Video Game Technology
Consulting Services

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.

Get Help For Your Project

Home: Welcome

Home of Project Ember

Homebrew Retro Fantasy Video Game Console

Learn More

Home: Welcome

The Latest Happenings

Home: Blog2

The Ember Console — System Architecture Design: Memory Map

With a well thought out CPU and GPU design, and an input-handling Peripheral Interface Adapter, we will look at the memory map of the new system...

Tom Gambill

Apr 232 min read

Peripheral Interface Adapter (PIA) device will interact with keyboards over PS/2 or USB, and game controllers

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

Mar 311 min read

Next, we will look at the fundamental structures we need to implement a display processor and basic text display mode for the Ember Virtual

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

Designing a custom retro GPU from scratch

The Flame GPU — Initial Design Part 1: Basic Requirements

Designing a custom retro GPU from scratch

Tom Gambill

Mar 141 min read

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

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

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

Woman representing a CPU being interrupted

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video Game Technology Consulting Services

Home of Project Ember

The Latest Happenings

The Ember Console — System Architecture Design: Memory Map

The Ember PIA — Initial Design Part 1: Peripheral Interface Adapter

The Flame GPU — Initial Design Part 2: Tilesheets, Tilemaps, and Graphics Registers

The Flame GPU — Initial Design Part 1: Basic Requirements

Progress on the Apple I PCB Design

The Ember Console — System Architecture Design: Basic Requirements

The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 8: Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 7: Interrupts

The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 6: Jumps and Conditional Branches

SMD Project: Nintendo Switch Lite SMD USB-C Repair

The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 4: Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 3: Opcodes, Operands, and Instruction Encoding

The Ember CPU — Initial Design Part 1: Basic Requirements

Ember: Beginnings - Homebrew Retro Video Game Console Design

Video Game Technology
Consulting Services