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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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On 12/1/2019 at 12:25 AM, spoonman said:

 

These PlayStation 24" 3D displays were dirt cheap for a while too. For $99 they included a pair of active shutter glasses, and a copy of one of the best looking 3D games too. 

 

Please tell me where I can find 3d TVs for $99. I figured technology will improve and I would eventually be able to buy them with gorgeous screens and use cheap, passive glasses. But no. Everything is 4k and 2d now. They are unobtainable.

 

Sad because with current technology, a 4k OLED screen could in theory be constructed which used alternate pixel rows with polarized lenses and work with cheap movie theater glasses, and you would get effectively 1080p resolution without active glasses. The polarized screen overlay would only add marginal cost to existing sets with the right firmware to utilize it.

Edited by Kosmic Stardust
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1 hour ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

Please tell me where I can find 3d TVs for $99. I figured technology will improve and I would eventually be able to buy them with gorgeous screens and use cheap, passive glasses. But no. Everything is 4k and 2d now. They are unobtainable.

 

Sad because with current technology, a 4k OLED screen could in theory be constructed which used alternate pixel rows with polarized lenses and work with cheap movie theater glasses, and you would get effectively 1080p resolution without active glasses. The polarized screen overlay would only add marginal cost to existing sets with the right firmware to utilize it.

I don't know where you buy them new anymore, but used 24" PS 3D Displays often pop upon eBay for $99 (+shipping).

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=playstation+3D+display&_sacat=0&_sop=15

You might be better off buying one used anyway based on all of the defects that Sony had. It seemed like most of them went bad within the first 2-3 months of use. I made sure to buy a cheap SquareTrade manufacture defect warranty when I bought mine. 

 

I really love the quality of the PlayStation 3D Display. Even with 2D content. I even bought a 2nd one a few months later from Newegg when the price fell again to only $49. I used one for about 6 months just to make sure it was good and then switched to the other. I've been using it for 7+ years, probably 12 hours a day (using it for PS3/PS4/Wii U/and as my main PC display), and it's still perfect. I will warn that it reflects EVERYTHING with it's ultra glossy glass screen. I game most at night in a dark room so I'm not bothered by it, but I wanted to mention it. 

 

Oh, and it also works perfectly with 240p content. I have used the classic consoles on it using HD Retrovision YPbPr component cables and they look very nice. 

PlayStation3DDisplay-14-vgo.jpg

 

Around the same time the Sony glasses went on sale for $9.99 each. I bought 2 of them. My girlfriend and I have watched a few 3D movies on it. 

Sony3DGlasses-01.jpg

 

It also has that Simul-View tech where 2 people can play compatible co-op games (2D), each with a full screen. There are only a few compatible games, but it's a neat idea. 

 

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@Kevtris

 

There is something that seems very wrong with pixel blending in the MegaSG when the blending option is active, since as you know it makes most text uneasy to read and UNGLY in general.

Well, it does NOT have to be like that: I have the MegaSG and I also have other FPGA-based, scene-driven boards, and recently we got composite-like un-dithering for the open Genesis implementation. This open composite-like blending does a WAY BETTER job than the MegaSG one! It seems to be less selective so the results are coherent all over the screen, and text does NOT look ugly like it does on the MegaSG.

So:

1) Can the MegaSG be configured with current options to have something like that?

2) If 1=no, can you *please* add this simple, not-so-selective un-ditheing method to the MegaSG?

 

Open method is very simple from the looks of it, but as I said, it works WAY better than what we currently have:

 

// Composite-like horizontal blending by Kitrinx

module cofi (
	input        clk,
	input        pix_ce,
	input        enable,

	input        hblank,
	input        vblank,
	input        hs,
	input        vs,
	input  [7:0] red,
	input  [7:0] green,
	input  [7:0] blue,

	output reg       hblank_out,
	output reg       vblank_out,
	output reg       hs_out,
	output reg       vs_out,
	output reg [7:0] red_out,
	output reg [7:0] green_out,
	output reg [7:0] blue_out
);

	function bit [7:0] color_blend (
		input [7:0] color_prev,
		input [7:0] color_curr,
		input blank_last
	);
	begin
		color_blend = blank_last ? color_curr : (color_prev >> 1) + (color_curr >> 1);
	end
	endfunction

reg [7:0] red_last;
reg [7:0] green_last;
reg [7:0] blue_last;

always @(posedge clk) if (pix_ce) begin
	
	hblank_out <= hblank;
	vblank_out <= vblank;
	vs_out     <= vs;
	hs_out     <= hs;

	red_last   <= red;
	blue_last  <= blue;
	green_last <= green;

	red_out    <= enable ? color_blend(red_last,   red,   hblank_out) : red;
	blue_out   <= enable ? color_blend(blue_last,  blue,  hblank_out) : blue;
	green_out  <= enable ? color_blend(green_last, green, hblank_out) : green;

end

endmodule

 

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After hours of playing and testing, I can not insist enough on how far better the Kintrix open horizontal blending is when compared against the current blending in the MegaSG is. Its simply perfect, please test. Games look just like they do on RCA minus image noise, just wonderful really.

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4 hours ago, GarrettCRW said:

This is just a random thought I had, but is it possible that the Analogue 8 is a catch-all for various 8-bit computers, like the C64, Atari 8-bit line/5200, MSX 1/2, and so on?

It's more likely to be a multi-console (using all the cores that Kev has already created) with cartridge adaptors, but it would only need a couple of USB ports (to plug in a keyboard and mouse) to make it possible to develop 8-bit computer cores for it.

 

 

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18 hours ago, Pixelboy said:

It's more likely to be a multi-console (using all the cores that Kev has already created) with cartridge adaptors, but it would only need a couple of USB ports (to plug in a keyboard and mouse) to make it possible to develop 8-bit computer cores for it.

 

 

Also, probably has got the same programming capabilities than their portable thingy.

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I'm not sure if it was like this prior to the newest jailbroken firmware (7.7), but the voices in Squish 'em Sam do the ColecoVision core are hosed.

I don't have a way to capture it, but they sound high pitched and barely audible. Here's how they should sound.

 

 

It was a bit embarrassing how I came upon the bad audio. I had some friends over and I was trying to defend why the Analogue Mega Sg was "so worth the $200+ I spent on it". I told my older brother, a ColecoVision fan since 1982 to pick a game to try. He picked Squish 'Em Sam, explaining "This game was amazing for it's time with its actual voice samples!".. I queue it up and yeah.. It was messed up. :( followed by laughter and my brother: "Money well spent there!". Of course the ColecoVision core was not the only reason I bought the Sg, but it is a bummer. I also wonder if other ColecoVision games have audio issues. Anyone else come upon other games with audio issues?

 

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, spoonman said:

I'm not sure if it was like this prior to the newest jailbroken firmware (7.7), but the voices in Squish 'em Sam do the ColecoVision core are hosed.

I don't have a way to capture it, but they sound high pitched and barely audible. Here's how they should sound.

 

 

It was a bit embarrassing how I came upon the bad audio. I had some friends over and I was trying to defend why the Analogue Mega Sg was "so worth the $200+ I spent on it". I told my older brother, a ColecoVision fan since 1982 to pick a game to try. He picked Squish 'Em Sam, explaining "This game was amazing for it's time with its actual voice samples!".. I queue it up and yeah.. It was messed up. :( followed by laughter and my brother: "Money well spent there!". Of course the ColecoVision core was not the only reason I bought the Sg, but it is a bummer. I also wonder if other ColecoVision games have audio issues. Anyone else come upon other games with audio issues?

 

 

 

 

It wasn't working in 7.3 jailbrake (which is the version I have running on mine). 

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12 hours ago, spoonman said:

It was a bit embarrassing how I came upon the bad audio. I had some friends over and I was trying to defend why the Analogue Mega Sg was "so worth the $200+ I spent on it". I told my older brother, a ColecoVision fan since 1982 to pick a game to try. He picked Squish 'Em Sam, explaining "This game was amazing for it's time with its actual voice samples!".. I queue it up and yeah.. It was messed up. :( followed by laughter and my brother: "Money well spent there!". Of course the ColecoVision core was not the only reason I bought the Sg, but it is a bummer. I also wonder if other ColecoVision games have audio issues. Anyone else come upon other games with audio issues?

To be fair though, Colecovision isn’t officially supported. :)

 

The Mega Sg is an FPGA-based aftermarket game console compatible with Sega GenesisSega Mega DriveSega Master SystemSega Game Gear and SG-1000 games. 

 

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4 hours ago, Bmack36 said:

It does work correctly on the Phoenix:

 

 

Interesting. It may only be 2 games on the ColecoVision that use digitized speech, (the other being Sewer Sam), but it was pretty impressive for 1983. Also a reminder that FPGA systems are still emulating original console hardware, and are only as good as the programming that supports it. I know it's just part of the jailbroken fw, but it would be nice to have it fully working as well as the original ColecoVision can run it.

 

The 3D persective scrolling in this game is also some of the best I've seen on the CV.

 

 

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3 hours ago, spoonman said:

...Also a reminder that FPGA systems are still emulating original console hardware, and are only as good as the programming that supports it.

I know it's just part of the jailbroken fw, but it would be nice to have it fully working as well as the original ColecoVision can run it.

.... or you buy the Phoenix and help the good fellows at CollectorVision, after all their FPGA system is mainly for CV.

I'm sure the firmware fairy will fix it, at the same time wanting it just because you get laughed at by your brother .....  I wouldn't consider it very motivating if I was the firmware fairy.

 

.... oh oh, one more thing, next time before boasting with your brother you should really have tested it, it's your brother so I presume you may have some idea of what he would like to test.

 

And to close, there's no retro system original or FPGA or emulated that is worth 200US$ for the games, buying back some nostalgia though ... that is priceless. I personally reached the conclusion that I love some of those old systems (original, emulated, FPGAed) because back in the days I ended up playing them with my friends ... so yeah I truly miss those friends of yesteryears, and the careless abandonment with which we could spend hours, afternoons, entire weekends playing non stop.

 

 

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5 hours ago, phoenixdownita said:

.... or you buy the Phoenix and help the good fellows at CollectorVision, after all their FPGA system is mainly for CV.

I'm sure the firmware fairy will fix it, at the same time wanting it just because you get laughed at by your brother .....  I wouldn't consider it very motivating if I was the firmware fairy.

 

.... oh oh, one more thing, next time before boasting with your brother you should really have tested it, it's your brother so I presume you may have some idea of what he would like to test.

 

And to close, there's no retro system original or FPGA or emulated that is worth 200US$ for the games, buying back some nostalgia though ... that is priceless. I personally reached the conclusion that I love some of those old systems (original, emulated, FPGAed) because back in the days I ended up playing them with my friends ... so yeah I truly miss those friends of yesteryears, and the careless abandonment with which we could spend hours, afternoons, entire weekends playing non stop.

 

 

I tested it for about 9 hours straight. Playing about 75 games on CV, SG1000, SMS, GG, and GEN. I didn't have any one game in mind. I just played the games I knew best on the CV, they sounded perfect so I assumed all ColecoVision would also be perfect.

 

I thought it was clear that I am super impressed by both Sewer Sam and Squish 'Em. Actual digitized speech on a 1982 ColecoVision system without a voice add-on, such as the Intellivoice, is very impressive. I also thought the same of Spike on the Vectrex. "DARN IT!". As well as the smooth "Sega Super Scaler" 3D syle scrolling in Sewer Sam. Having those game working correctly on the Mega Sg would be great just for how they stick out from all other games in the ColecoVision library.

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7 hours ago, AtariNerd said:

^Actually, yes, it does come with it, though it's not shown in the web-site promo. Plain, clear plastic, like the standard models. It's in another insert layer, below the cart and joy-pad. The box is overall a little taller, to accommodate.

Also Ultracore comes pre installed? Another missing information on the web-site...

 

Mine will arrive today but I´m in Brazil and choose to delivery it at US (I will use a forwarder service to send to Brazil). I will only see it in person next year... ?

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