FPGA Based Videogame System

[jamon1567]

Absolutely, some of the most frequently given feedback for the Nt Mini was "Why the hell did you bundle this thing with a wireless nes controller and raise the cost of a $450 machine?!" and a lot of people said they would never use it or just wanted the receiver.

 

Sadly 8bit has taken this opportunity to keep sales up and now only sells the receiver bundled with the controller so you can't just buy the receiver and use an actual good controller with it, like the xenoblade chronicles switch pro controller which has a properly designed dpad. (Shame it looks like ass imo)

 

I'm curious, why did you specifically mention the Xenoblade Chronicles Pro controller? Is it different from the standard Pro controller?

 

Edit: watching video....interesting....I have the standard Pro controller and assumed there wouldn't be a difference.

 

Edit 2: looking online at prices and I guess the secret is out....SMDH

Edited February 4, 2018 by jamon1567

[kevtris]

Thanks for the reply Kevtris. Is it possible to be added as a feature?

re: LED brightness. I have added it as an option now, so you can set it from off to full on in 32 steps. This allows one to select any LED brightness they like.

[TheFooj]

Kevtris - does the the super nt support copying saves from cart to SD card? thanks!

[D3ltax55]

I wonder if they decided to put a usb slot also would it be to difficult. But then they have to deal with programing drivers I guess. But would a generic usb driver be enough? It would of been extra work that would take away from the main project I guess. But would open the controllers options without dealing with latency problems

Edited February 4, 2018 by D3ltax55

[Kismet]

re: LED brightness. I have added it as an option now, so you can set it from off to full on in 32 steps. This allows one to select any LED brightness they like.

 

Nice. Does the LED change color or strobe or anything when the SuperNT encounters a problem, or does it just stay on once turned on?

[Shin_K]

Absolutely, some of the most frequently given feedback for the Nt Mini was "Why the hell did you bundle this thing with a wireless nes controller and raise the cost of a $450 machine?!" and a lot of people said they would never use it or just wanted the receiver.

 

Sadly 8bit has taken this opportunity to keep sales up and now only sells the receiver bundled with the controller so you can't just buy the receiver and use an actual good controller with it, like the xenoblade chronicles switch pro controller which has a properly designed dpad. (Shame it looks like ass imo)

I litterally bought a snes reciever yesterday.

I own a xenoblade2 controller, not even a switch, got it because I though it looked great xD

 

Sneakyturtleegg> I like how you swapped A B on your nes arcade stick for clear plungers and transparent red push buttons ^^

[leods]

I wonder if they decided to put a usb slot also would it be to difficult. But then they have to deal with programing drivers I guess. But would a generic usb driver be enough? It would of been extra work that would take away from the main project I guess. But would open the controllers options without dealing with latency problems

It's one thing to write code to change the RGB LED that was already RGB from the start. It's something completely different to put USB controller ports. Way, WAY too late for that now. Now maybe someone will come up with a low latency USB to SNES converter? I'd buy that.

 

Does that already exist?

 

Thanks for the LED option Kevin. That's awesome.

[Shin_K]

Leods> raphnet maybe ? apparently not)
I guess you can't use the 8bitdo retro adapteur micro usb for that ? (what do you use it for then ?)

you could always use undamned usb decoder (360/ps3 to "jamma") and solder that to a snes controller pcb ? (and put a 3.3 to 5v converter in between)

Edited February 4, 2018 by Shin_K

[Nomenclature]

Absolutely, some of the most frequently given feedback for the Nt Mini was "Why the hell did you bundle this thing with a wireless nes controller and raise the cost of a $450 machine?!" and a lot of people said they would never use it or just wanted the receiver.

 

Sadly 8bit has taken this opportunity to keep sales up and now only sells the receiver bundled with the controller so you can't just buy the receiver and use an actual good controller with it, like the xenoblade chronicles switch pro controller which has a properly designed dpad. (Shame it looks like ass imo)

 

interesting. seems they realized their mistake with the D-pad...however...

 

Thing is still not that great. ABXY buttons are still too big, raised too much, and spread too far apart. The D-Pad is still raised too much as well. The analog sticks are good overall but the button press on them happens accidentally all the time when riding the axis, very annoying in games like breath of the wild. The triggers are ok but not great, the + button gets hit accidentally all the time, and the +/- buttons are just terrible and non-functional in general. Also the shape of the thing doesn't fit the hands very well.

 

I went back to the Wii U Pro controller when the Mayflash adapter came out, and haven't looked back. Perfect buttons, perfect D-Pad, great shape, great triggers. Only drawback is analog stick positions are both up top (why? what other controller has ever done this?), really the only advantage the Switch Pro has over it. The 3DS/Wii U Pro and original Wii got all the buttons/d-pad 100% right, why did they farm them out to some knock-off manufacturer for the switch and not just carry them over?

 

But I have been accused of being an elitist and a perfectionist, so YMMV.

 

Oh, and that xenoblade edition is unbelievably ugly. So was the Splatoon version.

Edited February 4, 2018 by Nomenclature

[Kismet]

I wonder if they decided to put a usb slot also would it be to difficult. But then they have to deal with programing drivers I guess. But would a generic usb driver be enough? It would of been extra work that would take away from the main project I guess. But would open the controllers options without dealing with latency problems

 

USB has what is known as "HID" (Human Interface Device), which is driverless, that's why you can plugin in a keyboard, mouse or joystick and it just works without drivers.

 

BUT, of course some manufacturers don't do this the way you want it to. NKRO with keyboards and XInput with USB Joypads are non-standard configurations. So that means the host driver has to support multiple configurations. Bluetooth also has profiles that go with it, as Bluetooth is simply "wireless USB". Then there are non-standard 2.4ghz radios.

 

If the goal is just to support input devices without supporting output devices, then yes you can generally get away with supporting just the HID driver, and remapping the button layout depending on what "known" controller id's are. You could plug in a number pad/keyboard and a Xbox 360 controller and be able to play Colecovision/Atari games that used the number buttons in a non-standard configuration. Analogue could come out with an 8-bit/16-bit microcomputer model that could use these things that way. But you'd be hard pressed to support any original hardware without the original ports having pins mapped directly onto the FPGA.

 

At any rate right now let's see what happens with the SuperNT.

[D3ltax55]

The microusb on the wireless hub of the 8-bit receiver. Can that send out usb. Or is it just for power the controller like the xbox 360 controller cable?

Edited February 5, 2018 by D3ltax55

[Namdor]

Thank you Kevtris!!!

 

re: LED brightness. I have added it as an option now, so you can set it from off to full on in 32 steps. This allows one to select any LED brightness they like.

[Wolf_]

I litterally bought a snes reciever yesterday.

I own a xenoblade2 controller, not even a switch, got it because I though it looked great xD

 

Sneakyturtleegg> I like how you swapped A B on your nes arcade stick for clear plungers and transparent red push buttons ^^

The new snes receivers only come paired with controllers. I'm betting you got one of the old ones. I have no clue what the difference is between them but I heard they were not compatible (unless you bought one loose from someone that bought the bundle and only wanted the bluetooth snes controller, or bought the snes classic version by mistake).

 

 

interesting. seems they realized their mistake with the D-pad...however...

 

Thing is still not that great. ABXY buttons are still too big, raised too much, and spread too far apart. The D-Pad is still raised too much as well. The analog sticks are good overall but the button press on them happens accidentally all the time when riding the axis, very annoying in games like breath of the wild. The triggers are ok but not great, the + button gets hit accidentally all the time, and the +/- buttons are just terrible and non-functional in general. Also the shape of the thing doesn't fit the hands very well.

 

I went back to the Wii U Pro controller when the Mayflash adapter came out, and haven't looked back. Perfect buttons, perfect D-Pad, great shape, great triggers. Only drawback is analog stick positions are both up top (why? what other controller has ever done this?), really the only advantage the Switch Pro has over it. The 3DS/Wii U Pro and original Wii got all the buttons/d-pad 100% right, why did they farm them out to some knock-off manufacturer for the switch and not just carry them over?

 

But I have been accused of being an elitist and a perfectionist, so YMMV.

 

Oh, and that xenoblade edition is unbelievably ugly. So was the Splatoon version.

I think that is simply an issue with the size of your hands. I'm betting yours are probably small because I wear xl gloves and the controller fits me perfectly.

[GarrettCRW]

"All units will be shipping from Nevada."

 

 

Can UPS be not horrible for once in their lives and deliver my Super NT in 1 day (I live in Nevada)?

 

As for the 8bitdo controller discussion, the dpad on the one included with my NT Mini was tetchy at first, but what is making me prepare to sell the thing is the same design flaw with the original NES controllers-the corners dig into my hands. Otherwise, I have no complaints (and recently got the FC30 Pro, which I'm quite satisfied with. I will say that I was considering purchasing the joystick until I realized that the button layout is reversed from the way it is on Nintendo systems, which is a total non-starter.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Leods> raphnet maybe ? apparently not)

I guess you can't use the 8bitdo retro adapteur micro usb for that ? (what do you use it for then ?)

you could always use undamned usb decoder (360/ps3 to "jamma") and solder that to a snes controller pcb ? (and put a 3.3 to 5v converter in between)

Fun fact: if you lose the power brick for your nes or snes, you can flick the switch to the "off" position, plug in the retro receiver (player 1 if you want to use it, player 2 if you don't), and use a microusb wall-wart to power the system and the retro receiver.*

 

*not responsible if you fry your system doing this. Also this trick only works on oem systems or clone hardware with native 5v bus. AVS or NT fpga consoles won't work due to having individual 3.3v and 5v power planes.

[Andromeda Stardust]

interesting. seems they realized their mistake with the D-pad...however...

 

Thing is still not that great. ABXY buttons are still too big, raised too much, and spread too far apart. The D-Pad is still raised too much as well. The analog sticks are good overall but the button press on them happens accidentally all the time when riding the axis, very annoying in games like breath of the wild. The triggers are ok but not great, the + button gets hit accidentally all the time, and the +/- buttons are just terrible and non-functional in general. Also the shape of the thing doesn't fit the hands very well.

Do you have small hands by any chance? I have large man hands and the Switch Pro controller is by far the most comfortable thing they ever put out. But yeah, I do tend to hit the stick buttons sometimes, awkwardly crouching when I'm trying to run from enemy, or activating the scope while I'm frantically trying to headshot a guardian with shock arrow before it shoots it's laser beam at me. Even with lvl4 ancient tech armor, super annoying when I take an unnecessary hit like that. Also the positioning of the + / - buttons and home / snapshot. IMO, the less frequently used home and snap buttons should be higher and start/select lower. Oh well, I got used to them and over time developed my muscle memory to avoid accidental presses. As for the Dpad, I have a launch day pro controller and rarely ever get accidental presses, works great for blaster master, tetris puyo, bomberman, and even usfii.

 

I think that is simply an issue with the size of your hands. I'm betting yours are probably small because I wear xl gloves and the controller fits me perfectly.

I cannot vouch for whether the new retroreceivers work like the old ones, but +2 on the hand size comment. I you find the joycons (or gba-sp) cramp inducing, you'll love the Pro controller.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Delete.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Can UPS be not horrible for once in their lives and deliver my Super NT in 1 day (I live in Nevada)?

Hmm, considering I paid 30+usd for ground shipping to louisiana, i expect the box to be really freakking heavy for them to charge that much. Just curious hos much you paid for shipping since it was obviously not flat rate.

[F34R]

Hmm, considering I paid 30+usd for ground shipping to louisiana, i expect the box to be really freakking heavy for them to charge that much. Just curious hos much you paid for shipping since it was obviously not flat rate.

My NT Mini was $.03 cheaper than the Super NT for shipping to South Carolina lol. $37.53 (NT Mini) and $37.56 (Super NT)

[kevtris]

Fun fact: if you lose the power brick for your nes or snes, you can flick the switch to the "off" position, plug in the retro receiver (player 1 if you want to use it, player 2 if you don't), and use a microusb wall-wart to power the system and the retro receiver.*

 

*not responsible if you fry your system doing this. Also this trick only works on oem systems or clone hardware with native 5v bus. AVS or NT fpga consoles won't work due to having individual 3.3v and 5v power planes.

I highly recommend against doing this. This will backfeed the power supply (i.e. 7805) and can cause chips to self-destruct.

[cacophony]

Hmm, considering I paid 30+usd for ground shipping to louisiana, i expect the box to be really freakking heavy for them to charge that much. Just curious hos much you paid for shipping since it was obviously not flat rate.

 

It seems to range from ~$15-$40 for US deliveries, depending on distance. Besides what UPS charges there are two additional expenses Analogue has incurred, but I'm not sure what they'd typically cost:

 

1. Packaging materials. With the Nt Mini at least the packaging was custom (custom box with Analogue logo + custom foam pieces to suspend the Nt Mini box in the outer box)

2. One of the reason they're able to ship out ~20k (?) packages in a single day is that they've hired another company to handle the shipping, and probably packaging too

 

Just a guess but if they pay $10-$20 to UPS for the insured shipment, $5 for packaging materials and $5 per unit to the company handling the packaging/shipping then we're not that far off from what they're charging.

Edited February 5, 2018 by cacophony

[Andromeda Stardust]

I highly recommend against doing this. This will backfeed the power supply (i.e. 7805) and can cause chips to self-destruct.

Words from the wise. Do not attempt.

 

Truthfully, I only ran my system like this for a few seconds. Everything was still okay.

 

A quick google search revealed this issue:

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=135302.0

 

I made a 7805 based 5V power supply for my ATmega chip. Connected LED via resistor and hooked it up to 12 VDC power supply. LED lit fine, voltage was around 5V on the out pin and everything seemed ok. I disconnected 12V supply.

Then I connected FTDI USB header to program the chip. LED lit up again (which surprised me at first, but then I realized that it provides power from USB so I don't even need to connect 12V supply to the jack), and I burned Bootloader to the chip just fine, but few minutes later I noticed that LED went off. I touched LM7805 and it was super hot, and apparently burned out. Nothing else was damaged.

This took me by surprise, I didn't even used my 12VDC external power supply in the setup. What did I do wrong? Do I need put a diode between LM7805 and +5V line?

Here's a basic schematic (doesn't include ATMega, and other components)

[atmn]

Words from the wise. Do not attempt.

 

Truthfully, I only ran my system like this for a few seconds. Everything was still okay.

 

A quick google search revealed this issue:

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=135302.0

 

 

I have some systems hooked up with a cheap manually switched SCART-switch. If I dont pay attention and have 2 systems active at once the powered off system can get power thru the SCART +5V blanking signal.

Also happened to run like this seconds before I noticed.

Can modify Scart-cables installing a diode to prevent this... Would a common LED and a 180ohm resistor do it?

[leods]

The microusb on the wireless hub of the 8-bit receiver. Can that send out usb. Or is it just for power the controller like the xbox 360 controller cable?

 

That micro USB plug is to use the receiver as a USB dongle. You plug the receiver to the PC and it reads as a dongle for your controller. Just tested that yesterday. Using it like that it seems to add some lag, but I tested with the 240p suite manual lag test, so take that ith a grain of salt. Stil, it was half a frame slower than the buffalo controller.

 

I didn't know about that functionality till just yesterday. That and of course you can use the PC connection to update firmware.

[Beer Monkey]

Folks, XenoBlade 2 Switch Pro controllers are still a lottery just as the regular Pro controllers have always been a lottery.

 

There's manufacturing variance in the height of the rocker nub in the center of the dpad. The shorter the rocker, the more likely you'll get false reads; not just diagonals, but with a particularly bad draw in the lottery you will have a controller that incorrectly reads right or left on a certain percentage of the time when tapping upwards, for example.

 

Just because some people are posting YouTube videos where they got lucky doesn't mean all XB2 pads have they taller rocker; many still do not.

 

Scotch tape on the PCB is the fix for all of these controllers.

 

Or just pair your 8bitdo receiver with a Wii U Pro controller as these do not have the issue.