The Propeller-powered Hydra Game Development Kit includes everything you need to get started writing video games. It's not just a game console, but a computer system inspired by the home computers of days gone by. You can write games for it using the Spin programming language, which was designed to take full advantage of the 8-core Propeller CPU--or, you can load BASIC (many more programming languages are in the works) onto the Hydra and sit in front of your TV and type your program right into the keyboard connected to the Hydra. Even if you're not ready to program the Hydra yourself, there are plenty of games and demos you can download and run. With powerful sound and graphics, support for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) controllers, the Hydra is a great way to get plugged into a thoroughly modern CPU with a retro-gaming edge.
Hacks Editor/Hackszine.com Blogger & all around Maker Brian Jepson raves:
"The thing is frickin' awesome. Out of the box, it has one game in its memory,
but there are a bunch of demo games out there that you can download into it.
It's got a game that looks like Arkanoid, a cool racing game, an Asteroids
clone, and some dude is slowly re-creating Donkey Kong for it.
But there are also some cool graphic demos, and the amazing thing
about it is that it's very interesting from a computer programmer's
viewpoint: the CPU inside it has 8 cores, so you can have one core in
charge of drawing the graphics, another monitoring the keyboard and
mouse, and another core doing all the game logic.
Also, it's powerful enough that it can run a programming language right on the
device. So if you pine for the days when you could sit at a computer
keyboard in front of the TV and hack BASIC, this is the one!
It requires a Windows PC to upload a game to it, and there are a few
steps involved. Even if you don't want to program the thing, it's a ton of fun,
especially plugged into a projector or a big TV."
