Hello everyone. Long time lurker here! I'm on my senior year at college and, in one subject, I have to create a working prototype of something (literelly anything, going from a capsule dispensor, to a AGV, to a working solar panel circuit, etc.). I got really interested in some projects (since it's basically the reason why I applied to this degree in the first place) and decided to go with a gaming console (my second choice was the AGV - Automated Guided Vehicle - but I figured that it would be more expensive and harder to understand - by this I mean I don't really have a clear idea of where to start or what to do - than the console).
With this, a gaming console is something I'm really hyped to build. I made a quick research in order to see if someone had already thought about this and found lots of information on this topic (my first step in this project is to write a research paper aka State of the Art and talk about similar projects and working prototypes).
Apart from that, my biggest "issue" is creating the project itself (not to mention the creation of PCB's and the working prototype). For my research paper, I'll write about a gaming console named MakerBuino by CircuitMess since this whole project is inspired on that.
From what I could tell, everything is open source since the company itself promotes a DIY approach from students (aswell as offering a purchasable console through their website). With this, I'm not going to copy everything and simply build it together. My idea is to code everything myself (I have no idea whether that's possible or not) and inspire my working prototype design on the MakerBuino one (I loved it!).
I would like to note that in order to build a MakerBuino, the company provides the PCB schematics as well as the console bootloader. I can't use the bootloader since it's something I didn't code. My idea would be to create a simple program (i.e. starting with a switch/case menu to alternate between games that, later on, I would code [I REALLY don't think creating games like Snake / Space Invaders / Tetris is something hard given that there are LOTS of examples in the internet but I could be massively wrong]).
After having the code ready, my idea would be to sketch my PCB's according to the MakerBuino ones (after understanding its' circuit and usage of components) and create the console itself. If what I said earlier (about beeing simple to code a switch/case menu with games) is true, I guess that my biggest issue (coding wise) is to make all this work in a monitor (it can be a computer monitor, a small LCD display, etc... MakerBuino uses a Nokia 5110 LCD).
I would also like to say that even though this my last college year, I'm by no means an expert in programming / creating circuits. I've never messed with PCB's nor created a working prototype like this. I mainly learn C at college though C++ isn't really that much different. I retained some HTML programming skills as well. Important to state that this whole project must run / use an ATMega (must also have a blinking LED - which is easily coded).
Would love some insight on how to start a big project like this and I'm all ears to ideas / suggestions about this or the above mentioned projects.
Note: Besides MakerBuino, I've also found a series of videos on how to create a gaming console (it only has one game from what I can see) on youtube. Part 1 link is here. There's a total of 4 parts. I have no idea if this the right approach / a different one than the one I talked about earlier. Worth nothing this was coded on C++.
Edit1: I'm due to deliver this project on the first week of January. Besides that, when I say "gaming console" I'm talking about an Arcade Console to play simple games like Snake or Tetris. Nothing particularly pretty or in need of 3D graphics.