FPGA Based Videogame System

[derFunkenstein]

Dirrty, dirrty boi!

 

 

As a nostalgia-starved Sega fanatic, it's all I can do from raging every time I'm in a store and see SNES Classics and Genesis HD Flashbacks. Sega literally does not care what happens to their legacy. The Genesis collection on PS4/Xbone isn't all that hot and their branded hardware nowadays is shameful. What will it take for them to produce a little HD box like the NES and SNES Classic? If they won't do it, I can only beg for Analogue to make an FPGA system. Bonus if it can do Sega CD and 32X but I'd pay Super NT prices for a Mega NT that can just play Genesis games.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I'll agre with you on that. The Atgames junk is rubbish. Their Atari stuff is decent but the Genesis is awful. An HD Genesis with jailbreak (genesis/sms + fm sound) would be absolutely amazing.

 

Sure I trolled a little bit but Genesis has got to be the next logical step for Analogue. They just haven't announced it yet. I can't imagine not supporting SMS since it's built into every Genesis. FM sound is trivial to add and this part of the circuit would be disabled in Genesis mode. I suppose if an sms pin adapter would work with the original system, there isn't any good reason not to include an sms slot like with the NT Mini having a dedicated slot for Famicom. It would certainly please European fans at least.

 

So many fans get hung up on the cd/32x dongles, but by and large the majority of good games for the system were standard cart releases.

[brentonius]

The Super NT had such an improvement over the SNES in audio quality I can only dream of what that beautiful Sega Genesis Yamaha FM chip would sound like. I would buy it just for that reason...

[Keatah]

The Analogue / Kevtris FPGA consoles (and Brian Parker / RetroUSB AVS) are hardly what I would call "hobbiest" products. They are professionally contracted and manufactured using industrial facilities. They are sold for profit to benefit the creator financially and give the end user a quality experience.

Do not confuse botique manufacturing with hobby products. The mist fpga, raspberry pi kits are better examples of hobbiest products.

I see. The beef is that once a hobbyist is co-opted by corporate religion, the creativity and support in a product diminishes. Kevtris' skill is 100% hobby generated - now under corporate control.

[NE146]

Pretty minor stuff though.. I mean come on the "support" we're talking about here is tweaking an existing scan line effect in 1080p mode (which honestly to me, looks fine for the most part). Truth is the Super NT is about as complete/perfected a product that delivers the goods as most anything out there.

[derFunkenstein]

I see. The beef is that once a hobbyist is co-opted by corporate religion, the creativity and support in a product diminishes. Kevtris' skill is 100% hobby generated - now under corporate control.

 

 

I don't have any problem with that. Kevtris *should* get paid for his skills. That's part of what makes skills worth having (although having the skill and enjoying it both rank pretty highly, too).

[wingzrow]

Is trading between pokemon roms on the NT mini's FPGA core a pipe dream?

 

Also, I found a glitch while saving in Pokemon crystal. For some reason the screen becomes a garbage data mess when saving in a pokemon center. I might be able to replicate it & post a picture if Ketris is still working on updating that core.

[kevtris]

I see. The beef is that once a hobbyist is co-opted by corporate religion, the creativity and support in a product diminishes. Kevtris' skill is 100% hobby generated - now under corporate control.

You say that like it's a bad thing. I have to put food on the table and pay the mortgage and pay my bills. You might not see it as a "real" job, but I sure do- I have to work hours, meet goals, pay taxes, and all that. Why don't YOU release your own FPGA videogame systems to compete if you have such a beef with it, or bankroll me if you don't like where I spend my hours.

 

When it was just a hobby project, things were a lot different. I had months and years to work on things without a deadline. With deadlines, it's no longer "fun" as before, and is a defacto job that I HAVE to get done in a certain time frame with no excuses. Even the thing you love the most can turn into drudgery if you HAVE to get it done and are under time and other pressures to produce.

 

Without Analogue, I seriously doubt you'd be able to buy any of my work today. Being able to create things and get them released, AND get paid is a pretty awesome thing.

 

As for support, I think I have provided excellent "after release" support so far. There's been many updates released for the nt mini and super nt since their initial release. I do plan on getting back to both at some point when I get time. The problem is time is a huge concern right now and there's only so many hours in the day. I was hoping to add Intellivision to the nt mini for example, but I got hung up with some hard debugging on another project, so the time window I had to add it closed. By the time I was done with the debug job, I had to move right to the next thing.

 

I am a perfectionist but I have to temper it with time constraints unfortunately. Sorry 'bout that.

[Flojomojo]

That's well said -- I think your partnership with Analogue is the best of both worlds and I hope it's still rewarding in all the right ways.

[SegaSnatcher]

Pretty minor stuff though.. I mean come on the "support" we're talking about here is tweaking an existing scan line effect in 1080p mode (which honestly to me, looks fine for the most part). Truth is the Super NT is about as complete/perfected a product that delivers the goods as most anything out there.

It is damn close, but some bugs need to be addressed. Specifically that TG3K bug. Knowing how much of a perfectionist Kevtris is I'm sure he's going to eventually take care of that sometime in the future.

[Newsdee]

There is room for everything in this world.

 

It is very heart-warming for me to see a company lile Analogue backing the work of a skilled hobbyist like Kevtris to make a quality product for the rest of us.

 

For everybody else, there are open source cores on independent hardware that can be setup with minimum effort.

 

I'd encourage anybody disliking Analogue's "commoditization" of this tech to check these alternatives and contribute to it however they can.

 

I own both approaches so covered all bases. It's great to have 8 bit and 16 bit computer cores.

Edited July 7, 2018 by Newsdee

[wingzrow]

IT happened again. Nothing has been modified on this headerless rom. I wonder if it's just pokemon crystal. Seems to ONLY happen indoors.

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by wingzrow

[Tanooki]

As if anyone needs the group approval here, but for what it's worth kevtris, please don't apologize. You have nothing to be sorry about. It's a job, I get it, and I think enough here also get it. Yes you're a perfectionist, and I'm sure it eats at you that you can't add this or that, or tweak something that needs it, or fix an odd issue too but the time will happen, eventually.

 

Get whatever you have done, if it's in the cards, take a break, then come back to it. I get having to do some menial shit and get a paycheck for it as bills, kids, the works exist and all of that good or bad sucks time leaving less for fun stuff. I've got a couple of your products and while I think I've seen a menu option or two I couldn't figure out, that's not your problem, and what I have got out of them has been amazing beyond what I figured I'd see out of those old systems on a modern TV anyway so speaking for myself I'm happy. If it works, it works, and if it works great even better. I don't need some extra cores or some wonky weird feature like 1% of people will give a damn about, so maybe I'm easier to please I guess. But for what it's worth, good job on the HiDef NES and the Super NT. Maybe I'll get the N64 update some day too.

[Great Hierophant]

Nevermind

Edited July 7, 2018 by Great Hierophant

[SegaSnatcher]

If only there was a console with HDMI out that I can use these on.......

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by SegaSnatcher

[Reaperman]

I'm starting to develop a strong but somewhat irrational dislike for the Sega Genesis.

[SegaSnatcher]

I'm starting to develop a strong but somewhat irrational dislike for the Sega Genesis.

Nothing wrong with being hyped about possible future products.

[Jagasian]

It would be nice if Analogue came out with a Kevtris designed FPGA HDMI Genesis. I was a SNES fanboy during the 16-bit generation, but as an adult, I realize the truth in why not both?

 

I bought 2 Super NTs (black and SNES colored). I will probably buy 2 Analogue Genesis consoles too. One to play and one to keep mint condition in box.

Edited July 8, 2018 by Jagasian

[Tanooki]

Sometimes you can have both, sometimes you can't. It comes down to if you can tolerate the ups and downs of the hardware as much as the games it got, specially not also on the direct competition.

[Andromeda Stardust]

It would be nice if Analogue came out with a Kevtris designed FPGA HDMI Genesis. I was a SNES fanboy during the 16-bit generation, but as an adult, I realize the truth in why not both?

I bought 2 Super NTs (black and SNES colored). I will probably buy 2 Analogue Genesis consoles too. One to play and one to keep mint condition in box.

I wonder whaf color options we will get? The Super NT had the SFC gray, NA purple accents, and black, not counting the limited clear option. With Sega, I would tltally jump on the black color scheme, but chose the NA gray/purple for the Super NT.

[Keatah]

I'm starting to develop a strong but somewhat irrational dislike for the Sega Genesis.

How so?

[brentonius]

I wonder, with Sega willing to throw their name on any piece of plastic, if they would be open to actually partnering with Analogue for a re-release of the Genesis/Megadrive. I mean, how cool would that be? It'd basically be the the Analogue Super NT. But it could have more games embedded in it... such as Sonic, Streets of Rage, etc. I doubt on one hand that Analogue would take a cut in their profits, understandably, when they could just release an FPGA Genesis without any license deal. But damn it would be so cool to see the Sega logo on it... plus games that just run on it. Now, here's the thing. I'd definitely be happy to pay an additional $15-30ish for the logo on the console plus the games being built in. I hope they consider it! Sega is a different beast than Nintendo, and they sell themselves to anyone. They're the sluts of the video game world! Haha. But seriously, wouldn't it be amazing if Analogue actually released something with the name "Sega Genesis HD" or something. Would be so cool.

[Keatah]

You say that like it's a bad thing. I have to put food on the table and pay the mortgage and pay my bills. You might not see it as a "real" job, but I sure do- I have to work hours, meet goals, pay taxes, and all that. Why don't YOU release your own FPGA videogame systems to compete if you have such a beef with it, or bankroll me if you don't like where I spend my hours.

 

[..]

 

When it was just a hobby project, things were a lot different. I had months and years to work on things without a deadline. With deadlines, it's no longer "fun" as before, and is a defacto job that I HAVE to get done in a certain time frame with no excuses. Even the thing you love the most can turn into drudgery if you HAVE to get it done and are under time and other pressures to produce.

 

[..]

 

I am a perfectionist but I have to temper it with time constraints unfortunately. Sorry 'bout that.

No need to apologize. Glad you were able to turn your talent into something useful. I just utterly and totally dislike corporate discipline;. Most of it overbearing and I don't do well with it hanging over my head. It's why I chose not to fly professionally, but only privately. I liked it too much.

 

Eventually I want to hire someone to do certain work on emulators. Focusing on parallel flow and GPU usage, among CRT simulation - as most current efforts fall short or are simply not on the roadmap yet.

[Sho]

No need to apologize. Glad you were able to turn your talent into something useful. I just utterly and totally dislike corporate discipline;. Most of it overbearing and I don't do well with it hanging over my head. It's why I chose not to fly professionally, but only privately. I liked it too much.

 

Eventually I want to hire someone to do certain work on emulators. Focusing on parallel flow and GPU usage, among CRT simulation - as most current efforts fall short or are simply not on the roadmap yet.

 

If not for "corporate discipline", a good deal of products never make it to market at all. The Super NT/NT Mini would still just be the HiDef NES and a bunch of ideas.

 

As Kevtris said, doing things with a hobbyist mindset makes for a much longer development cycle, usually due to the developer working at their own pace. When you have structure of some form (especially professionally), complete with deadlines, the chances increase greatly of work getting done. If you are private and can still complete projects, all the more power to you. However, not everyone can pull this off without some form of backing and/or funds.

 

If you are hiring someone, hopefully you'll want them to work with a specific endgame and goals in mind. And hopefully pay them well.

[Deltax5]

It's been a very long time. Im wondering if there is any news on a super nt update. Thou im happy what we have now it feels very compleat and some company's don't even put out firmwares like some other company's do.

Meh I am hearing he working on a secret new project that he can't talk about. "mega nt most likely"

So he busy.