FPGA Based Videogame System

[F34R]

Monoprice has the cables for cheap:

 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2409

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2509

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=566

I have the component one. Works perfectly.

[AtariNerd]

To quote Papa Smurf, "It's not much farther, now." (According to Analogue's Twitter, it's shipping in the first half of February. )

 

Have an NTT DATA and a NOS standard controller waiting...

[cfillak]

Anyone elses nt mini stop reading controller inputs correctly? Whenever I press anything on my nes controller it acts like im pressing all the buttons at once. The games pause and unpause and turn directions and all kinds of stuff whenever I press anything, Controllers work fine on my normal NES.

 

Also, most of the time when I start it, as soon as I choose a menu option it just displays the Analogue logo and wont do anything...pretty concerned its broken.

What kind of controller are you using? I would say reloading the stock firmware or something.

Edited January 22, 2018 by cfillak

[cfillak]

Monoprice has the cables for cheap:

 

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2409

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2509

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=566

Yeah I have one of each of these, they all work fine.

[genfuyung]

What kind of controller are you using? I would say reloading the stock firmware or something.

standard nes controller

[cfillak]

standard nes controller

I would say try a different controller or change the multitap settings.

[genfuyung]

I would say try a different controller or change the multitap settings.

I have 2 nes controllers that both work perfectly on my regular nes. Dont know where the multitap settings are or what they could do. Is there a way to make another port act as port 1?

[cfillak]

I have 2 nes controllers that both work perfectly on my regular nes. Dont know where the multitap settings are or what they could do. Is there a way to make another port act as port 1?

My NT Mini is boxed up atm so I can't check exactly where the settings are but I think they'd be in the NES core settings. I don't think there's any way to switch ports like that in the current firmware. The only thing i can think of is the 4-player setting is turned on and some games don't like it and freak out. Does that weird controller behavior happen in the menus too?

[genfuyung]

My NT Mini is boxed up atm so I can't check exactly where the settings are but I think they'd be in the NES core settings. I don't think there's any way to switch ports like that in the current firmware. The only thing i can think of is the 4-player setting is turned on and some games don't like it and freak out. Does that weird controller behavior happen in the menus too?

yeah. to even scroll up and down on the main menu I have to just mash every direction on the dpad and hope for the best.

[Beer Monkey]

Sure it's in spec. To an obscure standard that maybe .1% of devices even use, and maybe 5% of displays/receivers actually support. And I'm being generous with the 5%. In all likelyhood it's closer to 1-2%.

That is misinformation and hyperbole. LG alone has way more than 5% of the global TV market. Here's another gamer's photo of his LG LCD identifying and displaying 240p over HDMI, and to the right is my LG OLED identifying and displaying 240p over HDMI.

 

I'd certainly like to see the FPGA consoles supporting 240p over HDMI.

 

Edited January 22, 2018 by Beer Monkey

[cfillak]

yeah. to even scroll up and down on the main menu I have to just mash every direction on the dpad and hope for the best.

shit man that sucks. Have you trying reflashing to stock firmware or any other firmwares?

[genfuyung]

shit man that sucks. Have you trying reflashing to stock firmware or any other firmwares?

I went back one jailbreak firmware and theres no difference. It looks like to go to the official firmware it needs to be selected from an everdrive and anytime i press a button at the main menu it just displays the analogue logo until I turn it off so I cant even run a cartridge.

[hyrulebr]

I went back one jailbreak firmware and theres no difference. It looks like to go to the official firmware it needs to be selected from an everdrive and anytime i press a button at the main menu it just displays the analogue logo until I turn it off so I cant even run a cartridge.

Do you have any japanese controller to test (using famicom expansion port)?

[genfuyung]

Do you have any japanese controller to test (using famicom expansion port)?

no

[cfillak]

I went back one jailbreak firmware and theres no difference. It looks like to go to the official firmware it needs to be selected from an everdrive and anytime i press a button at the main menu it just displays the analogue logo until I turn it off so I cant even run a cartridge.

What do you mean it needs to be selected from an everdrive? Shouldn't you be able to download the latest stock firmware from Analogue: https://support.analogue.co/hc/en-us/articles/115001947108-Nt-mini-Firmware-Update-v2-3and put it on the SD card and flash it like any other firmware?

[kevtris]

I went back one jailbreak firmware and theres no difference. It looks like to go to the official firmware it needs to be selected from an everdrive and anytime i press a button at the main menu it just displays the analogue logo until I turn it off so I cant even run a cartridge.

The firmware updates go on an SD card which plugs into the nt mini itself. They don't go on an everdrive. The upgrade process is automatic when the system is turned on; no controller interaction is needed. Be that as it may, the controller problem could still be the controllers. Does it do this with the included wireless controller or just the wired ones? Also, are they stock controllers or are they clone controllers? The timing and voltage on the nt mini is exactly the same as the timing and voltage on the NES so I am not sure what it is other than a hardware problem or maybe the ribbon cable is not plugged in all the way or something.

[genfuyung]

The firmware updates go on an SD card which plugs into the nt mini itself. They don't go on an everdrive. The upgrade process is automatic when the system is turned on; no controller interaction is needed. Be that as it may, the controller problem could still be the controllers. Does it do this with the included wireless controller or just the wired ones? Also, are they stock controllers or are they clone controllers? The timing and voltage on the nt mini is exactly the same as the timing and voltage on the NES so I am not sure what it is other than a hardware problem or maybe the ribbon cable is not plugged in all the way or something.

I sold the wireless one that came with the console as I really didnt like it. The 2 that im currently trying to use are stock official nintendo nes controllers. I'll try switching to the official firmware and see if that makes a difference, though I really dont have any interest in using the console that way.

[Thomas83Lin]

The firmware updates go on an SD card which plugs into the nt mini itself. They don't go on an everdrive. The upgrade process is automatic when the system is turned on; no controller interaction is needed. Be that as it may, the controller problem could still be the controllers. Does it do this with the included wireless controller or just the wired ones? Also, are they stock controllers or are they clone controllers? The timing and voltage on the nt mini is exactly the same as the timing and voltage on the NES so I am not sure what it is other than a hardware problem or maybe the ribbon cable is not plugged in all the way or something.

Sorry for the hijack, but as a Nt mini owner this is something I'd like to know myself for future reference. If this was a hardware problem any idea which component\s could possibly cause it?

Edited January 22, 2018 by Thomas83Lin

[cacophony]

The firmware updates go on an SD card which plugs into the nt mini itself. They don't go on an everdrive. The upgrade process is automatic when the system is turned on; no controller interaction is needed. Be that as it may, the controller problem could still be the controllers. Does it do this with the included wireless controller or just the wired ones? Also, are they stock controllers or are they clone controllers? The timing and voltage on the nt mini is exactly the same as the timing and voltage on the NES so I am not sure what it is other than a hardware problem or maybe the ribbon cable is not plugged in all the way or something.

Maybe the controller cord isn't fully seated into the controller port? The Nt Mini controller port is very tight on my unit and getting the controller all the way in takes a fair amount of force.

[Toth]

I had a problem where the stock controller wouldn't work with paperboy. Kevtris suggested I turn the mic sensitivity all the way down to fix it because the game was seeing the microphone signal as button presses or something like that. I think that may have been more a problem with the coding for Paperboy though so it probably wouldn't help in this situation but I suppose you could try it just to exhaust all options.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Toth

[genfuyung]

Maybe the controller cord isn't fully seated into the controller port? The Nt Mini controller port is very tight on my unit and getting the controller all the way in takes a fair amount of force.

Yeah I hate how tight it is, I've tried it all the way in, part of the way in, barely in, and its still the same problem. Maybe once out of every 10 times I turn it on it will work perfectly fine until I plug in another controller or reset the console.

[D3ltax55]

So any mention on what day in February there starting to ship them. I am just getting impatient. Thou waiting on a review before ordering it. Are they going to release early review copys out. Just in case there is some sort of design flaw or something and wait even longer until it's fixed, but I dought there will be a flaw that big since they have experience with other consoles.

I really want to know if those extra chips will be on the board or simulated for the jailbrake. I think Im just going to buy some fx, sa-1 games that i like, but if the super nt can run the rom I won't bother. We gotta wait and see I guess. SHould I hold my breath and just get the fx and sa-1 games now or wait.

Edited January 22, 2018 by D3ltax55

[cfillak]

So any mention on what day in February there starting to ship them. I am just getting impatient. Thou waiting on a review before ordering it. Are they going to release early review copys out. Just in case there is some sort of design flaw or something and wait even longer until it's fixed, but I dought there will be a flaw that big since they have experience with other consoles.

I really want to know if those extra chips will be on the board or simulated for the jailbrake. I think Im just going to buy some fx, sa-1 games that i like, but if the super nt can run the rom I won't bother. We gotta wait and see I guess. SHould I hold my breath and just get the fx and sa-1 games now or wait.

If you're going to wait until after release to order a Super NT, you may as well wait on getting the games too, unless you anticipate a spike in price for the specific games you're interested in. But you really shouldn't expect any information on the chip support before the Super NT is released. This issue has been talked about alot, so Kevtris has had many opportunities to weigh in on it if he wanted to or was allowed to, and still no news. What's kind of crazy is that if the jailbreak ROM loading has feature parity with the SD2SNES, it could annihilate the market for that flashcart. If I had to place a bet, I'd say SA-1 is not going to happen. SA-1 is basically a second SNES CPU AFAIK, and I don't know if Analogue would budget the FPGA space necessary for that into the board design for the Super NT for something that is not advertised functionality. I would love to be very wrong about these things. If you're going to order a system before any news of any type of jailbreak comes out, I'd say just buy the SA-1 and SuperFX games you want. If I were you, I wouldn't break the bank on trying for a complete SA-1/SuperFX set before the jailbreak comes out, because if the jailbreak does include SA-1/SuperFX games, it may partially destroy the market value of those games and you may not be able to get your money back.

[cfillak]

All this talk of expansion chips made me remember something I noticed in a My Life in Gaming stream from awhile back:

 

 

The video is now unlisted, but check out 3:08:58

 

Kevin shows a custom SA-1 cart he built which he said was for SA-1 reverse engineering. I don't know if this means he used it for reverse engineering how the SNES interacts with SA-1 to improve the SNES core and to make sure it works correctly with SA-1 carts, or to simulate the SA-1 chip itself.

[RabidWookie]

If you're going to wait until after release to order a Super NT, you may as well wait on getting the games too, unless you anticipate a spike in price for the specific games you're interested in. But you really shouldn't expect any information on the chip support before the Super NT is released. This issue has been talked about alot, so Kevtris has had many opportunities to weigh in on it if he wanted to or was allowed to, and still no news. What's kind of crazy is that if the jailbreak ROM loading has feature parity with the SD2SNES, it could annihilate the market for that flashcart. If I had to place a bet, I'd say SA-1 is not going to happen. SA-1 is basically a second SNES CPU AFAIK, and I don't know if Analogue would budget the FPGA space necessary for that into the board design for the Super NT for something that is not advertised functionality. I would love to be very wrong about these things. If you're going to order a system before any news of any type of jailbreak comes out, I'd say just buy the SA-1 and SuperFX games you want. If I were you, I wouldn't break the bank on trying for a complete SA-1/SuperFX set before the jailbreak comes out, because if the jailbreak does include SA-1/SuperFX games, it may partially destroy the market value of those games and you may not be able to get your money back.

The overwhelming majority of the people that would skip buying a physical cart to play a rom instead are already using emulators. Cart prices won't be impacted