06-07-2013, 01:13 AM
Just a little update, the screen for the computer is finished! However, it isn't exactly a GPU, as it can't draw or save complex images. The only way that I can imagine implementing a GPU to draw entire images would be to write to the screen one line of pixels at a time, which would be horrendously slow at this computer's clock speed. Perhaps someday I will design a computer fast enough to update entire images on screen for sprite based games, but for now nobody wants to wait 10 seconds to see their character move. So this screen will only be able to run extremely simple games that only utilize one row of pixels at a time. However, I am also building in a 'controller input' to the screen that will utilize a shift register to display the player's "character" in the game as well as an AND gate hit detection circuit that will affect the branching conditions in the program to allow the player to interact with the game. The first game I will be working on will be 'Cherry Drop', where the goal is to catch the falling 'cherry'. If you catch it, the program will loop and drop another one; if you don't catch it, the program will end. Extremely simple stuff here, but it takes a lot of complex circuitry. But don't worry, I'll eventually work my way up to more complex games and programs!