FPGA Based Videogame System

[Fafner]

No Intellivision today?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UvRW-9mV63I

[TheRedEye]

 

Damn you, you beat me to it

[Fafner]

 

Damn you, you beat me to it

I was waiting for the right moment!

[rezb1t]

I love the NT mini and don't mind waiting for updates. I feel I already got more than my money's worth, though I'd be happy to support more core development through patreon or something similar, too.

[Great Hierophant]

Is the VGA port is strictly limited to 240p? I note that the Analogue Nt Mini supports 640x480. Component video officially supports 480p and 720p, and a VGA monitor must support 640x480, most can display 1280x720 and some can display 1920x1080 (like the Sony GDM-FW900). Of course, if you cut out the widescreen, you can get much friendlier to high resolution CRT monitors.

[Wolf_]

Is the VGA port is strictly limited to 240p? I note that the Analogue Nt Mini supports 640x480. Component video officially supports 480p and 720p, and a VGA monitor must support 640x480, most can display 1280x720 and some can display 1920x1080 (like the Sony GDM-FW900). Of course, if you cut out the widescreen, you can get much friendlier to high resolution CRT monitors.

Pretty sure resolution depends on the core.

[Great Hierophant]

Pretty sure resolution depends on the core.

 

The cores only support 240p based consoles, regardless of the number of lines they display. x2 = 480, x3 =720, x4=1080 and x5=1200.

[emubastard]

I would pay for more core or updates.

 

I wonder if it would be possible to double the size of game gear and game boy games on analogue output. I assume this means a frame buffer it would pretty much make this thing perfect. Oh, a Intellivision too

[emubastard]

I have a Famicom disk system cartridge. Are their any FDS roms that won't play correctly on the jailbroken firmware? I'm wondering if I keep the ram adapter based solely for compatibility reasons.

[Keatah]

I would pay for more core or updates.

 

I wonder if it would be possible to double the size of game gear and game boy games on analogue output. I assume this means a frame buffer it would pretty much make this thing perfect. Oh, a Intellivision too

 

There should be a ton of cores if and when the z3k comes out. More than you can shake a stick at!

[pcfreak324]

I have a Famicom disk system cartridge. Are their any FDS roms that won't play correctly on the jailbroken firmware? I'm wondering if I keep the ram adapter based solely for compatibility reasons.

The Famicom disk system is supported as an external peripheral, but it is not replicated by the Nt mini. You need at least the FDS ram adapter and the FDS stick to be able to play FDS games.

[RevQuixo]

The Famicom disk system is supported as an external peripheral, but it is not replicated by the Nt mini. You need at least the FDS ram adapter and the FDS stick to be able to play FDS games.

 

Although lots of people are having issues with FDS systems both with real discs and FDS Stick it seems...so YMMV.

[Wolf_]

 

Although lots of people are having issues with FDS systems both with real discs and FDS Stick it seems...so YMMV.

The fds is probably going to be supported eventually. So until then just hang in there.

[emubastard]

Although lots of people are having issues with FDS systems both with real discs and FDS Stick it seems...so YMMV.

I tried a few games without issue.

[RevQuixo]

I tried a few games without issue.

Hence the YMMV I don't have an FDS to test, but there are at least two users in this thread with issues..one who tried it with a couple of different pieces of hardware I believe.

[Fafner]

The Famicom disk system is supported as an external peripheral, but it is not replicated by the Nt mini. You need at least the FDS ram adapter and the FDS stick to be able to play FDS games.

They also play nicely from a Everdrive

[Andromeda Stardust]

Hence the YMMV I don't have an FDS to test, but there are at least two users in this thread with issues..one who tried it with a couple of different pieces of hardware I believe.

But FDS is so fickle, sometimes it has trouble running on genuine hardware even. Emulation / Flashcart is the best way to preserve these games.

[phoenixdownita]

They also play nicely from a Everdrive

You mean aside the sound channel which is, should we say, less than optimal.

[Great Hierophant]

The EverDrive N8 has two issues with the FDS. First, you can't stop the disk change, so you can never view the whole introduction to The Legend of Zelda. Second, the sound channel is lacking. The second can be fixed by the Nt Mini's own hardware, but the first cannot. The NES PowerPak can pause the disk change.

 

The best way to play FDS games is with an FDS RAM Adapter, an FDSStick, genuine 8-bit Nintendo hardware (or a RetroAVS or Analogue Nt Mini) and non-corrupt disk images. The presence of in the No-Intro image's name set does not necessarily mean that the image is unusable, just not pristine.

[jhonny_d]

Hello, this project looks really interesting, I'm on the fence about buying the nt mini and would like to know some details about the z3k to help me decide.

 

About future cores implementation on the z3k:

-Will pc engine be supported? And cd games?

-Will genesis be supported? What about sega-cd and 32x?

-Will snes be supported? Is the z3k architecture enough to emulate superfx and sa1 chips?

-Is neo geo aes/mvs planned on the z3k?

 

About z3k release:

-Any idea about a rough release date? 2017? 2018-19?

 

Another question I have is if the z3k is focused on home/portables consoles only or if there are plans to add arcade cores

 

I'm not asking if these core will be out at launch but if they're feasible and/or planned

[RevQuixo]

Hello, this project looks really interesting, I'm on the fence about buying the nt mini and would like to know some details about the z3k to help me decide.

 

About future cores implementation on the z3k:

-Will pc engine be supported? And cd games?

-Will genesis be supported? What about sega-cd and 32x?

-Will snes be supported? Is the z3k architecture enough to emulate superfx and sa1 chips?

-Is neo geo aes/mvs planned on the z3k?

 

About z3k release:

-Any idea about a rough release date? 2017? 2018-19?

 

Another question I have is if the z3k is focused on home/portables consoles only or if there are plans to add arcade cores

 

I'm not asking if these core will be out at launch but if they're feasible and/or planned

 

I obviously can't speak for Kevtris, but a lot of what you are asking has been answered previously in the thread.

 

For Nt: Genesis: Maybe,PC Engine (Hu Cards): slightly less maybe, everything else more powerful: no. That being said some more 8bit stuff is is still on the table (C64, Atari 5200/800)

For Z3K: Genesis, SNES, Neo Geo are all on the table...Kev even mentioned maybe PSX...buuuut... he also mentioned that CD systems will take an insane amount of work and specifically said that Sega CD and PC Engine CD were probably out, so I'd err on the side of probably not (for now)

I believe he did mention that arcade cores were possible (for both I'd imagine).

 

That brings us to timing. I would seriously be surprised if it comes out this year.Kev has been pretty up front about the effort needed to get the Cores working and I he'd probably want to get the key 16bit cores shaped up first...and based on info gleamed in this thread, they aren't there yet. the Nt is giving us all an opportunity to kick the tires on the work he's done in the last few years, but bringing that effort forward it may take a couple more years to get there.

 

If you are on the fence about the Nt and adore 8bit stuff..I'd say pull the trigger...you'll get at least a couple good, exclusive years out of it...with a lot of new stuff during that time period. if you are more a 16bit guy you might want to wait, but the wait may take awhile (but will almost definitely be worth it).

 

My personal secret wish is that the guy from Analogue is the one tying Kevtris up with contract work building an Analogue sNT Mini and that we'd get a 16bit pathway through that.

[ccovell]

Hi, Kevin. I noticed another bug in the Gameboy and Gameboy Color cores. There is random garbage on the right side of the GB's display when any sprite has its X-position set so that 1 pixel is visible on-screen (on the right side). On a real GB[C], a single column of the sprite's leftmost pixels would of course be showing, but in your cores, it's an 8-pixel column of blank/black/shimmering garbage. See the attached picture.

 

This is most noticeable in the GBC core because the garbage usually shows up as a shimmering mess of blue; however it is there in the GBC core for regular GB games, as well in the GB core. You can spot this bug in many games, but I've picked Alfred Chicken because its background colour is a medium grey, showing the "white" garbage in the GB core, and "black" garbage in the GBC core. The scrolling platforms at the end of the 1st stage of Super Mario Land is also a reliable place to find them.

 

You'll notice that even when the GBC core has its sprites set to orange/sepia as an alternate palette, the garbage still shows up as a different colour, like blue or green.

 

[Wolf_]

Analogue sNT Mini

What about a Super Analogue NT mini? SAiNT Mini?

[cacophony]

 

he'd probably want to get the key 16bit cores shaped up first...and based on info gleamed in this thread, they aren't there yet.

 

I get the impression that he spent many years working on the 8 bit cores and hasn't started the 16 bit ones (at least as of a few weeks ago). So yeah, I personally wouldn't expect the SNES, Genesis, TG16, and Neo Geo support for at least another couple years. And I agree that he'd probably want to get those core systems done before releasing the Z3k.

 

 

 

My personal secret wish is that the guy from Analogue is the one tying Kevtris up with contract work building an Analogue sNT Mini and that we'd get a 16bit pathway through that.

 

That's my theory/hope based on:

1. It being the obvious next step for Analogue

2. Kevtris' comment at the end of the Vice article:

 

"I am working on new stuff," he said, apologizing for not being able to reveal too many details, "and I think people will be happy with it when it finally gets done."

(https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kevtris-kevin-horton-cyrogenics-retro-gaming)

I think he previously mentioned it would take about 6 months to do a SNES core, so maybe Analogue is hoping to announce the product around the Aug/Sept time-frame with a Jan 2018 release (similar to timing of Nt Mini)

Edited April 9, 2017 by cacophony

[Wolf_]

 

 

I get the impression that he spent many years working on the 8 bit cores and hasn't started the 16 bit ones (at least as of a few weeks ago). So yeah, I personally wouldn't expect the SNES, Genesis, TG16, and Neo Geo support for at least another couple years. And I agree that he'd probably want to get those core systems done before releasing the Z3k.

 

 

 

That's my theory/hope based on:

1. It being the obvious next step for Analogue

2. Kevtris' comment at the end of Vice article:

 

"I am working on new stuff," he said, apologizing for not being able to reveal too many details, "and I think people will be happy with it when it finally gets done."

(https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kevtris-kevin-horton-cyrogenics-retro-gaming)

 

Huh, my money was on the retroblox because it claims to be partially fpga based and if it wants to be any good it will need Kev to code for it.