FPGA Based Videogame System

[jamon1567]

Is anyone else's system going into shutdown (from idling, presumably) really fast?

 

Sometimes I'll pause a game and go into the kitchen and make a cup of tea, and I come back and it has shut down (and I'm between save opportunities and have lost progress).

 

Is it just me?

 

I had mine sitting idle for at least an hour last night while I was watching some TV and didn't have any issues.

 

Edit: By sitting idle I mean having a game on pause....

Edited February 15, 2018 by jamon1567

[jamon1567]

 

I think it falls under the same mindset as authenticity. A repro cart works just like an authentic cart but some enthusiasts prefer the authentic item. My SNES mini plays SNES roms just fine... why buy this for roms? It's just all those small technical details that can make/break it for some people.

 

Well in my own setup I only plan on using this in my living room with all of my other modern equipment. All of my original hardware is in another room which includes all my games too. I personally don't want to be bothered with carts in my particular setup, so buying this to run roms makes a lotta sense to me. And obviously SNES classic =/= Super NT.

[cfillak]

Weird question, but I watched an interview with Kevtris where he mentioned that there are still some analog signals coming off carts. What are these signals?? Was this just in reference to the Super Game Boy that produces its own sound?

Yeah the Super Game Boy outputs analog audio via the cartridge bus. AFAIK the MSU-1 audio on the SD2SNES piggybacks off of this capability to send its audio to the system as well.

 

What would be interesting is if there's enough space left over on the Super NT's FPGA, Kevtris' Gameboy core could be added to the SNES core to effectively create a SNES+Super Game Boy core which would allow everything to be digital.

Edited February 15, 2018 by cfillak

[Mattelot]

 

Well in my own setup I only plan on using this in my living room with all of my other modern equipment. All of my original hardware is in another room which includes all my games too. I personally don't want to be bothered with carts in my particular setup, so buying this to run roms makes a lotta sense to me. And obviously SNES classic =/= Super NT.

 

Yes, to an enthusiast like myself and from the sounds of it... you as well that the classic and NT are not the same. There are still plenty who will buy the classic and probably hack it for more games who will say that works perfectly fine for them.

 

I apologize too as that was not the main basis of my original statements but just a comparison to mindsets about authenticity. I wanted to keep it parallel with the types of content discussed here.

[cfillak]

 

Yes, to an enthusiast like myself and from the sounds of it... you as well that the classic and NT are not the same. There are still plenty who will buy the classic and probably hack it for more games who will say that works perfectly fine for them.

 

I apologize too as that was not the main basis of my original statements but just a comparison to mindsets about authenticity. I wanted to keep it parallel with the types of content discussed here.

I like having the classic around and I'm going to fill it up with every SA-1 and SuperFX game that's compatible with the built in emulator. Save states and rewind are pretty nice too, although they are not as important on SNES as on NES imo.

[Mattelot]

I like having the classic around and I'm going to fill it up with every SA-1 and SuperFX game that's compatible with the built in emulator. Save states and rewind are pretty nice too, although they are not as important on SNES as on NES imo.

 

I'll keep my classic around for those too until the NT supports them. I'll still buy the NT, even if it doesn't because input lag is my #1 concern. I've not seen anyone test the Super NT vs the SNES classic but I did see a guy test the NT mini vs the NES classic and there was noticablely less lag on the NT.

[jamon1567]

I like having the classic around and I'm going to fill it up with every SA-1 and SuperFX game that's compatible with the built in emulator. Save states and rewind are pretty nice too, although they are not as important on SNES as on NES imo.

 

Thats a fair point. I sold my classic just the other day, but I hadn't considered that as a reason to keep it. Still, at least in my personal setup, there was one HDMI slot left on my receiver and the Super NT got it Luckily I have all the SA-1 and SuperFX games I need in cartridge format though.

[Beer Monkey]

Did your display go to sleep? I am testig here, and the system is on for a while and no turn off.

 

It takes my display longer to go to full sleep than that. I'll try again tonight with different variables (not just SGB Donkey Kong '94, where it has done it repeatedly).

[dj_convoy]

 

I'll keep my classic around for those too until the NT supports them. I'll still buy the NT, even if it doesn't because input lag is my #1 concern. I've not seen anyone test the Super NT vs the SNES classic but I did see a guy test the NT mini vs the NES classic and there was noticablely less lag on the NT.

Digital Foundry did an extensive Super NT vs. SNES Mini vs. HIgan episode.

[Thomas83Lin]

Anyone having issues with Ninja Warriors? The game freezes for me when I pause it at the start of level 1.

 

I am on the jailbreak firmware and I tried the game running from the SD and from the Super Everdrive and got the same results.

 

Other than that the system exceeded my expectations amazing work Kevtris.

I tried with the jailbreak firmware seeing that I don't have this game to test, I get the same result. maybe bad rom?

[narshe]

Digital Foundry did an extensive Super NT vs. SNES Mini vs. HIgan episode.

 

You can't post something like that without the link!

[RevQuixo]

I tried with the jailbreak firmware seeing that I don't have this game to test, I get the same result. maybe bad rom?

 

Nope I have an original copy and it glitches out or freezes every time.

[cacophony]

 

You can't post something like that without the link!

 

[Mattelot]

Digital Foundry did an extensive Super NT vs. SNES Mini vs. HIgan episode.

 

Correct, they did and Digital Foundry is one of my favorite channels however, they didn't do a lot of discussion about input lag. I've seen more tests for the NT than the Super NT. I'm not doubting that it's better than any other alternative out there and I will own one but I just like to see actual hands-on.

[Sho]

 

The speculation is all about.. "do i dare test the jailbreak fw if someone evil made the jb"

 

I think they respect us due to our thoughts in this.

 

This is fine and all to speculate in this manner, but the better question that should be asked is "Can we trust Smokemonster?"

 

Smokemonster has been well reputed for someone who takes out his time to curate his various ROM packs, only allowing for the best workable dumps that he can find. He has never added malicious things within these ROMpacks, and people have come to trust his releases in same manner as No-Intro before him. With that being said, I don't think he'd want to tarnish his growing reputation by hosting a jailbreak that has some sort of hidden, evil, or malicious intent. There's an exceptionally high chance you can fully trust what Smokemonster hosts, regardless of who wrote/performed the jailbreak.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Sho

[cacophony]

 

Correct, they did and Digital Foundry is one of my favorite channels however, they didn't do a lot of discussion about input lag. I've seen more tests for the NT than the Super NT. I'm not doubting that it's better than any other alternative out there and I will own one but I just like to see actual hands-on.

 

Lon Seidman's review was the only one that measured input lag. But his method is just to record the button press with an iphone at 240fps. He got 44ms IIRC, which was exactly the same as the Nt Mini test he did, and presumably just reflects the input lag of the TV he was using.

[Andromeda Stardust]

why are we even debating the author of this jb firmware? i wont mention any names, but suffice to say hes under a contractual nda and will disavow any knowledge of it. it will take time to flesh out the updates, and i think our anonomous author has been working hard on this for months if not years who deserves some much needed r&r and a pat on the back for a job well done. so can we put the conspiracy theories to rest please?

[Bakeriffic]

I ignored the notifications from this thread for a couple of days and now that I see that a jailbreak FW was made available, I understand why there have been so many posts! Since I own an SD2SNES I'm probably going to stick with the official firmware unless the jailbreak adds support for the same expansion chips as the SD2SNES supports (or additional expansion chip support beyond SD2SNES capabilities).

 

Thanks to @kevtris for all of the work that he put into developing this amazing system. My favorite feature to be added via the (official) firmware updates so far is the ability to adjust the brightness of the LED. I ordered the transparent shell and although I was not disappointed with its appearance like some people were, the LED was just WAY too bright at the default setting with that shell. I opted to turn it all the way down (yet still on) and change the color to purple, since that seems to be the dimmest color and it looks nice.

 

One feature that i would like to see added (if possible) is a way to save different video configurations and, ideally, give them custom names. There are so many different settings to adjust and it would be nice to be able to have quick access to different combinations of settings without having to spend time going through the multitude of options in the settings. I'd love to be able to easiy switch from having an old-school CRT-like experience on the big screen (artificial scan lines with the dimensions that MLiG showed that were based on the height and width of a PVM) vs my usual preference of 5x height and 6x width with no scan lines.

 

Beyond that, I'm looking forward to the release of the DAC module that will allow for analog video output. I suspect that there will be a new official firmware accompanying the release of that device that allows the Super NT to detect this module's presence. I'm not too technically savvy but given the bit that I do know about video signals, I would think that the most efficient way for the DAC module to work would be to output a 240p signal to the HDMI port, which the DAC would then convert to various analog signals depending on which cable is plugged into the module. Of course, 240p is not an option in the current firmware and most modern TV's probably wouldn't recognize a 240p via HDMI since it was only added to the official HDMI spec recently. This makes me think that the 240p option will not be accessible without having the module plugged in, since enabling that would likely result in people selecting it out of curiosity and not being able to get a picture on their HDTV. As Bob of RetroRGB has stated, another nice thing about 240p over HDMI would be that it will essentially future-proof the Super Nt for when lag-free 4k upscalers (like a future version of the OSSC) are made available. I'm not sure of how much of a difference one would be able to see in SNES picture quality between 1080 and 4k, but there may be other benefits such as slight reductions in lag when sending a 4K signal to a 4K monitor. (Let's not get back into that debate.)

[RevQuixo]

Having a weird glitch issue with Mega Man X using the SD2SNES and 4.1 firmware. I beat the intro part without any issue but then when I choose my first stage (Spark Mandrill) I go into the level and I start having odd glitches. the most prevalent one is that if I am jamming on charge and jump and moving around sometimes the level "completes" and I earn the power-up for the stage. When I go back into the level power ups when they drop from enemies immediately disappear and are not collectable.

 

Not sure what is going on...Oddly enough both Mega Man X and Ninja Warriors use the same PCB type..perhaps related?:

 

https://snescentral.com/pcbboards.php?chip=SHVC-2A0N-11

Edited February 15, 2018 by RevQuixo

[Mattelot]

why are we even debating the author of this jb firmware? i wont mention any names, but suffice to say hes under a contractual nda and will disavow any knowledge of it. it will take time to flesh out the updates, and i think our anonomous author has been working hard on this for months if not years who deserves some much needed r&r and a pat on the back for a job well done. so can we put the conspiracy theories to rest please?

 

It has nothing to do with "conspiracy theories." If the author of the firmware is not important to you, there really is no value-added in commenting on it. People have their reasons for wanting to ensure it was written by kevtris.

 

 

Lon Seidman's review was the only one that measured input lag. But his method is just to record the button press with an iphone at 240fps. He got 44ms IIRC, which was exactly the same as the Nt Mini test he did, and presumably just reflects the input lag of the TV he was using.

 

Rob Nava did a video playing a Retropie, NT mini and NES classic on my same model TV, which was perfect so I can know what to expect. I know that's not logical but it's good to know that it's more responsive than even the classic, which is a pretty speedy emulator.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Mattelot

[Sho]

why are we even debating the author of this jb firmware? i wont mention any names, but suffice to say hes under a contractual nda and will disavow any knowledge of it. it will take time to flesh out the updates, and i think our anonomous author has been working hard on this for months if not years who deserves some much needed r&r and a pat on the back for a job well done. so can we put the conspiracy theories to rest please?

 

As long as people don't have solid evidence, it will always be up for debate by someone, especially since the author of previous jailbreak in the Nt Mini was clearly known.

 

Personally my angle is, I can trust the person who hosted the JB, I can trust that the custom firmware itself is reliable. If people are having reservations, they should simply wait for more updates to it.

[NE146]

Reservations about what though?. kev said the Super NT is unbrickable But yeah I'll stick to official firmware and use an SDSNES. and the entire reason is for chip games.

Edited February 15, 2018 by NE146

[Mattelot]

Reservations about what though?. kev said the Super NT is unbrickable But yeah I'll stick to official firmware and use an SDSNES. and the entire reason is for chip games.

 

I've already mentioned that I'm still skeptical about the term "unbrickable" only because I've read so many things that were similarly labeled and somebody finds a way to do it... even by accident. Regardless, people's reservations can range anywhere from trust, peace of mind or authenticity. Those are things you will never sway someone's mind about. I know for a fact that when I got downvoted a lot on Reddit by people who martyr'd me for talking about how important input lag is to me and told me that input lag is NOT important. I knew I was right, even thought I was greatly out-numbered. People just have their preferences. Just like the NT systems have all kinds of customizations, there is no 1 magical setting that you're wrong for not using.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Mattelot

[DarkkOne]

Honestly, coming from a background where third-party firmware can sometimes be less buggy and more feature-full than the official firmware for a device, and created without the help (or even the active prevention) of the original device creators, I tend to have no qualms about whether or not the original creator was involved.

 

Mostly the important questions are: "Can installation fail in a way that makes the device unrecoverable?" and "Can poorly coded hardware drivers cause damage to the hardware?" The question in this case seems to be that Kevtris has taken particular steps to prevent installation failures from being a problem, which is good. It's not *too* hard to do this, but often device manufacturers don't bother. The latter question is one that'll always shake down with time - it's a low likelihood situation in the first place, and there's always a chance that the official firwmare could also have such a problem if it's possible at all. Often it's simply not possible in the first place.

So yeah, the best advice I can give, in general, is wait a couple days for the most daring people to use any firmware update, whether official or unofficial. If nobody has significant problems by then, go ahead.

In the case of the jailbreak, though, it's probably not worth it yet until at least the saving bug is fixed.

[Shin_K]

@Kevtris > this has probably been asked before but are you planning on including your SPC player in the official FW ?
(finally got my super nt tonight after a lot of trouble with ups and terrible weather in Paris airport, and I just want to listen to some cool SPCs while cleaning my carts... guess foobar2000 will do for now )

On a side note : it's been already said a thousand times, but been following this from day one, I can't believe I'm holding a Super NT in my hands, I'm in awe and almost tearing up, congratulations, and thanks a lot man!