 will take place on February 2 & 3, and the schedule has already been published with 671 speakers scheduled to speak in 711 events themselves sorted in 62 tracks. Like every year, I’ll create a virtual schedule based on some of the sessions most relevant to this blog in tracks such as open hardware, open media, RISC-V, and hardware enablement tracks. February 2 10:30 – 10:55 – VkRunner: a Vulkan shader test tool by Neil Roberts A presentation of VkRunner which is a tool to help test the compiler in your Vulkan driver using simple high-level scripts. Perhaps the largest part of developing a modern graphics driver revolves around getting the compiler to […]

December 28, 2018March 4, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

ClockworkPi GameShell Review – Part 1: Unboxing & Assembly Guide

ClockworkPi Gameshell is a portable retro gaming console kit designed to be hackable being powered by Allwinner R16 processor to run Linux, as well as an Arduino compatible Atmel AVR MCU. It’s partially open source hardware with PDF schematics, and firmware source code available on Github. The device launched last year on Kickstarter, raised close to $300,000, and started shipping to backers last summer. The company has now sent me a sample for review, so let’s have a look. The first part of the review will be more than just an unboxing, since the game console is meant to be assembled by the end user, and I’ll report my experience doing so. ClockworkPi Gameshell Unboxing The kit comes in a fairly large package that reads “GameShell – Redefine Portable Game Console” and lists the main specifications with quad core Cortex A7 processor, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, 1GB RAM, 16GB micro […]

December 6, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Steam Link Beta now Available for Raspberry Pi 3 / 3B+

Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation for purchasing and playing video games that was first launched in 2003 for Windows computer only. Since then Mac OS (2010), Linux / Ubuntu, as well as mobile devices running Android & iOS (2012) have been supported in Steam. Mobile could only be used to browse the storefront, manage games, and access the community. However more recently, the company released Steam Link app that allows players to stream games to their mobile devices, while being rendering on more powerful machines. The good news is that Steam Link (beta) has now been released for Raspberry Pi 3 / 3B + boards. All you need is either board running Raspbian Stretch, and install Steam Link as follows:

curl -#Of http://media.steampowered.com/steamlink/rpi/steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb

1 2	curl -#Of http://media.steampowered.com/steamlink/rpi/steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb sudo dpkg -i steamlink_1.0.5_armhf.deb

Once the app is installed launch it in the command line with steamlink, or launch it from the Games menu in the desktop environment. Steam […]

November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Sony PlayStation Classic Teardown Reveals MediaTek MT8167A Processor

Miniature versions of popular game consoles from earlier decades have been all the rage recently, but they all have one thing in common: the inability to add games by default. But eventually, people find ways. For example, when it was found Nintendo NES Classic Mini was found to be powered by an Allwinner R16 processor, enthusiasts found ways to run RetroArch on the device with some efforts. One of the latest announcement was Sony PlayStation Classic, and as reviewers got hold of early sample of the miniature gaming console, it got torn down by HDBlog Italia. That means we now have a good idea of the technical specifications of the console: SoC – MediaTek MT8167A quad core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ 1.5 GHz with PowerVR GE8300 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3-1866 (Samsung K4B4G1646E-BYMA) Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.1 flash (Samsung KLMAG1JETD-B041) Video Output – HDMI port up to 720p […]

October 11, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

THEC64 Mini Small Commodore C64 Replica is Now for Sale for $80

Mini versions of retro computers and game consoles are now really a thing. After Nintendo NES Classic / SNES Classic, and Sony PlayStation Classic announcement, all of which are smaller versions of popular older consoles with modern interface like HDMI, Retro Games has now unveiled THEC64 Mini (apparently no typo) that is a small scale replica – half size to be exact – of Commodore C64 computer launched in 1982. THEC64 mini specifications based on Sunxi Wiki and official product page: SoC – Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex-A7 procesor System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – TBD NAND flash Video Output – HDMI 1.4 output at 720p USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – Power button Power Supply – 5V/1A via micro USB port Dimensions – 205 x 105 x 35mm You may notice a keyboard on the photo, but that’s just for aesthetics, as the keys are […]

September 29, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

iBASE Introduces MI988 Ryzen Embedded V1000 Mini-ITX Motherboard

iBASE has recently announced the MI988 Mini-ITX motherboard based on the latest AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor family. The motherboard is equipped with two DDR4-2666 SO-DIMM slots that support up to 32GB ECC memory, M.2 NVMEe storage (NVMe), two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and various display options. iBASE MI988 motherboard specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 processor with AMD Radeon Vega GPU System Memory – 2x DDR4-2666 SO-DIMM, supports ECC, up to 32GB Storage – 1x M.2 SSD (NVMe), 2x SATA III Display Interfaces 1x HDMI 2.0a, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 1x eDP or 1x 24-bit dual channel LVDS Audio – Built-in HD audio w/ALC662 codec for 5.1 channel; 3x 3.5mm audio jacks Connectivity – 2x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet connectors via 2x Intel I211AT USB – 2x USB 3.1 Gen2 (10Gbps) on board, 2x USB 3.1 Gen1 (5Gbps) on board Serial – 2x RS232/422/485 (Jumperless selection), 4x RS232 Expansion Slots 1x […]

September 20, 2018September 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Sony PlayStation Classic To Launch for $99.99 in December

Nintendo started to offer smaller replica of their older popular games consoles with Nintendo NES Classic Edition in 2016, followed by Nintendo SNES Classic Edition in 2017. Both devices came with recent interfaces like HDMI, a limited (and fixed) number of games, but being powered by Allwinner R16 SoC they soon became hackable. Both game consoles also became very popular selling in millions despite the underwhelming hardware, and limited games. Another company that has been doing game console for many year is Sony, and they must have liked Nintendo’s idea and sales numbers, as they’ve just unveiled Sony PlayStation Classic, a smaller replica of the original PlayStation with a limited number of games, and modern interfaces such as HDMI and USB… Sony PlayStation Classic specifications have not been fully disclosed but we can see two USB ports for the game controllers, an HDMI output port, and power, open, and reset […]

August 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ANAVI Play pHAT OSHW Board Adds 8 Buttons, I2C Headers to Raspberry Pi Boards (Crowdfunding)

Leon ANAVI has been learning KiCad open source EDA suite in his spare time, and developed several Raspberry Pi (p)HAT add-on boards such as ANAVI pHAT Light to control LED RGB strips, or ANAVI Infrared pHAT to handle IR signals. All his boards are open source hardware, and come with source code, and decent documentation as explained in the two aforelinked reviews. Leon has now come with another variant of his open source hardware certified add-on boards with ANAVI Play pHAT designed for playing games on the Raspberry Pi 3 / Pi Zero W boards, or other boards with a 40-pin header, thanks to 8 buttons, and just like his previous designs, three I2C headers are also included to connect sensors. Key specifications and features of the board: Gamepad with eight buttons for playing retro games 3x I2C header for sensors EEPROM with device tree binary overlay OSHW Certification – […]