Hacker News Reader

Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

Oh, this is way cool. Not so much because I care about a gaming platform per-se, but because it shows that people care about hackable / open hardware, and that crowdfunding is a viable way to fund development of such hardware.

Given the sentiments expressed in articles like "The Coming War on General Purpose Computing"[1] - and the debate over UEFI / Secure Boot - it's very encouraging to see this kind of thing happening.

The availability of things like Raspberry Pi[2] is also encouraging on the same front.

Here's to the continued development of general purpose computing hardware and open/hackable systems that anyone is free to use as they see fit!

[1]: http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

View on HN

I impulse purchased one because it's a $100 Android console. The "hackable / open hardware" aspect was honestly irrelevant in terms of the purchase decision, as a $100 closed hardware console by Sony (Android-based) / Apple (iOS-based) / Microsoft (WP7-based) would have received the same "shut up and take my money" response (at least in my case, and that's said as a person with a Galaxy Nexus phone). It's likely that this view is not unique, so be careful about mistaking the market as validating a "hackable open hardware $100 gaming console" and not simply a "$100 gaming console."

It's a $100 gaming console _WITH_ and SDK!

I'm a huge fan of open hardware, but honestly, it doesn't matter if this thing has open hardware or not, if the SDK is available and they encourage independents to build games, that's what matters. It's like the Raspberry Pi, it's open in the sense that they tell you a little about it, I doubt you'll get schematics and data sheets on all the parts, but that's not the point. The point is the price and the SDK and the attitude of the company promoting independent developers.

I think RPi released schematics, see link. On a side note, I bought two of em, not because I have any idea of what to do with them, but because a)open, and b)cheap. Just got my first one today!

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1090

I said I doubt you'll get schematics and data sheets on all the parts

Was in reference to OUYA, not Rasp Pi.

Regarding Rasp Pi, you don't get a data sheet on the SoC though, as you do for Beagles or Arduino. So, calling it "open" is a bit of a misnomer. Rasp Pi is only "open" till you want to know what all the register addresses are or similar, then you need an NDA which is rather "not open."

But now I'm digressing from the point. Being open doesn't matter for OUYA, just like it doesn't matter for the Rasp Pi. Even without schematics, Rasp Pis would sell like hot cakes, it's a $30 computer for crying out loud. Same thing with the OUYA. It's a $100 game system _WITH_ and SDK. That's an unheard of price the same way $30 for a computer is.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com