A great many PlayStation 2 games were coded in C++, and there are homebrew SDKs that let you work in C. However, precious little software for the platform was ever created in Golang. [Ricardo] decided this wouldn’t do, and set about making the language work with Sony’s best-selling console of all time.
Why program a PS2 in Go? Well, it can be easier to work with than some other languages, but also, there’s just value in experimenting in this regard. These days, Go is mostly just used on traditional computery platforms, but [Ricardo] is taking it into new lands with this project.
One of the challenges in getting Go to run on the PS2 is that the language was really built to live under a full operating system, which the PS2 doesn’t really have. However, [Ricardo] got around this by using TinyGo, which is designed for compiling Go on simpler embedded platforms. It basically takes Go code, turns it into an intermediate representation, then compiles binary code suitable for the PS2’s Emotion Engine (which is a MIPS-based CPU).
The specifics of getting it all to work are quite interesting if you fancy challenges like these. [Ricardo] was even able to get to an effective Hello World point and beyond. There’s still lots to do, and no real graphical fun yet, but the project has already passed several key milestones. It recalls us of when we saw Java running on the N64. Meanwhile, if you’re working to get LOLCODE running on the 3DO, don’t hesitate to let us know!
Do NOT use, support or promote language developed by one of those big-tech monsters with sole purpose of squeezing ever more work out of a software developer; also enabling less qualified to come in and work on “non-critical tasks”, being paid pennies on the dollar.
but go is pretty cool
So what? Chrome was pretty cool too when it was just a WebKit with minimalist UI.
But if Google, Apple, Microsoft and few others were allowed to fully push their vision of tech during late 2000s and early 2010s then today instead of mostly open web based on HTTP and other standards we’d be living in a nightmare world of walled gardens filled with curated “apps” running on locked-down OS-es, requiring accounts and subscriptions to do anything useful – think 90s AOL on steroids.
You just described the mobile side of tech
I understand the sentiment, but programming languages like Go are pretty creator-neutral: once released they have a life of this own.
And from the little I learned about Go, it seems like a great tool to program for a multiprocessor system like the PS2. It is designed for parallel processing and async work, so on of the main complaints about the PS2 – the complexity of programming for a parallel machine – is addressed.
Re: multiprocessor complexity, are you maybe thinking of the PS3 and its Cell processor?
not to imply that the PS2 wasn’t complex for the time, but it only has a single processor with a single MIPS CPU core – that processor does have a lot of “units” that run in parallel, but the others are specialized, like its two vector processing units, an image processor/mpeg decoder, and memory controller.
You are right, and at the same time programming for the PS2 necessitated juggling with CPU and the first VPU core. The other parts could be treated as peripherals.
I never really programmed for it, but I remember the articles saying it was too complicated to program for. That complexity is also why there is a chasm between the early games and the latest ones – programmers and tools got the hang of using the architecture.
Who hurt you?
Your points are moot in the context of this article. This individual is running it on the PS2, for fun. Doubt Google intended it to run there. That’s true hacker ethos imo.
Also, as someone who loves to code but has limited spare time for side projects, I appreciate the ability to squeeze more work out of myself. Efficiency != Bad.
In regards to less “qualified” Devs coming in – this happens all over the industry regardless of what language you’re using. I’d much rather see them use go, which is at least statically typed, forces you to think about errors and has sensible features for concurrency, than see them make a mess of python code.
I 100% get your sentiment. It is why I too was opposed to python and other “easy” languages for a few years in the beginning of my career.
But then I realised my experience is what my employers were paying for. If they think a new grad is more competent than me, that’s just poor management but fair enough, no harm done, I find a new job. If they are proven right then well, that’s on me.
Amazing work!
I was fully prepared for it to run in PS2 Linux which would be very impressive but to run bare metal is truly amazing.
Nice work, Ricardo!
A great hack and s really great article!
Sometimes it is fun to rewrite something in a different language. I’ve done that with say, a basic program and implemented in assembly for fun. Or doing the same with Rust. That said, I never did like Go from the git go. But that’s just me. Nice hack as a challenge.