microcat - The ultimative ARM based handheld game console

[p4nix]

Plus you can exchange maps/tiles/sound.

[DarkestEx]

I made First Fantasy in less than 128 KB of RAM on the CSE. Granted, this excludes the routines, but I am fairly sure that a lot can be done with such low amount of RAM, considering what old calcs can do.

I'm sure you can do it. In case you port First fantasy, would you rather use our new language or C?

Plus you can exchange maps/tiles/sound.

Indeed you can. Also the new language, which is called Claw BTW (yes I know that this is attempt 2 now as the first language sucked as it was too brainf***ing to write it - so this is Claw from now on) won't have garbage collection (yes this still exists today ) but use a block based approach (like C) to get rid of old variables and save a ton of processing and memory this way.

[add]

Since I'm new here I just discovered this project, it seems promising!
Keep up the good work people!
Also, not having Garbage Collection in your language is a good choice.

[DarkestEx]

Since I'm new here I just discovered this project, it seems promising!
Keep up the good work people!
Also, not having Garbage Collection in your language is a good choice.

Thanks, great that you like it

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I made First Fantasy in less than 128 KB of RAM on the CSE. Granted, this excludes the routines, but I am fairly sure that a lot can be done with such low amount of RAM, considering what old calcs can do.

I'm sure you can do it. In case you port First fantasy, would you rather use our new language or C?

Plus you can exchange maps/tiles/sound.

Indeed you can. Also the new language, which is called Claw BTW (yes I know that this is attempt 2 now as the first language sucked as it was too brainf***ing to write it - so this is Claw from now on) won't have garbage collection (yes this still exists today ) but use a block based approach (like C) to get rid of old variables and save a ton of processing and memory this way.

I would prefer to use the new language, assuming the syntax is very similar to TI-83 Plus BASIC or the graphical Axe commands.

As for lack of garbage collection, my only worry is having to reboot the console after every Claw game execution if the games are particularly RAM-hungry. This is a major issue on the HP Prime because when you run programs, the RAM is still used by them (or at least partly) so the next program you run has chances to not run properly.

[novenary]

As for lack of garbage collection, my only worry is having to reboot the console after every Claw game execution if the games are particularly RAM-hungry. This is a major issue on the HP Prime because when you run programs, the RAM is still used by them (or at least partly) so the next program you run has chances to not run properly.

When there is no garbage collection there should be manual memory management. I'm sure he won't forget to include functions to release the memory used by a program, and the OS should automatically release leaked memory on program exit.

[DarkestEx]

I made First Fantasy in less than 128 KB of RAM on the CSE. Granted, this excludes the routines, but I am fairly sure that a lot can be done with such low amount of RAM, considering what old calcs can do.

I'm sure you can do it. In case you port First fantasy, would you rather use our new language or C?

Plus you can exchange maps/tiles/sound.

Indeed you can. Also the new language, which is called Claw BTW (yes I know that this is attempt 2 now as the first language sucked as it was too brainf***ing to write it - so this is Claw from now on) won't have garbage collection (yes this still exists today ) but use a block based approach (like C) to get rid of old variables and save a ton of processing and memory this way.

I would prefer to use the new language, assuming the syntax is very similar to TI-83 Plus BASIC or the graphical Axe commands.

As for lack of garbage collection, my only worry is having to reboot the console after every Claw game execution if the games are particularly RAM-hungry. This is a major issue on the HP Prime because when you run programs, the RAM is still used by them (or at least partly) so the next program you run has chances to not run properly.

Erm, the language itself is somewhat similar to Lua or Basic in parts. But its something new after all and works differently in some parts. To make it easy, we are providing many features already known from BASIC, Lua or C but we added some extra functionality or require some other ways of writing some code. The only thing that is entirely different from what you are used to are the arrays and functions that return or use those. But apart from that I am sure you will get used to it pretty quickly
For the garbage collection :

use a block based approach (like C) to get rid of old variables and save a ton of processing and memory this way

So basically we are using blocks like in C for variables management. Variables live until the block that they have been created in is left, then they are automatically deallocated and the memory is freed

As for lack of garbage collection, my only worry is having to reboot the console after every Claw game execution if the games are particularly RAM-hungry. This is a major issue on the HP Prime because when you run programs, the RAM is still used by them (or at least partly) so the next program you run has chances to not run properly.

When there is no garbage collection there should be manual memory management. I'm sure he won't forget to include functions to release the memory used by a program, and the OS should automatically release leaked memory on program exit.

Well as above, but we will provide some more instructions to deal with them inside the ASM blocks better.

[DarkestEx]

We are facing a very big decision:
Change processor for the last time and ditch SD support, but have a memory mapped 16MB flash from where one could run games from. So no more size limit for c games but we would have to slow the processor down a little. We could also have expansion for RAM and flash as modules then.

Tell me what you think. Big c games and built-in flash (16MB) or SD card with claw (unlimited size games) and RAM loaded c.

The flash and new processor would cost something too. About additional 5 euros total. We could keep SD card for one more euro too (though it probably won't fit space wise).

[DarkestEx]

IT'S DECIDED!
The microcat will now cost about 55 euros (we try to go below that again) and have built-in 16 MB of flash. It will loose the SD card support but gain support for huge C games and still support Claw.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

16 MB of Flash would be nice, although I hope it won't fill too fast with large games. Would it actually save space inside the console by the way?

Also sorry i was extremely busy this weekend so far so I didn't reply yet. I hope you don't have to restart the hardware from scratch, though.

[semiprocoder]

Wait. Is the new console not supporting sd because of the hardware change, or is it due to a price increase/some other reason?

[Dream of Omnimaga]

I think it's due to lack of space inside the console.

[DarkestEx]

16 MB of Flash would be nice, although I hope it won't fill too fast with large games. Would it actually save space inside the console by the way?

Also sorry i was extremely busy this weekend so far so I didn't reply yet. I hope you don't have to restart the hardware from scratch, though.

Well we estimate games to be between .5 and 1 MB. About the hardware, we have to redo much and pay a lot more ourselves for prototyping.
But after all and some more calculations I think we can stay at 50 euros and not go up.

Wait. Is the new console not supporting sd because of the hardware change, or is it due to a price increase/some other reason?

Hardware change.

I think it's due to lack of space inside the console.

Yes indeed.

[Dream of Omnimaga]

Ok but do you think this will be the final hardware restart? Because with too many restarts, you'll waste lots of money with unused parts and eventually alienate the crowd that gives up easily on calculator projects that get rewritten from scratch 6 times before finally dying. I can understand that things won't work sometimes, though, but make sure to plan this new hardware revision as good as you can.

[DarkestEx]

Ok but do you think this will be the final hardware restart? Because with too many restarts, you'll waste lots of money with unused parts and eventually alienate the crowd that gives up easily on calculator projects that get rewritten from scratch 6 times before finally dying. I can understand that things won't work sometimes, though, but make sure to plan this new hardware revision as good as you can.

We were happy with the old hardware really. But many people want C games so we had to do something. We finally decided to restart again. For the last time guys, really!