FPGA Based Videogame System

[SegaSnatcher]

31 minutes ago, Jagasian said:

Since the DAC allows for the Super NT to run at the slightly lower than 60 fps that the original SNES runs at, I hope Kevtris puts an unsupported option in to have the HDMI output run at the same 59.53 FPS as the OG sNES.  Many HDTVs can handle the nonstandard SNES refresh rate.  I have an OSSC and my mid-range Samsung LCD TV can handle it.

 

Otherwise, I am going to chain my Super NT through the Analogue DAC and then thru my OSSC to my LCD HDTV.

OG SNES runs at 60.09.  Kevtris slows it down to a perfect 60hz for HDMI 1080p out.    

Edited August 9, 2019 by SegaSnatcher

[Andromeda Stardust]

7 hours ago, Guspaz said:

IIRC we figured a while back that there are enough pins on the Super Nt to make that work (for regular cartridge games, anyhow, not sure about stuff like the disk system adapter). Problem is, it's not the most elegant solution, and wouldn't have NES or Famicom controller ports built-in (yet more adapters). No mic jack either. A cost-reduced Nt Mini (plastic shell and no built-in analog output) would make more sense, IMO.

SNES controllers work out of the box for most NES games since they only poll the controller 8 times. No adapter needed and AXLR do nothing.

 

A cart adapter bundled with controller dongles would be bees knees though. It would lack the Famicom expansion connector, but a toggle option could let you use NES Vaus or other specialty controller on famicom games similar to the AVS.

[phoenixdownita]

Just downloaded the new FW, the SuperNt one now is contained in a zip, which contains a subdir called SYSTEM with a CORES directory inside with the lonely spc.cor file .... so maybe, just maybe, if we stop being obnoxious, the CORE STORE^TM would show up.

At least the grunt work seems to have been laid out now

 

I take that for MegaSg the DAC would properly support the SMS, SG-1000 and GG cores given adapters for full-on-carts should show up anytime now hence those cores, at least in no-bios config, should be accessible anyway without JB.

[Enragedwhale]

5 hours ago, Jagasian said:

Since the DAC allows for the Super NT to run at the slightly lower than 60 fps that the original SNES runs at, I hope Kevtris puts an unsupported option in to have the HDMI output run at the same 59.53 FPS as the OG sNES.  Many HDTVs can handle the nonstandard SNES refresh rate.  I have an OSSC and my mid-range Samsung LCD TV can handle it.

 

Otherwise, I am going to chain my Super NT through the Analogue DAC and then thru my OSSC to my LCD HDTV.

Assuming the DAC allows for 32x comparability (a big if) I’d hope for the reverse option of perfect 50hz or 60hz through the DAC.

 

PAL MD’s have such an off spec refresh (a switch modded NTSC console is actually closer to 50hz!) that I’ve never found a TV that doesn’t tear or frame skip though the OSSC.

 

Actually has it been confirmed that 50hz will be supported through the DAC at all?

 

[SegaSnatcher]

Just now, Enragedwhale said:

Assuming the DAC allows for 32x comparability (a big if) I’d hope for the reverse option of perfect 50hz or 60hz through the DAC.

 

PAL MD’s have such an off spec refresh (a switch modded NTSC console is actually closer to 50hz!) that I’ve never found a TV that doesn’t tear or frame skip though the OSSC.

 

Actually has it been confirmed that 50hz will be supported through the DAC at all?

 

The DAC has a switch for Pal and NTSC. 

[phoenixdownita]

45 minutes ago, Enragedwhale said:

Assuming the DAC allows for 32x comparability (a big if) I’d hope for the reverse option of perfect 50hz or 60hz through the DAC.

 

PAL MD’s have such an off spec refresh (a switch modded NTSC console is actually closer to 50hz!) that I’ve never found a TV that doesn’t tear or frame skip though the OSSC.

 

Actually has it been confirmed that 50hz will be supported through the DAC at all?

 

Me very confused.

 

The oddball refresh rate is due to how the original console was wired wrt clock sources, Kevtris is replicating that, if you want exactly 50Hz to use the DAC to go to OSSC to go to HDMI, you already have it in the actual MegaSg/SuperNt HDMI, unless you really really like OSSC scanlines or such but that defeats the purpose.

 

It seems we want all eight combinations:

HDMI at 50, 60 and the original 50ish and 60ish (last 2 just in case your HDMI set might support them)

DAC at original 50ish, 60ish and then perfect 50 and 60 (last 2 so you could say you could do:

HDMI -> DAC -> OSSC|XRGBMini|RetroTink2x -> HDMI for whatever reason you may want to do it)

 

Maybe kevtris will enable all of them just so he can sleep at night.

[SegaSnatcher]

1 hour ago, phoenixdownita said:

Me very confused.

 

The oddball refresh rate is due to how the original console was wired wrt clock sources, Kevtris is replicating that, if you want exactly 50Hz to use the DAC to go to OSSC to go to HDMI, you already have it in the actual MegaSg/SuperNt HDMI, unless you really really like OSSC scanlines or such but that defeats the purpose.

 

It seems we want all eight combinations:

HDMI at 50, 60 and the original 50ish and 60ish (last 2 just in case your HDMI set might support them)

DAC at original 50ish, 60ish and then perfect 50 and 60 (last 2 so you could say you could do:

HDMI -> DAC -> OSSC|XRGBMini|RetroTink2x -> HDMI for whatever reason you may want to do it)

 

Maybe kevtris will enable all of them just so he can sleep at night.

Original timings without that framebuffer would be ideal.   And you can just have some kind of count down in case your display can't handle the original timings and it'll revert back to a safe mode.  Don't see why they wouldn't add them if its now possible.  This would be amazing and speedrunner friendly.  

[Enragedwhale]

5 hours ago, phoenixdownita said:

Me very confused.

 

The oddball refresh rate is due to how the original console was wired wrt clock sources, Kevtris is replicating that, if you want exactly 50Hz to use the DAC to go to OSSC to go to HDMI, you already have it in the actual MegaSg/SuperNt HDMI, unless you really really like OSSC scanlines or such but that defeats the purpose.

I was referring to hypothetical 32x support where you would be stuck with analogue out. ?

 

[CZroe]

Smokemonster is teasing special chip support in the updated Super Nt jailbreak. Says "no comment" regarding Mega Sg and 32X, which implies that there is something he can't talk about yet in regards to that. Stream starts at Noon ET.

 

 

 

My guess is he's hinting about possible 32X support with the analog adapter and a real 32X.

 

 

 

 

 

[retrair]

Original timings would be a nice option if the consoles are capable of sending out 60.0988...for the SNT and 59.9227...for the MSG without needing the DAC. If Analogue is not okay with putting the feature on the main firmware, it should at least make an appearance on the unofficial. 

[Guspaz]

12 hours ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

SNES controllers work out of the box for most NES games since they only poll the controller 8 times. No adapter needed and AXLR do nothing.

 

A cart adapter bundled with controller dongles would be bees knees though. It would lack the Famicom expansion connector, but a toggle option could let you use NES Vaus or other specialty controller on famicom games similar to the AVS.

Once you add up the cost of all the adapters to pretend the Super Nt is an NES or Famicom, you might as well have spent $200 on a plastic Nt Mini. It'd save you the hassle of swapping out all the adapters every time you want to switch too.

Just because the product is physically capable of running other cores doesn't mean it makes business sense to cannibalize potential sales from a standalone unit.

[Drunk_Caterpillar]

New Super Nt Jailbreak. SPECIAL CHIPS BEGIN!

- Everything from v4.9, plus:

- DSP-1, DSP-2, DSP-3, DSP-4 support

- OBC1 support

- ST010, ST011 support

- CX4 support

- Sped up file loading

 

 

New Mega Sg JAILBREAK! 

- All fixes from OFW v4.6: 

- Added DAC

- Genesis & SMS Light guns with DAC

- Fixed boot audio level

- Fixed left side green line when HQX scalers active

- Bubble Bobble SMS fixed

- Fixed CD BIOS replacement

- Sped up file loading

[dj_convoy]

Well, hopefully this calms some of the agita out there. 

[Drunk_Caterpillar]

Just now, dj_convoy said:

Well, hopefully this calms some of the agita out there. 

I see it getting worse TBH; I think when SM said “no comment” about 32X after bringing up special chips for the SuperNt jailbreak, a lot of people assumed that meant 32X jailbreak support. 

[Guspaz]

I took it to mean that he's not allowed to talk about the 32X and DAC compatibility yet.

[CZroe]

I took it to mean that he's not allowed to talk about the 32X and DAC compatibility yet.

Me too, but the context is still going to give people the wrong idea. That's why I gave my more-subdued expectations ITT and tried to get ahead of the idea that it was a 32X replicated in FPGA.

32X in FPGA would likely be significantly more difficult than Genesis itself so it's not really something I ever expect to see without open-source or licensed/3rd-party cores.

[Guspaz]

I don't think you'll ever see a commercial 32X implementation. IIRC it's basically a Sega Saturn without the VDPs, and it's super niche, without any particularly good games. It just wouldn't make business sense to put in the extensive R&D hours and build a product with a huge FPGA just to be able to play the tiny mediocre quality library.

[CZroe]

I don't think you'll ever see a commercial 32X implementation. IIRC it's basically a Sega Saturn without the VDPs, and it's super niche, without any particularly good games. It just wouldn't make business sense to put in the extensive R&D hours and build a product with a huge FPGA just to be able to play the tiny mediocre quality library.

Exactly... and by "licensed" I don't mean something that was developed commercially and licensed to them. I mean something more like what happened with the MegaSD recently, when Terra Onion licensed the SVP core. It was being developed openly for MiSTer but they wanted to add it to their commercial product and contacted the MiSTer dev for permission. Obviously, they couldn't offer too much to enable ONE game but it seems they came to terms.

As usual: just because it's open source doesn't mean you don't need a license to use it in a commercial product.

[dj_convoy]

1 hour ago, Drunk_Caterpillar said:

I see it getting worse TBH; I think when SM said “no comment” about 32X after bringing up special chips for the SuperNt jailbreak, a lot of people assumed that meant 32X jailbreak support. 

I wish we lived in a world where "no comment" could be taken as such without reading whatever you want into it.

[Drunk_Caterpillar]

21 minutes ago, dj_convoy said:

I wish we lived in a world where "no comment" could be taken as such without reading whatever you want into it.

I mean, context is king here. No one asked him to comment on it, and the OP aim that twitter thread was about the SuperNt jailbreak, so why even bring it up if you didn’t have SOMETHING to say?

[Guspaz]

In case people haven't noticed yet, Bob is reporting that Analogue has registered trademarks for "Analogue Pocket" and "Analogue 8":

https://www.retrorgb.com/analogue-handheld-and-8-bit-trademark-leak.html

[Toth]

9 minutes ago, Guspaz said:

In case people haven't noticed yet, Bob is reporting that Analogue has registered trademarks for "Analogue Pocket" and "Analogue 8":

https://www.retrorgb.com/analogue-handheld-and-8-bit-trademark-leak.html

Oh, maybe a Gameboy and an 8 bit system? (Though Analogue 8 wouldn't really go with their other console names if it was like a new Nt Mini) Maybe people who are more creative than me will come up with some better ideas. I am excited to know what people think these could be.

Edited August 9, 2019 by Toth

[Pixelboy]

2 hours ago, Toth said:

Oh, maybe a Gameboy and an 8 bit system? (Though Analogue 8 wouldn't really go with their other console names if it was like a new Nt Mini) Maybe people who are more creative than me will come up with some better ideas. I am excited to know what people think these could be.

 

Well, at least we know they're working on something else. That's already good news in itself. 

 

[CZroe]

I mean, context is king here. No one asked him to comment on it, and the OP aim that twitter thread was about the SuperNt jailbreak, so why even bring it up if you didn’t have SOMETHING to say?

Exactly. It was just something he mentioned out of the blue specifically to get people to think about it.



Problem is, the context of that coming with news of special chips for the Super Nt jailbreak could easily steer speculation in the wrong direction. There's simply no way 32X is getting added with a similar jailbreak for MegaSg but the old question is still unanswered: is it compatible with the 32X or not?

Because possible 32X support with the analog adapter was already the question on everyone's mind in relation to the adapter and the Mega Sg and because there should be no reason to continue withholding the answer except to build anticipation, I'm reasonably sure it's a tease to build anticipation. They aren't even saying "we still don't know" at this point.

[Nigoli]

It's really nice to see support added for Special Chip games.

 

Mega Man X2 / Rockman X2 has a Title Screen slowdown bug compared to when using the real cartridges. Actual gameplay seemed fine though.

 

Unrelated to both those games. If you're in 720p mode and power on, it uses a different type of scaling that isn't what it's set to. But corrects itself when you highlight Horizontal Position.

 

I use 720p mode to achieve exact Square Pixels without interpolation.

 

My 720p settings with both H&V Interpolation disabled:

Width: 768

Horizontal Position: 27

Height: 720

Vertical Position 37

 

Also, I've had problems with my newly repaired and recapped Japanese Mega CD. I had them put in RF Bios as an extra thing to add besides repairing the laser and gears. It was not working well with the Mega Sg and would not allow it to boot games. I'm sure though if I put back the original Bios it would have worked fine. Have not tested this yet though. I do have the original Bios I could put back on.

Edited August 9, 2019 by Nigoli