FPGA Based Videogame System

[RupanIII]

Hyrulebr, so, do you have this thing to try yourself or just sharing?

 

I'm thinking Kevtris is doing is own right now. It does seem a daunting thing. Implementing the secondary chips is a heck of a thing.

Snes on FPGA

 

http://pgate1.at-ninja.jp/SNES_on_FPGA/index.html#release

[Toni]

Snes on FPGA

 

http://pgate1.at-ninja.jp/SNES_on_FPGA/index.html#release

 

 

It's probably already well known in this thread already, but jwdonal has also brought a FPGA-SNES to near-completion: http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15143

 

There are plenty of demos on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/jwdonal/videos

Edited August 17, 2017 by Toni

[Andromeda Stardust]

The last 10% is 90% of the work. Kevtris will get there; be patient...

[Wolf_]

The last 10% is 90% of the work. Kevtris will get there; be patient...

Something important to remember is the quality of the work. Not all projects will have the same quality. Even if Kevtris' isn't the first to go into production (which it still might be because other people doing them might not have the manufacturing side of things sorted out) I'm sure it will be top of the line quality, not to mention the only one that will offer that quality across the board to all other cores it supports (and the others might be snes only).

 

If I'm going to invest in an expensive fpga console, I'm going to invest with the guy that does the best work and has a proven track record.

 

Also we don't know what people are considering "finished". For all we know the snes console itself is done and Kevtris is working on supporting 100% of the mappers before it is finished and the others just got the console down.

 

Other people might do a 99% perfect job but I trust Kevtris to be 100% anal about everything until it is perfect.

[RampantOctopus]

The assumptions being made about what Kevtris is up to are awesome. Hate to disappoint you all, but I have it on good authority that he's actually just perfecting his doomsday device in order to enslave us all; there will be no more cores, just endless servitude. Imho, it's been worth it.

[Tusecsy]

The assumptions being made about what Kevtris is up to are awesome. Hate to disappoint you all, but I have it on good authority that he's actually just perfecting his doomsday device in order to enslave us all; there will be no more cores, just endless servitude. Imho, it's been worth it.

I'd sign up for that Patreon.

[hyrulebr]

Hyrulebr, so, do you have this thing to try yourself or just sharing?

 

I'm thinking Kevtris is doing is own right now. It does seem a daunting thing. Implementing the secondary chips is a heck of a thing.

 

 

Just sharing. Ported recently to DE0-CV board and made news again!

 

http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&No=921

[Bakeriffic]

I've noticed a strange issue when I play the NT Mini's Gameboy core on a CRT via a component video connection. Two large areas of the screen become discolored after playing for even a few minutes (see image here: http://myweb.ecu.edu/bakermich/sml_ntmini_crt.jpeg). If I reset the system, the screen appears perfectly normal again. Any idea of what's causing this?

[kevtris]

I've noticed a strange issue when I play the NT Mini's Gameboy core on a CRT via a component video connection. Two large areas of the screen become discolored after playing for even a few minutes (see image here: http://myweb.ecu.edu/bakermich/sml_ntmini_crt.jpeg). If I reset the system, the screen appears perfectly normal again. Any idea of what's causing this?

That's the weirdest thing I have ever seen. It doesn't look like an nt mini problem though. The splotches are roundish and don't seem to really have a pattern. Maybe the CRT has some kind of colour correction and it is totally flipping out because there's only 4 grey levels?

[atmn]

I've noticed a strange issue when I play the NT Mini's Gameboy core on a CRT via a component video connection. Two large areas of the screen become discolored after playing for even a few minutes (see image here: http://myweb.ecu.edu/bakermich/sml_ntmini_crt.jpeg). If I reset the system, the screen appears perfectly normal again. Any idea of what's causing this?

 

I remember that an old CRT I had back in the days had some yellowish pattern at one side. It was more noticable in some games (played snes on that). Looks somewhat like that issue I had.

[Bakeriffic]

That's the weirdest thing I have ever seen. It doesn't look like an nt mini problem though. The splotches are roundish and don't seem to really have a pattern. Maybe the CRT has some kind of colour correction and it is totally flipping out because there's only 4 grey levels?

I'm thinking that it must be something like that. If I switch from the NT Mini to a screen with static, the discoloration remains. As soon as I display something with more colors, the screen returns to normal. I have the composite & s-video dongle so I'll have to test those and see if this quirk is unique to the component input. I played the NES core with the Black & White palette to see if that would replicate the issue but it didn't. One of these days I'll break down and buy a proper PVM. Component video on a CRT usually looks amazing. I've been enjoying the NT Mini's component out and I also picked up HD Retrovision's cables for component video from my SNES and Genesis.

[Schizophretard]

Maybe it needs a degaussing?

[atmn]

Fired up the Nt mini and have those issues on my CRT aswell, not that much but its noticable. RGB to a standard euro-TV from the 90ths.

[kevtris]

I'm thinking that it must be something like that. If I switch from the NT Mini to a screen with static, the discoloration remains. As soon as I display something with more colors, the screen returns to normal. I have the composite & s-video dongle so I'll have to test those and see if this quirk is unique to the component input. I played the NES core with the Black & White palette to see if that would replicate the issue but it didn't. One of these days I'll break down and buy a proper PVM. Component video on a CRT usually looks amazing. I've been enjoying the NT Mini's component out and I also picked up HD Retrovision's cables for component video from my SNES and Genesis.

if the GB is only taking up part of the screen, it could be localized heating of the shadow mask, causing it to slightly change shape. This can lead to purity problems like you are seeing. It appears to be called "doming". Here's an explanation

 

http://www.wa6ati.com/Doming.htm

 

.eta: wikipedia link

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doming_%28television%29

[Fafner]

Kev,

I know real life and paid work are keeping you busy...

Are Intellevison or any other consoles still gonna happen in the future?

How bout the cart adapters and controller adapters?

 

Thanks!

[ccovell]

if the GB is only taking up part of the screen, it could be localized heating of the shadow mask, causing it to slightly change shape. This can lead to purity problems like you are seeing. It appears to be called "doming". Here's an explanation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doming_%28television%29

 

Yes, I've seen this problem before on a couple CRTs when using the Super GameBoy, WideBoy, etc. as the SGB screen is usually a small(ish) bright white square in the middle of blackness; I figured this played havoc on the electron gun or something.

 

It's not something the NTmini specifically is causing, but one solution could be selectable borders in the GB/CGB etc core?

[Wolf_]

 

Yes, I've seen this problem before on a couple CRTs when using the Super GameBoy, WideBoy, etc. as the SGB screen is usually a small(ish) bright white square in the middle of blackness; I figured this played havoc on the electron gun or something.

 

It's not something the NTmini specifically is causing, but one solution could be selectable borders in the GB/CGB etc core?

If you set the gb/gbc core to scale to your crt resolution wouldn't that solve the problem?

[kevtris]

Kev,

I know real life and paid work are keeping you busy...

Are Intellevison or any other consoles still gonna happen in the future?

How bout the cart adapters and controller adapters?

 

Thanks!

I will port the intellivision core for sure. Not sure the SPC player will fit, and the mandelbrot thing definitely won't fit. both of these things need lots of multipliers that the FPGA just doesn't have unfortunately. As for the adapters eventually I want to sell those, but I don't have time to add it to the code yet.

[Fafner]

I will port the intellivision core for sure. Not sure the SPC player will fit, and the mandelbrot thing definitely won't fit. both of these things need lots of multipliers that the FPGA just doesn't have unfortunately. As for the adapters eventually I want to sell those, but I don't have time to add it to the code yet.

Awesome!

Thanks for the update!

[gulps]

I will port the intellivision core for sure. Not sure the SPC player will fit, and the mandelbrot thing definitely won't fit. both of these things need lots of multipliers that the FPGA just doesn't have unfortunately. As for the adapters eventually I want to sell those, but I don't have time to add it to the code yet.

 

I hope the PC Engine / Turbografx core will be fit in a future

 

 

Don't forget to enable at the Analogue Mini expansion port to feed other gamepads such Megadrive/Genesis, NeoGeo, Atari, ... !!

 

 

 

One question for playing NES FDS (Famicom Disk System) games at the Analogue NT Mini, What would be the best option?

 

A) Wait for Kevtris FDS emulation / implentation (Jailbreak)

B) A real FDS with the USB emulator. (Are still realiable?)

C) Krikzz's EverDrive N8

D) RetroUSB's NES PowerPak

 

[atmn]

 

I hope the PC Engine / Turbografx core will be fit in a future

 

 

Don't forget to enable at the Analogue Mini expansion port to feed other gamepads such Megadrive/Genesis, NeoGeo, Atari, ... !!

 

 

 

One question for playing NES FDS (Famicom Disk System) games at the Analogue NT Mini, What would be the best option?

 

A) Wait for Kevtris FDS emulation / implentation (Jailbreak)

B) A real FDS with the USB emulator. (Are still realiable?)

C) Krikzz's EverDrive N8

D) RetroUSB's NES PowerPak

 

 

I use real hardware on my Nt mini, FDS adaptor to a real "floppy".

Also I use Everdrive, works decent. Would like to have a button combination to switch sides instead of automatic.

 

Ordered a FDS-stick and see how that works out.

[Bakeriffic]

If you set the gb/gbc core to scale to your crt resolution wouldn't that solve the problem?

 

The NT Mini does not allow for scaling of gb/gbc games to fill the screen of a CRT so I'll just have to stick to playing these games on an LCD display in order to avoid the color distortion observed on my CRT. 7x width by 7x height for these games looks great via HDMI but it would be great if it were possible for Game Boy images to fill even more of LCD screens as well.

Kevtris: Would either of these options (full screen via analog output or larger gb/gbc scaling for digital output) be possible with a future firmware update or is this beyond the limitations of the FPGA hardware?

[kevtris]

 

The NT Mini does not allow for scaling of gb/gbc games to fill the screen of a CRT so I'll just have to stick to playing these games on an LCD display in order to avoid the color distortion observed on my CRT. 7x width by 7x height for these games looks great via HDMI but it would be great if it were possible for Game Boy images to fill even more of LCD screens as well.

Kevtris: Would either of these options (full screen via analog output or larger gb/gbc scaling for digital output) be possible with a future firmware update or is this beyond the limitations of the FPGA hardware?

It would be possible but there's no time to do it and the scaling wouldn't be very clean. It'd need some kind of bilinear interpolation at the least because there's not enough scanlines to do any kind of even integer scaling. It'd need i.e. 320*288 pixels to do a 2*2 scale. This means that there'd be a lot of information cut off at the top and/or bottom. For bilinear it can be done maybe but I would have to write a whole new scaler system for it. Sorry 'bout that.

[cacophony]

Probably the laziest Kickstarter video I've ever seen

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1234326845/fpga-add-on-for-raspberrypi-snes-and-nes-in-one-mo/description

[Andromeda Stardust]

Probably the laziest Kickstarter video I've ever seen

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1234326845/fpga-add-on-for-raspberrypi-snes-and-nes-in-one-mo/description

For the SNES / NES award, as I don't have each and every games in my procession, I will in the mean time collect more games with the fund raised and test, so I can only guaranteed when delivered next February it can run at least 300 games.

Okay, so by reading between the lines, he needs money to fund his collection. At least he's being honest...