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Video Game Technology Consulting
Video Game Technology
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We provide consultation, mentoring, and engineering services for any size team or project, on mobile, PC, Mac, or console. Terms are flexible from targeted hourly or daily engagements, to monthly or retainer.
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The Ember PIA — Initial Design Part 1: Peripheral Interface Adapter
Adding keyboard and gamepad support to the Ember design requires a Peripheral Interface Adapter (PIA). This will interact with keyboards and
Tom Gambill
14 hours ago1 min read
31 views
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The Flame GPU — Initial Design Part 2: Tilesheets, Tilemaps, and Graphics Registers
Next, we will look at the fundamental structures we need to implement a display processor and basic text display mode for the Ember Virtual
Tom Gambill
Mar 241 min read
81 views
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The Flame GPU — Initial Design Part 1: Basic Requirements
Designing a custom retro GPU from scratch
Tom Gambill
Mar 141 min read
31 views
0 comments

Progress on the Apple I PCB Design
Making some progress on the Apple I Reproduction board layout and routing! Apple I Modern Reproduction PCB Design #hardwaredesign...
Tom Gambill
Mar 101 min read
15 views
0 comments

The Ember Console — System Architecture Design: Basic Requirements
A high-level picture of the Ember Homebrew Game Console and which other systems we still need to design to create a working system capab
Tom Gambill
Mar 72 min read
21 views
0 comments


Debugging Timer PCB Working!
The Debugging Circuit Timer boards have arrived! I soldered one up and it's working great! Now I just need to get my Apple I board finished!
Tom Gambill
Mar 61 min read
23 views
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The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 8: Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
Next, we will look at the Instruction Set Architecture, or ISA, of the Ember 32-bit RISC CPU
Tom Gambill
Feb 281 min read
29 views
0 comments

Building an Apple I Computer From Scratch
I am designing an Apple I computer inspired board myself, manufacturing it, and then building it
Tom Gambill
Feb 261 min read
41 views
0 comments

Ben Eater-Based Debug Clock Signal Generator Sent to Manufacture!
2-layer PCB based on the original debugging clock generator designed by Ben Eater. This board can generate a 5v clock signal
Tom Gambill
Feb 251 min read
33 views
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The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 7: Interrupts
rounding out those few remaining instruction types are interrupt handling instructions
Tom Gambill
Feb 241 min read
23 views
0 comments


The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 6: Jumps and Conditional Branches
Now that we have Load-Store and common ALU instructions, we can add branching and jump instructions to the Ember CPU design.
Tom Gambill
Feb 211 min read
14 views
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The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 5: Load-Store and Memory Instructions
In a Load-Store architecture CPU, separate instructions are required to move data from memory into registers or to write data back
Tom Gambill
Feb 201 min read
21 views
0 comments


SMD Project: Nintendo Switch Lite SMD USB-C Repair
My nephew brought me his Switch Lite. I decided to take a look at it and see if there was anything I could do to get it working...
Tom Gambill
Feb 191 min read
14 views
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The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 4: Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
Now that we have some idea of how instructions are encoded, we can begin designing the instruction set for our CPU, starting with the ALU.
Tom Gambill
Feb 181 min read
19 views
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The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 3: Opcodes, Operands, and Instruction Encoding
We recently discussed some instruction types and register options; this time, we will dig into some math and look at how we might encode Emb
Tom Gambill
Feb 141 min read
12 views
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The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 2: Registers
Now that we have the basic design philosophy and some fundamental requirements for our new CPU, consider the types and number of registers..
Tom Gambill
Feb 121 min read
19 views
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The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 1: Basic Requirements
The Ember CPU will be the main processor in a virtual video game system reminiscent of those released during the 80s and 90s.
Tom Gambill
Feb 111 min read
33 views
0 comments


Ember: Beginnings - Homebrew Retro Video Game Console Design
A quick look at the factors behind the Ember CPU design and where we will take it in the future.
Tom Gambill
Feb 111 min read
17 views
0 comments


Project Ember Blog: Going Old-School: Designing A Custom Homebrew Retro Video Game Console From Scratch
Join me on my journey to design and build a completely new 1980s-era video game console and development platform from the ground up.
Tom Gambill
Feb 101 min read
23 views
0 comments


Installing a new NVIDIA RTX 4090
NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU It's time to upgrade the GPU in my primary dev machine...first 3-slot card in there...I guess I'll need two more...
Tom Gambill
Feb 81 min read
5 views
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