Video game enthusiasts are a nostalgic group who often like to revisit some of the greatest games of yesterday. Unfortunately for many, the outdated hardware used to play these original games is simply not available. Software emulation can take the itch away, but it can also cause unwanted problems that detract from the feeling of authenticity of the game. Pocket PC Analogue and the openFPGA initiative are taking steps to solve this problem by perfectly emulating consoles and other historical platforms on a hardware level.
Originally expected earlier this year, the Analogue 1.1 firmware beta expands the Pocket feature set and includes several add-ons aimed at empowering third-party developers. These additional features provide developers with the tools, settings, and OS-level configurations needed to successfully build and deploy new cores for a system using user-programmable gate array (FPGA) device hardware. Cores equate to functionality that mimics a compute or console platform at the hardware level.
Unlike ASICs (specialized integrated circuits), which are designed and manufactured for one purpose, FPGAs use configurable logic blocks and programmable interconnects that allow reprogrammable components to perform different functions using the same hardware. This reprogramming capability provides developers with flexibility not usually available on other consoles and platforms. Analogue demonstrated the potential of the system by incorporating a full-featured implementation of what some consider the first true gaming platform, the Programmed Data Processor-1 (PDP-1).
This DEC minicomputer (an ironic term by today’s standards) was the basis for Spacewar!, a space combat game developed by computer scientists working on MIT’s PDP-1 implementation in the early 1960s. Using openFPGA, third-party developer Spacemen3 recreated PDP-1 and Spacewar! using the original source code in the public domain.
The minicomputer’s original specifications may surprise anyone unfamiliar with 1960s computer technology. Released in 1959 at the low price of $120,000 (well above the $1 million mark in today’s dollars), the PDP-1 weighed 1,600 pounds and provided a 4,096-word memory capacity accessible via magnetic tape. The giant main body and peripherals, pictured below in the Museum of Computer History, offered users computing power roughly equivalent to pocket electronic organizers and calculators back in the mid-1990s.
Spacewar! was developed by several computer scientists and engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962. Spacewar, a two-player air combat game, was not just the first attempt at a computer game. The game’s mechanics and elements went on to provide the physical models, controls and gameplay for some of the most popular games ever created, including the 1979 classic Asteroids. Since then, the game has been consistently recognized as one of the most important breakthroughs in computer game history, has been included on numerous lists of the best video games of all time, and has even been nominated for preservation in the official gaming canon.