Kismet

Well he would have to get access to carts with those chips, and those chips have embedded firmware blobs that you can't just copy and distribute.

The APU model has only 1 chip for the audio instead of separate S-SMP and S-DSP. The GPM-02 doesn't have the "metal can" around the APU, but otherwise simply has an identical layout to CPU-01 on the mainboard. The SFC, and the three dead SNES's are SHVC-CPU-01, some have the big cap, some don't. GPM-02 has S-PPU2 C , S-CPU B and S-DSP A. So this is the best model you can get before you get into the combined APU (RGB models) and 1-Chip models. The 1-chip models have a better output I hear, but are less compatible. The CPU-01 models may have S-CPU or S-CPU A. http://projectvb.com/nss/logs.htmbad CPU ( S-CPU or S-CPU A) indicates the CPU to be the most common reason of SNES death. It's too bad you can't just pop it out and replace it since it's not an off the shelf part (I have to wonder if you could take a cpu from a clone, as it seems like "most compatibility" is better than dead.) Hence the base line for the Super NT needs to be at least as good as GPM-02 with S-CPU B. However I believe the encoder in the 1-chip models is probably better, which is why the 1-chip models are more coveted despite being less compatible with previous models.

You can tell which is which by the color of the cartridge slot door and the power/reset buttons. The SFC on the left is also yellow, note the SFC controllers are slightly yellow as well, these were the controllers shipped with the SFC. The SNES on the top is the newest of them, which is CPU-GPM-02 (the controller is from my original launch-era SNES.) The two SNES below, the middle one are "bad plastic" types of yellow of different intensity. The GPM-02 on top I bought off eBay. The SFC I bought off eBay and immediately died. The SNES in the middle came from a local used games shop and was bought dead, the one on the right is my sisters which died years ago, and she bought it that color about 12 years ago, and it sat in storage. My original SNES isn't shown because I had to destroy the shell to get into it, as something metal had been lodged in one screw hole.

I don't have these devices, but it seems to me that maybe this is fixable in firmware (or the everdrive's firmware.) It seems the bug is really in the everdrive, but a work-around could be to have the NT Mini firmware not change the clock until the power is cycled when in PAL mode. Does this exist on NTSC?

Oh lovely, 8 pages of arguing about the definition of emulation. Though this on page 9: This is absolutely correct. If you connect a real SNES using the Luma signal from the S-Video to the Green cable on a component-capable television, what you get is 1440x240x59.97 , if the television works correctly, it will still fill the screen. The HD Retrovision cable basically does this for the SNES Component video cable. On my capture hardware it produces a 1440x240 image that has to be stretched to fit. Back on topic. If we really wanted a general-purpose FPGA console/computer, someone has to actually keep on top of what is put out by the FPGA manufacturers and compile working cores for each one, while also producing a PCB with the necessary parts. That's a lot of work for a fringe market. Even if the cores were open-source, that just leads to forking and feature creep. Some OSS projects manage to herd catty devs. Like the NT Mini basically proved there is a market for a FPGA console, so I'm glad Analogue took a risk and built it, but they kinda overkilled it, thus demands for the same features on the Super NT. Had the NT Mini not had the analog outputs, there would likely not some people begging for it on the Super NT, but then again you have to remember why the Analogue NT existed in the first place (original NES parts were used before.) So you can't just cut a feature after it originally had it. The Super NT however is not introduced with the analog outputs, and, the SNES in the first place actually generates a RGB signal, so that is the native format, though not directly usable. I expect to see the same (game console/computer cores) features the NT Mini has. I don't care too much about analog output, especially since most old CRT's were never that good in the first place.

I actually don't see any logical reason why save states are impossible. It's a FPGA, it can be halted and dump the state of the ram and registers. How do you think the FPGA is programmed in the first place? As for enhancements, other than game-genie type of hack-ability, it's unlikely that anything else will ever exist because that is outside the scope of what the SNES could do. My personal opinion of shaders/filters is that people don't use them and don't like them, except in a few edge cases where it's taking advantage of the GPU to scale up 1080p, 2160p and beyond where otherwise the CPU of the emulator would not keep up. I'm one of those people who have no love for CRT filters, and think most de-pixelizing filters (xBRZ) are barking up the wrong tree, and look exceptionally bad. If you want this kind of thing, stick with the laggy software emulators.

Probably not hard at all. The source code for interfacing with the wii extension controller's is available, and people have been making the SNES controllers work with everything since the 90's.

I think it's too early to predict what the Super NT is ultimately capable of, but it would likely fall short of what the Z3K is ultimately what Kevtris wants to make at some point. But since the SNES was expandable via the cartridge slot in the first place, it's possible to do some firmware voodoo and plug in a cartridge that switches the internal FPGA into a frame-doubler/scaler and uses the cartridge FPGA to replicate something else. Like you could do "Super Gameboy" type of cartridges with smaller FPGA's.

Not typically no. It depends if the HDMI support on the console recognizes passive DVI-A connected (eg VGA) or is strictly DVI-D signaling. You'd need a way to grab the audio if it's HDMI only. Most HDMI devices have optical output because of separate audio home theater systems. A powered converter would be a framebuffer device and certainly be more expensive and introduce more latency. For people who don't know, the OSSC and Framemeister devices are FPGA devices too. If we're were really smart, there would be an expansion bus (Z3K ideas) for plugging in a separate upscaler/analog-output part, since it's a feature that most people won't need. And let's be honest, most of the people who buy the NT Mini and Super NT are probably going to use the Everdrive/SD2SNES carts for most of their games just so they don't have to take them out of storage, if they even own them at all. We're not going to see very many of these https://www.polygon.com/2017/8/30/16230658/street-fighter-2-snes-cartridge-rerelease-capcom-iam8bittype of productions, though I'm a little worried that it might encourage more counterfeit carts on eBay.

Maybe they want to make sure you get it. That said DHL is actually worse than UPS and Fedex for damaging packages. 32.35USD shipping to here. My order is in the 5000's.

Probably to avoid appearing like a piracy device. As long as it's never shipped with the ability to play pirated roms out of the box, it's no different from any other clone as long as it doesn't say "Nintendo" on it. Like, even if they did, they would never ship with rom files unlike the pirates selling JB NES/SNES Classic Mini's, for more than the price of the Super NT. The home recording (VCR) boom in the 80's basically proved you can't ban a device just because it's capable of piracy, you can only stop a piracy-capable device if it's only purpose is to play pirate software. Hence the cartridge slot. It doesn't matter that it can play pirated software, it only matters that it can play legitimate software.

Well it's a Cyclone V A4 instead of the A2 in the original NT. https://www.altera.com/content/dam/altera-www/global/en_US/pdfs/literature/pt/cyclone-v-product-table.pdf So that's going from 25K to 49K LE's. The SNES core logic should fit in about 30K. So in theory anything that would work on the MiniMig (8K LE ), MiST ( 25K LE https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-board/wiki/FPGA%20Projects) but not MiSTer (110K LE) could be ported to it. There are of course dependencies on how the actual PCB is laid out. Like you can't connect a USB keyboard+Mouse to a device with no USB ports. So most "computer" cores would not be usable without the Super NT being actually aware of the Bluetooth controller and ability to pair a keyboard/mouse to it. Since there is a real SNES mouse, that is less of a problem. The only thing I'm worried about is the power draw. The real SNES with aftermarket power supplies tends to die because it doesn't have 900ma of power when you put in an expansion chip game and/or multi-tap adapters. Interesting timing seeing the Japanese FPGA project get a release http://pgate1.at-ninja.jp/SNES_on_FPGA/index.html#releasereleased (binary only) for the DE0-CV which is a 49K LE $150 FPGA board. It's the same FPGA kevtris is using for the Super NT. The fitting report (located in the zip file) says it takes 69% of the logic an 67% of the memory. Now consider that the SD2SNES is also just a Xilinx Spartan FPGA (XC3S400-PQ208) with 8K LE, that suggests that at the minimum it should be possible to have the FPGA expansion chips assuming that extra space isn't being used for HDMI scaling (which is why the AVS couldn't do 1080p but the NT Mini could.) This is all speculation mind you. If it's possible to FPGA all the SNES expansion chips except ST018(arm core) that's just fine. If it doesn't, that's fine too, that will leave the difficulty in doing so up to people doing SD2SNES and similar carts.

Not likely, It is not illegal to sell a product that is compatible with another brand's product. It is illegal however to hijack the trademarks. Hence you can have any product on eBay with "Nintendo" in the title or description taken down if it's not an officially licensed product. Likewise the color schemes are trademarked Nintendo has been trademarking the button layouts and color schemes for their devices for use on the "mini" releases, so that's the only way you get wacked. Hence I believe the color scheme for the SNES white/purple Super NT isn't the North America color scheme. Likewise the SFC/Euro color scheme trademarked only the button colors, and since it doesn't ship with the controllers, no harm no foul. In the event that Nintendo gets ticked off, Analogue only needs to discontinue the models using the same color schemes. Likewise 8bitdo doesn't sell the controllers as "Super Nintendo Controllers", they're sold as bluetooth game controllers, and there are bluetooth adapters for the actual SNES/SNES-clones/etc. Here's the actual trademark for the SNES controller https://www.trademarkia.com/logo-87636582.htmlfiled 11 days ago. And if we're being honest here, I think the SNES controller and NES controller "logos" in those trademark filings are meant for the "compatibility" logos of games since you can swap the controllers on the Mini consoles with Wii controllers.

I picked the SF model (remember it doesn't come with controllers), and I have both FC and SNES controllers so I don't really need any. That said, in my rush to pre-order it I was almost wishing I had picked the black one, but then it would have the same problem as other solid-black home entertainment boxes in which you can't see them at all and trip over them. Anyway I have a working GPM-02 SNES that I spent money on a Componet cable for, so I can do some comparisons when I get this using the same SA7160 capture card. The SNES Mini classic is still on my list of things to get, because input latency needs to be compared. But I think ultimately it's going to be something for kids to play.

Hmm, How about MSU support (SD2SNES), seems like it would need to digitize the analog audio to send it over HDMI, or the SD2SNES could be "updated" to detect the Super NT and pass a digital signal.

What is the point of installing hakchi on it? Doesn't that just turn it into a laggy retropie/retroarch system? That's like buying a new car and putting in your old 8-track player.

You could have just linked to the author's site. http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/mario/ Source code included. The DE10-Nano might be large enough for the SNES. jwdonal's VeriSNES is on a DE2-115 which has 114K LE and the DE10-Nano has 115K. But that might be an apples/oranges comparison. Emulating an x86 up to a 486 might be viable if you can emulate a MT-32/AWE32/GUS, otherwise a FPGA x86 only solves the same latency/timing problem the FPGA consoles have. However just watching that video tells me that that even if the MiSTer emulates a 486, it might not have the space to emulate much else.

Just get an extension cord for the wall outlet if you're concerned, but in all seriousness, USB extension cords depends on the gauge of the wire used, not the length, because thinner wires run hotter. So if you're worried, make sure the USB extension cord is thick, and not one of those zippy-ribbon kind.

Is Youtube ruining retro gaming? Nah. Youtubers make the content they want to see themselves (or see themselves in.) There are LP's with commentary, LP's without. There are people who enjoy the hardware or the feelies, and people who just want to document/archive how the game is supposed to work for that day someone wants to re-release it or reboot it for a new audience. I can't explain how many times I found out there was X version of a game and wanted to see it or try it on an emulator only to discover that either there is no emulator or that it has a notoriously difficult setup process or language barrier. Some of the content I have on my Youtube channel is just commentless playthroughs of games with the emulator tweaked for video capture so that it can be watched on a HDTV/4K TV in the right aspect ratio and less audio noise had it been captured from the real hardware or stock GOG install. Some licensed games are simply not available anymore and there will never be any way for people who didn't buy it when it was new to play it. The largest justification for people to record video of games can be seen by how the VCR made archiving all sorts of media possible, from trailers and commercials to TV shows that later got released on DVD with all their licensed music stripped out. I also have to say that having the game play in the background while you do work is a great way of staying focused when there is no rambling over the music.

I've never seen a TV with a cablecard slot, and no cableco in Canada supports them (no in-the-clear digital channels either), my guess is that US market TV's that were DTV ready had them, and all other markets didn't. Also keep in mind that CRT's are calibrated for the magnetic fields that they are shipped to, so if you take your CRT to the other side of the continent you end up with different magnetic distortions in the screen. Like, I do not miss CRT's one bit. If it wasn't for the utterly poor quality game input on HD and UHD screens, I'd almost say there's a market for a legitimate "gaming" screen, which is so far filled with TN monitors with poor color gamuts. Veering back on target, I asked the local BestBuy how many SNES Mini's they had, and they said about 80, and they were gone before noon.

MMORPG's typically are designed around the nagle algorithm (200ms) so yes 5fps is what MMORPG's are designed to operate on. However turn the nagle algorithm off and players that are right next door to the data center will get 120fps of input timing resolution TO the server while players in Australia will get maybe 4. That's neither here nor there for FPGA's however. The point of a FPGA is to get that precise timing. I wouldn't be surprised if 2D, Fighting games, SHUMPS and Platformers press in this direction (FPGA input devices with simple analog input.) There is too much inherent input latency on a PC for these games to really be viable due to all the layers they go through to process input and output, that's why RPG and FPS are pretty much what gets PC ports, the game engines (Unity, Cryengine, Unreal, etc) are all designed around PC performance in a single player environment. You can get away with only so much. If game developers were seriously interested in solving the latency problem, they would abandon "cloud" anything. That's the wrong direction. The only reason to "cloud" anything is where you want to secure the game environment from meddling players, data miners and other amateur hacks, while offering a consistent experience to players who are running on extremely sub-par systems. But the catch here is that this is extremely high latency, you're not going to simply connect to an emulator running a Mario game from 1990, you're going to port that Mario game so that it can deal with that kind of input and rendering turn around. This is largely going to be a thing for MMORPG's and Mobile players.

You'd likely not want to emulate things in the FPGA that aren't timing sensitive if you don't have to. USB joysticks are timing sensitive. Real hard drives and floppy drives are, but you typically don't emulate these at that low of level, you emulate them at the interface level. So if there is no need to create a IDE or SCSI interface to connect to a real IDE or SCSI drive, then you just emulate that part with COTS parts. The FPGA mainly needs to emulate the CPU, FPU, GPU, APU parts, and not anything that would be connected to those parts. So you could make it run at the native resolution and audio rate, but you don't need to emulate the analog interface, you can directly connect that to HDMI if it puts out a native compatible output, or you need to create a line-doubler/audio oversampler to make it compatible. But also keep in mind that onboard HDMI IC's in FPGA kits are not line-doublers, they are typically framebuffers that add latency, so that's trivial if you are watching video or demos, but if you're actually wanting to interact with things, then that buffering can't exist.

They aren't sold in stores in the US. You have to use something like Play-asia http://www.play-asia.com/retro-freak-premium/13/708vvv to import or https://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Gadget-Retro-Freak-Controller-Adapter/dp/B00ZZ70KMG Note they are meant for Asia so they have FC slots not NES slots.

It's too cheap to be a FPGA. Also, there is already a thread on this thing http://atariage.com/forums/topic/265390-new-retron-1-hd-out/ It's either a NOAC or a Retron5 with just a NES slot.

All Nintendo would have to do is re-release the Wii with HDMI/USB-c Displayport with an updated store and SNES controllers. If we wanted to a little further, release SNES-style controllers with analog controls to play N64,GC and Wii games. However this doesn't offer anything better than the existing Wii/WiiU other than the HDMI.