retro_fan

Regarding save states and other features that we may miss from emulators such as more advanced shaders/filters, rewind, network gameplay, fancy menus etc. Do you think kevtris that incorporating something like an ARM processor into the Zimba 3000 design might allow for implementing some of this stuff? There are FPGA boards where an ARM processor seems to be really well integrated with the FPGA part, check out this discussion, for instance (you even have been mentioned there ): Has anybody used Zynq for FPGAgaming? Can you see any drawbacks of such a solution?

It looks like there also might be a hybrid FPGA/ARM in the works for RetroArch, read the discussion here: Has anybody used Zynq for FPGAgaming? You may also want to check the recent discussion at byuu's [higan developer] message board on whether FPGA is emulation or not in the context of the Super Nt announcement.

FleaFPGA's designer reply: "Yes, there are several ways to get purely analog signals out of FleaFPGA Ohm. Among those are: R2R DAC, Sigma-delta DAC and PWM. Stated methods also require some external resistors and capacitors to be added (but very little else). Various sites on-line provide further info, here's one: http://www.fpga4fun.com/PWM_DAC.html"

Package forwarding (just choose a good service).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PU7TAN40Jk "Introducing my FleaFPGA 'Ohm' Experimenter board! Flea Ohm is described as a compact, powerful yet easy-to-use FPGA development board built around a variation of the raspberry pi zero form factor. Flea Ohm is useful in applications ranging from robotics to retro gaming. Flea Ohm can operate standalone or as a co-processor 'hat' for a raspberry pi computer. I am looking to raise sufficient funds to do a modest production run of 'Ohm' boards and make these available to the wider community." It already supports Minimig and Next186 cores. Don't forget to check from to time the updates on the ZX Spectrum Next project, it's getting more and more interesting, let's hope they deliver.

It looks like the development of an FPGA SNES called VeriSNES goes really well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ae5iUe8diY

I will just leave these two links here, so that you will get a taste of what kevtris has to deal with: "Holy Grail" Bugs in Emulation, Part 1 "Holy Grail" Bugs in Emulation, Part 2 On a related note, I wonder whether we will ever get to the bottom of the Pinball Fantasies emulation problems...

We definitely should watch this project: RetroArch FPGA - cores are beginning to run! I think this piece of information is related: "I'm currently working on a prototype zynq design (targeting z-turn 7020 for now) for the libretro/RetroArch project, where the PS will run the normal RetroArch application under Linux, but there will be some custom drivers to interface with the PL side, so that we can have a mixture of hardware cores (like fpganes), software cores (existing libretro-compatible game cores that will run solely on the PS) or hybrid game cores (a mixture of hard and soft IP) and let RetroArch control all of it through its usual interface." bparker06 Check out the whole thread: Has anybody used Zynq for FPGAgaming?

Hmm... There seem to be some efforts lately to investigate and reduce the lag in software emulators, I wonder to what an extent it can be reduced.

Kevtris, have you considered some kind of expandability for the Z3K? I'm currently watching the ZX Spectrum Next FPGA project, and they want to let the users expand the device with RAM, Wi-Fi, and RTC clock. Also, you would be able to use the Raspberry Pi Zero as an accelerator (how something based around the ARM CPU will communicate with the FPGA, I have no idea..)!

Wow, the time goes by so quickly! I did not want to sound like I am not happy with support or anything, that was a general piece of advice for supporting older products and not a complaint about the Hi-Def NES (I'm not a native speaker of English, so if I did not get my point through, I'm sorry )... Anyway, all the updates so far are awesome, keep up good work Kev!

If you say so, I guess that's OK. Well, nobody's expecting that you will be working as much on your older projects as on newer ones (everyone can get bored with something, even you ), however, just take into consideration that the situation when a developer fixes even occasional 1 or 2 bugs, years after the release, is really appreciated by the community, and it can drive the sells of new products because people appreciate such continuous (even if very small) support. Another option is releasing the source code (if you don't sell a product anymore), so that people can tweak and fix some small stuff for themselves.

Are you sure the users won't find any bugs?

It's great that he did the update, I heard people were having issues. I really hope that when Kevtris will finally set up the bug-tracker the Hi-Def NES mod will be there as well (to report bugs and not to suggest new features, the FPGA is full!). Cross-reporting seems like a good idea because it looks like Kevtris' projects share codebase (at least the NES portion), and more users reporting means more fixed bugs.

LOL, they're using the Raspberry Pi Zero as an accelerator! "We added the option to add a Raspberry Pi Zero as a slave co-accelerator board, taking the Spectrum Next to a whole new level. In other words, with a Raspberry Pi Zero slotted into its place, the Spectrum Next can use the RPi memory, CPU and GPU to do its bidding. Imagine what demosceners can do with this… An OpenGL ZX Spectrum? Who knows!"

I will leave this here: ZX Spectrum Next -- a new machine, fully compatible with the original computer, and packed with improvements and expansions.

It's obvious that you need paid work. Thanks for everything! If analog-only stuff would mean adding some more powerful cores for the Nt mini than do this! I gonna say this once again "the more people test cores the better". As it will benefit both the Z3K and the Nt mini.

Very good question! Probably the allure won't be the same, but even for the preservation and all-in-one console aspect I think it would be worth it. And I guess even HDMI lovers would agree that it's better to have an additional analog-only Nt mini core than no core at all. Aside from this, the more people test cores the better, and remember that such analog-only Nt mini cores would be used by the Z3K which is going to support HDMI for even these more powerful consoles. Let's see what kevtris would say.

I would really like to see FPGAs being used to save prototype hardware. Can you image that this little gem (a bit NSFW) would be lost for future generations?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax-_P3meUiA

Any progress with a bug tracker? Are you sure you don't need any help (it was offered in this thread) with that?

Currently the Nt mini precisely recreates composite video for the NES only. Kevtris might add such a feature for other consoles some time in the future. Other outputs are supposed to be as clean as it is only possible.

Combining a CPU (and maybe even a GPU) with an FPGA is a really interesting idea. But is something like this even possible? Maybe kevtris could tell us more.

That's awesome! And how do you find the Nt mini sound vs a real NES?

Building a CPU on an FPGA series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fNBkUCjhcE

Wow, this tool of yours is really awesome! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4uPerAsWLk