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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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Outside of CDI this is my wish list. It'd also be nice if the 8-bit cores are backwards compatible from the Nt Mini to the Super Nt, but it won't break my heart too badly if they're not.

 

Also some sort of controller with six face buttons would be great, too. The Hori Fighting Commander that was released for the SNES Classic would be great, but of course it doesn't have the same connector. Hmm. :-/

 

There's a Hori Fighting Commander for original SNES, I have one and it's great. Probably a good time to pick 'em up since they'll be ideal for the eventual genesis core. On top of being great for street fighter and the like already.

 

The 8-bit cores will be available for the Snes NT at release or very shortly after. The only thing really up in the air is how long the other 16-bit cores will take.

Edited by Tusecsy
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There's a Hori Fighting Commander for original SNES, I have one and it's great. Probably a good time to pick 'em up since they'll be ideal for the eventual genesis core. On top of being great for street fighter and the like already.

 

Guess I'll have too look into that. A quick Google search brings up the SNES Classic version in most of my results, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere. Probably a good idea to get one now (since I can use it on my SNES Jr. anyway) before there's (potentially) a run on them when the Super Nt comes out.

 

I only need like 50 Genesis games, and only a handful of them use 6 buttons, but the six face buttons (IMO) is the superior layout.

 

I agree there's no chance whatsoever that Kevtris will talk about cores before the system is out. But I feel like it's a given, and that makes me very excited for this product.

 

Sega CD could be rough, though, since there are two Motorola 68000 CPUs to replicate (the Sega CD one runs at a higher rate, too), but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Edited by derFunkenstein
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Guess I'll have too look into that. A quick Google search brings up the SNES Classic version in most of my results, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere. Probably a good idea to get one now (since I can use it on my SNES Jr. anyway) before there's (potentially) a run on them when the Super Nt comes out.

 

I only need like 50 Genesis games, and only a handful of them use 6 buttons, but the six face buttons (IMO) is the superior layout.

how-to-use-google-1.gif

 

(Just type -classic to exclude any search results for the snes classic)

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Everybody wants the "core store," but you can understand why they wouldn't want to promise it in their pre-sell announcements, right? Nintendo's lawyers (and probably the lawyers from shambling corpse of Atari) would be up their ass so fast and so hard, the product might not come out at all.

 

I have faith that Analogue/Kevtris do the right thing by us, and have already put my money on it. People who want to wait and see are playing it safe, but could run the risk of missing out or having to wait longer to get a machine.

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.

Edited by Kismet
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WOW. 189US$ ... ipppiiiiiii

 

 

If core stores comes to be it matches the specs of the poll to a T (look at the voting bars and the stars that top each page of this very thread).

 

150-199

8 bits (core store) and 16 bits (hopefully Genesis is not far behind)

SD card and originals

HDMI

 

I think we do have a winner!

And if I get Kevtris words right this is the first FPGA recreation of all the custom chips as well (SA-1, SuperFX/2 etc...etc...) ... truly magnificent .... I think even I can buy this one ;) without losing sleep :D

 

[funny how in the interview the CEO of Analogue stated that ditching the milled aluminum case and the analog output saved a ton .... well I guess with this one we cannot exactly replicate the speed of the originals or kill a running bison ... mmmhhh I don't care]

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So, hypothetically speaking, if more cores were to be added to the Super NT how far could it go?

Genesis?

TG16?

Neo Geo?

Jaguar?

 

Any ideas?

 

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.

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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.

And in case anyone is freaking the hell out the ST018 chip is only used for literally a single game, "Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shogi 2" aka a japanese only shogi game that we have billions of. Why the hell it got a special chip design is beyond me lol.

 

Also the St011 chip that is another chip with extra ram requirements is used only for "Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shogi" the first game in that series.

 

Both of those chips could remain unsupported and nothing of value would be lost. Now the SA1 chip which supports Super Mario RPG, Super Bomber Man, Kirby Super Star, and Kirby's Dream Land 3 or the SuperFX chip which supports Doom, Star Fox 1&2, and SMW2 would be something to panic about.

 

Once again we don't know if fx chips will be covered at all or if Kevtris can jailbreak it yet but at least we know these chips are not out of spec (based on what we know currently, as Kismet said the upscaling resources are unknown atm).

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OK Kismet, what's your thinking as to why the "core store" isn't part of Analogue's marketing?

 

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.

Edited by Kismet
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WOW. 189US$ ... ipppiiiiiii

 

 

If core stores comes to be it matches the specs of the poll to a T (look at the voting bars and the stars that top each page of this very thread).

 

150-199

8 bits (core store) and 16 bits (hopefully Genesis is not far behind)

SD card and originals

HDMI

 

I think we do have a winner!

And if I get Kevtris words right this is the first FPGA recreation of all the custom chips as well (SA-1, SuperFX/2 etc...etc...) ... truly magnificent .... I think even I can buy this one ;) without losing sleep :D

 

[funny how in the interview the CEO of Analogue stated that ditching the milled aluminum case and the analog output saved a ton .... well I guess with this one we cannot exactly replicate the speed of the originals or kill a running bison ... mmmhhh I don't care]

Kevtris never mentioned that he replicated the special SNES chips (e.g. SA-1, Super FX) in the FPGA. To be able to play off the original carts directly he wouldn't have to do that anyway. You would only need replication of said special chips if trying to play from the ROM files themselves a la an SD card. It would be nice however if he has made some progress in replicating them though, since I believe that was his intention with the Zimba 3000.

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No not a good match. I ordered yesterday and my shipping charge was $31 (to Louisiana). It seems shipping is all over the place, and people have gotten different results at different times of the day. Why do all these botique companies have to use the most expensive courrier options available, instead of just USPS flat rate or regional rate Priority/Readypost? RetroUSB uses USPS IIRC. Shipping on the AVS cost $15 from California to my house.

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No not a good match. I ordered yesterday and my shipping charge was $31 (to Louisiana). It seems shipping is all over the place, and people have gotten different results at different times of the day. Why do all these botique companies have to use the most expensive courrier options available, instead of just USPS flat rate or regional rate Priority/Readypost? RetroUSB uses USPS IIRC. Shipping on the AVS cost $15 from California to my house.

 

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.

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I would guess about $20 of the shipping cost is going into their pockets so that they could hit the $190 price and I am fine with that as I would have bought one for $210 and paid $10 shipping. I mean the Nt Mini must weigh a whole lot more and it was cheaper to ship my preorder. But, when I could walk into UPS or USPS without an account or any sort of contract with them and send it ground for $10-$12 I think it's pretty obvious they are pocketing the extra.

Edited by Toth
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They use Shopify, so don't forget that Shopify charges them several percent in payment processing fees. A common approach for Shopify stores is to add a percentage-based surcharge to the shipping costs to cover the payment processing fees, since Shopify lets you add either a flat rate or percentage-based fee to shipping costs. On a $190 purchase, the payment processing fees would probably add $4-5 to shipping.

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No not a good match. I ordered yesterday and my shipping charge was $31 (to Louisiana). It seems shipping is all over the place, and people have gotten different results at different times of the day. Why do all these botique companies have to use the most expensive courrier options available, instead of just USPS flat rate or regional rate Priority/Readypost? RetroUSB uses USPS IIRC. Shipping on the AVS cost $15 from California to my house.

 

Not sure about Super Nt shipping, but the Nt Mini had a custom shipping box with a custom internal foam system that completely suspended the Nt Mini box (which itself had separate foam protection!), offering elegant and comprehensive protection. They spent some money on those shipping supplies, certainly a lot more than RetroUSB (which just put the box in a fixed rate USPS priority box with a few pieces of bubble wrap on only the top. Having just received a SNES classic from Walmart with a completely crushed corner due to lazy shipping, I would gladly pay a bit extra for some shipping piece of mind! :)

 

And FWIW, I was charged $22 for Super Nt shipping to California. It also sounds like they had some issues with their system that calculates shipping prices and are actively working on correcting it.

Edited by cacophony
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Analogue is asking what features people would like to see on the Super Nt on twitter, so voice your desires!

https://twitter.com/analogue_co/status/920703269084598272

(they took similar surveys for the Nt Mini, and some of the top asks actually got implemented, like custom palettes off the sd card)

Edited by cacophony
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Ya I'm sure 800 people aren't doing that. Along with another 800 asking for analog outputs, cuz people don't understand that would cost another 100$, at which point same said people would bitch about the price.

 

Solution to shipping price...buy more than one :)

Edited by Tusecsy
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