Newsdee

There is no official IO board with SDRAM (nor any that is open hardware). You can use a regular IO board with a 128MB memory nodule.

True, there is room for experimentation and find what works best for you. But what I'm trying to highlight is that it is possible to achieve a true lag free setup with a MiSTer, whereas that is not the case with a RPi (if anything, because its CPU can't emulate a cycle accurate SNES, for example), or an Analogue NT/SG until the DAC comes out (as it can't connect to CRT yet). Anyways this is a false dichotomy. Analogue devices are a superb choice for cartridge gaming, and the RPi remains the cheapest option if you are on a budget. It's all a matter of what tradeoffs you are willing to do.

The rarest I have must be a couple of press kits from semi-decent but obscure PC action-RPGs from the 90s (with a CD of fully playable version of the games). Not necessarily desirable by anybody or expensive, but rare definitely.

There are two separate solutions being worked on (by different groups) to connect native controllers and bypass the USB stack. So the hardware can use native controllers and behave exactly like the original machine, but at a certain premium since you need a custom addon. It's like for video. Either you accept a certain lag from an LCD and use HDMI, or you need both a CRT and a board add-on for analog video. I think those extensions are fair enough, not all users will want them, but they exist for those who do.

Well, we have this thread now...

I wonder if it works better if a device gives you pleasure when you win...

For some reason I never found RPi emulation appealing, but I did like using the Retro Freak. Mostly, it was the ease of use and that I did not have to think much about setup. But I did notice lag issues compared to real hardware. Then I got into FPGAs and as cores matures, lag stopped being an issue and I found myself using real hardware less and less. I still own the originals (and don't plan on selling for now - I do like to have them on the shelf) but I can't be bothered with RGB and upscalers when I have a solid alternative. I sometimes wonder if I could make a system to use RFID tags on carts to load games. That way we can still use our cart collections as "game selector" for added nostalgia, but with much less mechanical issues (dirty contacts etc).

The post you link to is many months old. The reason 2 is on the table is because the developer for 1 is experimenting an alternative way to output native video frequencies from the HDMI port, so that people are not forced to buy an I/O board if they want to connect to a CRT and bypass the HDMI scaler (giving a completely lag free experience). It is experimental and not yet supported by all cores, but is an attempt to simplify the setup since it's easier to source HDMI to VGA adapters than IO boards. The litmus test for lag has very often been whether Tyson in Punch-Out was beatable, and as you can see in this thread, he is beatable on HDMI using a wired USB controller. If that is not enough, the DE10 can be connected to a CRT (via adapter or IO board) and connect to original controllers for some cores (e.g. NES and SNES, via some extra expansion hardware). Those extensions are optional, so I'd recommend first trying the lag-free video modes of HDMI (i.e. no framebuffer) and making your own opinion first. In terms of core maturity, my advice has always been to buy based on the current state of the device, not some hypothetical future state. You are free to decide to not get a DE10 if you find a specific core is lacking, but that does not detract from all the cores that are already excellent (SNES, NES, Genesis, Neogeo, Amiga, etc.) I totally respect if you feel it's not for you. At the same time, I believe the concerns that you raise are already addressed by the current state of the project.

Hilarious. I just want to know what is the story behind this game and how it came to light.

You can use all the cores with 32MB; you would only be missing out on a few games for Neogeo. It's up to you, but you can always explore everything else before upgrading.

The same could be said of all religio... er... marketing schemes. I wonder if these guys are behind another retro "modern remake" with their tech but not advertising it. That may explain how they survived so far...

Those packs were mostly useful for games. The cores themselves are all available on Github, and there is an updater script that will grab the latest cores for you on demand. The WIP cores are not yet part of that script, but they are posted in forums and the discord server for those who want to try and help with feedback.

At least there's text. I remember some European Amiga/DOS games where you get some random image which could have been a cover or any generic piece of marketing.

Exactly, it's a work in progress. That link is just a beta build.

I finally found it! It was Twerps: https://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/twerps

Unless you are Babbage. But then you have no funds.to build it.

I brought my MiSTer on a long trip and it's been a great summer with it. The NeoGeo core has matured incredibly well, courtesy of furrtek, sorgelig and jotego. There are some minor audio issues being worked out, but most games sound great. Some games require more SDRAM than the standard board, so I expect a new SDRAM expansion board design being released when the core is officially out. (the current 32MB board runs 82% of the Neogeo library well, there are some 19 other games that need 64MB, and 8 that need 96MB). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgq_ZTznnFk In other news, Grabulosaure is about to release an Intellivision core, which you can see in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTtWxIOOa8Y There's other things going on but it would be hard to list them all. A Commando arcade core is out by Jotego, the NES core received a lot of love by many developers and is almost perfect, an Apple I core has been ported courtesy of alanswx, and a direct video mode is in being experimented on with SNES and Genesis. This latter feature is to allow using an external DAC from HDMI to use analog out. It's a different technique than the Analogue DAC, but it achieves a similar goal to use CRTs and VGA displays with an aftermarket adapter (i.e. not having to rely on a custom I/O board).

Yes! Thank you, I couldn't remember it. The Wikipedia article is telling, explaining how they were driven by having a game superior to Spacewar (and it was), but simple economics doomed them. A Spacewars PCB costed $100 to make vs. the thousands needed for a PDP computer.

Some of the early successes were not because of technical availability, but because somebody figured out how to save costs on producing the game machines. That in turn enabled decent margins for a business to run with. I forgot the exact name, but there was a prototype of Space Wars prepared for arcade / coin-op, but it ended up not being used after Bushnell and co. came up with Computer Space which was much cheaper to produce by an order of magnitude. Its possible for an idea to live as prototype or on paper for a very long time. A very extreme example would be Babbage's Difference Engine...

One has to give credit to Analogue for risking and taking the (previously) empty niche of high-quality clones and hardware emulation. No product is perfect, but the Analogue devices (and the AVS) make many other commercial emulation products seem like half-baked toys. It's good to have a high bar to compare.

You just need to find somebody motivated to work on it, though. I expect this may take a while since there are many other multi-arcade systems that are sexier for everybody (e.g. CPS1, CPS2, System16, System8). Is Daphne not running well enough to put in a cab?

I guess they have great margins so retailers love them.

How much DIY are you willing to do? You can build one with arcade parts wired to a NES controller. The 4-way joystick is designed so that only one direction can be hit at the same time. So yes, it should fix your problem. Just FYI, most sticks are a regular 8 way with a different piece installed (the restrictor plate at the bottom). So if there is any NES controller using arcade parts they should do the trick. This guy seems to have made one: https://hackaday.com/2017/05/19/a-diy-nes-advantage-controller-for-the-nes-classic/

In the arcades the joystick has a restrictor gate i.e. you can't physically hit a diagonal. Those are still easily found today with e.g. Sanwa brane joystick components. For a true arcade experience you would need to build your owm stick or find somebody that sells them. There used to be a sweet little 2 button atick made by ArcadeForge (for Atari/Amiga) but they stopped offering them.

This is why I am a big fan of FPGA devices. Many people involved are using the real hardware as benchmark and major cores have become really good in terms of accuracy, both in commercial and open source offerings. Software emulation did a great job preserving the software (games etc) and now FPGAs are preserving the hardware more and more accurately.