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ClockworkPi – uConsole, “fantasy console” for indie game developers
- low_tech_punk 4y agoCan you turn this into a cyberdeck phone that actually works with AT&T and Verizon?
- officeplant 4y agoThis will look great next to my PocketCHIP, and Pimoroni PicoSystem in the fantasy console drawer I've begun since they got too dusty on the shelf.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ngcc_hk 4y agoSadly ordered the full version before this come out. Look great though.
- ukverwwrttyv 4y agoReminds me of the Sharp Zaurus, it had an linux ecosystem. Good times.
- crims0n 4y agoNot going to lie, this seems to scratch an itch I haven't thought about since the days of the Pocket C.H.I.P. If the keyboard is even remotely useable, I am interested.
- fimdomeio 4y agoThis scratches an itch I don't have but I always believe I do. I have a pocket chip colecting dust in a box yet I think I realy just need to go do an impulse buy of uconsole wich I won't have a good use for but it's so cute. resisting the urge...
- crims0n 4y agoI loved everything about the Pocket C.H.I.P - but that keyboard made the entire concept unusable. I am hoping (perhaps foolishly), this keyboard will be marginally better... but we will see :)
- idle_zealot 4y agoThis keyboard looks very similar to the one used on the DevTerm. If so then I can tell you that it will be similarly unusable, though an improvement over the Pocket CHIP's little button keys.
- yazzku 4y agoWhat exactly is the difference between the uConsole and the DevTerm?
- harryvederci 4y agoIf the keyboard is the only thing holding you back from using it, there are 3d print models available of keyboards that you can put on it.
- ecliptik 4y agoPocket C.H.I.P. makes an excellent desktop info display for things like time, weather, etc. https://www.ecliptik.com/Pocket-CHIP-Terminal-Dashboard/ https://www.ecliptik.com/Pocket-CHIP-Terminal-Dashboard/
- kiawe_fire 4y agoThe Pocket CHIP created this itch for me, but the keyboard on that thing made me realize how everything can be so good and just completely fall apart around one detail. So, I'm leery about this and other things like it. I want a portable, pocketable computer on which I can hack and code away at fun things like graphics and games when I'm bored or waiting in line or whatever, but I'm becoming increasingly convinced that "small size" and "usable keyboard/UI" are mutually exclusive. Might just give this a try, though!
- chillfox 4y ago""small size" and "usable keyboard/UI" are mutually exclusive" Not at all, before the smartphone there were several phones with very usable keyboards, I think it's just that a quality keyboard can't be made for cheap and/or in a small production run. I really wish there was something like one of those old phones with either arm or risc v and 4G. I don't need it to be capable of doing phone calls, I just want a small cellular connected pocket computer with a great keyboard.
- ranger47 4y agoHave a look at the upcoming MNT Pocket Reform: https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/pocket-reform https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/pocket-reform
- kiawe_fire 4y agoThanks for the recommendation, I signed up to see where this goes.
- IggleSniggle 4y agoIt's not quite pocketable, and it doesn't have a keyboard at all, but the Steam Deck has totally been that device for me. I've been really impressed with how good the controller mapping can be; set your joysticks to be Rotary macros, and combined with the huge number of buttons you have yourself a fantastic little chording keyboard. The built-in controller mapper supports keyboard layers and conditional output (eg, when in this section of GUI, output from button chord L3-R3 should be XYZ). Anybody using vim or tmux familiar with this modality should be comfortable. Also, the Rotary menu, should you choose to use it, can be labeled (including with emoji, if that's your jam), making the whole thing incredibly flexible.
- ranger47 4y agoI'm pretty sure lighting a fire and sending smoke signals was a less annoying input method than the stiff metal domes on that Pocket CHIP keyboard. I
- serf 4y agostrange; it was one of the best 'membrane' style keyboards I had ever used. I dig mine out once in awhile to fiddle with mostly because of the k/b. Maybe I used it to the point of wearing it in?
- quijoteuniv 4y agoThis definetely scratch an itch, but i already have a macbook pro from 2006 with Linux 32 bit and still nice battery. Ok that one is too big. But my 2011 macbook air with latest ubuntu run as a charm and is behind my sofa when i need :)
- rasz 4y agoThis looks like dead fish Spectrum keyboard. Total lack of cursor key ergonomics and usability matches Amstrad CPC 664. Its meant to look like something you would have wanted 35 years ago, a nostalgia bait.
- jagtesh 4y agoYou have to scroll down a bit to the image that describes the keyboard in great detail. It includes a mouse trackball. The keys use some kind of clicky switches. The buttons themselves are possibly hard plastic (a good thing). Colour me impressed. Keyboard image blowup: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3833f7_df1d45d717da4487ba0edc4b0ae36144~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_608,h_240,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/uconsole_fig07.png https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3833f7_df1d45d717da4487ba...
- incomingpain 4y agoHoly crap, $200? Too good to be true. What's the catch?
- reustle 4y ago$240 if you include the cellular option in the bundle, but still very cheap.
- djur 4y agoIffy software support. If you look at the Clockwork Pi forums there's a lot of complaints about a lack of updates. There's some community support for alternate/upgraded software, but the user base is small enough that we're talking "download a ZIP file from a rando who says it works for him". It's DIY but also "figure it out yourself".
- moron4hire 4y agoThe catch is that every single part of the system is some kind of janky hack job. I have one of their GameShell devices. The things on the sides that look like knob controls are actually clasps to hold the thing together. Took me a week just to figure out how to SSH into the thing. Screen resolution and picture quality is really bad. All of the buttons feel awful, with a lot of latency on presses. WiFi just craps out whenever you breath a little hard on it. Performance is about like trying to run modern Linux on a 15 year old PC. Lots of fantasy consoles preloaded, but the screen, performance, and buttons all add up to making it a terrible experience, and there are only one or two good games for each, anyway. Lots of very poorly implemented PyGame games that have such neat features as "no way to kill the process from within the app to return to the main menu" and none of them are actually even close to good ideas, say nothing about complete or decent games.
- BirAdam 4y agoI bought both a DevTerm a04 and DevTerm r01. The catch is software support (if this is going to be similar to other clockwork pi products using the same modules), which is entirely left up to the community. With that said, the community mostly supports the a06 and RPi CMs. Their hardware is actually quite good, as is customer support for that hardware. Just be advised that anything other than Rpi and a06 are going to be very rough on the software side of the house.
- philipov 4y agoThey call this Fantasy? Looks more Sci-Fi to me.
- vhold 4y agoComes from things like: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php More here: https://github.com/paladin-t/fantasy https://github.com/paladin-t/fantasy
- traverseda 4y agoImmediately went to buy, and I'm really not clear on what I should be buying. There are three different varieties and it's hard to tell what the differences are.
- napolux 4y agoSame. Dunno what to buy
- gorkish 4y agoUnless you know exactly why you have a strong preference for any of the others, and availability concerns notwithstanding, I'd suggest the Pi CM4 model based on the larger ecosystem surrounding the board.
- giobox 4y agoGood advice, but worth noting the CM4 isn't included and there are a surprising number of CM4 variants now. They only advise one specific model number (104000 - the 4gb ram no onboard storage CM4), clarification on this would be good too.
- gorkish 4y agoThe advice for the no-storage CM4 is because the modules are designed to work with either onboard eMMC or external SD, but the interface is shared so you have to pick one or the other. If you use an eMMC CM4 the sd card slot would not function, but it should otherwise work. The 8GB ram CM4 would also be fine of course. (It's possible through a different hardware design to support a secondary, slower sd card interface for an emmc cm4 via the SDHOST peripheral connected to some GPIO pins, but the pi cant boot from it)
- emdashcomma 4y agoI believe the difference is the core module included, where (CM4 = Compute Module 4): RPI-CM4 Lite: Raspberry Pi CM4 104000 lite (ARM Cortex-A72 quad-core, 4GB LPDDR4, WIFI 2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac wireless + Bluetooth 5.0, BLE) A-06: A-06 Core module (ARM64-bit Dual-core Cortex-A72 + Quad-core Cortex-A53, Mali-T864, 4GB LPDDR4) A-04: A-04 Core module (ARM64-bit Quad-core Cortex-A53, Mali-T720, 2GB DDR3) R-01: R-01 Core module (RISC-V 64bit Single-core RV64IMAFDCVU @ 1.0GHz, No GPU, 1GB DDR3)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- reustle 4y agoGive these guys 3 more years and they’ll release a DIY Blackberry. This is already very close, just a bit too big.
- gergi 4y agoMaybe I’m naive but what exactly is this? I couldn’t figure anything out from the website other than it’s a handheld device that shows a text console. What is a “fantasy console”? Why would a indie game developer want one of these devices?
- traverseda 4y agoIt's a small linux handheld with a slightly anemic ARM cpu, a full keyboard, and metal case. There are various "fantasy consoles" people make video games on, like the piko-8^1 (which the indie darling Celeste was originally developed for) and the TIC-80^2 (Providing a more PC-like experience). It might be best to think of them as emulators for computers/devices that never existed. Some platonic ideal of game consoles past. They're often programed in LUA and provide limited RAM/Display-resolution/palette-depth, etc, in order to provide a retro feel while not requiring you to program in actual assembly. Personally I'd be more interested in this as a field-device/development-environment/tricorder type unit. It seems like a great unit to hook a chip programmer up to, or one of those open-source FPGA-based oscilloscopes, or other lab instrumentation. 1: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php 2: https://tic80.com/ https://tic80.com/
- wilsonnb3 4y agoMore info: There are a bunch of Chinese handhelds that people use for emulation, some of which can run PICO 8 games. My Anbernic RG351V does it but I don’t think it came with the stock OS, requires some tinkering. Anyways, there is already a small market for handheld “fantasy console” players that might respond positively to the open nature of the clockwork pi devices.
- roywiggins 4y agoIt's a shame there's no official PICO-8 runtime for any of those little devices, last time I checked compatibility was a bit spotty from the open-sourced reimplementations. Things have probably gotten better on that front since I last looked though. This thing supports a Raspberry Pi compute module so I assume it will run the Pi version of PICO-8.
- xwdv 4y agoThis is the kind of device designed to look so attractive for certain people that it would be an impulse buy: metal case, exposed screws, lots of ports for peripherals, full (mechanical?) keyboard and lots of buttons, a nice built in screen, raspberry PI inside… it’s like you’re describing an attractive woman. But when you go beyond that, what is the point of this? Why is an indie game developer going to build things for this particular niche platform? In the end, I would buy this and it would just end up as another random device in a drawer. Nice aesthetic, but useless.
- incomingpain 4y ago> In the end, I would buy this and it would just end up as another random device in a drawer. Nice aesthetic, but useless. You have this problem as well? mmm technolust.
- drbig 4y agoWith a bit of a broken heart I have to concur. Tiny screen, tiny keyboard, usability not included. I still kid myself after all those years that I will actually use my old EeePC for a "cool retro something" - even had DOS installed and made wired Ethernet work! - but nope, it's just painful. And that thing actually has a keyboard not designed to be operated with a stylus!
- traverseda 4y ago>Why is an indie game developer going to build things for this particular niche platform? Very similar interfaces as the tic-80, and no doubt pico-8 compatible. There's already a software/games library, plus it runs normal linux.
- humanistbot 4y ago> Why is an indie game developer going to build things for this particular niche platform? This is a linux computer where the terminal is the primary intended interface. Anything you can run on ARM and linux (like everything in retropie) should be supported out of the box. Terminal-based games don't need fancy GPU drivers and optimizations like the Steam Deck. There should be no porting needed except maybe some keymapping for the non-keyboard buttons, but that's normal.
- lijogdfljk 4y agoThis.. or something like this, looks like a fun little interface to hang on the wall. Though the keyboard might be a bit extreme for that, given the difficulty to type on the wall heh
- anononaut 4y agoCool hardware like this makes me regret switching off of QWERTY.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 4y agoYou can always switch back with enough practice.
- stonogo 4y agoYou're not touch-typing on this keyboard anyway. As a size reference, that grey bulge on the back case houses two 18650 batteries. This keyboard is for thumbs.
- cptcobalt 4y agoThis feels like a great surrealist "let's hack on some outdoor IoT hardware" cyber-warfare device. I bought one.
- iambvk 4y agoDoes it support NVME for storage? I only see MicroSD card.
- evanfarrar 4y agoNo. It has a mini-pci-e shaped port and some nvme fit that size, but i believe it is for expansion boards (like the cellular module?) you could add NVME via USB port, but this thing is more like a raspberry pi, and not going to have the IO to use NVME much faster than SD card speeds.
- yellowapple 4y agoIs there an ETA on when this would actually ship? I'm very tempted to order one, but I've already been waiting a good long while for a different handheld device with a physical keyboard (Astro Slide 5G) so I ain't exactly keen on doubling that number unless there's some timeline for these getting out the door.
- dewey 4y ago> Based on the current supply chain and logistics situation, the estimated delivery time is approximately 90 business days.
- gorgoiler 4y agoThis would be the perfect remote control for a media PC.
- tartoran 4y agoA bit too overpowered for that
- dewey 4y agoA few years ago I would've been all over having a dedicated Weechat IRC client, it looks very tempting. https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/uconsole-kit-r-01 https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/uconsole-kit-r-01
- felideon 4y agoSame. Haven't used WeeChat in a while, but I used to get a lot of value from using it with Bitlbee via a cheap VPS.
- SkittlesNTwix 4y agoI've been out of the IRC loop for a while. Is there still a lot of value using IRC in general?
- serf 4y ago>Is there still a lot of value using IRC in general? weird question. it's a chat interface. there are people to chat with on IRC. Is that a valuable thing to you? Who knows. If the question is "Are there still people that use IRC?", then "Yes.". I know it's probably a 'mover-and-shaker' HN thing, but not everything needs to be rephrased to compare against value/time.
- felideon 4y ago> there are people to chat with on IRC. > If the question is "Are there still people that use IRC?", then "Yes.". That's a reasonable interpretation of the question. Even so, a lot of IRC communities have moved to Discord and such to lower the barrier to entry in participation. The underlying question is more likely "Are the people I would chat with still using IRC?" which can only be answered if you know who the people you want to chat with are.
- _joel 4y agoLooks neat, but what's going on with that keyboard layout and the enter/backspace. That would be difficult to de-muscle memory
- tartoran 4y agoIt looks very cool and would love to find a use for it to justify buying it. Id love to use it as a dedicated device but does it instant boot? Does it at least hybernate properly?
- jgtrosh 4y agoOn my similar Devqterm, ambian takes around 30s to boot. There might be hibernation, but I don't use it. I actually like the quasi-instant system shutdown you get with the physical power off button (though I'm sure it's reprogrammable)
- agentultra 4y agoThe Steam Deck is a fantastic console for indie game developers, IMO. World class hardware, you can program your game on it, test on it, and ship on it. I like little consoles like this but I never get one because I'm almost certain it would be novel and almost nobody I know would end up having one, unfortunately. Update: and, importantly for the Steam Deck, you have a wide player base out of the box. Maybe not as much for the Deck itself (yet) but definitely on all three PC platforms.
- bogwog 4y agoAs an alternative for people interested in developing on handhelds like this, homebrew for old consoles (PSP, 3DS, etc) is always fun. There are also hundreds of millions of those still floating around, so there’s a real chance people will actually play your game, and you potentially contribute to delaying their trip to the landfill.
- agentultra 4y agoTruth! I do homebrew on my N2DSXL and the developer tooling there is fantastic [0]. Same with NES and even older handhelds like the DMG-001. The nice thing about the Steam Deck though is that you can carry around your development environment on the same machine. You still have to cross-compile to reach the 3DS and such. [0] https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/Main_Page https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/Main_Page
- sangnoir 4y agoAlso: old 7" - 8" Android tablets[1] that can run Lineage + Termux, if you're not particularly invested in integrated game controllers. I'm tinkering with 3D-printed slide-out landscape keyboards, but there are a lot of commercially available bluetoth keyboard cases. 1. The 2014 Nexus 7 packs a FHD screen compare to the 720 in TFA. Its display is shockingly crisp for an 8-year-old device
- intelVISA 4y agoIs there a good resource for flashing Android to more user-respecting OSes these days? I haven't rooted a phone since the G1...
- JoeDaDude 4y agoON e photo shows what looks like a radio spectrum, which I'm guessing came from the optional 4G LTE modem. It would be great if that modem could be used as a generic SDR, putting programmable sniffing capabilities in a small portable device.
- giobox 4y agoIs there anything stopping you using it for SDR regardless? With the Pi CM4 module installed, there are loads of options that will work just using the USB port.
- bee_rider 4y agoI vaguely feel like there's an alternative version of me that, like, 10 years ago resisted the urge to get a smartphone and now owns something like this. But for the actual me, I can't see the point really.
- barnabee 4y agoBusinesses need outcomes, for humans “I can’t see the point but I like it” feels optimal to me.
- charcircuit 4y ago>feels optimal to me. How is that optimal compared to "I can see the point and I like it"
- psychphysic 4y agoIdeal is recieving something in the mail and thinking. Oh yeah I forgot I bought this. I.e. separate money from man before cognitive functions have a chance.
- dark-star 4y agoI've been looking for something like this for use as a serial terminal in the datacenter, with a bit of additional features (e.g. quickly starting up a DHCP server on the LAN port or similar) Are there similar terminal devices that already include one or two DB9 serial connectors?
- wvenable 4y agoThe GPD Pocket 3 is designed for this.
- dark-star 4y agoyeah, but it's rather overkill for that purpose (read: expensive), and that swiveling display doesn't inspire confidence. I'd rather find something more ruggedized
- pringk02 4y agoClockworkPi also do kits for a device called DevTerm. I have one, I like it a lot. Keyboard is... not great. But you can make your own expansion boards. https://www.clockworkpi.com/devterm https://www.clockworkpi.com/devterm
- wvenable 4y agoI really wanted to get a DevTerm but so far the built quality and keyboard have kept me from pulling the trigger. What do you like about it? What are you using it for?
- stokehacker 4y agoIs it certified for Windows 95 or 2000?
- CrociDB 4y agoI really want to like this kind of devices, but... seriously, this keyboard seems very uncomfortable to type with, and the "pad buttons" to play games look even worse! It's an interesting little computer that I would love to try once, but very likely wouldn't spend money on it.
- rasz 4y agoThose cursor keys (they actually call it a gamepad on the website!) are straight from Amstrad CPC 664 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC#/media/File:Schneider_664_en.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC#/media/File:Schnei... even hilariously bad Commodore plus/4 had better usability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Plus/4#/media/File:Commodore_Plus_4.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Plus/4#/media/File:C...
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- giobox 4y agoThis was an instant purchase for me on the basis of its mid-90s PDA aesthetic alone.
- rasz 4y ago>40 Pins MIPI screen interface I see a big chip straight between mipi screen socket and compute module doing hdmi-mipi conversion, telling me rpi foundation is still stubbornly fighting ability to use mipi dsi port on the pi.
- leros 4y agoThis looks really cool but I don't really understand what the market is for this product.
- crims0n 4y agoI see it as fun toys for people who like hardware.
- Zvez 4y agoI feel uncomfortable just by looking at its keyboard
- shon 4y agoWith that keyboard, it’s only a “fantasy console” if you’re a masochist.
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- omgmajk 4y agoI want this so bad my brain is starting to split in half just thinking about it.
- jgtrosh 4y agoIf it helps you temper your hype: it looks like the keyboard is made the same way as the devterm, but smaller, and the devterm keyboard is already a mushy mess of tiny keys. And I've used good tiny keyboards, but that is not really it.
- accrual 4y agoI wish it had something similar to a Blackberry Bold keyboard. That keyboard kept me on Blackberry for a long time. I used it for SSH as well and it was pretty comfortable.
- rasz 4y agohttps://meshtastic.discourse.group/t/autonomous-device-with-q10-keyboard-and-ili9341/438/17 https://meshtastic.discourse.group/t/autonomous-device-with-...
- stolen_biscuit 4y agoIs there any way to buy just the console without the cores if you already have one for the devterm?
- Animats 4y agoThat's cute, and not insanely expensive. On the "little machine for custom jobs" front, can anyone suggest a low cost subnotebook, x86-64 or ARM (i.e. Chromebooks OK) where I can wipe the Google software and install some version of Ubuntu? I've been using EeePC Seashell machines for that for years, but they're wearing out and I need something close to current production. I'm looking for a machine where there's not too much difficulty doing this. That varies with the machine. Some require removing a jumper to let you overwrite the OS. Some require overwriting flash memory with somewhat sketchy binaries.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago> i.e. Chromebooks OK I suggest picking a machine from https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices https://mrchromebox.tech/#devices , filtered to the ones that support the full "UEFI Firmware". Conveniently, this also lists the needed method to make the firmware r/w if you care about that. Of course, this depends on you considering MrChromebox non-sketchy, but he is AFAIK reputable and if you prefer all the source is on GitHub. Oh, and annoyingly I suggest that you avoid ARM Chromebooks; firmware support and OS options aren't there (yet, I dearly hope).
- wingmanjd 4y agoIt's not as small as your EeePC, but I very much enjoy my PineBook Pro [1]. I'm running Manjaro Plasma KDE on mine, and I can do just about all I want, dev wise on it: docker, ddev, vscode, firefox, chromium, LibreOffice, etc. It's about as powerful as a mid-tier Chromebook. [1] https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Pro https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Pro
- ranger47 4y agoI have a Thinkpad X120e Chromebook that still kicks with Gallium OS on it. I think you can pick those up for about $50 USD now. There's a Chromebook version and a "regular" version.
- girvo 4y agoGPD has a few devices. The new ones aren't cheap, but their older ones are. http://www.gpd.hk/ http://www.gpd.hk/ The older GPD Micro PC can be found for a bit cheaper than their newer ones. But they're likely more expensive than you are looking for I think! Though on the other hand, they're very easy to run whatever OS you want on them
- unintendedcons 4y agoVery interesting - I have never seen the "open-design" logo ANYWHERE before. Has anyone seen this anywhere else?