The Agon Console8 Is an Education-Themed Eight-Bit Single-Board Computer, Built on the Agon Platform
Building on top of a tweaked Agon Light, the Agon Console8 is to sit at the center of a whole new retro-throwback ecosystem.
Bernardo Kastrup's Agon Light retro-themed single-board computer has received a refresh thanks to a partnership with design company Heber, resulting in the Agon Console8 — with plans for an entire ecosystem of add-ons to come.
"The Agon Console8 is made for those who want to learn, or go back to, coding," Heber's Lillie Bennetto explains of its creation. "It has the BBC BASIC programming language built into it as standard. It's a fast and powerful platform which allows users to make their own games and programs – like back in the '80s but faster and more powerful. The aim of the Console8 is to promote learning and educate people about coding, but angled towards the fun aspect of gaming. It’s easy and fun to use, with infinite possibilities of what you can create."
The heart of the Console8 is a tweaked version of Kastrup's Agon Light single-board computer platform, dubbed the Agon Light ORIGINS Edition. "[It] features much broader and more flexible I/O [Input/Output]," Kastrup explains of the redesign, "as well as expansion possibilities (the latter may include different video formats, more controllers, more sound formats, etc.). [The] new board revision [is] meant to optimize signal integrity and circuit robustness."
In addition to being based on this new, improved Agon Light platform, the Console8 comes with a custom 3D-printed case — and plans for a range of follow-up products to boot. "Heber is working on a whole ecosystem of future peripherals, games, and applications," Kastrup claims, "and have a team of developers on board, dedicated to writing games for Agon Console8. This is the 21st-century's ultimate 8-bit console! And it looks just gorgeous in its custom case."
The unveiling comes shortly after Bulgarian open hardware specialist Olimex forked the Agon Light project, porting the design files to KiCad and tweaking the design in process. "[The Agon Light ORIGINS Edition] does not replace Olimex's AgonLight 2," Kastrup notes, "which is a separate development branch."
More information on the Agon Console8 is available on the Heber website, though at the time of writing pricing and availability had not yet been announced.