FPGA Based Videogame System

[Andromeda Stardust]

I'm pretty torn on that one... He's put a lot of hard work into it, but the AVS is definitely beyond what a regular NES can do between four score and all of the other goodies he's adding in. I'd guess that while a clone with composite output wouldn't cost more than $20-$30, HDMI models would be a bit more since they would probably need beefier chips, so it wouldn't be competition at a 1/5th of the price.

 

I'm definitely down for both too... I hope AVS pre-orders open soon!

If you buy the 8-bit Xmas 2015, there is a chance you will recieve a "golden ticket" good for 10% off the final price of the AVS. And the game is actually pretty good this year.

 

Details:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=153301

 

EDIT: hope I'm not thread crapping by posting this here.

Edited October 9, 2015 by stardust4ever

[+Random Terrain]

Wow, 181 voters and counting... I never thought I'd see a poll on the AtariAge forums get so much attention.

 

189 voters and counting now. How long will it take to reach 200?

[SnoopKatt]

If you buy the 8-bit Xmas 2015, there is a chance you will recieve a "golden ticket" good for 10% off the final price of the AVS. And the game is actually pretty good this year.

 

Details:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=153301

 

EDIT: hope I'm not thread crapping by posting this here.

It's tempting, I've never bought one of his carts before and the game looks great. I'll put it on my amazon wishlist

 

I wouldn't worry about thread crapping, Kevtris's console is probably at least a year and a half away from release if he decides to do it.

[Radfoo]

I wouldn't worry about thread crapping, Kevtris's console is probably at least a year and a half away from release if he decides to do it.

I hope not, though I guess it will take time. Was what I was saying before, would be happy to buy it pretty much as it is now then get refinements and extra cores later.

[Pixelboy]

I hope not, though I guess it will take time. Was what I was saying before, would be happy to buy it pretty much as it is now then get refinements and extra cores later.

Kevtris mentioned that he wants to make at least one more prototype, to raffine the design and incorporate what he learned about HDMI output. I'd say it's a good idea, especially if he can use the opportunity to implement TV output via a daughter board system. He may also want to work on the SD card browsing functionality, while he's at it. But that's really up to him, I'm just guessing.

[Murph74]

For my two cents, I'd say keep it simple, and appeal to the largest possible audience with a modest base hardware.

 

I'd go minimalist, HDMI only, DB9 and/or USB controller ports, and an expansion or docking port for ala carte cartridge adapters at <$30 each. I liked Pixelboy's idea in another thread I think about using a dockable shape. Seagate did this with their Freeagent Media Player to allow their portable hard drives to fit the unit-- pretty slick design! And I think I first saw Bill suggest you can always offer a Zimba 4000, or something as technology and features are more feasible and sales history dictates the need.

 

If you can get this shipped for under $200 with SD compatibility for your cores, updateable cores for bugs/new additions and ala carte cartridge support, I think you have a winner. I'd buy 2!

 

[Newsdee]

That's kind of what the Retro Freak guys are doing; they have one emulator box that receives the SD card and the main hardware, and that tiny box can be installed into a bigger one with cartridge ports.

 

We need to wait until it comes out to check if its any good (it seems like a Retron 5 done right), but the idea of decoupling brains and cart connectivity makes a lot of sense.

[katanaswordfish]

Hey Kevtris, will you be doing any development posts or videos? It would be really cool to be able to follow the process of the project from design to implementation to manufacture and debugging. It'd be interesting to see the development over the months.

 

Also, in general, where's the best place to stay up to date on the status of the z3k? Obviously there's this thread, and I know you have a youtube channel, is there anything else?

Edited October 13, 2015 by katanaswordfish

[Pixelboy]

189 voters and counting now. How long will it take to reach 200?

194 and still going. Shouldn't be long now.

 

I browsed through the 14 pages of this forum thread just for fun, and then I tried to find some videos of kevtris' HDMI NES kit, because I was interested in seing what kind of configuration options he implemented on the HDMI output. I found a couple of videos, and this is the one I found the most interesting:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlb0E_jkYts

 

The Zimba 3000 will likely offer the same kind of configuration options, and with any luck, we'll be able to store these configuration settings onto a directory on an SD card, because I expect users will have different rendering preferences for each core.

[kevtris]

Yeah I actually have planned to release update videos as I progress and was working on a first one to outline the idea I had for it. I have it on the white board now and just need to film/edit/post it. It won't be terribly long; probably 5-10 min range but it will show what I was hoping to do. I could show off the existing prototypes too maybe and explain why they were designed the way they are.

 

And yep, the HDMI NES adapter is a taste of the kind of featureset I will have for video output options. I suspect there will be yet more options than those, but it's a good starting point. I'll also have a much nicer font and menu system- that one was severely limited by the amount of RAM available on the FPGA, or lack thereof. The entire font had to fit into 1K, and the entire nametable is 1K also.

 

Was planning on having the settings saved on the SD card most likely along with everything else.

 

Updates will most likely be in this thread and on my youtube channel, though I might put some on the blog... not sure yet. youtube is kinda nice because it's more of a video blogging affair and easier to do a little update with.

 

I have zero information on my time line for this. Trying to finish up that HDMI update first before getting deep into the Z3K, but I got the basics worked out I think on how the next hardware iteration will come together.

[Pixelboy]

And yep, the HDMI NES adapter is a taste of the kind of featureset I will have for video output options. I suspect there will be yet more options than those, but it's a good starting point.

And would those "extra" options include a vertical stretch setting? I suppose it could be useful for the Gameboy cores in particular.

 

 

Was planning on having the settings saved on the SD card most likely along with everything else.

Hmm... I'm trying to imagine how a core could "communicate" with the main display configuration system, in order to add custom config settings to the main on-screen menus. These features would be related to the core itself and would therefore be accessible only while the core is being used.

 

For instance, if you're currently using the black-&-white Gameboy core, a list of predefined colors sets (which are stored in a specific directory on the SD card) could be displayed and the player could change the color set at any time during play. I just hope it wouldn't be too complicated to implement a scrollable list if the entire list of "color names" doesn't fit on the screen, although this could also be done as a single-line display, displaying one "color name" at a time and browsing through them with the controller. Not as elegant as an on-screen list, but it would work.

 

Here's an example of a color file named "MEGAMAN4.CC" (CC = "Color Codes"). The name of the file matches the name of the Gameboy game ROM file, so that only the color sets for that game will be displayed in the on-screen menu. The colors in this example file are actually Super Gameboy color passcodes, but these color values could be simple HTML-style RGB strings.

 

Toad Man : 0062-2028-8243
Bright Man : 0167-2126-3243
Pharaoh Man : 0792-1876-9243
Ring Man : 1012-1526-7243
Wily Mobile Base : 2422-2930-0243
Crystal Man : 0242-2032-2243
Napalm Man : 0692-0628-2243
Stone Man : 0691-9634-3243
Charge Man : 0102-7134-3243
Ballade : 2422-0232-9243
Outside Wily's ship : 2422-0232-9243
Inside Wily's ship : 2422-4034-3243

I could imagine a few other custom config settings, like selecting between several tweaked palettes of 16 colors on the ColecoVision core, or selecting a color other than red on the AdventureVision core.

 

I have zero information on my time line for this. Trying to finish up that HDMI update first before getting deep into the Z3K, but I got the basics worked out I think on how the next hardware iteration will come together.

Sounds like a plan. But I do have one final question though: Will there be a pause button on the console? Most of the 8-bit consoles didn't have pause functions, and those that did implement it had it done at the software level. It would be nice to have an "official" button that all cores respond to in the same way (pause+mute).

[Andromeda Stardust]

Hi Kevtris. There was some discussion regarding the name of the console in the RetroVGS thread. I'm not one to judge, but just curious as to where you got the idea for the name? Maybe instead of "Zimba 3000," just call it "the Kevtris?"

 

 

I like it too. Better than Zimba 3000 - that sounds like some sort of exercise equipment or something.

I hate the name Zimba 3000, it sounds like a race they would have if NASCAR went to Africa.

He already has the best name for a console- The Kevtris

The Kevtris Zimba Field Programmable Gate Array 3000 Multi Videogame Simulating Machine

TKZFPGA3000 for short.

Still a better Name for a System than naming the third xbox console an xbox one.

And Don't even get me started on the WiiU.

Even Retro VGS and Zimba 3000 are not that bad if you just look at what These companies have been doing...

Now "Kevtris" sounds totally rad.

[Keatah]

Careful on the context of the quote. I like Core 3000, not The Kevtris.

[Newsdee]

The story is higher up on this thread

[leods]

Just call it the "Ataru Colecostation Vision 64" No one will think it's some cheap crappy chinese product.

[sunteam]

Call it Bob.

[roland p]

Gruntmaster 6000

[Schizophretard]

The Monolith

[Andromeda Stardust]

The Monolith

Just to verify things, the monolith does actually contain viable electronics, or is it simply a giant vertical brick rising out of the ground?

[Andromeda Stardust]

The story is higher up on this thread

Yeah, I have slept since then. Carry on...

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I DO have a name for my system that I have been keeping under wraps kinda. It's the.... dun dun dunnnn

 

 

Zimba 3000

 

My company name is "Zimba Labs" so this only makes sense I guess :-)

 

There's a hilarious (to me) reason behind this name with a lot of history. I was tired of "retro this" and "retro that" and wanted something that didn't have "vision" "Game" "system" or "retro" in it since IMO it sounds kinda cheesy. So, I remembered what my friend Merc said on IRC about his "videogame system that plays anything" from Zimbabwae called the "Zimba 2000", and they were going to release their "Zimba 3000" soon. So I guess I'm the one that might release the Zimba 3000 after all. I can't do Playstation 3 though.

 

 

Here's part of the log. This must've been around 2005. The full thing is here: [url=http://www.atarihq.com/rgvc/rgvcu/2005/jmtatari1.txt]http://www.atarihq.com/rgvc/rgvcu/2005/jmtatari1.txt

Edited October 17, 2015 by stardust4ever

[CPUWIZ]

OMG, I can't wait for the new revision, Kevin's board is gorgeous.

 

 

[CPUWIZ]

Here is a sexier shot, so you can see it is completely gold plated...

 

 

[iesposta]

<- - - I like PCB boards with funny things on them, see?

 

Here is a sexier shot, so you can see it is completely gold plated...

 

 

 

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

Here is a sexier shot, so you can see it is completely gold plated...

 

 

Itchy and Scratchy... I couldn't have thought up better names for the FPGAs myself...

[some_canuck]

Itchy and Scratchy... I couldn't have thought up better names for the FPGAs myself...

 

but do they wallop each other with mallets?