What is Reddit's opinion of 8bitworkshop?

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Definitely! I have this page bookmarked already and waiting for a suitable month to tackle the challenge: http://8bitworkshop.com/?platform=vcs&file=examples%2Fhello

Wow, this is awesome! Here's a BrainFuck interpreter I wrote for it using the Tiny Text example.

Now to better learn some video stuff.

http://atariage.com/2600/programming/index.html I've been dabbling for about a year. Haven't produced anything interesting yet though.

Mentioned already http://8bitworkshop.com/ is fun to hack on but the UI is a bit cluncky, especially with the constant restarting every time you change any text, which wouldn't be so bad if copy/pasting from/to that editor wasn't completely broken. I prefer developing locally (regular text editor, DASM, Stella, Makefile) but it's a bit of a pain to get set up. You can piece together how to do it from the tutorials on AtariAge, but it's a bit spread out. I can try writing some steps down but I'm on Linux so, if you're on something else it might not work.

Also have a look at http://8bitworkshop.com/; it's a browser based IDE also supporting Verilog including simulation; there are also a couple of books which might interest you (such as "Designing Video Game Hardware in Verilog").

I just found that website this spring, and its the best tutorial for HDL's I've seen. The automatic checking (and plots) is extremely helpful.

I'd recommend 8bitworkshop ( http://8bitworkshop.com/ ) if you want to ease into more complexity. They have a nice Verilog environment set up with a few bell and whistles and build up to some decent complexity along the way. (I haven't looked in a while, but think they build up a basic processor.)

Otherwise, check out nand2tetris, but that course isn't as focused on HDL development, as much as general computing.

>I've used Arduino for some time but I'd like to move onto FPGA for speed and more pins

That isn't a typical progression path. If "Arduino" means 8-bit 328p based boards, there are 32-bit based boards with more I/O pins available. You don't need to jump to hardware definition to get more speed (or I/O pins.)

> but there are quite a few different coding system

Not really. There is basically VHDL and Verilog. It is a flamewar to discuss which is better or which is best to start with. When it comes to "getting started" with FPGAs, either is a good point for "getting started.

>What would be an ideal starter set for someone like me?

The "no hardware" option is "ideal" or "best." http://8bitworkshop.com supports Verilog and takes no hardware to get started.