FPGA Based Videogame System

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

12 hours ago, ErebusMaligan said:

My only issue with the AVS was really the point that I think Joe from Gamesack brought up in their review of it, that for some unfathomable reason most (none? I don't remember) of the settings in the menu have numbers they just have that annoying bar where you would have to count the notches if you want to map it to numbers.  Kind of minor, but it really annoyed me as well.

 

Also when I owned one, I could never get zelda 2 to look right when walking through towns or the dungeons, it always seemed to cause shimmering.  I realize that is an integer scaling issue, but I don't think I ever got it sorted for whatever reason.  Could be I just understood less at the time and didn't try enough settings.

Shimmering really isn't much an issue anymore now that horiztontal interpolation has been added.  Make sure you update your firmware if you haven't already.  The interpolation is a must if you want a more accurate aspect ratio. 

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

Just now, Slipard said:

I have an Analogue Nt 2nd (considering to sell it, though) and I would still love to have an Nt Mini, especially a plastic version, even without jailbreak. As long as it does NES perfectly, I'm sold.

I would love that too.  I really like my AVS, but I can only imagine how much better a NT Mini Plastic edition would be.  

[MiSTer FPGA]

Speaking of which, I finally invested in a MiSTer setup, well most of it.   Bought an 32MB SD Ram module, USB Hub, I/O Board and Heatsink.   Will buy the actual DE-10 Nano in about a week or so.

[MiSTer FPGA]

Here's some recent MiSTer Neo-Geo gameplay.  Still WIP.  
 

 

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

45 minutes ago, Newsdee said:

I wonder if they can be custom made. It would depend on whether the cart connectors can be found easily, and whether they have any special electronics inside it (or is just wiring).

Making adapters should be rather straight forward.  Kevtris simply has to add the option for each core to know when an adapter is inserted if he hasn't already.

We just gotta fine someone with the interest, skill and time to do it.  

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

2 minutes ago, spoonman said:

 

You underestimate scalpers. Nevertheless, they should at the very least email Sg owners with a head's up on when they are made available to purchase instead of requiring us to search through countless posts in their Twitter feed.

 

I bought the Sg to use original accessories and games. If I only cared about loading roms I'd have stuck with software emulation or the MiSTer. 

And why assume they are not coming out this year? They replied to someone on Twitter that they are "in production".

The DAC is also coming out in the next 4 months too...According to Analogue. 

Just follow them on Twitter and you'll know if and when they are available to order.  

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

13 minutes ago, spoonman said:

I have a bad feeling that when the Mega Sg cart adapters for Game Gear, SG-1000, and Segs My Card come out they will be horribly underproduced, and bought up by scalpers to resell on eBay. It would be nice if there were a way for purchasers of the Mega Sg to be notified by email with a code in which to purchase 1 of each of these before they are made available to the general public. 

I doubt scalpers are gonna waste time trying to resell the adapters.  They will likely make enough for the people who actually care about them which is not the majority of Mega SG owners.

At this point, best not to dissapoint yourself, just assume they might not come out this year or ever and just enjoy the fact you can play all those games via JB.

[it's fun to play on the F. P. G. A.]

Any interest in FPGAs used in Flash carts like the SD2SNES Pro or Mega SD?  I can do some research.

[it's fun to play on the F. P. G. A.]

If the mods allow you to edit your OP, I was thinking perhaps change thread title to "General FPGA Discussion" or something similar?    

Really would like your thread to be the new go to for all things FPGA and that way Kev's thread can be focused to his personal projects.

 

[it's fun to play on the F. P. G. A.]

3 minutes ago, Keatah said:

I overheard about a kit for MiSTer, it includes some kind of PCB kit and other stuff. It's an add-on package. Anyone know what I mean?

There is add on board that adds analog out and a fan.  They call that the i/o board. 

Is this what you mean?  

http://misteraddons.com/product/mister-io-board-xl-v5-6-with-heatsink-and-fan/

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

7 minutes ago, Newsdee said:

Yes, but I don't know how to edit it.

There both 49K and 110K LE systems now.

I just posted on your thread for both 49K and 110K LE parts, but waiting for AA to approve it.   

You have to ask the mods to allow you to edit your OP I believe.  As long as you tell them its to update with newer systems I'm sure they'll allow it.

[it's fun to play on the F. P. G. A.]

about 14K LE:  
- Collectorvision Phoenix, Colecovision + more, Open Source cores (Colecovision, Atari 2600), and possible Commercial cores in the future.

about 49K LE: 
- Analogue Super NT, SNES only, commercial core
- Analogue Mega SG, Genesis/Megadrive + more, commercial cores

about 110K LE:
- MiSTer project, Arcade, Classic Computer and Console cores, Open Source cores.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

5 minutes ago, Newsdee said:

It already exists:

 

 

Cool, I'll definitely check it out.   Interested in updated OP with the new 49K LE systems?  

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

47 minutes ago, LewisD said:

If you guys are so against MiSTer discussion in this thread, then change the title to something other than “FPGA Based Videogame System.” Perhaps “Analogue FPGA Systems”? This thread has become an FPGA catch all thread, so you can’t fault folks for talking about MiSTer.

"FPGA Videogame System" was referring to Kev's Zimba 3K project.   I do think a general FPGA thread where people can talk about all FPGA consoles/devices would be great.  Anyone interested? I'd rather do that then flood Kev's thread with FPGA devices he is not involved in.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

5 hours ago, ErebusMaligan said:

 

Hyped by who? 

 

The megasg always said it would handle SMS as well as Genesis (and maybe sg-1000 too?), but really other than that I don't recall anyone hyping multiple cores. If anything I'd say many people especially here did the exact opposite, constantly having to remind people that the jb firmware is completely extra, unsupported at least officially, and they ought to show more gratitude for it.

 

After the Super NT release specifically there were people waiting on or demanding cores from the NT mini get ported over and a number of people here had to point out that nobody ever said that was going to happen, and the machine only ever promised to play SNES cartridges officially.

 

I still remember in this very thread back when Super NT was initially announced some guy was convinced Kevtris would write a Genesis core and just give it away for free on the Super NT.   Even after 20 people told him that wasn't going to happen and that it made very little sense, he continued to be convinced it would happen.  Well he hasn't been heard of since lol. 

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

1 hour ago, Pixelboy said:

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants this. There are tons of GB/GBC/GBA carts out there. And also tons of Super-NES controllers.   

 

Link play on the same TV would be a little overkill, but a link cable port on a consolized GBA is a definite no-brainer, if only to be able to connect an actual GBA for games with link cable features. This port is proprietary, I believe, so I'm not sure how hard it would be to source the connector components. But if the link cable port ended up being discarded from the console's design, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me.

 

I almost feel the GBA Consolizer takes care of those needs, but not saying I would be against an Analogue option.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

52 minutes ago, dj_convoy said:

I think the problem with an Analogue Turbo is that there really needs to be some kind of easy CD solution right away (and I don't mean buying an ancient TG 16 CD add on or a 300.00 plus TerraOnion thingie); so much of the good stuff in the library is on CD. SEGA CD is one thing, altho' there are more decent games than some people would think, it's still not exactly essential, whereas I would think CD support for a Turbo would be completely essential. 

I think this would be a great introduction to a Analogue console with built in CD Drive.  The great thing is CD Bios are on those Hu-Cards so they could officially support CD playback like an original system would.  Also, PC CD literally just adds more ram and Redbook audio so there is no real technical hurdle compared to Sega CD.

Also, I think supporting real PC/TG-CD units would be a problem considering they block the video ports on the back and put out composite video.  Analogue/Kevtris would likely have to put the HDMI out on the side to support the original units, but I don't see that happening.  Just making it in all-in-one would make the most sense.  There are far too many great PC-CD games to ignore.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

Just now, atmn said:

Wishlist:

SNt update.

SNt NES Cart adapter.

SNt+MSg Analoge adapter.

Intv core for NtM.

Cart adapters for NtM.

Turbo Nc

 

🤣

1. SNT Update is currently being worked on.  

2. I honestly think they might make a cheaper NT Mini before offering NES adapters for SNT. 

3. Yeah no updates on this, but I guess its still scheduled for a 2019 release. 

4. Some form of Cart adapters might come if they are releasing a new cheaper NT Mini.  I'm hoping for GB/GBC adapter. 

5. That was my second guess for Analogue's next console and I'd definitely be on board. 

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

1 minute ago, Newsdee said:

These systems were originally hyped as multi cores and capable of playing ROMs, like the Mini NT.  So it shouldn't be a surprise some people ask and discuss about those features.

 

The Analogues are best in class for cartridge-based gameplay and I'm glad they exist. But let's stop pretending it's something else. I think it's fair to say that if you want to play ROMs, then these consoles need to be coupled with a SD2SNES/MegaSD.

Thats one big advantage Mega SG still has over the MisTer core, Sega CD support either via real hardware or the Mega SD cart.  Doesn't seem like anyone is working on a Sega CD core for MiSTer yet, I'm sure they will eventually, but something like that will take awhile to complete as Sega CD is basically another console.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

44 minutes ago, CZroe said:

These are steps toward that vision.

Nt Mini has not been discontinued last I checked. Yes, it's been unavailable since the Super My launched but so was Hi-Def NES for most of that time... and it's back in stock right now.

Yes, MiSTer is cool and somewhat relevant but I'd still be self-conscious about promoting it as an alternative in Kev's own thread. I'm all for talking about it here... as a companion device.
 

Not to mention there have been MiSTer supports posting about how they would like Analogue to "Get what they deserve."   That kind of talk is totally inappropriate in this thread considering Kev is employed by them.   

I'm not saying we should pretend MiSTer doesn't exist, but as you said people need to be more conscious and show some common courtesy towards Kevtris and his thread. 

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

5 minutes ago, dj_convoy said:

Both things can be good (if different). I'm just getting sick of the BUT ACTUALLY stuff, especially in the last few pages. I've actually put two people on block, which I haven't done here in ages. 

Agreed, both serve their purposes, but I think MiSter crew should maybe cool it down a bit, because people don't want stuff shoved down their throat, especially in a thread that has nothing to do with that project.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

1 hour ago, retrair said:

I recently tested the MiSTer over a weekend and was surprised at the  state of some of its cores. The SNES core specifically is a very faithful recreation of original hardware. The scaler is excellent and I detected no lag despite using a bluetooth controller. There’s a menu with pre-loaded cheats and even an option to overclock. It looks to be a great hobby project for those interested in FPGA gaming or coding, while the Super NT is great for the prosumer wanting to use carts in a plug n’ play way on a modern television. 

From what I hear Amiga, SNES and MSX are in a really good state.   Everything else is either decent or still needs a good amount of work.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

19 hours ago, Jagasian said:

Last year the Mister had more than 2 frames of lag.  Improvements over the past year have reduced the input lag to half a frame, which is still far worse lag than the Super NT.  Mister still uses a USB port for controllers, which adds considerable input lag.  The original SNES controllers uses a simple shift register to communicate across a wire, which is inherently lower lag than USB.  The Super NT supports the same low latency SNES controller bus wires protocol.

 

I am glad the Mister project exists, but just like the Raspberry Pi emulator kiddies, the “why not Mister?” kiddies are getting annoying.  The Analogue systems exist for a reason.  Go hype Mister elsewhere.

I agree, I don't understand why the MisTer crew always have to bring up MiSTer in Kev's thread.  Maybe start your own dedicated MiSTer thread?

[Analogue Mega SG coleco bios snafu]

On 7/10/2019 at 11:43 PM, MegaManFan said:

Now I must be a dum dum because I followed smokemonster's file folder format to the core (pun intended) on my fat 32 formatted SD card. I've already flashed the jailbreak and I have the cores option in the menu, but when I go to my ColecoVision backups it says "cannot load bios." So I'm like alright, I'll just go in the settings, select the bios itself from the bios menu, then go back to the Coleco folder and select a game... still nothing? I've tried multiple different bios - the standard one, the "skip the title screen" one, nothing. What the ever loving flying spaghetti monster am I doing wrong here?

Did you figure this out?  If not I can help you.

[FPGA Based Videogame System]

1 hour ago, Newsdee said:

The lag problems of MiSTer from a while back have been resolved now.

 

MiSTer and Analogue really are for different audiences. There is overlap if somebody wants to use the JB firmware instead of an Everdrive/SD2SNES, but the game coverage of the JB falls short of both flash carts and the MiSTer cores. It never was intended as a full solution anyway.

 

That being said, both the Super NT and Mega SG remain fantastic products. I want to see them on shelves instead of the crappy emulation boxes that are everywhere in retail these days. 

 

The problem with the low lag mode is it uses original timings, so the compatibility with displays is hit or miss.  This is why Kevtris does the 60hz adjust, to maximize compatibility.