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FPGA Based Videogame System


kevtris

Interest in an FPGA Videogame System  

682 members have voted

  1. 1. I would pay....

  2. 2. I Would Like Support for...

  3. 3. Games Should Run From...

    • SD Card / USB Memory Sticks
    • Original Cartridges
    • Hopes and Dreams
  4. 4. The Video Inteface Should be...


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4 minutes ago, Pixelboy said:

So you're saying that FPGA cores need to have the equivalent of drivers (like on today's desktops and laptops) in order to interact with different USB devices. Since there's a plethora of USB devices out there, some of which could be interesting to try with Analogue products, it would actually make sense to have an auxiliary FPGA chip just for USB "driver" functionalities. Then the console's main FPGA core could interact with the auxiliary USB FPGA core via a standardized API, and the development of main cores and USB cores could be made separately. It would be a little more bothersome for the end user to set up, and creating custom "USB cores" would be a laborious (and probably tedious) process for FPGA coders. Both these problems could be mitigated by having Analogue recommend specific USB devices for their USB-enabled consoles. But yeah, I agree that the wonderful world of USB is not a simple one for the equally wonderful world of FPGA.  :) 

 

Sort of. Except at some point you need to implement some conversion logic on a per-core basis (i.e. replacing some piece of original logic with logic specific to these inputs). And older 8-bit computers tend to access their inputs in a much more primitive way than today. So any "API" would have to mimic a lot of those raw forms, or provide the events over a serial bus and let developers recreate the primitive forms themselves. Fun.

 

But the reality is that if the USB/BT input is hidden behind the Analogue-only FPGA (which I completely suspect it is), then it's not likely that developers would be able to interact with USB HID inputs without Analogue-provided HDL pinouts. And depending on how many pins they allocate towards a "bus" between the two FPGAs, things get interesting. It's doable, but there's a good amount of engineering that would need to go into it to get it right, and it very likely isn't happening without some form of support from Analogue. So I'm skeptical that developers will have more than the existing buttons + HID controllers to work with (and those HID controllers will likely be mapped to the existing buttons). Especially when it's explicitly going outside the primary design goals of this thing, with the schedule being generally aggressive over at Analogue.

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About the chip tune functions of the Pocket: I am not really aware of the DJ scene other than hearing about it, but I'm told an original gameboy is a popular device, hence the inspiration for this pocket feature.  Is anyone imagining the possibility that this will support other sound chip support? I don't know about the differences between the GB and GBA, but GG, Lynx and NGP sound chips would be great just to add to the possibilities and music options.  I'm sure people on the development side would love to add the much loved Commodore SID chip if a handshake between the two FPGAs can be made. A simple SID music player would be amazing too.

 

I do agree that the naming of the Analogue 8 sounds like a wide net for 8 bit consoles that Kevtris already has cores for from the NT mini. TG16/PCE/SGX would be a wonderful surprise as would 5200/7800 and Intellivision.

 

I had an imaginative vision of Analogue's future... wanting to be the modern end all be all covering all grounds. This is purely speculation of course, but maybe one day Kevtris will make a CD based system to rival Polymega and Seedi [status? cancelled?]. Even without Saturn and Dreamcast, maybe some amount of CD cores up to Playstation 1 (PCE-CD/TG16-CD, Sega CD, Amiga CD32, CDTV, 3DO/CD-I/Jaguar CD)? An FPGA PS1 alone would be amazing - for real hardware, the current options are:

- real discs/burned copies on a PS1,

- the hassles, limitations and price of a PSIO,

- original/burned discs on the models of PS2 that still have PS1 hardware.

 

I could be wrong, but read that a fat PS2 with hdd loading or from USB on early slims skip the PS1 hardware and only uses emulation on the PS2.  So, in a few years, I'd hope for a jailbroken "Analogue PS" that might support extra cd cores. :)  

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When looking at the official Mega-SG photos of the options (USA, EU, JPN, White), is the main shell of the EU one actually grayer or lighter than its USA and JPN counterparts? Other than the white one obviously, are the power and reset button aesthetics the only differential, and their case shells the exact same shade of black? I've never seen the actual units in side by side images to compare.

 

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On 10/23/2019 at 5:15 AM, seastalker said:

About the chip tune functions of the Pocket: I am not really aware of the DJ scene other than hearing about it, but I'm told an original gameboy is a popular device, hence the inspiration for this pocket feature.  Is anyone imagining the possibility that this will support other sound chip support? I don't know about the differences between the GB and GBA, but GG, Lynx and NGP sound chips would be great just to add to the possibilities and music options.  I'm sure people on the development side would love to add the much loved Commodore SID chip if a handshake between the two FPGAs can be made. A simple SID music player would be amazing too.

 

I do agree that the naming of the Analogue 8 sounds like a wide net for 8 bit consoles that Kevtris already has cores for from the NT mini. TG16/PCE/SGX would be a wonderful surprise as would 5200/7800 and Intellivision.

 

I had an imaginative vision of Analogue's future... wanting to be the modern end all be all covering all grounds. This is purely speculation of course, but maybe one day Kevtris will make a CD based system to rival Polymega and Seedi [status? cancelled?]. Even without Saturn and Dreamcast, maybe some amount of CD cores up to Playstation 1 (PCE-CD/TG16-CD, Sega CD, Amiga CD32, CDTV, 3DO/CD-I/Jaguar CD)? An FPGA PS1 alone would be amazing - for real hardware, the current options are:

- real discs/burned copies on a PS1,

- the hassles, limitations and price of a PSIO,

- original/burned discs on the models of PS2 that still have PS1 hardware.

 

I could be wrong, but read that a fat PS2 with hdd loading or from USB on early slims skip the PS1 hardware and only uses emulation on the PS2.  So, in a few years, I'd hope for a jailbroken "Analogue PS" that might support extra cd cores. :)  

We are hoping Kevtris adds his chiptune synth so we can play some awesome chiptune music ourselves.  We'll just have to wait and see what happens.  Having a portable chiptune player is something I've wanted ever since Kevtris showed off his Synth players, especially his orange one.
 

 

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11 hours ago, seastalker said:

When looking at the official Mega-SG photos of the options (USA, EU, JPN, White), is the main shell of the EU one actually grayer or lighter than its USA and JPN counterparts? Other than the white one obviously, are the power and reset button aesthetics the only differential, and their case shells the exact same shade of black? I've never seen the actual units in side by side images to compare.

 

I own the EU version, the only color difference is in the power and reset buttons.

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It's not a problem for me since I wasn't planning to buy any Mega Sg adapters (And with the jailbreak software, I imagine most won't find their absence too detrimental to their experience), but has Analogue said anything about this lately?

 

The site still says "coming 2019", so they're going to cut it pretty close if they're going to take preorders and get these out in the next two months. 

Edited by Atariboy
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18 hours ago, Atariboy said:

It's not a problem for me since I wasn't planning to buy any Mega Sg adapters (And with the jailbreak software, I imagine most won't find their absence too detrimental to their experience), but has Analogue said anything about this lately?

 

The site still says "coming 2019", so they're going to cut it pretty close if they're going to take preorders and get these out in the next two months. 

Nope, and they do not respond to questions on social media at all.  If it wasn't for Kevtris I would not support this company.  The products they release are so good though (because of Kevtris).  My guess is we just never hear another word on the adapters and they will never get released. 

 

This line from the Nt Mini manual is kind of funny "Audio Features Thes are experimental features that we will continue to develop for".   Anyone think that is actually going to happen?

Edited by Toth
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16 minutes ago, Toth said:

Nope, and they do not respond to questions on social media at all.  If it wasn't for Kevtris I would not support this company.  The products they release are so good though (because of Kevtris).  My guess is we just never hear another word on the adapters and they will never get released.  

Well, if the DAC is a parameter, it's been late but it will be released next year ...

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32 minutes ago, Toth said:

Nope, and they do not respond to questions on social media at all.  If it wasn't for Kevtris I would not support this company.  The products they release are so good though (because of Kevtris). 

Kevtris is the only reason I support Analogue. I never supported the consolized Neo Geo or the original NT (non-FPGA version).

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In my earlier mention of my 'vision' of what Analogue may do, I think it might make sense for them to release the adapters with the 8 console. I didn't remember a set timeline promised for the adapters, just that they would be at a later date. However, if they ever stated sometime in 2019, though I'm not upset, I guess others might be.  I'm fine with the jailbreak until then. 

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15 hours ago, seastalker said:

In my earlier mention of my 'vision' of what Analogue may do, I think it might make sense for them to release the adapters with the 8 console. I didn't remember a set timeline promised for the adapters, just that they would be at a later date. However, if they ever stated sometime in 2019, though I'm not upset, I guess others might be.  I'm fine with the jailbreak until then. 

Their website lists the adaptors as coming in 2019 right on the mega SG page and they are still selling it with the promise that it will play all 8 and 16 bit Sega games via their original carts. It’s the reason I bought one at launch.

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Kevtris seems to be the entire tech support and developer of the company and once they are onto a new project there just isn't time to go back to the older systems for stuff like that. They now have cartridge adapters for the Mega SG, the DAC, the Pocket dock and the adapters for the Pocket to develop.  The odds they go back to the Nt Mini, a system that seems to basically be discontinued, is pretty low.  It's pretty obvious who the person responsible for the jail breaks is as well so don't expect that person to have the time.

Edited by Toth
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On 10/28/2019 at 7:49 AM, Toth said:

Nope, and they do not respond to questions on social media at all.  If it wasn't for Kevtris I would not support this company.  The products they release are so good though (because of Kevtris).  My guess is we just never hear another word on the adapters and they will never get released. 

They seem to be more happy just posting GIFs on their Twitter rather than giving updates and answering people’s questions I guess. Why is it taking them this long to put out three little passive adapters?

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On 10/26/2019 at 1:13 PM, SegaSnatcher said:

We are hoping Kevtris adds his chiptune synth so we can play some awesome chiptune music ourselves.  We'll just have to wait and see what happens.  Having a portable chiptune player is something I've wanted ever since Kevtris showed off his Synth players, especially his orange one.
 

 

If you have an iOS device I recommend Modizer. It's the best portable chiptune player I've used.

It plays over 600 different formats and is updated often to sync with many FTP collections to play directly. Handy with limited space on an iPod/iPhone. Best $2 I've ever spent.h ttps://apps.apple.com/us/app/modizer/id393964792

 

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2 hours ago, VintageGamer74 said:

Will be getting the RetroUsb tomorrow and eyeing the Mega SG for early next year.

 

Does anyone have these systems and if you do? What are your opinions about them.

 

Appreciate any input or thoughts.

AVS, Super NT, and Mega SG are the trifecta of Console gaming. The Super NT was an awesome spiritual successor to the AVS. The AVS imo looks great next to the Super NT and Mega SG, awesome retro styling. Famicom carts top load whereas NES carts side load.

 

AVS have less customization options, no jailbreak, and only outputs 720p, but otherwise is equally good to the Analogue systems. If you got an everdrive N8 or Powerpak, they will work flawlessly on the AVS. There are several palettes as well the ability to add your own with the most recent firmware. PC required to update firmware.

 

4x3 pixel aspect (center) works well enough for me if slightly stretched. Since they added interpolation there is no shimmer or distortion at all using 3.5x3 (two clicks left of center). You can also do full stretch 5x3 (hard right) which look perfect on 4x3 aspect HD CRTs.

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2 hours ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

AVS, Super NT, and Mega SG are the trifecta of Console gaming. The Super NT was an awesome spiritual successor to the AVS. The AVS imo looks great next to the Super NT and Mega SG, awesome retro styling. Famicom carts top load whereas NES carts side load.

Incorrect. The NT Mini, Super NT, and Mega SG are Analogue's trifecta of retro console gaming. Some would have the Mister project with the DE10 Nano board in there, but it is not a plug and play device like the other consoles mentioned. The Super NT is the real spiritual successor to the NT Mini. The are all made by the same company. Analogue has trademarked the name "Analogue 8" during 2019. Speculation is that soon, Analogue will release this console and that it will contain some form of FPGA NES. The AVS is still the most affordable FPGA option for the NES. The AVS reviewed well and many who own it are happy with it. Check out ebay for used prices.

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Mega SG is a beautiful thing. Love easily playing almost any Genesis game (and once I suck it up and buy the Terraonion CD thing, any SEGA CD game as well). Being able to play ColecoVision, SMS and Game Gear games are a nice bonus. :D

 

I'd strongly consider the NT (and probably the AVS; the NT Mini is ridiculously expensive on the aftermarket) but my living room setup would have to be seriously overhauled to free up the space. Maybe someday... 

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Incorrect. The NT Mini, Super NT, and Mega SG are Analogue's trifecta of retro console gaming. Some would have the Mister project with the DE10 Nano board in there, but it is not a plug and play device like the other consoles mentioned. The Super NT is the real spiritual successor to the NT Mini. The are all made by the same company. Analogue has trademarked the name "Analogue 8" during 2019. Speculation is that soon, Analogue will release this console and that it will contain some form of FPGA NES. The AVS is still the most affordable FPGA option for the NES. The AVS reviewed well and many who own it are happy with it. Check out ebay for used prices.
Oh, he knows. Kosmie loves his AVS and, in absence of the Nt Mini, wants to make sure that people don't forget how close it is. It's noble... until Kevtris and Analogue start selling theirs again. ;) I'm convinced they will!
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Something will be mentioned about the adapters for the Mega SG, within a week or so:

 

https://twitter.com/analogue/status/1192318468789424128?s=09&fbclid=IwAR3Ffj0itK9sTcuPD10JU9GBjdifcsFYICdnGpreFd85POaX9Qhf0Gow7eQ

 

And new FW for the Mega SG is out, among other things, confirming adapter support:

 

https://support.analogue.co/hc/en-us/articles/360024836892-Mega-Sg-Firmware-Update-v4-7

 

v4.7 notes:

- 32X support added in DAC mode
- Cartridge/CD audio selection fixed. Checking 'enable cartridge and CD audio' will work now regardless of the 'automatic' setting checkbox.
- 32X is detected and will enable audio by default.
- Chuck Rock CD is now working.
- Many CD fixes- NHL 94, Willy Beamish, and other games now work.
- Zesenilia demo text fixed.
- Turbo Outrun graphics seem to be fixed.
- Audio pitch shifting on some games in zero delay mode fixed.
- Support for cartridge adapters added.
- Game Gear adapter supports the tuner now.

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, AtariNerd said:

Something will be mentioned about the adapters for the Mega SG, within a week or so:

 

https://twitter.com/analogue/status/1192318468789424128?s=09&fbclid=IwAR3Ffj0itK9sTcuPD10JU9GBjdifcsFYICdnGpreFd85POaX9Qhf0Gow7eQ

Excellent news!

 

Edited by Enragedwhale
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