Model year 1997An alternate-history game console

Vérité Console

A game console that could have existed in 1997 but never did. I'm building it for real, out of parts from that era.

The what-if

A graphics chip that lost, given a second life

In the mid-'90s a company called Rendition made the Vérité, one of the first chips built to make 3D games look good on a PC. Quake even got a special version made just for it. Then competitors won the market, and Rendition faded away.

So I'm asking: what if someone had built a game console around it? Then I'm building that console.

What's inside

One custom board, parts from the era

The board: A single circuit board I design myselfEverything lives on it: the processor, the memory and the graphics chip, like the inside of a real console.
The brain: A Pentium-class processorThe same family of chip that ran PCs in 1997, soldered right onto the board.
Graphics: A real Rendition Vérité V2200 chipTaken off an old graphics card, along with its video memory, and soldered onto the board next to the processor.
Software: No Windows. No operating system at all.I write every line that runs, starting from the moment the power turns on. It's like building a car and also writing the rules of the road.
Games: Small games I make myself, then the classicsLater, games like Doom and Quake, adapted to run on this machine.

Progress

Where it's at

It's early. Most of the work so far is groundwork: the code and tools needed before the hardware shows up.

DoneTracked down the chip's original 1997 manuals.
DoneWrote the code that starts the machine and looks for the graphics chip. The chip identifies itself with the number 1163:2000.
DoneBuilt tools to read and write the chip's own internal language.
DoneWrote a first "are you there?" test: send the chip a message and wait for it to send the same message back.
UnderwayDesigning an adapter board so I can test a regular graphics card before pulling any chips off it.
NextGet the real hardware on my desk and see the chip answer.
ThenBuild a test version: a small ready-made computer plugged onto a board of mine that carries the Vérité chip.
GoalDesign the final single board with everything on it, then start on games.

Why

Because it's a great puzzle

It's part nostalgia for '90s tech, part puzzle, and part the fun of making something that only existed in an alternate timeline.