MIST opinions

[Shift838]

I am thinking of purchasing a MIST system. What are some thoughts on it from anyone that has one?

 

I am wanting to use it to run ATARI ST mainly.

 

Is there hard disk image support on the MIST ?

[bugs]

I am very pleased with the Mist. I have used it primarily for the ST, I did prepare an 8 bit sd card just to see if it all worked. I have not tried out the amiga or any other cores.

 

It does have hard disk image support, and I have 1 sd card setup that I downloaded full of hard disk fixed games from dbug etc etc. over a gig worth.

I made another sd card with my own setup using hddriver, the first partition is shareable on both the mist and the pc, which makes moving files a breeze.

A third sd card i have prepared running Magic 6, im still playing around with various desktops to see which works best.

 

I am using it with a wireless keyboard and mouse, and it is connected to ethernet with sting and a Dlink d-100 usb/ethernet adapter.

 

I have it powered from a usb cable to the pc next to it. cant beat that.

 

If i could come up with 1 thing its missing is the ability to use a real floppy disk.

I am not sure if it can run .stx protected images yet as i havent tried it.

 

The case is ugly too. I believe the mist has been very popular and could probably have justified making a nice case. This is not a complaint though.

 

Great device though, I highly recommend it.

[galax]

Very happy with mine so far too. I even quite like the little bombproof steel case that looks like an accessory for an old Soviet Robotron computer or something.

 

I like having the RGB/VGA output, some people might prefer HDMI but there are cheap converters available. I don't miss a floppy drive; avoid disks where possible and can rip them on my ST if needed. D9 joystick and MIDI ports are great to have.

 

I've tried a few other cores, pretty good results so far. The arcade cores are a great idea, will be awesome when they all have sound. Some day I'll get around to downloading the Amiga core, to try out JetStrike and Kick Off 2.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Considering STX floppy image support on Mist: that will be hardly implemented ever. MIST is some kind of HW clone of real Atari ST(E), while STX images are actually not real floppy images, but special case of format made for emulators - Steem in first place. All what is done later in support for STX images - in case of HxC HW floppy emulator, Hatari is result of work of multiple people doing analysis of STX format, without any help form original author.

MIST could partially support STX images if there will be implemented clone of HxC floppy emulator. Or adding some mini PC to it, what would process STX images. Both ideas would be too expensive considering need for new chips and developing SW.

And I don't see real need for STX. Everything is available in ST, MSA, hard disk adapt format. If you know title what has no proper unprotected image, only good STX, let me know.

[galax]

Considering STX floppy image support on Mist: that will be hardly implemented ever. MIST is some kind of HW clone of real Atari ST(E), while STX images are actually not real floppy images, but special case of format made for emulators - Steem in first place.

 

STX support is on the roadmap as "planned/possible": https://code.google.com/archive/p/mist-board/wikis/AtariSTRoadmap.wiki - I would think the ARM based I/O controller would run the code to support STX if this were ever done.

 

And I don't see real need for STX. Everything is available in ST, MSA, hard disk adapt format. If you know title what has no proper unprotected image, only good STX, let me know.

 

I think many demos still run from STX disk images only. I'm not sure about the MiST's level of support for things like overscan, so demos might not look too great on MiST anyway.

[Paradroyd]

I've had mine for about 3 years, I think. I'm quite happy with it. I started off mostly using it as another Amiga, but lately I've been doing a lot more with the ST core, mostly running it as a 16Mhz mega STe. If you look at my Twitter feed..probably half of my tweets have to do with various things I've done and am doing with the MIST.

 

If I have any complaint about it, it's that the micro USB power connector is pretty fragile. Mine actually broke off for no obvious reason, as a few other people's have. Fortunately, there's a fairly easy, well documented way to replace the micro USB power connector with a standard barrel jack, which is rock-solid.

 

One of the weirder things I use my MIST for is retro BBSing.. or using native terminal programs on some of the cores to call telnet BBS. I've been using it for this quite a bit lately and it really works well (again, there's a lot about this in my Twitter feed). It works completely differently in the ST and Amiga cores. When running as an ST, you can use a USB to serial adapter to get a serial connection, which I then route out through a Raspberry Pi with tcpser. It tops out at around 9600 baud. I think that this is the limitation of the cheap USB-serial interface I'm using more than anything.

 

In the Amiga core, USB serial adapters aren't supported yet. Fortunately, there's an easy mod that I was able to do that uses the MISTs internal MIDI connector to give the Amiga a serial port that runs reliably at over 115Kbaud. Since that connector runs at 3.3 volts, I'm able to route it directly into the same Raspberry Pi's GPIO at /dev/ttyAMA0..no USB interfaces involved, which is probably why it's so fast.

 

As far as the MIST's case.yeah..it's a bit drab by default, but it's very strong, small and portable. If you want to stick fins, decals, LEDs , or anything else you want to on it to make it look cool, you can. It is pretty much whatever you make it.

 

As an added bonus, there are a bunch of 8 bit cores which mostly work really well. I especially like some of the more obscure (to me, anyway) cores like the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and the Amstrad CPC. I've never had a chance to use these machines before the MIST, and it's a lot of fun learning them.

 

To me it's worth WAY more than what it cost. I've actually thought about picking up a second one for my desk at work.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Paradroyd

[Shift838]

i know very little about Atari ST or Atari computers in general. I have been toying with a couple of emulators to try and get familiar with it.

 

I like the MIST as it has multiple cores it supports and I could see me using it for Atari ST and AMIGA.

 

Is there anyone that one could download a fully populated hard disk image for the ATARI and the AMIGA that has tons of games and applications on there already?

 

I plan on using a serial device for terminal communications. I may even want to experiment with a telnet based BBS for the Atari as 'bugs' stated in an earlier post.

[galax]

I don't feel comfortable sharing a hard disk image of ST games- you can find them all from the guys who did the hard work at atari.8bitchip.info (hard disk adapted) and d-bug.kicks-ass (Patches).

Also the disk image would include the driver, which you should buy from HD Driver or atari.8bitchip (my recommendation is the second).

[bugs]

http://atari.8bitchip.info/DiskImgPP1.html here is a decent image from ppera.

 

i had another that was prepared with the atari hard disk driver, ill post it if i can find the link.

 

it wouldnt be right to share anything that uses hddriver or pperas driver, both of which are still actively supported and maintained, which quite frankly we are lucky to have these days.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Precisely: you get the driver (little older version) with that linked 1GB image, but there is no partitioning SW, so you can not use cards full capacity for instance.

Demand for images with all hard disk fixed games or like arises often. But that's something what not helps people dealing with subject. What I would like to see is more feedback and game testing.

And that needs time and some experience with possible caveats.

 

I think that I will release "millennium" edition hard disk image, similar to that 1GB one. But there will be something to stimulate people testing. Need to figure out what exactly.

Everyone should pick at least one game and play it thoroughly - or encounter problems - then report, solution - and we are step closer to some final release with lot of images, but well tested ones .

[Shift838]

When it comes to using MIST and a hard disk image file or SD card, From the list below, what does an experienced MIST user prefer as the preferred option and why ?

 

• Atari Harddisk Driver (AHDI) - I know this one is limited to 1GB and cannot be used for easy PC transfers according to the wiki
• Uwe Seimets HDDriver - the wiki states this has been tested up to 8GB sd cards and can be used for easy PC transfers
• Harddisk image file - the wiki says this one is known to work but has not been tested extensively with the MIST (so no guarantees i assume)

[ParanoidLittleMan]

There is another choice: http://atari.8bitchip.info/pphdr.php

 

I would not make decisions after looking only Wiki pages - they are informative, and relative reliable source, but often pretty much outdated, and not complete. + may be very subjective - reflecting view of author(s) only.

Considering card sizes, my driver works well with 16 GB cards - biggest I tested, but it should work with any up to 2000 GB. Of course, real question is why some card bigger than 8 GB, when TOS can handle max 14 partitions of max 512 MB ?

[Paradroyd]

 

When it comes to using MIST and a hard disk image file or SD card, From the list below, what does an experienced MIST user prefer as the preferred option and why ?

 

• Atari Harddisk Driver (AHDI) - I know this one is limited to 1GB and cannot be used for easy PC transfers according to the wiki
• Uwe Seimets HDDriver - the wiki states this has been tested up to 8GB sd cards and can be used for easy PC transfers
• Harddisk image file - the wiki says this one is known to work but has not been tested extensively with the MIST (so no guarantees i assume)

 

The answer in my case is, all of the above. SD cards are cheap and you're not limited to using one scheme. You can have multiple cards with different configurations on each. It's not really a commitment in any way.

 

While having direct access to the SD does make PC transfer a little easier, moving things in and out of images is not difficult, by any means. I usually use an image file with multiple small partitions with the AHDI driver. That works fine for what I do with it, but again, if for some reason I find myself needing a huge contiguous partition, I'll just set up another SD that way. So far I've had no need for that. I mostly use the ST side of my MIST for gaming and BBSing.

[Shift838]

There is another choice: http://atari.8bitchip.info/pphdr.php

 

I would not make decisions after looking only Wiki pages - they are informative, and relative reliable source, but often pretty much outdated, and not complete. + may be very subjective - reflecting view of author(s) only.

Considering card sizes, my driver works well with 16 GB cards - biggest I tested, but it should work with any up to 2000 GB. Of course, real question is why some card bigger than 8 GB, when TOS can handle max 14 partitions of max 512 MB ?

 

Agreed about the wiki, that is why i was posting it here for some experienced users to comment on.

 

The link you posted for 8bitchip seems like it should work at least on real hardware. I have sent an email to find out if it will indeed work on the MIST, i think it will but i could not find anything on the site about MIST.

[Shift838]

Thanks for all the input guys. I have dropped the hammer and purchased a MIST with several SD cards, DLINK HUB-E100 and a USB serial device.

 

Now I just need to wait. I even purchased a Skin for it that was designed by another Atari user. I suspect i will see the MIST in a couple of weeks to get it from Poland to Texas.

 

I am sure I will have more questions when it gets here.

[+Zeptari]

Please post your early impressions of it with photos if possible. What does the skin look like?

[Shift838]

Please post your early impressions of it with photos if possible. What does the skin look like?

 

will do.

 

I got the skin in today. I used a skin that another user on a forum created.

 

this is the one and I hope to get it on the MiST system as well as he did.

 

HERE

[Rick Dangerous]

Sweet, I had no idea about the MIST:

 

http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=96

 

Looks like a powerful little emulator box that allows you to do multiple computers and consoles from the 80's/90's era.

 

May have to invest in one, the Ultrasatan from Lotharek has been bombproof.

[+remowilliams]

Looks like a powerful little emulator simulator box that allows you to do multiple computers and consoles from the 80's/90's era.

 

[+Zeptari]

Thats a great looking skin. I cant wait to see \hear more about your impressions of the machine.

[Shift838]

so far my impression is very positive. I really liked the machine especially since you can run multiple cores on this machine.

 

I still need to put my skin on it. But so far I have the Atari ST running on it and running good and can even use my USB to serial to connect my UDS and dial out to BBS!

 

I have the NES, C64 and Atari800 roms as well running.

 

i'll post pics and will probably do a video of it working on the ST and maybe AMIGA(when i get that working) on youtube.

[STuck]

It's great for me, as I can run the odd Amiga game without having to go and buy one.

 

It sits with my Falcon, my STe and my STFM.

 

It apears slightly faster than my boosted 48mhz Falcon in Steroids mode too

[Paradroyd]

FWIW, here's a screen capture of sysinfo output on my MIST running in STeroids mode @38Mhz with 14 MB of RAM configured...

 

Sorry for the quality, but it's an actual photo of the small CRT, which doesn't photograph particularly well.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Paradroyd

[Paradroyd]

 

will do.

 

I got the skin in today. I used a skin that another user on a forum created.

 

this is the one and I hope to get it on the MiST system as well as he did.

 

HERE

 

That skin looks really good, but I prefer to keep mine generic and inconspicuous. A lot less "splainin" to do when I occasionally want to bring it to work to have an Amiga or STe on my desk.

 

If I do anything like that, I'll do it with refrigerator-magnet style magnets that I can easily remove and re-attach as the situation demands.

[fultonbot]

MIST vs. Raspberry PI? Any opinions?