FPGA Based Videogame System

[SubElement]

Well, colour me surprised!

 

My Super Nt just arrived at my door in Australia. Delivery on a Sunday no less!

 

Looking forward to having heaps of fun with this thing, thanks for Kevtris and the Analogue team.

 

@Kevtris: Can't wait to see what you've got coming up!

[mancomb]

Hey all!

I've encountered an issue and hope to get some advice.

My new Super Nt arrived today, and despite best efforts, I've been unable to get a video signal out of it.

The system boot-up sound clip plays just fine, but that is all.

I've updated the firmware, tried multiple HDMI cables, and hooked it up to 2 televisions.

I am located in Japan, though I don't think that makes a difference.

Any ideas????

 

[Kismet]

Hey all!

I've encountered an issue and hope to get some advice.

My new Super Nt arrived today, and despite best efforts, I've been unable to get a video signal out of it.

The system boot-up sound clip plays just fine, but that is all.

I've updated the firmware, tried multiple HDMI cables, and hooked it up to 2 televisions.

I am located in Japan, though I don't think that makes a difference.

Any ideas????

 

 

If you hear sound out of it, it has to be working, though it seems kinda off if you can update the firmware with no picture. Are both TV's the same model? Does the TV say what mode it's in, or does it just stay black?

 

Also try another USB cable, as mentioned earlier in the thread, some cables are troll cables or are too cheap and result in voltage drops.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Kismet

[mancomb]

Thanks for the reply. The tvs are different models. The tv displays a message saying that an incompatable video signal is detected

Edited February 11, 2018 by mancomb

[Kismet]

Thanks for the reply. The tvs are different models. The tv displays a message saying that an unknown video signal is detected

 

Off hand, "unknown signal" would suggest that the mode setup isn't compatible, or the TV doesn't set it's EDID data correctly. Case in point, I have a BenQ computer monitor that supports 1080i, but I can run the desktop at 1080p if connected to a PC, but if I select 1080p while it's plugged into the TV box I instead get a black screen with "Out of Range !" despite the fact it does support 1080p. Also, the EDID in the TV can be overwritten/corrupted.

 

If you can plug in the TV to your computer, grab the EDID with http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm, that might help with troubleshooting it.

[mancomb]

Thank you sir! I am looking into it

[hexcode99]

Oops, just realized I misread your question. It displays in full range RGB

 

Thanks Do you have the Pro Capture HDMI 4K Plus? How do you like it and does the fan stay on 100% all the time?

And that mwcap-info sounds pretty cool. What other information does it give on on the incoming source signal?

Edited February 11, 2018 by hexcode99

[Fafner]

With all the Super talk our poor ol Mini isnt getting much love!

 

Any more updates coming for the Mini?

Fingers are crossed for the Intellevision core!

[leods]

With all the Super talk our poor ol Mini isnt getting much love!

 

Any more updates coming for the Mini?

Fingers are crossed for the Intellevision core!

Kevin just fixed a bug on the Super, so firmware 4.0 is up on the site. There's also tons of pressure from all sides for the Super firmware break. And he has his "normal" job. And I gues maybe he even has a live. Which I doubt, considering all he's been doing the past year. So yeah... Probably comming at some point...

 

BTW, Digital Foundry's review, (John Lindeman's) is superb. On par with My life in Gaming's. Another little documentary on the SNES and the new ways to play it:

 

 

The SNT has been generating some cool waves around the community. That's a good thing.

[SegaSnatcher]

Here are my Super NT settings if anyone is interested.

Advanced Mode Menu

Resolution = 1080p60

Width = +1397

Height = +1146

Gamma Boost turned on

Everything else was left stock.

[SubElement]

@Kevtris

 

Is the firmware update meant to reset all settings to default?

[kevtris]

If 4.0 is up, that means that I can say the fixes are:

 

Mecarobot golf now works perfectly. The cause was the game shuts hdma's off at the very last second, and I still was letting it go through. Note that there is a little bit of scanline fuzz around the middle of the screen below the treeline. I checked on my SNES and it is there, too.. looks exactly the same, so that is not a bug! One line with about 8-10 pixels of "fuzz" and then the scanline directly below has a few pixels of fuzz. The game uses an IRQ to update a ppu reg near the end of the scanline and doesn't quite hit the target. It's possible they didn't catch it due to CRT overscan.

 

The other fix is for mega lo mania. The shield graphic had two wiggly scanlines at the top and middle. This was due to the faster sprite reading for 64 sprite mode (even without this turned off, it still reads them "fast"). The fix was to simply slow it down to normal speed when not in 64 sprite mode. The game uses 64 huge 64*64 pixel sprites to totally cover the screen, and then bankswitches the graphics at the top and middle using hdma. By reading the sprites too fast, it was fetching them before the bankswitching could happen. I am clueless why they did it this way. When the "stars" around it animate, the game turns it into a mode 7 screen (with sprite overlay for the lines) and the issue goes away, which is why it seems to "fix' itself partway thru the intro.

 

That golf issue was mighty hard to find, I have to say. I was sure it was an interrupt or other timing issue.. nope! Glad that one is fixed. I was watching it on signaltap (FPGA logic analyzer) and noticed that a DMA would occur and not occur, and it corresponded to the irq jitter. This lead to the solution. It couldn't have been IRQ timing, since that has been beaten on a lot by mortal kombat 2 and a few other highly timing sensitive games.

 

Joe and Mac appears to be OK, we tested that for quite awhile so no issue there. Stiil working on the other things and I hope to have some more fixes soon. Enjoy!

[SubElement]

There's also tons of pressure from all sides for the Super firmware break. And he has his "normal" job. And I gues maybe he even has a live. Which I doubt, considering all he's been doing the past year. So yeah... Probably comming at some point...

 

I don't so much care if we do or don't get jailbreak style abilities, but more so just a confirmation if it is or is not happening. I just want to know if I should invest in an SD2SNES.

 

Of course, it's totally up to Kevtris if he says anything, just would be nice.

[DadsGlasses]

Question regarding power for the NT Mini Vs Super NT.

 

When my Super NT arrives, it will be placed directly adjacent to my NT Mini. I will be using the same HDMI cable, as it is snakes through my wall to the rear of a wall mounted Tv. So I will just be swapping it based on which system I will be using. Can I do the same for the power? Is the supply the same?

 

Always trying to limit cords whenever possible. Thanks.

[kevtris]

@Kevtris

 

Is the firmware update meant to reset all settings to default?

Yes it does, sorry. There is not much I can do about that. If more settings are added, it causes the hash to fail and it clears the settings. It'd be extremely difficult and nontrivial to include a way to prevent this happening. Sorry 'bout that. Maybe in the future I will work on a way that lets it retain the old settings when possible.

[SubElement]

Question regarding power for the NT Mini Vs Super NT.

 

When my Super NT arrives, it will be placed directly adjacent to my NT Mini. I will be using the same HDMI cable, as it is snakes through my wall to the rear of a wall mounted Tv. So I will just be swapping it based on which system I will be using. Can I do the same for the power? Is the supply the same?

 

Always trying to limit cords whenever possible. Thanks.

 

I asked this a few pages back, and after reviving mine today I can confirm that it does not have the same power supply.

 

The Super Nt is powered of a pretty standard 5v 1amp USB-Micro-USB adapter and cable.

Edited February 11, 2018 by SubElement

[SubElement]

Yes it does, sorry. There is not much I can do about that. If more settings are added, it causes the hash to fail and it clears the settings. It'd be extremely difficult and nontrivial to include a way to prevent this happening. Sorry 'bout that. Maybe in the future I will work on a way that lets it retain the old settings when possible.

 

Nah, that's understandable and certainly not the only device to work like that. May I suggest adding a warning on the firmware page as such? I just would have liked to saved some custom settings I did earlier.

[kevtris]

 

Nah, that's understandable and certainly not the only device to work like that. May I suggest adding a warning on the firmware page as such? I just would have liked to saved some custom settings I did earlier.

that's a good idea. I will pass it along.

[lekrang]

 

I don't so much care if we do or don't get jailbreak style abilities, but more so just a confirmation if it is or is not happening. I just want to know if I should invest in an SD2SNES.

 

Of course, it's totally up to Kevtris if he says anything, just would be nice.

 

The more I think about it, the less I think we will be getting a jailbreak firmware.

First time around with the mini nt we got confirmation pretty early on that it was coming.

The silence on this matter makes me believe that things have changed.

 

If I am not mistaken when the mini nt release Kevtris wasn't an employee of Analogue per say but now he is.

There might be some legality issues regarding him releasing these now that he is officially an employee and not a third party releasing these on the side.

 

I also think that analogue probably has some future plans/projects coming up to keep the ball rolling on these retro FPGA-based systems.

I could easily see them releasing a FPGA version of sega consoles next or any of the ones that are more popular in the FPGA cores Kevtris has already built.

 

Also... considering the original topic of this thread, if Kevtris is planning on releasing this all-in-one FPGA system in the future, it would be counter-productive if there was already a system out there being able to do mostly the same thing as his own product.

Only few people would most likely buy the Z3K for the added options since most of us are buying up the analogue super nt.

 

Just my opinion.

 

For now I am holding off on the super nt.

I will be looking at this thread regularly to one day pick up a Z3K.

I just find there isn't quite enough there to justify the price for me considering my current setup with framemeister and 1chip snes.

Don't get me wrong, the work Kevtris put in is simply amazing. A marvel of engineering for sure. And the amount of time of effort he spent must have been immense.

I also love the support he is providing, with quick firmware updates to keep everyone happy.

Truly, on those aspects the price is justifiable and hope as many people as possible pick it up to encourage him.

If I didn't have the framemeister I would be buying one for sure.

Edited February 11, 2018 by lekrang

[Smoke Monster]

Anyone else notice something interesting at 5:00 in Digital Foundry's review?

 

Also, about the settings: It might be nice to have a feature to export the settings to a save file. That would allow us to share our custom settings with others easily too.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Smoke Monster

[elevengames]

https://twitter.com/smokemonstertwi/status/962707765067177985

 

Jailbreak confirmed?

[Smoke Monster]

Update: I was just informed that it's not the jailbreak. It must just be an NT Mini running on the PVM with the Super NT in the foreground. That makes sense since the SNT doesn't do RGB at all. Sorry if I got any hopes up!

Edited February 11, 2018 by Smoke Monster

[leods]

I don't understannd this. Does anyone have any doubt in the world Kevtris CAN release this Jailbreak? What would have ever kept him from doing that? The only question is wether he wants to, and how much time he needs. I mean, I was just commenting about all the things he's doing, and I even forgot to mention the DAC. The ammount of work is just insane. He has to first take care of the SNES core. He won't release a broken Jailbreak, but I doubt he'll have much time to invest int that till the DAC is ready and all bugs in the system fixed. And granted, there are only very few bugs for a brand new system.

 

Now what I find cool is that these bugs aren't being fixed on a game by game case. He's fixing the core itself, so any other moment where that kind of behaviour would make a difference it will be automatically fixed. And we should thank each piece of lazy code, cause that just shows more about the system's behaviour, making the SNT even more accurate.

[F34R]

I thought it was a jailbreak at first too, but it could be something running on the SD2SNES if the picture is to be believe.

 

Update: I was just informed that it's not the jailbreak. It must just be an NT Mini running on the PVM with the Super NT in the foreground. That makes sense since the SNT doesn't do RGB at all. Sorry if I got any hopes up!

Hmm... so, were you informed this isn't THE jailbreak, or that this isn't A jailbreak? THE jailbreak, makes it seem like there is one, but that picture isn't it. A jailbreak, simply means that isn't a jailbreak, it's something else running.

[cfillak]

I don't understannd this. Does anyone have any doubt in the world Kevtris CAN release this Jailbreak? What would have ever kept him from doing that? The only question is wether he wants to, and how much time he needs. I mean, I was just commenting about all the things he's doing, and I even forgot to mention the DAC. The ammount of work is just insane. He has to first take care of the SNES core. He won't release a broken Jailbreak, but I doubt he'll have much time to invest int that till the DAC is ready and all bugs in the system fixed. And granted, there are only very few bugs for a brand new system.

 

Now what I find cool is that these bugs aren't being fixed on a game by game case. He's fixing the core itself, so any other moment where that kind of behaviour would make a difference it will be automatically fixed. And we should thank each piece of lazy code, cause that just shows more about the system's behaviour, making the SNT even more accurate.

Yeah you wouldn't want to do per-game hacks to make things work because you could break a different game. And AFAIK, alot of emulators have an internal database and hash individual roms to activate the per game hacks, and that's not something the NT Mini/Super NT do (or are even capable of AFAIK).