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FPGA Based Videogame System


kevtris

Interest in an FPGA Videogame System  

682 members have voted

  1. 1. I would pay....

  2. 2. I Would Like Support for...

  3. 3. Games Should Run From...

    • SD Card / USB Memory Sticks
    • Original Cartridges
    • Hopes and Dreams
  4. 4. The Video Inteface Should be...


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There should be a value edition, no aluminum milled anything, cheap packaging, no embedded wireless pads, for the cheap lame asses like me.

At 200US$ it'll likely be a no brainer even for me, at 450US$+ given my 8bit fatigue it's not on my radar at all, just my opinion you don't have to agree.

 

I appreciate the enthusiasm and all the people "doing the math" and how it saves the cost of consoles + flashcart etc...etc.... still not cheap due in big part to the expensive material used aside the core components, that let's face it are all kevtris doing.

 

It's a little like buying the everdrive from Krikzz versus the deluxe edition from Stone Age Gamer .... it's nice to have the option, but it is also very nice to have the bare-bone version ..... (waiting nervously for the Z3K).

 

 

Should Porsche, Lamborghini, Mercedes make cheap budget models too? If you want budget buy an AVS. I do agree that the 8bitdo controller is complete and utter f-ing garbage though. I'd gladly pay even 5$ less to not have that POS included. Replicates the original controller exactly!! (besides the PCB of course which is the only part that actually matters, not splitting the pads like Nintendo does so the thing is utterly worthless). Other than that they're a premium company that doesn't need to cater to the poorest common denominator, plenty of others that want to race to the chinese bottom.

Edited by Tusecsy
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Aaand another 4 cart adapters done. This time it's Odyssey^2, Master System, Game Gear, and Gameboy.

 

I made the GG and SMS adapters compatible with each other so if you plug in a GG cart that runs the system in SMS mode, it should theoretically be able to switch. The Gameboy adapter has the link port on it for funzies, and it also supports external audio in, though I don't think anything actually uses this.

 

That makes a total of 8 adapters, and I'm not done yet. I still have a few more PCBs to design. After that, I will do a bulk order for all of them.

 

Each one of these will have a plastic front/back/top on them made out of laser cut acrylic so it's vaguely cart shaped. I have a laser cutter at work, and I wrote software to convert gerber files into toolpaths, so all I have to do is design them in altium right with the PCB itself, and I am guaranteed a perfect fit with the boards. I will wait to do this until after I receive the PCBs.

 

 

gameboyadapter.png

 

gamegearadapter.png

 

 

 

 

Would it be possible to slightly revise the Gameboy and Game Gear PCBs so they're standardized to fit inside actual Famicom carts? You could still keep the extra holes for the acrylic, with the added option for those who don't mind dremeling themselves. It looks like a slightly larger hole in the center and two smaller holes on both sides would do the trick, assuming it's not too tall.

 

Edit: I just noticed not all my Famicom carts are the same, some have center peg, others do not.

Edited by simbin
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I can't stop making PCBs! ... APF MP1000, Bally Astrocade...

First of all, awesome. Second, I hope you're planning on selling a box set because I want them all. Third, if there really is a board stuffing party-- where? I want to be a part of this!

Edited by RampantOctopus
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Question... (did I miss this already?)

 

Using the NES core, instead of just using my carts, is there a difference? Example, just using my SMB3 cart vs loading the ROM via core?

It's like using an Everdrive or a Powerpak. The mappers are emulated trough the FPGA, otherwise it's excatly the same as running the carts.

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Holy crap.. if this runs Bally Astrocade exact w/ analog output that would be awesome. I totally missed out on that system back in the day and playing it via emus was always 2nd guessing whether it was "right" or not. :)

Edited by NE146
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As for TG-16, let's just say that some people in the "community" have sapped any desire for implementing the TG-16 any time soon. After the way I got treated there, I am not going to bother implementing it at least for awhile. Sorry 'bout that.

:sad:

 

Tell us who pissed you off and they'll receive a complementary ass-kicking by the AtariAge community. :evil:

I feel exactly the same myself, so I've tried to figure out what happened.

 

Ah cr*p ... I suspect that it's a couple of the more-obnoxious-asshats at my very own main hang-out, PCEngineFX. :sad:

 

Particularly one guy "ProfessorProfessorson" who quit the forum some time last year.

 

Kevtris kindly came over to answer some questions about the Hi-Def NES kit and got jumped on by a couple of rude idiots who were armchair-quarterbacking everything, and appointing themselves defenders-of-the-faith.

 

There were others supporting kevtris, but as a "community", the moderation policy is very liberal, and it can be a tough place to hang out.

 

Some folks seem to treat the whole members-only aspect of the place, which was put there by the site owner to reduce traffic and his hosting costs, as an excuse to engage in childish and rude behavior.

 

The vast majority don't ... although the forum's reputation for being very unkind to "collectors" rather than "players" is well-deserved.

 

I can only put forward my own apology to kevtris for his treatment.

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Ah cr*p ... I suspect that it's a couple of the more-obnoxious-asshats at my very own main hang-out, PCEngineFX. :sad:

 

Particularly one guy "ProfessorProfessorson" who quit the forum some time last year.

 

 

 

 

Kevtris if it makes you feel better we later trolled that guy so hard he deleted his account.

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Should Porsche, Lamborghini, Mercedes make cheap budget models too? If you want budget buy an AVS. I do agree that the 8bitdo controller is complete and utter f-ing garbage though. I'd gladly pay even 5$ less to not have that POS included. Replicates the original controller exactly!! (besides the PCB of course which is the only part that actually matters, not splitting the pads like Nintendo does so the thing is utterly worthless). Other than that they're a premium company that doesn't need to cater to the poorest common denominator, plenty of others that want to race to the chinese bottom.

mmmhhh .... what?

 

I do have the cash available that's not it, it's just that aside the awesome work that kevtris is doing I think most of the cost/premium-price is going into pieces/parts that don't matter much at all (to me) and in 2017 there are plenty of ways to have very flexible manufacturing to satisfy every palate (without using the cheapest), if you dig the aluminum milled case good for you, I just think it's a waste of aluminum. Even the shipping is quite high given they have a "tank" ..... but lucky me I am in 8bit fatigue land so I am not drooling over it right now despite my admiration for kevtris work.

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Awesome job!

Plan to sell them ready to go, or maybe digital download as is gerb-files?

Always quite unaffordable to order from US.

 

Also, I thought about the MSX, I know is a computer basicly but its give or take the same thing as the SMS? Thinking about those Konami games that are exclusive that system.

Fingers crossed for msx I would love to play SD snatcher!!!

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mmmhhh .... what?

 

I do have the cash available that's not it, it's just that aside the awesome work that kevtris is doing I think most of the cost/premium-price is going into pieces/parts that don't matter much at all (to me) and in 2017 there are plenty of ways to have very flexible manufacturing to satisfy every palate (without using the cheapest), if you dig the aluminum milled case good for you, I just think it's a waste of aluminum. Even the shipping is quite high given they have a "tank" ..... but lucky me I am in 8bit fatigue land so I am not drooling over it right now despite my admiration for kevtris work.

 

You apparently have no concept of marketing or how and why premium products/companies exist. My car analogy is apt. They are establishing themselves as a premium brand, and it is working wonders. If they put out a crappy low cost chinese plastic piece of garbage, the entire company suffers as a result, not profits.

Edited by Tusecsy
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Fingers crossed for msx I would love to play SD snatcher!!!

You can always convince kevtris that the Daewoo Zemmix (which stems MSX to 2[+]) was a console based on MSX so "it's not a computer" ... to be fair there has been an influx of MSX-to-SMS ports already (head over to smspower.org for the details) so you can play a lot of them already.

 

Here for the Zemmix:

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg80-zemmix.htm#page=reviews

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You apparently have no concept of marketing or how and why premium products/companies exist. My car analogy is apt. They are establishing themselves as a premium brand, and it is working wonders. If they put out a crappy low cost chinese plastic piece of garbage, the entire company suffers as a result, not profits.

ooohhh, sorry for voicing my opinion. Nobody said they should ship "crap" I just stated not aluminum but apparently they should only have shipped the gold plated one for you.

There's not just cheap chinese plastic you know.

Also a version (like envision for the Z3K) in which the analog out are optional (I care about HDMI) would also cut on costs ... but then again "you have the dough and I don't understand marketing".

 

Everyone and his sister these days goes for "premium" via glossy paper, complex packaging, attaboy accessories ... nothing really necessary and only there to justify an inflated price and allowing for higher margins over what could be done much cheaper (not crap still).

 

And keep in your master mind that until kevtris "released the kraken" aka CoreStore they were not selling all that well (not bad but also not that well), so take your premium nonsense and look at reality, it's the free goodies (that is kevtris jailbroken fw with cores and what it entails) that is making the difference not any of the rest, the firmware does not need aluminum milled cases or glossy paper etc...etc.... should there be an option for that? sure.

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Bug report:

 

Can't load a Gamate game while another Gamate game is running. It shows a loading dialogue and then continues displaying a frame from the previous game.

 

Temp fix: If you go back to the Cores menu and select Gamate, you can load games just fine (without having to re-flash the core).

 

Excitement report:

 

Wheeeee Kev is working on the Mega Duck I sent him, which will finally let me realize my dream of having all of the Taiwanese portable systems in one place.

 

Lol report:

 

The Game King is amazing, I want to record a supercut of all of the game intros.

Edited by TheRedEye
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[citation needed]

Before the kraken was released they were not sold out (since the AVS got out at less than half the price or less and roughly the same support [aside the advanced mappers for sound that would only work with a flashcart]).

 

Then kevtris released support for SD card direct game load and multiple systems etc... and pronto, sold out and keeping steady sales as this is now the 8bit All-In-One over HDMI with embedded flash cart and all mappers (as kevtris is extremely thorough).

 

I am not marketing savvy but .... which part made the scale tip ... the aluminum mill or the jailbroken FW?

 

[now is the other way, AVS slowing down as the NtMini is king, gosh I really wished it was a Z3K at this point, also if you check the survey on top of the thread you'd see many people were leaning for a prices <300 (and a preference between 150-200) for the Z3K which I believe it is possible if kevtris or a manufacturing partner spends the time to find suitable parts, it's his project and he can decide where the bill of material money goes obviously]

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Before the kraken was released they were not sold out (since the AVS got out at less than half the price or less and roughly the same support [aside the advanced mappers for sound that would only work with a flashcart]).

 

Then kevtris released support for SD card direct game load and multiple systems etc... and pronto, sold out and keeping steady sales as this is now the 8bit All-In-One over HDMI with embedded flash cart and all mappers (as kevtris is extremely thorough).

 

That's not a citation. That's baseless speculation.

 

They could have sold 99% of stock before the core store debuted. No way to know. And we have no way to know the rate of sales now. But we do know that the 2nd batch has not sold out yet. Which also doesn't tell us anything because the second batch could have 1 unit or 1,000,000 units. :)

 

Did the core store help with sales? Almost certainly! But how much is impossible to say.

Edited by cacophony
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That's not a citation. That's baseless speculation.

 

They could have sold 99% of stock before the core store debuted. No way to know. And we have no way to know the rate of sales now. But we do know that the 2nd batch has not sold out yet.

You are correct, it's speculation, not that baseless though.

 

In the end if anyone wants to believe that the Nt Mini is selling well (assumption, maybe it's been horrible) because of the aluminum milled case and premium whatever, it's their prerogative.

[also the likelihood that it sold 99% and then the kraken was purely accidental in nudging it over the last 1% is so unlikely that I discounted it as probability 0 which as you know doesn't mean impossible, just that within the metrics used cannot be measured].

 

As the influx of new members and new posts in this very thread attest to I lean towards more the CoreStore as the reason, but I have no marketing sense whatsoever so what do I know.

 

As you state is all speculation at this point .... ;)

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Just got email confirmation that my Nt mini shipped [emoji106]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cool, pleased yours is on the way. Did you order with the latest batch on friday? I have not heard anything yet and ordered within seconds of 8am on friday.

Edited by Radfoo
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[also the likelihood that it sold 99% and then the kraken was purely accidental in nudging it over the last 1% is so unlikely that I discounted it as probability 0 which as you know doesn't mean impossible, just that within the metrics used cannot be measured].

 

 

I wouldn't be so sure. There was a lot of pent up demand for the Nt Mini prior to release. Not sure you were aware, but the original (second gen) Nt was selling for between $1000-$3000 on eBay before the Mini was announced, and since the Mini's release it has dropped to around $450. So I would imagine that the initial rush was quite large, possibly from potential resellers as well.

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Cool, pleased yours is on the way. Did you order with the latest batch on friday? I have not heard anything yet and ordered within seconds of 8am on friday.

Yes, I ordered it last Friday.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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