Creating a Retro Gaming OS

[CNCharger]

I couldn’t find where to put this, so if this is the wrong location, then please move it to the proper location.

I am currently trying to create a retro gaming os for the raspberry pi. It will be a 16 bit game OS that will have a custom IDE, Office Suite (kinda like Word and Powerpoint), custom web browser, custom game engines and email services by its 1.0 release, but for now, I am trying to figure out how to create the OS, IDE, and maybe the web browser. I am currently thinking about building on the Linux Kernel to start out with so I have a few questions.
How do I build my own Linux Flavor?
What support does the kernel already provide?
What languages would I need to know to build a flavor?
Am I allowed to charge for my flavor aslong as there is a free package, or could I have it all free, and users pay for certain services if they want to use some of the features (say want to release a game for other platforms, or have more than so many projects at a time on the custom engine or even use the custom engine all together)?

 

[atanere]

I couldn’t find where to put this, so if this is the wrong location, then please move it to the proper location.

I am currently trying to create a retro gaming os for the raspberry pi. It will be a 16 bit game OS that will have a custom IDE, Office Suite (kinda like Word and Powerpoint), custom web browser, custom game engines and email services by its 1.0 release, but for now, I am trying to figure out how to create the OS, IDE, and maybe the web browser. I am currently thinking about building on the Linux Kernel to start out with so I have a few questions.
How do I build my own Linux Flavor?
What support does the kernel already provide?
What languages would I need to know to build a flavor?
Am I allowed to charge for my flavor aslong as there is a free package, or could I have it all free, and users pay for certain services if they want to use some of the features (say want to release a game for other platforms, or have more than so many projects at a time on the custom engine or even use the custom engine all together)?

Hi @CNCharger, and welcome to the site! Well, I must say... you have a lot of ambition. But in one brief paragraph you have asked enough questions that will take many, MANY pages to give you decent responses. So, let's try to slow down a bit and focus on first-things-first. For example, there's no need to discuss licensing issues for an OS that you have not even begun yet! Save that for later... it will probably come up naturally when you actually do start developing something.

I'm really not sure that you need to build an OS... maybe just an app, or a collection of apps... that run in Linux, or in multi platforms. If you want to really build an OS, I think you'll probably need to be proficient in C and C++. To build apps, you have many more options (Java/Javascript, Python, Ruby, etc).

Building a quality OS is an enormous task... I don't think anyone is going to lead you by the hand to accomplish this. I think I would suggest that you find which Linux distro that you like the most, and then try to sign up to their dev team and learn all you can from folks who are actually doing it. You might find a mentor in such a group.

Alternatively... you need to make Google your very best friend. Let me point you to some Google answers to some of your questions. There you will find much more information than I could possibly give, even if I had more time to spare.

What programming languages?
https://www.google.com/search?clien...sed+in+linux&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

How to build a custom Linux OS?
https://www.google.com/search?clien...tom+linux+os&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Best Linux distros for games? (So you don't reinvent the wheel.)
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=linux+os+for+games&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

What support does the Linux kernel provide?
https://www.google.com/search?clien...rnel+provide&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

And of course.... that is only the tip of the iceberg. Good luck!

Cheers

 

[CNCharger]

Thank you. I will go over this as soon as I can. A while back, I wanted to create my own game console, but that can get expensive, so that is where this comes in. The 16 bit OS is just to start. My idea was rather than buy a game console for 300 to 500 dollars, you could simply buy the OS to use on a computer you already have for like 30 give or take. My gaming OS will eventually evolve into a game console on a disk. With the way the game console industry is taking, it will soon be time to throw a curveball. Thanks for you input.

 

[nuna]

Have you considered collaborating with projects with similar goals? It could be a good way to learn.
You might like to check out RetroPie or Lakka.