Charming Video Game Console Gets a Retro VFD Screen – Hackster.io

Head over to any retrogaming forum or subreddit and post a comment saying something like “I think LCD is better than CRT.” Then sit back and watch as the internet breaks. Gamers have strong opinions and retrogamers have unshakable convictions, especially when it comes to display technology. Game developers take the user’s display into account when they program graphics, so selecting the wrong display can have a real effect on the experience. To keep the display in keeping with the era, Simon Boak used a VFD (vacuum fluorescent display) screen in his retro-styled video game console.

This project is entirely custom and isn’t a derivative of any existing console design. Boak started the build as a way to take advantage of his VFD, which is a three-color Noritake Itron Gu20x8 model. He wanted to make the console as authentic as possible, so his original intention was to build everything from scratch in Assembly on a single-board 6502-based computer. But as anyone who has ever looked at Assembly knows, that was a huge task to take on. After developing some driver routines, Boak realized that he was in over his head and decided to switch to something easier.

That easier alternative was an Arduino Nano development board, which let Boak do his programming in the Arduino IDE (using its C/C++ code) and forget all about Assembly nightmares. It controls the VFD, a piezo buzzer for sound effects, and monitors the input buttons. That hardware resides inside of two very attractive enclosures made of wood and sheet metal. One unit contains the display, so Boak can use it for other purposes later on. The other unit is the controller.

Boak planned from the start to program a version of Conway’s Game of Life for the VFD, which he did accomplish. But that is more of a simulation than a game and there isn’t anything to interact with, so Boak also programmed a Snake-style game and a drawing program. The latter can store drawings in the Arduino’s EEPROM for later retrieval. Finally, there is a “snow” animation. Because this console isn’t tailored to any specific game or software, Boak can program more for it in the future.It is also open source, so you can build your own.