FPGA Based Videogame System

[F34R]

Here is the link to analogues site for recommended cables. The cables from monoprice are pretty inexpensive and work great

 

I hope that's what you were looking for.

 

 

https://support.analogue.co/hc/en-us/articles/115000923948-Using-Analog-Video-output-with-the-Nt-mini

 

/facepalm

 

How did I let that slip by?? Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. Ugh. I feel kinda dumb now lol.

[phoenixdownita]

 

....

The Terrasic development boards also tend to have worse issues with the onboard i/o (take note that every student project that has tried to emulate a console has to make a compromise to work with either the onboard VGA/HDMI or AC'97 codec)

DE0 - Cyclone III 15,408 LE, VGA(4-bit), no USB, no HDMI, $120

DE0-CV - Cyclone V, 49000 LE, VGA (4-bit), no USB, no HDMI, $150

DE1 - Cyclone II, 20,000 LE, VGA(4-bit), no USB, no HDMI, $150

DE2-115 - Cyclone IV, 114480 LE, VGA, USB, GigE, DVI available on separate HSMC card (This Development board is designed for prototyping smartphones apparently) $495

Cyclone V GX starter- 77000 LE, HDMI, USB $180

.....

How about:

https://www.arrow.com/en/products/deca/arrow-development-tools

169US$ AlteraIntel Max10 "50K LE" with HDMI, 512MB of SDRAM, USB and MiniSD already onboard as well as Ethernet 10/100 .... this looks like a good starting point.

 

NOTE: To be fair they use the ES variant of the FPGA on those boards, ES as in Engineering Sample, so the price is heavily subsidized and I doubt you can really get all those goodies for that cheap to build your own thing or even guarantee a steady supply of their boards if need be.

 

PS: oh and let's not even really count the LEs as if they existed in such form, read

http://www.eejournal.com/archives/articles/20151124-marketingmath/

and have a laugh.

That measure is pretty useless, for example the Cyclone V of the DE0 CV,

check in this table (from Altera/Intel itself):

https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_US/pdfs/literature/pt/cyclone-v-product-table.pdf

it's the one marked 5CEA4 (the second column).

 

They state 49K LE, or 18480 ALM or 73920 registers, the last number divided by two is really close to how many cell they really have, that would be ~37K real 6-LUT LEs.

Granted you can do some pretty complex design and "feel like" in some scenario it would have taken 49K of the old 4-LUT LEs .... but it is so design dependent that it's not even funny.

Only thing I trust is that if kevtris says Z3K requires 2 Cyclone V 49K LEs (or whatever he says it's needed) it's because he knows his design and knows how big it is and what needs to happen and where ... not because of the "49K LEs".

[Andromeda Stardust]

Loving my NT Mini quite a bit! Found some issues, all minor stuff.

 

There's a chinese pirate of Pokemon Yellow for Famicom which actually loads in the NES core, and the intro of the game plays out, but the moment you step outside your house, the game immediately jumps back to the title screen as if it reset. I saw earlier in the thread that someone reported a Final Fantasy 7 rom doing the same thing when entering the game, and from what I can tell, both use the exact same board! Certainly not a big deal but it'd be cool to play.

 

Next is (maybe?) a minor visual bug with Battletoads. This was loaded with a checksum verified No-intro ROM in the NES core. I noticed during the ending sequence the ship glitches out for a few frames, you can see the effect on my stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/122438610?t=01h05m11s. I skipped to the relevant time, just wait a few seconds into the clip I've played through the game very many times on a Hi-Def modded AV Famicom and on an NES + CRT TV and haven't seen it do that before. Maybe it can happen on an NES though? I'll play through it again on the NT Mini tomorrow and see if it happens again.

 

Lastly, Huge Insect has graphical garbage while the bugs are flying around in game. I know that this is due to the game depending on rev G specific behavior that corrupts the OAMADDR register on writes, and it's definitely not behavior we 'want' 99.9999% of the time. Maybe a switch could be added for it? I'm probably not going to play Huge Insect much so I don't care much, but I figured it deserves to be documented

 

Thanks for everything kevtris! This is my favorite console by far now, been playing it hours every day.

AVS had some compatibility issues with all of those games you mentioned, some of which were fixed in firmware. Maybe the FPGA no like Chinese pirates?

[Kismet]

How about:

https://www.arrow.com/en/products/deca/arrow-development-tools

169US$ AlteraIntel Max10 50K LE with HDMI, 512MB of SDRAM, USB and MiniSD already onboard as well as Ethernet 10/100 .... this looks like a good starting point.

 

NOTE: To be fair they use the ES variant of the FPGA on those boards, ES as in Engineering Sample, so the price is heavily subsidized and I doubt you can really get all those goodies for that cheap to build your own thing or even guarantee a steady supply of their boards if need be.

 

The MAX 10 development kits cost 125$ but has pretty much nothing on it, they're typically used for DSP's, that's why kevtris likely suggested that for the video FGPA on the z3k.

 

The thing to keep in mind that the development kits have a lot of extra stuff on them that are not useful at all for a FPGA console or computer. So even if you get a dev board, only a few of the very expensive ones have video and usb to allow it to be anything like a full console/computer.

[Andromeda Stardust]

As for TG-16, let's just say that some people in the "community" have sapped any desire for implementing the TG-16 any time soon. After the way I got treated there, I am not going to bother implementing it at least for awhile. Sorry 'bout that.

 

Tell us who pissed you off and they'll receive a complementary ass-kicking by the AtariAge community.

[phoenixdownita]

 

The MAX 10 development kits cost 125$ but has pretty much nothing on it, they're typically used for DSP's, that's why kevtris likely suggested that for the video FGPA on the z3k.

 

The thing to keep in mind that the development kits have a lot of extra stuff on them that are not useful at all for a FPGA console or computer. So even if you get a dev board, only a few of the very expensive ones have video and usb to allow it to be anything like a full console/computer.

That's why I linked the DECA board that already has the HDMI transceiver, the SD card reader, 512MB of DDR3 SDRAM etc...etc....

I understand the extra unused stuff, I was just using an example of an interesting board, at least to me.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

 

They state 49K LE, or 18480 ALM or 73920 registers, the last number divided by two is really close to how many cell they really have, that would be ~37K real 6-LUT LEs.

Granted you can do some pretty complex design and "feel like" in some scenario it would have taken 49K of the old 4-LUT LEs .... but it is so design dependent that it's not even funny.

Only thing I trust is that if kevtris says Z3K requires 2 Cyclone V 49K LEs (or whatever he says it's needed) it's because he knows his design and knows how big it is and what needs to happen and where ... not because of the "49K LEs".

So how much for the "retail" Cyclone V chip used in the NT-Mini?

 

How does it compare to the AVS chip? It seems Brian Parker of RetroUSB used a lot of Xlinx chips for his mappers/Powerpak. I can't remember offhand the brand FPGA chip the AVS used when Kevtris/Gametech did the teardown, or how many gates it has.

 

Was AVS 25K compared to NT Mini's 49K? Brian's menus are definitely lighter, but he also included the awesome scoreboard app support, game ID, and built in cheats which I imagine takes some storage.

[phoenixdownita]

So how much for the "retail" Cyclone V chip used in the NT-Mini?

 

How does it compare to the AVS chip? It seems Brian Parker of RetroUSB used a lot of Xlinx chips for his mappers/Powerpak. I can't remember offhand the brand FPGA chip the AVS used when Kevtris/Gametech did the teardown, or how many gates it has.

 

Was AVS 25K compared to NT Mini's 49K? Brian's menus are definitely lighter, but he also included the awesome scoreboard app support, game ID, and built in cheats which I imagine takes some storage.

Kismet already posted those numbers here, I did not validate them but I have no reason to believe he's wrong.

You can always cross check with Mouser/DigiKey prices or other ICs retailer.

 

Hmm so the NT mini uses a Cyclone V E - 5CEBA2U15C8N (25K LE) or about $40. The Z3K suggested so far needs 49K LE (which would be about $68.)

The RetroUSB AVS uses a Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX9 (9K LE, and costs about $20)

That still has me wondering what the BOM (Bill of Materials) on the NT Mini is.

[Namdor]

 

/facepalm

 

How did I let that slip by?? Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. Ugh. I feel kinda dumb now lol.

With all the awesome news and updates from kevtris coming out each day it's easy to overlook what cables to buy and where.

[Wolf_]

@phoenixdownita
Sorry, I worded that poorly. What I was trying to say was that at that pricepoint he could put in hardware hundreds of times more powerful than what was used in those consoles originally so hopefully at the pricepoint of that technology he could find some tech that could act the same on a hardware level. Honestly though I would have 0 problem if it was a 25 pound block the size of a human torso with some actual hardware in it for systems it couldn't replicate. It would still save time, space, clutter, and money. I'm completely aware it is idealistic but I think if someone was dedicated to it and confident in the interest it would receive the hardware side of things could come together in the next few years and the cores fairly steadily over time. As for patents and the legal side of things... as long as the cores are unoficially released and don't include bios I'm pretty sure that is completely legal but I'm not sure what kind of hardware patent limitations there would be... hopefully equivalent tech could be found that was not patented.

@Kismet
Thanks very much for the detailed post! Just a few follow up questions:
1) Ethernet - Any kind of direct line ethernet would be fine even if it required an adapter as long as it was a direct line in and didn't reduce speeds. It would mainly be for connecting to the fan run dreamcast and xbox servers to keep things like phantasy star online alive.
2) Bliss box - I wasn't talking about using semi-custom hdmi in ports for the controllers but a usb for controller input, or perhaps get permission from/co-op with bliss box to make a multi-out that the system could read and could be used for their semi-custom hdmi port input? I'm told by bliss box with the proper adapter to console ports you can use a bliss box to work on the original hardware so you can use controllers you prefer better than the system ones on early consoles.
3) Bluetooth - same as ethernet, as long as it works 2 thumbs up from me! Really only needed for the wii-mote or perhaps it could be a kind of internal 8bitdo retro receiver for people that want to use bluetooth controllers on retro systems. While not something I would personally be interested in I could see it being a selling point and maybe feasible to add if bluetooth was being added anyways... actually now that I think about it, as the 8bitdo works with the current release doesn't that mean you can use it with any supported core right now? (Also would need support for the wii sensor bar or some equivalent technology)
4) 2tb sd card/nas support - what about external hard drive support? Supporting the complete libraries for the systems I listed for all regions currently runs me about 14tb not counting the ps2 and wii which I haven't acquired the complete libraries for yet. Although like 10tb of that is xbox. Anyways I could see the whole thing ending up close to 30tb if not more so it would require 3-4 10tb hdds which wouldn't be too difficult to link together in an external enclosure and get a usb 2.0 line in on. While that would make file transfers a bit slow with a small internal ssd or even 64gb sd card once the files were transferred it would still be considerably faster than the original hardware. If usb 3.0 could be supported then even that small nag would be removed even though imo usb 2.0 transfer time given the size of games on those systems would be completely tolerable.
5) 4k @60fps - 1 frame of lag for systems that already had 1 frame natively wouldn't be an issue at all! I mean all the games would have been designed for those systems with that in mind so removing that would almost be like making the games slightly easier imo so keeping it around and having the ability to view content in native 4k with 0-stock lag would be completely fricken awesome!

Thanks again for taking the time to make that long post it was super informative.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Wolf_

[z3razerviper]

I am experiencing a few bugs

 

1. If I plug in a different controller while the console is on I am unable to use it. I just does not work until I powercycle the console.

2. I cant power on the console via the controller. I may just be dense but It refuses to power up using the hotkey in the NT Mini manual while using the nes mini.

[Newsdee]

Kismet already posted those numbers here, I did not validate them but I have no reason to believe he's wrong.

You can always cross check with Mouser/DigiKey prices or other ICs retailer.

The AVS has exactly the same Xilinx chip as rhe ZxUno. It's a bit small (about 1/3 of the MiST) but they have managed to squeeze quite a bit from it so far without including HDMI. On the AVS they stated they ran out of space after doing 720p HDMI, so couldn't do 1080p.

 

The MiST has 25K LE on an Altera Cyclone V, it's the same chip as the older TurboChameleon64. It is almost fully utilized by the Amiga AGA core and (reportedly) by a Genesis core somebody is working on, but these things can be sometimes optimized to fit.

 

Obviously a Z3K with 50K LE would have much nore breathing space, but that isn't enough. Ideally you need more than one independent bank of RAM, and there are differences in RAM types (SRAM, SDRAM, DDR) which can make things hairy. Kev knows his stuff so the board will have whatever makes sense for his cores, I have no concerns there.

 

HDMI is no panacea though. Kevtris explained somewhere (early this thread?) that its not very tolerant on timigs so he had to overclock a bit the Analogue NT for it to fit. With a second FPGA and RAM that can probably be avoided, as you could inplement a line doubler (lag free) or a framebuffer (has lag but needed to convert 50hz to 60hz or vice-versa).

 

I wouldn't hold my breath on any 3D consoles, but 2D machines up to the CD era are porbably possible with current hardware.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Newsdee

[Kismet]

Kismet already posted those numbers here, I did not validate them but I have no reason to believe he's wrong.

You can always cross check with Mouser/DigiKey prices or other ICs retailer.

 

 

I got the quotes off Digikey.com, keep in mind the prices fluctuate.

 

From kevtris's teardown the AVS is Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX9 TQG144 , but the speed grade digit isn't mentioned (it will be a 2 or a 3) but the difference at most is $4USD. C or I at the end determines the operating range. So an "I" Industrial version can do -40C to +100C where the C is 0C to 85C. So unless you're playing it outside it's inconsequential.

 

 

The NT Mini has a Cyclone V 5CEBA2U15C8N (Family 5C, Varient E, B ?, Member code A2, Package Type U, Package code 15 (484 pins), Operating temp ©: Commercial, Fabric speed 8, N RoHS)

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

Kismet already posted those numbers here, I did not validate them but I have no reason to believe he's wrong.

You can always cross check with Mouser/DigiKey prices or other ICs retailer.

 

Cool, so AVS used a $20 chip with 9k gates and NT MINI used a $40 chip with 25k gates. That explains why the AVS menu is much simpler at least.

 

I would have thought with the prices these new consoles sell for, the FPGA was a much larger part of the overall unit cost.

 

Sorry for being a newb, but how does 9000 gates even cover the NES? I imagine the smallish 2kbyte CPU RAM and 2kbyte PPU RAM would need a minimum 32768 gates considering there are 32kbits spread across two chips for memory alone? And I think really 64k gates because you need two NOR gates (simple latch and hold flip flop circuit with set and reset inputs) for each single bit of storage if I remember my digital electronics. More when you add on address circuitry.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics)

 

Or perhaps I am confusing the definition of a "Logic Element" with the concept of a "logic gate..."

[cacophony]

I am experiencing a few bugs

 

1. If I plug in a different controller while the console is on I am unable to use it. I just does not work until I powercycle the console.

2. I cant power on the console via the controller. I may just be dense but It refuses to power up using the hotkey in the NT Mini manual while using the nes mini.

 

For 2. have you tried holding the button combo down for ~2 secs? And is the controller plugged into port #1? (definitely required for wireless adapter b/c only port #1 gets power while system is off; not sure about wired controllers in other ports though)

Edited February 17, 2017 by cacophony

[Kismet]

@Kismet

Thanks very much for the detailed post! Just a few follow up questions:

1) Ethernet - Any kind of direct line ethernet would be fine even if it required an adapter as long as it was a direct line in and didn't reduce speeds. It would mainly be for connecting to the fan run dreamcast and xbox servers to keep things like phantasy star online alive.

2) Bliss box - I wasn't talking about using semi-custom hdmi in ports for the controllers but a usb for controller input, or perhaps get permission from/co-op with bliss box to make a multi-out that the system could read and could be used for their semi-custom hdmi port input? I'm told by bliss box with the proper adapter to console ports you can use a bliss box to work on the original hardware so you can use controllers you prefer better than the system ones on early consoles.

3) Bluetooth - same as ethernet, as long as it works 2 thumbs up from me! Really only needed for the wii-mote or perhaps it could be a kind of internal 8bitdo retro receiver for people that want to use bluetooth controllers on retro systems. While not something I would personally be interested in I could see it being a selling point and maybe feasible to add if bluetooth was being added anyways... actually now that I think about it, as the 8bitdo works with the current release doesn't that mean you can use it with any supported core right now? (Also would need support for the wii sensor bar or some equivalent technology)

4) 2tb sd card/nas support - what about external hard drive support? Supporting the complete libraries for the systems I listed for all regions currently runs me about 14tb not counting the ps2 and wii which I haven't acquired the complete libraries for yet. Although like 10tb of that is xbox. Anyways I could see the whole thing ending up close to 30tb if not more so it would require 3-4 10tb hdds which wouldn't be too difficult to link together in an external enclosure and get a usb 2.0 line in on. While that would make file transfers a bit slow with a small internal ssd or even 64gb sd card once the files were transferred it would still be considerably faster than the original hardware. If usb 3.0 could be supported then even that small nag would be removed even though imo usb 2.0 transfer time given the size of games on those systems would be completely tolerable.

5) 4k @60fps - 1 frame of lag for systems that already had 1 frame natively wouldn't be an issue at all! I mean all the games would have been designed for those systems with that in mind so removing that would almost be like making the games slightly easier imo so keeping it around and having the ability to view content in native 4k with 0-stock lag would be completely fricken awesome!

 

Thanks again for taking the time to make that long post it was super informative.

 

1. The thing about ethernet is you still need a TCP/IP layer, and for MMO games you need a server, and that goes well beyond this. As it is Phantasy Star Online 2 is available in English... in Asia. I've played it in Japanese. Unfortunately when MMORPG's die, they die and they're difficult to reverse engineer without having analysed the working game when it was working. Similar issues exist for the original version of FFXIV, there is only enough data to fool the game client into loading the world, but the world is empty.

 

2. Bliss Box, I imagine there is some inherent latency going through the box, but since it connects via usb ultimately, it's probably just a HID device.

 

3. Bluetooth, it's very likely that any wireless tech would be a complete radio part, and they are normally USB bridged anyway.

 

4. 2TB hard drives either use NTFS (Windows) or UFS (MacOSX), or any number of file systems on Linux or FreeBSD. You can't support all of them in a FPGA, it's hard enough to get working file system drivers in Linux. You would be better off dividing collection's up into 64GB using FAT32 or partitioning a drive/sd-card in such a way.

 

5. 4K and beyond - From what I understand, the latency increases the larger the screen is because 240p upscaling is 720p is 3X, 1080p is 4 or 4.5X, and 4K is 9X and 8K is 18X. So if you look at the FPGA size, if a 9K LE can only do 720p, and a 25K LE was needed for 1080p, it would likely need a 50K LE just for 4K. The limitation is the blockram.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

C or I at the end determines the operating range. So an "I" Industrial version can do -40C to +100C where the C is 0C to 85C. So unless you're playing it outside it's inconsequential.

Pretty sure nowhere on earth do the temps approach boiling outside but you could try for an igloo. I did freeze my 7800 down to zero F for an experiment to see if temperature affected Concerto compatibility, and it operated normally when removed from the freezer. I think solid state electronics are comfortable through a much wider range of temps than we are.

 

Once I inverted a can of CPU duster on my Core Duo laptop cooler and the temps in speedfan dropped to -40 C but operation of my laptop PC was unaffected. I got scared when my fan stopped rotating as I thought I'd destroyed it by spinning it up beyond it's rating with the duster can. Nope... When the frost evaporated an, a few seconds later the CPU returned to ambient temps and the fan started up again up.

[kevtris]

I am experiencing a few bugs

 

1. If I plug in a different controller while the console is on I am unable to use it. I just does not work until I powercycle the console.

2. I cant power on the console via the controller. I may just be dense but It refuses to power up using the hotkey in the NT Mini manual while using the nes mini.

I have not had a problem with swapping controllers while it's on. Maybe it's getting zapped by static during the swap. I was hotswapping mine all the time.

 

You need to press select+B (the wireless) or select+A (normal NES controller). if you change the hotkey in the menu, it doesn't affect turning it on- only turning it off. This is because turning it on is done with a different chip and it is hard-coded to look for just one combination. Also, you need to hold the combo down for about 1/4th of a second. this is to prevent it being bumped and turning on by accident.

 

 

The AVS has exactly the same Xilinx chip as rhe ZxUno. It's a bit small (about 1/3 of the MiST) but they have managed to squeeze quite a bit from it so far without including HDMI. On the AVS they stated they ran out of space after doing 720p HDMI, so couldn't do 1080p.

 

The MiST has 25K LE on an Altera Cyclone V, it's the same chip as the older TurboChameleon64. It is almost fully utilized by the Amiga AGA core and (reportedly) by a Genesis core somebody is working on, but these things can be sometimes optimized to fit.

 

Obviously a Z3K with 50K LE would have much nore breathing space, but that isn't enough. Ideally you need more than one independent bank of RAM, and there are differences in RAM types (SRAM, SDRAM, DDR) which can make things hairy. Kev knows his stuff so the board will have whatever makes sense for his cores, I have no concerns there.

 

HDMI is no panacea though. Kevtris explained somewhere (early this thread?) that its not very tolerant on timigs so he had to overclock a bit the Analogue NT for it to fit. With a second FPGA and RAM that can probably be avoided, as you could inplement a line doubler (lag free) or a framebuffer (has lag but needed to convert 50hz to 60hz or vice-versa).

 

I wouldn't hold my breath on any 3D consoles, but 2D machines up to the CD era are porbably possible with current hardware.

the Z3K was designed with the 49K LE part, and four memory busses. The big bottleneck seems to be bulk RAM bandwidth vs. actual RAM depth, so I had four busses on there. The scaler was pulled into a second, smaller chip to make life easier and allow for more logic to live in the main FPGA. on the nt mini, the scalers take up a lot of resources, more than I was expecting. It was a good call to pull them out and put them into a second device.

 

The NES is slightly underclocked for HDMI- since the NES outputs a 60.09fps 240p signal natively, I slow it down a tiny fraction to 60.00 for HDMI use. I didn't want to deal with the compatibility nightmare of outputting video at 60.09 then have half the TVs and monitors reject the signal since it was out of range.

 

Cool, so AVS used a $20 chip with 9k gates and NT MINI used a $40 chip with 25k gates. That explains why the AVS menu is much simpler at least.

 

I would have thought with the prices these new consoles sell for, the FPGA was a much larger part of the overall unit cost.

 

Sorry for being a newb, but how does 9000 gates even cover the NES? I imagine the smallish 2kbyte CPU RAM and 2kbyte PPU RAM would need a minimum 32768 gates considering there are 32kbits spread across two chips for memory alone? And I think really 64k gates because you need two NOR gates (simple latch and hold flip flop circuit with set and reset inputs) for each single bit of storage if I remember my digital electronics. More when you add on address circuitry.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics)

 

Or perhaps I am confusing the definition of a "Logic Element" with the concept of a "logic gate..."

 

Well this is one thing that annoys me greatly about Xilinx. They like to describe the size of their chips in "Gates". But they don't define what a "gate" is. Is it an inverter? 2 input AND? 2 input OR? Also, I heard that they count gates that you can't even use for logic, like the configuration hardware. Comparing xilinx's chips based on the number of "slices" is a better "apples to apples" compare.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Well this is one thing that annoys me greatly about Xilinx. They like to describe the size of their chips in "Gates". But they don't define what a "gate" is. Is it an inverter? 2 input AND? 2 input OR? Also, I heard that they count gates that you can't even use for logic, like the configuration hardware. Comparing xilinx's chips based on the number of "slices" is a better "apples to apples" compare.

Yeah after doing the math in my head I quickly realised that "Logic Element" is something entirely different from "logic gate". I suspect each "element" can hold lots of gates? And of cource in practice different types of logic gates might have different transistor counts. You can even make an inverter out of a single transistor using a simple pullup on the output.

[kevtris]

Yeah after doing the math in my head I quickly realised that "Logic Element" is something entirely different from "logic gate". I suspect each "element" can hold lots of gates? And of cource in practice different types of logic gates might have different transistor counts. You can even make an inverter out of a single transistor using a simple pullup on the output.

each logic element is basically a very small ROM. it has 4 or 5 inputs and 2 or so outputs that go into flipflops (usually 1 or 2). this can hold several gates, or 2 unrelated functions. You set up the little ROM lookup table to emulate the specific function want (AND, OR, XOR, multiplexer, etc). Fortunately the compiler takes care of all the dirty work for you in this case.

[electristan]

Are your firmwares "in sync" with the official nt mini ones when it comes to fixes and features Kevtris?

 

I see the official one is now at v2.1, an while ill be keeping yours for the features, just wondered if all the other fixes they do are incooperated into yours?

 

Thanks!

[kevtris]

Are your firmwares "in sync" with the official nt mini ones when it comes to fixes and features Kevtris?

 

I see the official one is now at v2.1, an while ill be keeping yours for the features, just wondered if all the other fixes they do are incooperated into yours?

 

Thanks!

yeah it is. the JB firmware is 1.0 behind the official. This is so you can change between the latest version of either- if it was the same version (i.e. 2.0 and 2.0JB) you couldn't switch between, because the bootloader only checks the version. This was kind of an oversight during development but the bootloader's set in stone at this point so that's why.

[Necro-M]

post-deleted.. for some reason my browser was showing old posts on the last page

Edited February 17, 2017 by Necro-M

[Katsu]

Just uploaded an Overview and Unboxing of an Analogue NT Mini. Overall, while expensive as crap, I think that given that Kevtris is adding value to the hardware with his jailbreak software, the machine has a lot of a potential for some really hardcore 8bit fans. Although I quickly mention some alternatives towards the end of the video, I'll get a more in-depth video soon comparing it to the other options out there. So far I'm pretty excited for this hardware!

https://youtu.be/lqjde0pbtCg

[Katsu]

Also, for those RGB nuts like me out there, Retro Gaming Cables UK is now selling RGB cables for the NT mini. It has the stereo spliced in so that's a nice little perk.

https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/ANALOGUE-NT-MINI-RGB-SCART-CABLE?search=analogue

One caveat though, Robert at Retro Gaming Cables UK contacted me directly when I asked about the delay in shipment. He stated that he was working out an issue about not having 5 volt signal being output by the VGA port on the back of the NT mini. Apparently that doesn't cause any problems if you're hooking it up to a PVM/BVM (which I am) or if you're using a Framemesiter, but if you're actually using the cable to connect to an RGB Television or a SCART to HDMI converter (which is pointless for an NT mini anyway as it already does HDMI), it requires the 5 volts signal and won't work. Since I assured him I will not be using the cable on an actual RGB TV, he shipped the cable out to me anyway.

I also have a set of monoprice RGB cables that have arrived, so I'll be testing those out first.