FPGA Based Videogame System

[TheFooj]

I've been very impressed so far. First, that it arrived 2 days after shipping to the UK is pretty amazing, I didn't expect it till next week. I've tried my old carts and they still work, and was surpirsed to see that mario, zelda, and secret of mana all had the save states in tact, thats at least 25 years. I played and finished Starwing (UK name for Starfox) and it was great fun.

 

I've fiddled around with the scanlines and found that, in 1080p, scanline depth 80 gives a good effect (similar to the 720 scanlines at default). Hybrid scanlines doesn't seem to do much in 1080p (just seems to de-saturate colours but not do the blooming effect it does in 720p)

 

I need to find a way to compy the saves off so i can replace the batteries though..

 

beauty shot:

 

Edited February 10, 2018 by TheFooj

[lekrang]

Hi,

 

I expect this question to have already been touched upon, but can't seem to find using search and this thread is pretty long so...

I am currently looking into purchasing an analogue super nt by Kevtris and I am very interested in the possibilities it might someday offer.

I find it a bit expensive but considering the work that went into it and what it has to offer it still seems like a solid investment.

 

I was wondering if there were already plans made to provide buyers with jailbreak firmware as there was for the analogue nt ?

 

Last go around I went for the AVS instead of the nt mini as I didn't have the cash to dish out around 300$ more for the better hardware.

At over 200$ CAD, this is still pretty expensive but I could live with that if it gave me the possibility to ''hardware simulate'' most of the 16 bit and 8 bit era consoles on it.

 

I also hear some adapters were being worked on for the nt mini to play actual cartridges for other 8 bit consoles, did these ever come to fruition?

[leods]

I was wondering if there were already plans made to provide buyers with jailbreak firmware as there was for the analogue nt ?

 

 

No. Not a single word about it. Be it that there will be one, be it that there won't be one. Neither Kevtris nor Analogue ever answered this question, and it has been made probably a hundred times.

 

My personal guess is It's comming, but Kevtris is still working on it. My personal guess is just as good as yours though. One thing I'll say though: Don't wait for an answer from Kevtris. As I said, tons of people already asked and not even a hint ever came out.

[NE146]

All USB cables must support data transfer and power.

 

 

Yknow.. the little USB cable that came with my kid's dinosaur toy had a warning label on it that it could only be used for power/charging, and not for data transfer. Never bothered to "verify" but I guess from seeing it, I thought that was a thing.

[LewisD]

I am glad you really seem to know what's right and anyone who disagrees is OBVIOUSLY wrong. Because you know, you're obviously right. I'd rather not read the absolute truth of reality. I think I'm not ready for it yet.

Its just simple logic. People come up with ridiculous names that make zero sense, and instead of using logic to realize that their pet name is nonsensical they stick to their guns and rationalize it by saying NT must mean New Tech!

[Nomenclature]

Uh, no. New Tech? Get real. Analogues intention with naming their product NT is an obvious reference to Nintendo without violating a trademark. NT = Nintendo, Super NT = Super Nintendo.

 

Analogue could name their next product DooDoo and it would sell like hot cakes. The idea that they need to brand every product with NT is nonsense. Mega NT sounds stupid. Analogue MD/Analogue SG fits within the naming scheme they have decided to run with.

 

It very clearly means "Ninja Turtles", and anyone who thinks differently is just guessing!

 

Seriously though, trying to convince anyone of actual logic in this thread is a fools errand.

Edited February 10, 2018 by Nomenclature

[cacophony]

 

 

Download the Latest Jailbroken Firmware Here:

 

...

And that's about it. If there's any questions lemme know and I will try to answer 'em.

 

Kevtris,

 

(just quoting something so these Super Nt questions aren't accidentally missed)

 

- It appears if somebody temporarily maps "cancel" and "confirm" to the same button, it's impossible to move in the menus anymore. I assume resetting the console would fix this (b/c it wasn't explicitly saved), but maybe there's a way to prevent that from happening? One idea: if "cancel" was set to "b" and the user tried to set "confirm" to "b" it doesn't allow it

 

- Can you comment on whether it would be possible to add power on/off via the controller? This was a really appreciated feature of the Nt Mini.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 10, 2018 by cacophony

[SnoopKatt]

 

Yknow.. the little USB cable that came with my kid's dinosaur toy had a warning label on it that it could only be used for power/charging, and not for data transfer. Never bothered to "verify" but I guess from seeing it, I thought that was a thing.

 

Agreed. I had a wireless mouse that charged with mini USB with a really really thin cable... tried it with some other stuff for data transfer, with no luck. Turns out it only supported power!

[retro_fan]

They would have to have a way to go back if you accidentally chose this and didn't have a compatible monitor. Even making you confirm the choice could end up bad if you confirmed the choice while your monitor was black/off. I could see this maybe being in a jailbreak but I am not so sure Analogue would want that in an official product.

 

Yup, this is exactly what I suggested some time ago here -- put the "original clock speed" feature into the jailbreak, with warnings and instructions on how to restore the previous settings.

Edited February 10, 2018 by retro_fan

[SegaSnatcher]

Yes, its finally here.

Edited February 10, 2018 by SegaSnatcher

[Wolf_]

 

Yup, this exactly what I suggested some time ago here -- put the "original clock speed" feature into the jailbreak, with warnings and instructions on how to restore the previous settings.

Maybe they could have a button combo to confirm like the konami code? Pretty hard to do that on accident while your screen is blank. And as someone with a digital display that supports all the retro consoles via my ossc I would like to have a lagless native clockspeed option.

[kevtris]

Kevtris, I asked before but I think you didn't see it. I am thinking of using the Super NT with a different poser Suppply. Is there anything I should be careful with? are these quick charge USB chargers safe? Am I fine as long as the PSU provides 2A and isn't crap?

 

I'm thinking of buying one of those multi-pot units, so I can use the SNT, and also power up other devices/recharge phones etc..

 

You can, it takes 500ma all by itself, plus whatever cartridge you are using. I found that running an sd2snes took a total of 666ma (really!), and a game genie + super mario world was around 750ma. A supply that can provide 1A or more should be fine (i.e. a lot of TVs can supply at least this much on their own). Just make sure the cable is high quality so there isn't excessive voltage drop. During development I had several cables (they were mainly 'freebies' included with stuff) that had over 1V of drop at 500ma.

 

Kevtris, do you only work on the cores or do you design the PCB layout as well?

Yessir. I did all PCB, firmware, and software for it. Ernest did the plastic enclosure design, and manufacturing and packaging (box, etc).

 

 

I tried NBA Jam from my sd2snes and could not get into the Nt's menu after starting a game. However, holding reset to get back to the sd2snes' menu allowed me to get back into the menu.

 

I have found that the Mode 5 & 6 Interlace Disable works with one game.

 

Yes, the super gameboy does this as well while it is booting up. The reason is it is doing partial controller reads which is confusing the controller reading state machine. I am going to fix that soon; I believe this is what's causing the interesting controller message on startfox 2. The switchover from automatic controller reading to game-based controller reading is causing it to falsely think a non-gamepad controller is connected. This only happens the very first time it's read, but it is enough to cause the issue. I had to do it this way so that the controller will work in the menu when a game is not running, and then still continue to work when the game runs. This nets "zero lag" controller reading (i.e. I am not simply reading the controller then passing it on to the game) and is quite a bit more complex but IMO worth it.

 

 

 

Yknow.. the little USB cable that came with my kid's dinosaur toy had a warning label on it that it could only be used for power/charging, and not for data transfer. Never bothered to "verify" but I guess from seeing it, I thought that was a thing.

 

My friend calls these "troll" USB cables. It seemingly looks like any other USB cable, but won't actually pass any data.

 

 

Kevtris,

 

(just quoting something so these Super Nt questions aren't accidentally missed)

 

- It appears if somebody temporarily maps "cancel" and "confirm" to the same button, it's impossible to move in the menus anymore. I assume resetting the console would fix this (b/c it wasn't explicitly saved), but maybe there's a way to prevent that from happening? One idea: if "cancel" was set to "b" and the user tried to set "confirm" to "b" it doesn't allow it

 

- Can you comment on whether it would be possible to add power on/off via the controller? This was a really appreciated feature of the Nt Mini.

 

Thanks!

 

This was fixed in the 3.9 firmware update. If you map both buttons to the same thing on firmware before 3.7 (I think it was) then you were stuck until you power cycled it. I am not sure how that bug got missed for so long but it did. Now on 3.9 if you attempt this, it will swap the buttons. i.e. if you use A and B for enter/select and then set enter to B, it will swap them. enter will be B, and select will be A.

[cacophony]

 

 

This was fixed in the 3.9 firmware update. If you map both buttons to the same thing on firmware before 3.7 (I think it was) then you were stuck until you power cycled it. I am not sure how that bug got missed for so long but it did. Now on 3.9 if you attempt this, it will swap the buttons. i.e. if you use A and B for enter/select and then set enter to B, it will swap them. enter will be B, and select will be A.

 

Excellent to hear, thanks!

 

Can you comment on whether it would be possible to add power on/off via the controller? This was a really appreciated feature of the Nt Mini.

[Wolf_]

My friend calls these "troll" USB cables. It seemingly looks like any other USB cable, but won't actually pass any data.

Aptly named. I once spent an embarrassing 2 hours of my life screwing around with driver troubleshooting my dap back when stand alone music players were a thing only to find out that I was plugging in the identical black usb mini cable that came with my portable speaker which was a troll cable.

[SegaSnatcher]

 

 

 

 

Yes, the super gameboy does this as well while it is booting up. The reason is it is doing partial controller reads which is confusing the controller reading state machine. I am going to fix that soon; I believe this is what's causing the interesting controller message on startfox 2. The switchover from automatic controller reading to game-based controller reading is causing it to falsely think a non-gamepad controller is connected. This only happens the very first time it's read, but it is enough to cause the issue. I had to do it this way so that the controller will work in the menu when a game is not running, and then still continue to work when the game runs. This nets "zero lag" controller reading (i.e. I am not simply reading the controller then passing it on to the game) and is quite a bit more complex but IMO worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope the fix doesn't affect controller lag.

[kevtris]

 

 

 

I hope the fix doesn't affect controller lag.

It won't. I just have to make it smarter than the game. lol.

 

 

Excellent to hear, thanks!

 

Can you comment on whether it would be possible to add power on/off via the controller? This was a really appreciated feature of the Nt Mini.

It cannot be added; the ntm has a second, separate CPU that handles power control duty. This CPU constantly reads the controller to determine if you are pressing the buttons needed to power it up, then it fires up the power supplies if you are.

[Dweezicus]

Just got my Super Nt

 

I ran into kind of a funny issue where I was messing with the "select" and "back" button assignments and ended up in a state where I think they were both assigned to the same key. This prevented navigation in the menu. I flashed the 3.9 firmware to get things back to a workable state. I guess the lesson is be careful how you order your button assignments! If you're swapping "select" and "back" you'll need to utilize a third temporary button assignment.

 

@kevtris, any chance we can get the ability to turn the system on/off using the controller? This was one of the features I used all the time on the mini. If it makes a difference I'm just using an original wired controller.

Same thing happened to me, but the good news is that you have to save the system settings for it to stick. So just turning the system on and off again will fix the issue (no reinstallation of the firmware necessary). On a related note, new firmware resets all the settings, so its kind of a pain in the ass to have to keep reassigning the confirm/cancel buttons and doing the whole place holder button assignment to swap b/y commands Edited February 10, 2018 by Dweezicus

[Toth]

Whoa, UPS is deciding to deliver to me today. I am not sure I've ever had UPS ground delivery on Saturday.

[Toth]

Some random comments on the SNT:

- It doesn't seem to support no buttons (disable) for the reset hotkey. I could set an unlikely button combination, but would prefer to completely disable it.

- Scalers appear to cause a pixel shift of the whole screen (up and to the right?). Seems like it would be possible to also delay the sync when buffered pixels are used for the scalers - assuming that's the problem. Maybe it's just my imagination.

- My snes classic to snes adapter uses a constant offset from Latch assertion for a I2C bus for next Latch assertion. Works great in the game, but seems to sample multiple inputs for each press in the menu system. Not a SNT problem, but I'll have to figure if the sample rate is changing in the menu and come up with a fix for my bug.

- SD2SNES operations over USB seem to work great with a custom SD2SNES FW. Save states work as well as they do on a 1-chip. Only thing I noticed was an occasional 2s hang after a load - perhaps to due to different APU timing. The save state patch is full of races and not well tested.

- I'm a little disappointed the cart bus doesn't get traffic during the 2 included games. I assume that's on purpose unless I have a bug in the SD2SNES FW.

 

Overall I'm extremely happy with it. Great work!

Do you mean you made an snes classic to snes adapter? I've not seen one of those being sold anywhere.

Edited February 10, 2018 by Toth

[mrpopsicleman]

Do you mean you made an snes classic to snes adapter? I've not seen one of those being sold anywhere.

http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/classic_to_snes/index.php

 

And lucky you getting yours today. Mine arrived at my local UPS building at 5:40am and still says it's not going to be delivered until Monday.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Thanks, I wasn't sure if the SNES was actually converting the Gameboy sprites or just kinda passing the sprites over to be displayed on screen.

It's a shame that that can never happen.

Here's hoping that Analogue's next console can handle the GBA then!

Yes, the Super Gameboy has the Z80 CPU inside that runs Gameboy logic but sends the sprite data directly to the SNES PPU. Game Boy Color has been compared to NES era graphics due to it being 8-bit and displaying simple color sprites using a 56-colors onscreen at once.

 

GBA is actually a 32-bit ARM, and being a 2D powerhouse with loads of mode 7 sprite handling for suedo 3D games like Mario Kart, has been compared to SNES. GBA is actually a lot more powerful than SNES, closer to Neo Geo than anything else. Lots of ports to the golden era of NES and SNES can be found on GBC and GBA. It's why I consider the Game Cube modern and the GBA to be the last hurrah for 2D retro gaming.

 

Game Boy Player for Game Cube actually contajned a fully fledged GBA hardware which passed digital video directly to the Game Cube video processor instead of an LCD screen. With the new HDMI adapter for the digital port on DOL-001 Game Cube, it is possible to play GBA games natively in 480p over HDMI. In fact I recommend this setup for playing GBC or GBA games on the big screen.

[copy]

 

I have found that the Mode 5 & 6 Interlace Disable works with one game.

 

Can you share which game, and what specifically the option does? Again, just curious.

[Daschewie]

The only Flatscreen display that might give only 8ms of lag is a PC monitor. The lowest rated flatscreen TV I've seen hit around 14ms.

 

The lowest lag flat panels on displaylag.com are 9ms, and 12ms for TV: https://displaylag.com/display-database/

 

2016 34" LG 34UM68-P 1080p 75hz IPS FreeSync Wide Monitor 09ms

2017 55" LG 55UJ7700 4K 60hz IPS LED HDTV 12ms Edited February 10, 2018 by Daschewie

[Kismet]

 

 

The lowest lag flat panels on displaylag.com are 9ms, and 12ms for TV: https://displaylag.com/display-database/

 

2016 34" LG 34UM68-P 1080p 75hz IPS FreeSync Wide Monitor 09ms

2017 55" LG 55UJ7700 4K 60hz IPS LED HDTV 12ms

 

 

Note how all 240hz monitors have high lag, all OLED's and all of samsung QLED's do too. The only monitors with 9ms are IPS monitors, which are a premium. Likewise the only HDTV's with 12ms are 4K IPS as well.

 

I have a MG24UQ 4K 24" monitor, it's 10ms.

 

You're doing ok if it's 12 or under. When you cross 16ms, for a video game it's very noticeable. For home theaters', you have to start adjusting the surround sound speakers delay when it hits 16 as well.

[Retro Reloaded]

Game Boy Player for Game Cube actually contajned a fully fledged GBA hardware which passed digital video directly to the Game Cube video processor instead of an LCD screen. With the new HDMI adapter for the digital port on DOL-001 Game Cube, it is possible to play GBA games natively in 480p over HDMI. In fact I recommend this setup for playing GBC or GBA games on the big screen.

I may have to look into that. Until we get a 32 bit FPGA console that is. It just hit me that the GBA was almost as powerful as a PS1...