Newsdee

New cheat DB file is out: http://www.cybergadget.co.jp/support/retrofreak/codefreak/ Unfortunately the cheats names are in Japanese... I wonder if it would work if we run the XML through Google translate.

The Atari 5200 and 800/XL cores were written by foft from these forums, here's the thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/216991-5200-in-fpga/page-5 If I'm not mistaken it supports all 5200 games already, at least it ran everything I've tried on it. I found the 800 version of AlleyCat was much more colorful than the IBM (CGA) one I used to play ad a kid... I've just bought some Atari paddles (and adapter) to try with the MiST and get a more realistic experience (before I used USB analog joysticks but it's not the same!).

In terms of setup consoles are much simpler (vs. setting up a computer core) because they have fixed hardware and they only read ROM files. You can put roms anywhere on an SD card (like an Everdrive) and long filenames are supported. You can use subfolder and I keep things in alphabetical folders to find games without too much scrolling ("page up/down" works btw). I separate many systems to their own SD card, so I can switch from NES to PC Engine as easily as changing carts on a console. Often I can use the exact same cart into an Everdrive (or their computer equivalents) because the systen files won't interfere with each other. I do this for the PC Engine and ZX Spectrum for example.

In terms of controls, there are two options, the DB9 joystick ports and USB. DB9 supports two-button sticks but not paddles (for that you need a 2600-adaptor to ise USB). Most cores available only use on or two buttons (for early conputers) or up to four for newer consoles (e.g. NES). You can use a DB9 controller with the NES but you'll have to open the in-game menu (OSD) to press select or start. Personally I just use USB. USB controllers can be mapped via a MIST.INI file on the SD card. While core only use up to four buttons (A, B, start, select) you can map any USB button. The mapping allows you to "wire" a physical button to one or several internal buttons, including directions. This is useful to map some buttoms to "up" to use in old games that didn't have a jump button. You can also assign keyboard hits to a given combination of buttons. This allows using button combos e g. start + select to open the OSD (note - without this you can open the OSD with a USB keyboard or a tiny button on the front panel of the MiST). USB mice are supported, and there there is an optional feature to have a USB pad act as a mouse by keeping select pushed (then move with directions and use L/R for button click). OSD navigation can also be done from the gamepad so you don't have to use a keyboard just to launch Atari or Amiga games.

Yes happy to share impressions, just not sure where to start. Feel free to ask me questions. There's a developer aspect to it which is very interesting, but let's summarize that the hardware itself is final, and people are basically now pushing the boundaries of of it. It hosts both original implementations and ports from other FPGA boards, and it's all done in cordial collaboration as all code is open source. That's an important point for me because basically any work done on this thing benefits future projects, the same way the MiST itself benefited from previous ones. There are similar boards, but the MiST has the advantage of being cheaper, having USB ports, and having a lot of cores already (14 computers and 9 consoles right now). But enough of that and let's talk games. Basically the big advantage of an FPGA vs. an emulator is that it runs things in parallel, and if done right it feels identical to the original because there is slowdown from a CPU or host OS. Here's for example Devil's Crush running on my Supergrafx: And on my MiST (note the video is 30fps as it was made long ago, but the core runs 60fps) For 60fps heres Super Star Soldier: As I said earlier cores have various level of maturity and compatibility. Focus is on gaming but there have been forays in other areas. At least one musician used a couple of MiST in concert to replace an old Atari ST as MIDI machine. I'd have to cover each core separately to give details, but lets cover a few cases. The NES for example doesn't support as many mappers as an Everdrive, and doesn't support saves (save RAM is implemented but not written to SD card) but the games run fine otherwise. But at the same time the atari 800/5200 is implemented fine without any major issues. Setup for consoles is extremely simple, you just need an SD with core files (many cores support switching to another) . Computers sometimes more tricky with setup a harddrive, but the wiki on github has details on how to do it. In terms of donnsides, one caveat of the MiST is that it *is* a clone of old machines meaning e.g. video timings follow the original closely. As a result the timings of the VGA it generates is sometimes a bit off spec (not 60hz exactly), causing some imperfections in modern screens (some vertical lines appear thinner or scrolling isnt as smooth). It can be fixed with an upscaler; I have made a video with a comparison:

I still need to finish Shin Megami Tensei IV. I love the series on the DS (and finished Strange Journey and Soul Hackers) but somewhere along the way I decided to try III (Nocturne) on the PS2... so now I have two games to finish.

Wondering who else has one around here? It's a very neat "consolized" FPGA box with some great things and a few quirks. Basically it's an open hardware platform (i.e. you can go and build your own, or expand on it if you want) that many open-source VHDL projects support (each machine "core" being its own project). It houses the latest versions of Minimig or OpenMSX, and its own Atari ST core, but also does a few consoles (8-bit so far).

Yes. I had it crash a few times when running for a long time with filters (e.g. hq2x). Running without filters fixes it. Scanlines or scaling do not seem to impact it, at least.

Flashbacks with an SD card don't exist because Atari won't allow them to, so far. Sega is apparently more lenient so there is that portable Megadrive with SD. Some guys on Youtube seem to have jailbroken the Freak; once the methods gets out it should be possible to add any emulator to it. But I'd prefer an FPGA version (ideally with carts); here's HERO running in my MIST:

According to this page it works but you have to build your own adapter: http://www.retrode.org/plug-in-adapters/ There is a project to build a Retrode + an RPi in a box (by EvilDragon who's producing the latest Retrode batch). That looks like a convenient solution although the software side is that what will sell it to me (I'd like a turnkey solution and ideally a version where I can install my own RPi2). Beyond that I'm a big fan of FPGAs; the MiST and Arcade Replay both have good support for pre-crash consoles. The Atari VCS is not perfect, but Atari5200/800, Coleco, Astrocade and VideoPac work great (note: these cores are often 3rd party projects so might be available for other boards as well). You can google for videos to get an idea on how they work.

I think somebody mentioned in the RVGS thread that Atari was rather against anything emulating their hardware that isn't vetoed by them. That rules out any kind of official support in the US, and elsewhere it might be too old school already

Didn't the Coleco guy (i.e. the one from the company holding the rights) say the Toy Fair would feature a number of Coleco-branded products? That means the Chameleon will be only one of several; probably the goal is to get investors for the brand.

I've got one. It's easy to mod adding your own buttons and stick (google for the exact Sanwa part that's compatible). I'm tempted to turn it into a Raspberry Pi emulator box, but haven't bothered to good for a suitable LCD...

In the shop where I bought it, the guy told me 8bitdo was planning a wireless dongle, but no idea if he was just saying that to get me to buy it

I just got an SFC30 from 8bitdo, so did a quick comparison the iBufallo and an original controller. The iBufallo is slightly thinner and lighter than the original (50g vs. 60g), whereas the SFC30 is thicker and heavier (90g). Width seems to be the same for the three. Buttons of the original and iBuffalo are pretty silent, but buttons of the 8bitdo can be heard a bit of you tap them strongly. For the d-pad, the SFC30 needs a bit more pressure than the other two, but still feels solid. The original feels a bit more "mushy" than the other two though. Gameplay wise I haven't used the SFC30 yet but the iBuffalo doesn't bother me in any way other than feeling a bit lighter. Build quality of both USB controllers is fantastic. The SFC30 even feels more solid than the original but that might be subjectibe impressiom from the weight

They sell them at Cyber Gadget's online store, as well as extra controllers and the Game Gear adapter. Can't read Japanese but maybe they ship internationally...

I don't have a lot of space to put my stuff but I try to keep as much as I can hooked up, so I can play almost immediately on those systems. I only disconnect the controllers so the front looks neater, and curate a small list of games (plus flashcarts) to have on display on shelves around it. Organizing that and playing around with upscaler options to get the best results has become a little game on its own... Another thing that keeps me busy is exploring FPGA projects; the MiST is chugging along nicely with small updates from time to time. Recently they added supoor for early Macintosh and the NES core was updated to work on a TV at 15khz (previously was only VGA).

It needs a proper USB host to parse HID data and then map buttons to the desired pinout in DB15 Neo Geo or DB9 Atari or Genesis (with multiplexing). Ideally one could also customize buttom mapping by USB PID/VID as well. Closest I can find are some Arduino USB shields, but there might be cheaper solutions...

I'm wondering if I could do USB to NeoGeo (the opposite of the usual way); so far I've only seen it in a bigger PC to JAMMA board which is a bit overkill.

Actually I just noticed he also has NeoGeo/Supergun to USB adapters (i.e. MVS JAMMA with some extra buttons);. I was thinking of getting a 2600 adaprer and might pick one of these as well to save on shipping Maybe a weird question but has anybody ever done a USB HID->DB15 adapter? Why: some of my favorite sticks are USB and I have mostly anything->USB adapters, so if I can go the other way around I could use any stick with any device (assuming I have DB15->device adapters). I suppose mapping will be a pain, but better than connecting a second cable on the raw switches...

Have you tried using two "generic" USB gamepads with different mappings? I didn't check if that works... One thing I did was to get several of the same 3rd party pad so they can all use the same mapping. That plus a USB hub allows quickly setting up 5-player Bomberman.

I think I have the second edition of the Retron5 (how to tell for sure?) but still managed to destroy a pin of the SNES cartridge connector. It stopped working (couldn't dump carts) until I opened it and saw that all cart ports were connected and the SNES pin was shorting them all. So after cutting the pin I have a Retron4, which I guess is better than nothing. One thing I like about the Freak is that cart ports are detachable, which means you can still use the console if they break and (theoretically) one could upgrade the "brains" in the future.

I'm sure it's going to have Blast Processing!

Confirmed: the iBuffalo SNES gamepad works with the Freak. It also recognizes my Qanba Q4RAF arcade stick. With this I tested that it's possible to map any combination of USB buttons to open the in-game menu (i.e. one is not limited to e.g. NES buttons for example). There is a limitation to 10 USB buttons though, so in my Q4RAF I can use the "select" physical button but not the physical "home" button. Not big deal, there's buttons to spare on this stick

It uses file extensions: .PCE : PC Engine / TurboGrafx16 .BIN : Genesis/Megadrive .GB : Gameboy / Gameboy COlor .GBA : Gameboy Advance .SFC : SNES / Super Famicom .NES : NES / Famicom .SMS : Game Gear / Sega Master System / MK III All roms go into the same folder ( \RetroFreak\Games\ )