Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash

As I mentioned in my [introductory post](https://medium.com/the-ember-project/going-old-school-designing-a-custom-homebrew-retro-video-game-console-from-scratch-d0e63b154b97), the Ember video game console idea came about as I was watching many hours of YouTube videos on various tech-related topics. I quickly realized how possible _(if not exactly trivial)_ it would be to design a custom CPU, GPU, and all the parts required to build them. Then, develop an emulator and software toolchain to create games for it. Later, I might even run the design on hardware using modern FPGAs _(Field Programmable Gate Arrays)_ like the [Terasic DE-10 Nano](https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/terasic-tech/de10-nano), or possibly this Spartan 7-based board from [Seeed](https://www.seeedstudio.com/Spartan-Edge-Accelerator-Board-p-4261.html), the [Spartan Edge Accelerator](https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/seeed-technology-co.,-ltd/102030005/10492205?utm_adgroup=Evaluation+Boards+-+Expansion+Boards%2C+Daughter+Cards&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping_Product_Development+Boards%2C+Kits%2C+Programmers&utm_term=&utm_content=Evaluation+Boards+-+Expansion+Boards%2C+Daughter+Cards&gclid=Cj0KCQiAtJeNBhCVARIsANJUJ2EKDzYQXMHeGfuN5NMU7k_s7x1bIaS8_loq4aqAofsMNxZhSbefw4saAoxlEALw_wcB), which is selling for around $40 US.

[Continue reading here...](https://medium.com/the-ember-project/ember-beginnings-homebrew-retro-video-game-console-design-2f99a5d1f53)