Seems nowadays everybody is doing a new game console, from the kickstarter's OUYA and GameStick to Steam's Xi3 and Nvidia's Shield.

So IMO GOG should play along and release their very own game console! It might look like a looney joke, but none of the above mentioned consoles (nor any of the big three) were built to install in them GOOD OLD GAMES!!!

How many people here would like to play old games made for 8 and 16 bit consoles, computers and maybe even arcade machines? Many have suggested using software emulators like the ones in the above, but as someone that has used them for years there is a simple fact, no software emulator is going to give you 100% accuracy.

I think many people have heard about the Minimig, GOG could tweak the design a bit, adding a network port (wireless and/or wired) to directly download the games to the memory card, add a plastic case, add a bigger FPGA (to remove the 68000), add more (DDR) ram, change the VGA port for a SCART (for PAL countries) or component (for NTSC countries) port, add USB so you can use nowadays keyboards and/or joysticks.

It might sound difficult, but I am sure that if the VHDL scripts used to recreate this hardware are open source, many people will make even the most obscure of old hardware available in the GOG console.

GOG already has the connections with many game companies that created a ton of games in the 8/16 bit era and getting a little extra income from those games seems like a no brainier to me.

I was skeptical at first, but I must admit that this would be awesome. Unfortunately, game consoles are a risky and usually costly venture. Granted, for GOG it wouldn't need all the bells and whistles that most game consoles have, but it would still need significant investment for development. Other companies have gotten themselves in big trouble over video game consoles; I wouldn't want GOG to risk major harm over something like that, but if it would be an easy and low-risk venture then I would love to see this.

I'm sure a lot of people would love it, but it's likely to be a licensing nightmare. Better stick to unofficial ROM images on emulators, which should work decently on an open Android console. There may be Chinese consoles which do come with such emulated games, but I don't think GOG can do it.

I did suggest to the GameStick guys to include DosBox Turbo in the price and work with GOG to release games for it, but they probably thought I was crazy.

That's a way that I think things could go (making a deal with console guys), however the number of DOS era PC games which will work well with console controls isn't that huge, and Windows games won't work on such a console, so most of GOG's catalogue won't be useful on such a device.

The only "console" that would be relevant is a small PC. There are already quite a few of these.

Not necessarily, there is no bios in the Atari 2600, Nintendo NES/SNES/Gameboy/Gameboy Color, NEC TurboGrafx-16/PCengine, Sega Genesis/MegaDrive or CPS/CPS2 arcade machines and any patents on the hardware design have long expired. So GOG would only need to get licenses for the games of said machines. The same could have been said about playing old DOS games, but GOG is proof that those games were meant to be played on their original format (on a computer screen). I believe computer/console games of old are meant to be played on a TV screen, that is the reason a GOG game console would be perfect.

mangamuscle, unfortunately quoting doesn't seem to work for me right now, so I'll answer like this:

Regarding licensing, I was talking about the games. Although I guess that's what GOG is already doing for PC, so it's only making more similar work for them. I'm pretty sure that Nintendo or Sony won't be willing to license their games, but maybe other won't. So I'm taking it bad, it's possible that this is just tons of work, and the main question is how much people will be willing to pay for old console games.

Regarding my comment about emulators on Android consoles, I feel that's as close to the original as possible. Android consoles plug into the TV and have a controller. I don't know how much closer you can get.

So sure, it's not out of the question for GOG to start trying to license console games, and then release a console of its own, but I imagine that even if it does decide to start selling console games joining forces with an existing Android console will make more sense.

GOGBox, bringing the revolution to the console download gaming ghetto.

Not true, they both have a BIOS. You know the Nintendo logo that shows when you switch them on but is all scrambled if the contacts are dirty? That's in the BIOS.

I think the very same question was made by GOG founders and a very obvious gauge was the amount of abandonware sites in the internet. Guaging by the amount of rom sites nowadays I think the answer is PLENTY! I will repeat myself, the solution you propose uses software emulators which will never give 100% acuracy, specially on games made for 8/16 bit systems which used the full potential of the hardware (unlike games made for DOS platforms). Using a FPGA would deliver 100% compatibility with any game, it would be no diferent from using the original hardware. I am aware of said bios in the gameboy as well as a bios on the later versions of the sega genesis/megadrive, but neither of them is used/required by any games so it woud be uncecesary to license those. If any bios is to be licensed first IMO it would those from the c64 and MSX 8-bit plaftforms, because they have a ton of good all games made for them. For 16 bit systems I think the neo·geo would be the bios with the most famous games.