FPGA Based Videogame System

[cacophony]

Gold plated is also an option if you have five grand to blow...

 

I think that was just the OG Nt, and the limited run of 10 sold out over a year ago. Not sure why they still feature it so prominently on their website.

[eyeon]

Nice! Thanks again Kevtris, those are awesome additions, as I am a big fan of the obscure. I used to own a Gamate, it would be cool to try the games without having to deal with that piss-poor screen. I can't find ROMs ANYWHERE though, anybody know where I can find some?

[+eebuckeye]

What is the largest SD card that will work? I know not a ton of space will be required but all the consoles/computers being supported will add up. :-)

[Tusecsy]

The Atari 5200 will be covered when he does the Atari computer (forget the model), since it's the same architecture. Sure this was covered just wanna restate it cuz it'll probably come up quite a bit.

[cacophony]

I'm curious what speed SD card is supported and if a faster speed card makes a difference in terms of core loading, sorting for large rom directories, etc

I have a bunch of older class 4 cards around but considering buying a a new class 10 card like this: https://goo.gl/E99CZp

Edited March 4, 2017 by cacophony

[Andromeda Stardust]

I'm curious what speed SD card is supported and if a faster speed card makes a difference in terms of core loading, sorting for large rom directories, etc

I have a bunch of older class 4 cards around but considering buying a a new class 10 card like this: https://goo.gl/E99CZp[/size]

Class 4 is most likely faster than the FPGA.

[Andromeda Stardust]

What is the largest SD card that will work? I know not a ton of space will be required but all the consoles/computers being supported will add up. :-)

32Gb for SDHC. 2Tb for SDXC. (And yes, you CAN format these to FAT32 using Mac/Linux or a third party Windows formatter). Practically, 64 Gb is tons more than you will ever use. My entire ROM collection is under 64Gb, and that includes N64 and GBA. Uncompressed GBA No Intro is 24Gb ftr, probably less if you weed out Euro/PAL games with multiple ROMs for each language. Since we are dealing primarily with 8-bit systems, anything over 32Gb is rediculously excessive.

[Keatah]

I'm curious what speed SD card is supported and if a faster speed card makes a difference in terms of core loading, sorting for large rom directories, etc. I have a bunch of older class 4 cards around but considering buying a a new class 10 card like this: https://goo.gl/E99CZp

Class 4 is most likely faster than the FPGA.

 

I would tend to agree, because, I put an ancient slower-than-class-1 SD card into the PC, and Emulator Stella sorted through 5000+ roms instantly. Granted they are small roms, so I upped the stakes and used much bigger roms on other emulators and their names were read and sorted instantly too.

 

So I would think that's right, it's the FPGA's read routines OR sorting routines. Or maybe each rom is read and checksummed every time a folder is opened, but why do that?

 

The way I would try to speed up access is to make your own folder structure with all your favs in smaller folders that will sort & read quickly. I do this on the VCS rom collection, not for speed but for ease of filtering out the crap. Presents a much richer list. Space games, Sports games, Strategy games, something like that.

 

---

 

IIRC core loading is a serial operation or close to it. Not too long ago I had to troubleshoot some circuitry and the FPGA was loaded from a serial rom. So it's going to be slow. And it takes time to reconfigure the FPGA too. I'm sure kev can explain it all in more detail and pinpoint the slowdowns.

Edited March 4, 2017 by Keatah

[Fafner]

Wow!

Having a hard time finding anything about the Gamate or Game King other than reviews from Ashens

[Dweezicus]

Shipped! As long as my wife doesn't ask how much it cost I'm good...

Right? My NT just showed up in our entertainment system one day, and she has yet to ask about it...

[kevtris]

Whoops, looks like I forgot to hit save on the readme.txt in the zip file, and failed to mention them in my post. There were actually quite a few bugfixes this time:

 

* Added Supervision core.
* Added Gamate core.
* Added Game King core.
* Fixed system settings menu in core mode. There were 8 entries selectable but the menu only has 6.
* Fixed the B button setting in the file browser. start/end vs. back 1 level was flip-flopped.
* Fixed long directories dropping a character into the file browser border.
* Fixed save RAM issues. Clearing save ram on first play of a game (NES).
* Fixed star tropics 1/2 save issues as well. Be sure to set submapper to 1 to play these! (NES)
* Change to a different timing generator when entering the menu on Atari 2600 for analog video modes so the
monitor can synch up if the 2600 is not generating timing.

[Super Mario]

Whoops, looks like I forgot to hit save on the readme.txt in the zip file, and failed to mention them in my post. There were actually quite a few bugfixes this time:

 

* Added Supervision core.

* Added Gamate core.

* Added Game King core.

* Fixed system settings menu in core mode. There were 8 entries selectable but the menu only has 6.

* Fixed the B button setting in the file browser. start/end vs. back 1 level was flip-flopped.

* Fixed long directories dropping a character into the file browser border.

* Fixed save RAM issues. Clearing save ram on first play of a game (NES).

* Fixed star tropics 1/2 save issues as well. Be sure to set submapper to 1 to play these! (NES)

* Change to a different timing generator when entering the menu on Atari 2600 for analog video modes so the

monitor can synch up if the 2600 is not generating timing.

 

 

No worry's buddy thanks for letting your fans know! I have a question; have you heard of the ultra super rare find on the N64 DD NTSC console that was never released in the USA? This very might be a one of a kind. They are talking about finding someone to reverse engineer it! Would be awesome to get a core of this for the zimba 3000 if possible?

 

Here are the links to the videos: FOUND: Ultra-Rare Nintendo Prototype N64 Add-On (US Version of 64DD)

Prototype USA 64DD UPDATE - The Adventure Continues!!

 

Here is some more info and some dumped files: https://www.64dd.org/

https://www.64dd.org/dumps_u.html

Edited March 4, 2017 by Super Mario

[rezb1t]

Thanks for the update! v1.4jb works great! Haven't found any issues with it.

Unfortunately, I think the analog video output on my NT mini is defective, pin 1 doesn't seem to work at all. Can't get composite video working even though I've tried 3 different cables, the R-Y signal in component is not working, and the R in the RGB signal isn't working too.. I sent an email to support so hopefully it gets worked out

 

I don't think anyone else is having this issue so I just got unlucky. Other than that I love the system!

Edited March 4, 2017 by rezb1t

[TheRedEye]

In case anyone was having trouble like I was: Gamate and Gameking games are both included in the "MAME Software List" sets at your ROM dealer of choice.

[kevtris]

Aaand another 4 cart adapters done. This time it's Odyssey^2, Master System, Game Gear, and Gameboy.

 

I made the GG and SMS adapters compatible with each other so if you plug in a GG cart that runs the system in SMS mode, it should theoretically be able to switch. The Gameboy adapter has the link port on it for funzies, and it also supports external audio in, though I don't think anything actually uses this.

 

That makes a total of 8 adapters, and I'm not done yet. I still have a few more PCBs to design. After that, I will do a bulk order for all of them.

 

Each one of these will have a plastic front/back/top on them made out of laser cut acrylic so it's vaguely cart shaped. I have a laser cutter at work, and I wrote software to convert gerber files into toolpaths, so all I have to do is design them in altium right with the PCB itself, and I am guaranteed a perfect fit with the boards. I will wait to do this until after I receive the PCBs.

 

 

 

 

 

[simbin]

Aaand another 4 cart adapters done. This time it's Odyssey^2, Master System, Game Gear, and Gameboy.

 

I made the GG and SMS adapters compatible with each other so if you plug in a GG cart that runs the system in SMS mode, it should theoretically be able to switch. The Gameboy adapter has the link port on it for funzies, and it also supports external audio in, though I don't think anything actually uses this.

 

That makes a total of 8 adapters, and I'm not done yet. I still have a few more PCBs to design. After that, I will do a bulk order for all of them.

 

Each one of these will have a plastic front/back/top on them made out of laser cut acrylic so it's vaguely cart shaped. I have a laser cutter at work, and I wrote software to convert gerber files into toolpaths, so all I have to do is design them in altium right with the PCB itself, and I am guaranteed a perfect fit with the boards. I will wait to do this until after I receive the PCBs.

 

 

 

 

 

Will the Gameboy and Gameboy Color share the same adapter? Also, is the Master System adapter still getting the connector for 3D glasses? Thanks

Edited March 5, 2017 by simbin

[killersquirel]

In case anyone was having trouble like I was: Gamate and Gameking games are both included in the "MAME Software List" sets at your ROM dealer of choice.

 

 

Thank you. This definitely helped.

[kevtris]

Will the Gameboy and Gameboy Color share the same adapter? Also, is the Master System adapter still getting the connector for 3D glasses? Thanks

yes they share the same adapter.

 

no, the glasses will be on the controller adapter so it can be used on other systems too like famicom.

[Sneakyturtleegg]

In case anyone was having trouble like I was: Gamate and Gameking games are both included in the "MAME Software List" sets at your ROM dealer of choice.

I'm looking for those sets too, but no luck. MAME isn't my thing and haven't really messed around with it. I tried googling and going to 2 popular sites with no luck. Any other pointers?

[LidLikesIntellivision]

Will Zimba 3000 have a Famicom cart slot?

It'd be good to share adaptors.

[phoenixdownita]

Aaand another 4 cart adapters done. This time it's Odyssey^2, Master System, Game Gear, and Gameboy.

 

I made the GG and SMS adapters compatible with each other so if you plug in a GG cart that runs the system in SMS mode, it should theoretically be able to switch. The Gameboy adapter has the link port on it for funzies, and it also supports external audio in, though I don't think anything actually uses this.

Where are the Jap Mark III and Sega Card adapters? Chop chop chop

Great work btw.

 

I can see MK eating is own soul right now twice over given for a while he had "the master" on-board ...

 

PS: also this is your way to announce O^2 is coming, shortly

[cacophony]

A couple new lengthy Nt Mini reviews from Game Sack and Digital Foundry, both of which go into a lot of depth and feature multiple cores:

 

 

Edited March 5, 2017 by cacophony

[phoenixdownita]

There should be a value edition, no aluminum milled anything, cheap packaging, no embedded wireless pads, for the cheap lame asses like me.

At 200US$ it'll likely be a no brainer even for me, at 450US$+ given my 8bit fatigue it's not on my radar at all, just my opinion you don't have to agree.

 

I appreciate the enthusiasm and all the people "doing the math" and how it saves the cost of consoles + flashcart etc...etc.... still not cheap due in big part to the expensive material used aside the core components, that let's face it are all kevtris doing.

 

It's a little like buying the everdrive from Krikzz versus the deluxe edition from Stone Age Gamer .... it's nice to have the option, but it is also very nice to have the bare-bone version ..... (waiting nervously for the Z3K).

[cacophony]

There should be a value edition, no aluminum milled anything, cheap packaging, no embedded wireless pads, for the cheap lame asses like me.

At 200US$ it'll likely be a no brainer even for me, at 450US$+ given my 8bit fatigue it's not on my radar at all, just my opinion you don't have to agree.

 

I appreciate the enthusiasm and all the people "doing the math" and how it saves the cost of consoles + flashcart etc...etc.... still not cheap due in big part to the expensive material used aside the core components, that let's face it are all kevtris doing.

 

It's a little like buying the everdrive from Krikzz versus the deluxe edition from Stone Age Gamer .... it's nice to have the option, but it is also very nice to have the bare-bone version ..... (waiting nervously for the Z3K).

 

I would also prefer not forcing the 8bitdo stuff as part of the package but I'd be surprised if the elimination of that and the fancy case lowered the parts cost more than ~$100.

Edited March 5, 2017 by cacophony

[veelk55]

There should be a value edition, no aluminum milled anything, cheap packaging, no embedded wireless pads, for the cheap lame asses like me.

At 200US$ it'll likely be a no brainer even for me, at 450US$+ given my 8bit fatigue it's not on my radar at all, just my opinion you don't have to agree.

 

I appreciate the enthusiasm and all the people "doing the math" and how it saves the cost of consoles + flashcart etc...etc.... still not cheap due in big part to the expensive material used aside the core components, that let's face it are all kevtris doing.

 

It's a little like buying the everdrive from Krikzz versus the deluxe edition from Stone Age Gamer .... it's nice to have the option, but it is also very nice to have the bare-bone version ..... (waiting nervously for the Z3K).

 

I agree with all this. Sure, we're waiting for the Z3K, but people might want this too.

Given the massive size of the Z3K and all the amount of testing that will need to be done for the Z3K to launch near flawless, I'm happy people can test all these cores and help improve, it IS unfortunate that the system allowing that was just meant for a fancy few who are rich XD (or are poor but donated their organs for the NT Mini)