Retrocomputing FPGA work is a fun diversion from normal software, enough that my brain was convinced they weren't related (had a bit of a mental block for software). Over the course of a year, I went from knowing basically nothing to releasing 3 different FPGA emulation cores of my own for multiple platforms, along with releasing something like 5 ports (which is not necessarily trivial, particularly for a beginner) of existing cores to the Analogue Pocket.
It has been a very fun experience, and I've found it to be extremely addicting. It helps that there's a fairly tight-knit community very interested in furthering the development of FPGA hardware preservation, so people are very willing to donate, test, and contribute feedback, which is a great feeling for open source work.
It has been a very fun experience, and I've found it to be extremely addicting. It helps that there's a fairly tight-knit community very interested in furthering the development of FPGA hardware preservation, so people are very willing to donate, test, and contribute feedback, which is a great feeling for open source work.