We’ve had a small hitch with the hardware. It seems the tiny travel mouse I was using has given up the ghost, so I’ve decided to switch to the mouse from the children’s computer. (Sorry kids if you’re reading this. If I forget to put it back when I’m finished with it just let me know 😉 )
This mouse is an old 5 button Microsoft intellimouse explorer. It’s my absolute favourite mouse design and one I’ve used on all my PCs for as long as I can remember. (I’d guess at around 20 years, lol)
The extra button on either side work as back/forward buttons for internet browsing, which is amazingly helpful.
These mice are as tough as old nails. Even after hundreds of thousands of clicks the buttons still click reassuringly when pressed.
Fingers crossed none of the other hardware packs up!
One of the aims of this project is to prove that you don’t need a top end PC to create and publish a game with.
So, for I will be using my Linx 10 Tablet. I bought this device in around 2015 to replace an old iPad 2 which had broken. It cost £140 together with the Origami keyboard/cover.
Linx 10 tablet with origami keyboard/cover attached.
The whole thing is powered by a Quad Core Intel Bay Trail Atom Z3735F CPU running at 1.33GHz (Increasing to 1.83GHz when required). There is 2Gb of LPDDR3 Ram and a 32Gb eMMC for storage. I also have an additional 64Gb MicroSD card for extra space.
The 10.1″ IPS display is touch sensitive and happily shows the eye candy provided by an integrated Intel HD Graphics card which is DirectX 11 compatible. It’s not the best graphics card in the world especially with only 32mb of dedicated RAM, but it should be more than ok to develop a 2D game.
It’s running the latest version of Windows 10, although only the 32bit version. The tablet itself came with Windows 8 (32bit) installed, but I upgraded back when Microsoft was doing the Free upgrade offer.
Peripheral wise, the tablet has a micro-USB connector to connect a mouse or other USB device. It also conveniently came with an “On the go” converter for plugging in regular sized USB plugs.
I’ll be using an old Creative Labs portable travel mouse. The keyboard does have a mouse pad but it doesn’t have mouse buttons and it’s not ideal for graphical work. I also have a small graphics tablet which I may use for the artwork, but I’m not sure
Normally all I use the tablet for is Netflix, editing documents, browsing the internet and occasionally playing emulated old school console games; but I think it’s up to the challenge! Only time will tell though 🙂
