A while back I became interested in motion capture as a means to easily get basic animations into the game I am working on. Using reasonably priced software from Brekel and a cheap Microsoft Xbox Kinect camera you have the beginnings of a motion capture setup.

The long and boring story of how I went from a 12 year old boy in the 80’s to a 50 year old man in the 2020’s making a joystick to play retro-arcade games from the 80’s.

The title of this post suggests that this is the first step into programming an FPGA, but that’s not quite true. We need to take a few steps back into the past to see the real truth.

Jump back 31 years and you will find a very young version of me taking his first steps into the world of computing. My options at this point are limited in ways I wouldn’t be able to see for decades.

A few weeks have passed with very little development occurring. I have hit that most dangerous of problems, the lack of inertia.

Project Development Quick Guide

A quick start guide designed to remind you of the steps needed to bring a project to completion. Some are optional, depending on the scope of the project.

Ideation

Come up with an idea. Write it down.

Conception

Work the idea over in your head. Think about what problem it solves and if it’s worth the time and cost to produce.

Design

Methodically write down all of the things you wish the project could do. You can ruthlessly cut this list down as the project progresses.

Use this page for testing features.