Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

Newsdee

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    1,597

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Newsdee

  2. Posted · Edited by Newsdee

    19 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

    Yeah, I just want 1 controller so I got a little converter. It's quite frustrating to not be able to use anything other than the PS4 controller and also have audio issues, though. I haven't decided what I want to do with it. I'm very tempted to give up on it and just use real hardware, especially since I don't have converters to use real controllers on the MiSTer.

    Those limitations seem self-inflicted to me. You have an extremely wide array of USB controllers available, and if you want real original controllers, plenty of good USB adapters.

     

    Audio works fine for me and most people. Are you using an SDRAM card? If not I suggest trying that first. You can get a 32MB card cheaply if cost is a concern.

     

    Anyway if you are not happy, I'm sure somebody will want your DE10 if you offer it up for sale.

  3. Posted · Edited by Newsdee

    4 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

    I have a micro USB to USB A converter. That's it.

     It's all about how many USB devices you want to use. I always have at least 3 to 4 devices connected (keyboard, mouse, WiFi, BT, 8bitdo dongles, etc).

     

    You can use a single port too if you don't care about any of that. Any old USB hub will work too, but you should always use a powered done. The USB Board is only if you want it all in a nice little case.

  4. Posted · Edited by Newsdee

    Do you mean the flat connector on the right of this picture? That's a USB 3.0 Micro-B plug; in the case of Blisster it's used for LLAPI with MiSTer, as zetastrike rightly pointed out.

     

    It can also be used with a PC to update firmware, but there is an update script you can run from MiSTer that is much easier to use.

     

    You can find the script in the LLAPI core fork repository:

    https://github.com/MiSTer-LLAPI

     

     

    1527012348_1361256.thumb.jpg.8961d84e7fb439bd4796169b41110aa4.jpg

  5. Posted · Edited by Newsdee

    12 hours ago, hyrulebr said:

    Thanks for the explanation! And about Blisster vs SNAC? Are both the same? (excepting that SNAC is officially supported in some cores).

     

    No, it's a different thing completely. I need to get a bit technical to explain it, hope this is clear enough:

     

    You will notice that official IO boards have a 9-pin connector (actually a USB 3.0 plug, labeled "not USB" on the PCB :) )

    That connector is for direct communication to the FPGA, and has 7 data pins, one ground, and voltage pins available.

     

    The (official) purpose of this port is non-standard controllers, such as using original lightguns with a CRT.

    "SNAC" is nothing more than a voltage level shifter, in other words a cheap PCB with resistors to convert 5V (of the controller) into 3.3V (used by the FPGA).
     

    SNAC was first used for the NES and SNES cores, but requires you to match the core with controllers and is single player only (in other words, Player 2 has to use USB)

    I think now somebody has added it to the MD core as well, but that's about it in terms of official support for cores. Still, for lightguns, that's pretty good.

     

    Some people took that idea further in different ways, none of them official:

    • Encode the controller with a special protocol, so you can use a SNES controller with MD cores, etc (requires modified cores to support the "common language")
    • Modify the main MiSTer binary so you can control the OSD with these controllers (requires fork of main binary)
    • Take an extra pin of the FPGA to create "SNAC" for two players (which could break compatibility down the line)

     

    In Blisster (and LLAMA) only the 1st item applies and is optional, i.e. you can use them in USB mode entirely with the official cores.

    Blisster also has a clever approach for the OSD menu, it detects when it opens and switches to USB mode to control it (thereby not needing any special MiSTer firmware changes).
     

    The last two items are sometimes called SNAC+ or two-player SNAC in social media.

    I haven't used it myself (it probably works fine) but it has the caveat that future official hardware may repurpose that 8th pin.

     

    I could go into comparisons of the three approaches, but it would require going further into more hairy details (e.g. lag vs. jitter and original polling intervals of consoles).

    Personally I got SNAC and a Blisster, I may get one of the SNAC+ just to try it, but I didn't feel compelled to use it yet.


    But here's a good summary of the latency situation with MiSTer:

     

     

    If there was not so much drama around these topics, we probably would have one approach by now.
    But these things are inevitable in open source, just look at all those MAME forks...

     

    • Like 2

  6. Posted · Edited by Newsdee

    I have more than one MiSTer. One has a Blisster and another a USB hub. Long story short, Blisster is a USB hub with 4 regular USB ports and 2 "bliss-box" connectors. Those function as built-in adapters to legacy controllers, and can translate to both USB and a special mode that is closer to the metal, but not official in MiSTer cores. 

     

    The thing to bear in mind is that there have been extensive tests of the USB stack (by different people) and it was found that some (wired) gamepads ran at 1ms polling intervals, and most slower gamepads can be made to go as fast (with a bit of setting tinkering).

     

    One surprising result, by the way, is that 8BitDo controllers that are wired or use 2.4ghz RF are faster in wired mode than the bluetooth controllers of the same company in wired mode. Blisster runs at 2ms if I'm not mistaken, and cheap DYI Arduino adapters have no problem with 1ms polling.

     

    Using the Blisster as USB hub is basically the same as using a USB hub plus a Bliss Gamer Pro adapter, the 4-play, or an Arduino adapter. If you have some bliss-box products already or like their approach then a Blisster makes sense. You can really ignore all that "low latency" stuff unless you use a CRT and want to tinker.

  7. Posted

    I don't like to get rid of things, and being aware of that helps me think twice before I buy something.

     

    I do agree that original stuff from some companies is more worth keeping than others (in my eyes at least) so I could prioritize if I had to.

    I also own flash carts for almost every system I have (if it exists) and I have FPGAs that are as good as the real thing in terms of timing.

     

    That helps me put things in perspective, e.g. am I keeping something just to play the games? (in that case it may not be needed anymore),

    or do I really care about it as a historical artifact? (for any reason, could be sentimental value or I feel it's neat to have on the shelf, etc.).

  8. Posted

    Does this have to be specifically about having a store?  If you look at it from a gameplay perspective, it looks like you are after games where you can customize your abilities, by earning some kind of points during gameplay. Astro Boy: Omega Factor on GBA has this kind of mechanic, you can choose how your character evolves by choosing to increase stats between levels. Does this count or does it have to be explicitly some kind of in-game currency?

  11. Posted

    2 hours ago, BassGuitari said:

     

    Yup. I remember in 2000 when we all said, "Holy shit, the NES is 15 years old?!"

    Apple II says hi 😄

     

    I didn't even get a PS4... the games I wanted to play released on Steam, so that's good enough for me...

  12. Posted

    I'm surprised nobody mentioned yet what happens to Yoshi in SMW, or to Typha in FFVII 😄

     

    Joke aside, not so much a scar but a nice surprise, was when I beat Karateka for the nth time to show a cousin, and I go "so check this out, now the chick will kill me in one shot"... but I ran to her instead, so we got the true good ending (which I didnt expect).

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

  13. Posted

    Have you ever tried any of the Harvest Moon games?

     

    I recently played Deiland on PC (it was free on Steam) and it's quite a nice mindless time waster. Has enough complexity to keep me active, but not so much that I have to think too hard about it.

     

    Also, if you like Castlevania SotN, definitely check out the Castlevania games for GBA and Nintendo DS.

  21. Posted

    I'm all for using original hardware but practicality wins.

    It's important to interface your old computers with modern hardware and e.g. know how to transfer files back and forth a modern PC.

     

    One thing I would like to see more is old-school keyboards for USB, so we can use computers emulators / FPGAs with original keyboards.

    (it's possible right now but one needs to cannibalize an old computer for it)

     

     

     

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    15 hours ago, zzip said:

    Colecovision was a big deal for gamers because it was the first time we could really play arcade-quality games at home.  

    Generations are just a convenient way to classify consoles to specific an era, and of course the fit is not perfect.

     

    I think there is room to place some consoles between generations, as in, above of the previous offerings but not quite to the next level.

    That may be also relevant nowadays given the latest gen (8th?) doesn't really innovate over the years except going further towards PC-type specs.

     

    So for example:

    • Coleco, 5200, and SG-100 = Gen 2.5 (not quite NES level but above the 2600)
    • PCE/TG16 = Gen 3.5 (given it's an 8-bit to 16-bit hybrid)
    • 32X = Gen 4.5
    • Wii U could be Gen 7.5 if we consider the Switch to be still in the 8th gen

    Just my 2 cents. I just feel these points cause debate but we could come up with something we can agree on.

     

     

     

  23. Posted

    8 hours ago, mr_me said:

    Atari 2600 cartridges had "mappers", bankswitching rom, adding ram, and even additional processing.  The SG-1000 had identical hardware to a colecovision and was discontinued in the same year. 

    Atari undoubtedly had the first trials with "mappers", since it's a good way to expand capabilities of the console. But if you are to compare the top 20 Atari 2600 games vs. the top 20 NES games, it would clearly show a generation gap. That said, I'd consider the Atari 7800 to be in the same class as the NES given it's built-in specs.

     

    The SG-1000 would arguably be in 2nd gen along with Coleco, in that case. They are both advanced systems, but I wouldn't put them in gen 3 given the gap between those and the NES and SMS.

     

  24. Posted

    2 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

    Any reason why the NES port dropped the Master part of the title? 

    Too long for dumb Americans to read? 😁

    (I'm only half-joking, there's all kinds of changes done in videogames to cater for "that's what the 'muricans would like" that feel stupid or downright condescending)

  25. Posted

    7 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

    "Jeu de baston" is rather used for one-to-one fighting games, though. But you're excused since "beat them all" is widely used by French journalists that are all very bad in English... -_-

    You're right. Ironically though, "beat them all" is quite an accurate description of brawling games. :)

     

    I suppose the big difference is the depth of moves. A one-of-one fighter usually has much more moves per characters and deeper strategy, whereas the brawler pits you against many enemies at once.

    I suppose that facing 2 or more enemies makes complex moves difficult (as you are likely to be hit more) so there is no point in making your moveset too fancy.

    I can see that in some modern games than try it, but you often end up spamming the same attack except against some bosses. Thinking of Sleeping Dogs for example.

     

    Aggressors of Dark Combat (gangan) seems like a mixed breed between one-on-one fighting and beat-them-ups, since you can walk around the arena in 8 directions, but it feels a bit weird.


     


     

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...