Yeah, there is not much info findable on how roms are build up.

Once you have the info, its very simple to start something.

If you find or have something can you please post the links ?

For a few dollars you can buy a MP5 player.

I Always wanted to develop console games!, 8 bit 16 bit or whatever i dont care, as long as it plays on the Original hardware.

Are you interested in any specific console, or mostly how consoles are constructed in general?

If in general, consoles are not really much different from any other kind of computer, so any knowledge in how computer systems work in general is very useful for understanding how a console is built.

Thanks :) I guess I wanted that as a confirmation so I don't study computers in vain

I'll let you in on the secret on how to build a next-gen console. You gotta keep it a secret though, or the illumtinazi will got me!11

Order these secret part numbers from your local supplier and assemble using the paper diagrams that will accompany them:
990FXA-GD65V2
FD8100WMW8KGU
CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8
100352-4L
BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS
ST3500630AS

Then install V2luZG93cyA4LjE= or RnJlZUJTRA==

Then go make games. The instruction set is x86-64, so you can probably use your existing PC as a dev-kit right away!!

990FXA-GD65V2
FD8100WMW8KGU
CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8
100352-4L
BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS
ST3500630AS

Is it sad that I could recognize most of those without looking them up first? :/

Is it sad that I could recognize most of those without looking them up first? :/

No, but it does serve to underscore the principle mentioned several times in the thread.

There are lots of little parts. Which parts you use and how use them depend on what you are trying to do.

You can emulate older systems by learning their machine language, learning what each instruction does internally, and building an emulator that has a perfect 1:1 representation of the internal state of the older CPUs. You can also do it by making a translator from one machine to another machine, building your own sets of buffers as registers and memory and translating the calls as you experience them. You can also do it by running an effective JIT compiler, taking the source input and processing it into something different to run elsewhere.

You probably don't need to emulate the individual processors, emulate the individual circuit gates for performing addition and subtraction on variables. But for some things, you might.

Of course with game emulators there are external components, the actual screen and other hardware, that needs to be taken into account. Where old systems would just set a signal to high/low when the CRT ray reached the appropriate spot, today a developer would need to convert that into modern display coordinates. But that again is just a question of what needs to be emulated and what does not.

As a parallel, you can simulate race horses with an internal combustion engine and a few other parts. You could also simulate them with tons of tiny gears and levers. You could simulate them with a computer mockup of every organ, or theoretically with a simulation of every cell, or a simulation of every atom and future powerful computers. You could simulate them with other animals, you could simulate them with people in a horse suit. Lots of options depending on your goals.

There is no simple, single answer to the questions being asked.

retroarch is on github. it emulates a lot of machines. You can learn by studying it.

https://github.com/libretro

You know who I learned a surprisingly large amount of retro-hardware construction from? Ben Heck.

Check out his youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChturLXwYxwTOf_5krs0qvA

He builds a lot of retro computers (and game consoles!!) and explains what hes doing in surprising detail. I'm at the point in my computer engineering career where I feel I could build a console, and this guy really knows what hes talking about.

Thanks the latest replies have been very generous with special information.