FPGA Based Videogame System

[CZroe]

You know for a fact that the only people buying them actually own a Mega Sg? I imagine the same people who bought up the limited edition Analogue consoles to flip on eBay are doing the same here, and I've seen more than a few people buy multiple sets of these.

The people flipping LE Mega Sg consoles on eBay by definition bought a Mega Sg.

The people in this thread who bought more than one adapter set also bought a Mega Sg.

Limiting adapter sales to Mega Sg buyers would not have limited either group from buying them, hence, my question to you. Limiting it to one-per would force everyone pays ridiculous shipping. As you may have noticed, I offered to add on to my order for anyone in the Atlanta area specifically to save on shipping costs, which was a totally legit reason to order more than one.

Hope you didn't count me when you were tallying people in this thread who ordered more than one. I didn't get to order even mine as a direct result of my generosity and consideration for others. Heck, I preordered two Mega Sg consoles for my twin brother and I back in 2018 and probably would have ordered an extra set of adapters for him too except he's half-way around the world right now and still hasn't answered me (still sleeping in Thailand, AFAIK). Of course, we're both too late now.

[Jagasian]

3 hours ago, jamon1567 said:

VERY disappointed with the DAC. First off, it will not work with an HDMI switch. It needs to have the power out connected to a system in order to work. On top of that, they didn't bother to include any cables to connect. For the premium you pay for their products, and the bullshit shipping costs, I expect a couple of nice short little USB and HDMI cables so that I don't have a mess of cables all over the place just to connect it. Additionally, Component does not work on my JVC D-series consumer set. Personally, I'll be returning mine. VERY, VERY disappointed with this. 

My DAC is coming tomorrow.  My favorite CRTs are JVC D-Series.  It will be disappointing if the Analogue DAC’s component output doesn’t work on any of them.  Component from my OEM SNES works perfectly on my JVC D-Series.  Hopefully Kevtris can fix this issue with a firmware update.

[fiddlepaddle]

!

I've been patiently waiting for the game gear adapter to be available together with the main unit. Still not right now, I guess...

but it got me to realize something: it's been like a decade since I've had a working GG, and it turns out I don't really miss the games. Also, I'm still sailing along fat and happy with my original consoles that seem to work fine with my TV configuration, so don't cry for me.

BUT, I was just wondering if one of these game gear adapters are something someone could make at home, and what it might take (I have a couple of game gears to scavenge parts from). Anyone know? Is it a secret?

[mario64]

5 hours ago, hyrulebr said:

Just received an email from Retro gaming cables Uk and they are with issues in supply chain in China. Probably because of coronavirus. also see the green letters related with Analogue:

 

"Dear Retro Gamer

Since the Christmas rush we have slowly started to replenish stock. Most items are back in stock now including the Universal Nintendo, Dreamcast and PlayStation RG SCART cables.

Unfortunately there is no ETA on the RAD2X cables due to supply chain issues in China. But we will advise as soon as we get an update.

 

Analogue reached out to us asking whether we would like to become a cable provider for the Nt mini, DAC and custom cable for the 32X. I just need to feedback from you guys to see whether if there is enough interest from the community for these cables.

Best regards" 

 

 

Interestingly, prior to sending out the newsletter email Robert told me directly they would NOT be making the 32x DAC cable. Not sure what to believe. 

Edited February 8, 2020 by mario64

[mario64]

Do we know if the Game Gear cart adapter works with the Everdrive GG?

[jamon1567]

1 hour ago, Jagasian said:

My DAC is coming tomorrow.  My favorite CRTs are JVC D-Series.  It will be disappointing if the Analogue DAC’s component output doesn’t work on any of them.  Component from my OEM SNES works perfectly on my JVC D-Series.  Hopefully Kevtris can fix this issue with a firmware update.

I'll be interested to here how yours works out. My TV is a AV-32D303 for what it's worth.

[Toth]

If you live in the US I am sure retro access could make you cables (I am not sure if they ship out of the country).  I had them make me a BNC RGB cable for use with the DAC and Nt Mini.  I just told them what I was using it for in the custom cable maker pinout notes.

Edited February 8, 2020 by Toth

[Jagasian]

1 hour ago, jamon1567 said:

I'll be interested to here how yours works out. My TV is a AV-32D303 for what it's worth.

The AV-32D303 came in 3 different revisions: Y, R, and M.  Which revision do you have?  Pictorial guide is here:

https://imgur.com/gallery/LinjN10

 

I have three JVC D-Series CRT TVs: AV-27D500, AV-32D201, and AV-32D303/M.  I will post here whether or not the Analogue DAC and my Super NT works via component on any of my D-Series.  My Monoprice component cable doesn’t arrive until Tuesday though, and I haven’t yet ordered the composite and s-video cable because I was planning on using component.

 

The D-Series is my favorite CRT TV series because they have a classic style CRT, yet also supports component.

 

I also have a Toshiba CRT TV that supports component and can also test on that.

Edited February 8, 2020 by Jagasian

[spoonman]

2 hours ago, CZroe said:

The people flipping LE Mega Sg consoles on eBay by definition bought a Mega Sg.

The people in this thread who bought more than one adapter set also bought a Mega Sg.

Limiting adapter sales to Mega Sg buyers would not have limited either group from buying them, hence, my question to you. Limiting it to one-per would force everyone pays ridiculous shipping. As you may have noticed, I offered to add on to my order for anyone in the Atlanta area specifically to save on shipping costs, which was a totally legit reason to order more than one.

Hope you didn't count me when you were tallying people in this thread who ordered more than one. I didn't get to order even mine as a direct result of my generosity and consideration for others. Heck, I preordered two Mega Sg consoles for my twin brother and I back in 2018 and probably would have ordered an extra set of adapters for him too except he's half-way around the world right now and still hasn't answered me (still sleeping in Thailand, AFAIK). Of course, we're both too late now.

No, I'm not counting you. I'm talking about people who buy many at a time, bots even. I see it all the time with limited game releases. 10 minutes after those go up for sale you'll see sellers with "10+ available". That kind of stuff annoys me when there are so many simple ways for them to avoid that.

 

I really like what DATA Discs does. Once you are on their mailing list they'll send you an email letting you know exactly when the record will go up for pre-order. Then an hour before that time they will email you a 4 digital code which allows you to access the pre-order page. I've never not been able to buy what I wanted from them. Though none of that really matters if they didn't produce very many. Who knows.. 

Have they mentioned selling more or was it a one time sale to fulfill their promise of making some. The only reason I bought a Mega Sg was to play all of my physical Sega games.  Without the adapters I have little reason to own one. 

[jamon1567]

18 minutes ago, Jagasian said:

The AV-32D303 came in 3 different revisions: Y, R, and M.  Which revision do you have?  Pictorial guide is here:

https://imgur.com/gallery/LinjN10

 

I have three JVC D-Series CRT TVs: AV-27D500, AV-32D201, and AV-32D303/M.  I will post here whether or not the Analogue DAC and my Super NT works via component on any of my D-Series.  My Monoprice component cable doesn’t arrive until Tuesday though, and I haven’t yet ordered the composite and s-video cable because I was planning on using component.

 

The D-Series is my favorite CRT TV series because they have a classic style CRT, yet also supports component.

 

I also have a Toshiba CRT TV that supports component and can also test on that.

Mine is the M revision, so we both have the same TV. Should be interesting to see your results. Also, I agree about the D-series. I have several high end broadcast monitors and I'll be damned if I haven't been thinking about just selling them and rolling with my D-series. I also have a Sony KV-32FV310 and I'll prob be getting rid of that as well. It doesn't help that it needs a yoke and convergence adjustment, and that I'm not crazy about getting in there to do it with the TV on, but even if it were perfect I really just love my D-series. Granted mine is in pretty damn good shape, but the picture is great, it has the inputs you would want, it's got the look with the nice curved (and blackened) tube and it's a slot mask which I prefer to aperture grill. Oh, and it's a lot lighter than the Trinitrons to boot!

[jamon1567]

Kev, I have one more thought about the DAC, although it's really an observation about the Mega Sg. And that is that it is pretty much unplayable through composite on the DAC. It has the composite picture of a really terrible Genesis. The whites are all rainbowy (I'm sure theres a proper term for that, but it's not coming to mind) for lack of a better word. Its actually pretty funny because you def nailed it accuracy wise, but I wonder if it's possible to recreate the composite picture of a better later model Genesis? Might be more trouble than it's worth, but I wouldn't doubt there are people out there that would like to use composite here and there for certain games.

Edited February 8, 2020 by jamon1567

[Sho]

11 minutes ago, spoonman said:

No, I'm not counting you. I'm talking about people who buy many at a time, bots even. I see it all the time with limited game releases. 10 minutes after those go up for sale you'll see sellers with "10+ available". That kind of stuff annoys me when there are so many simple ways for them to avoid that.

 

I really like what DATA Discs does. Once you are on their mailing list they'll send you an email letting you know exactly when the record will go up for pre-order. Then an hour before that time they will email you a 4 digital code which allows you to access the pre-order page. I've never not been able to buy what I wanted from them. Though none of that really matters if they didn't produce very many. Who knows.. 

Have they mentioned selling more or was it a one time sale to fulfill their promise of making some. The only reason I bought a Mega Sg was to play all of my physical Sega games.  Without the adapters I have little reason to own one. 

https://twitter.com/analogue/status/1225953947715866630?s=20

[spoonman]

3 minutes ago, Sho said:

https://twitter.com/analogue/status/1225953947715866630?s=20

OK cool. Good to know. Thanks man.

[Sho]

1 minute ago, spoonman said:

OK cool. Good to know. Thanks man.

No prob!  I have a feeling the adapters were stupidly popular in Japan.

[jamon1567]

29 minutes ago, Sho said:

No prob!  I have a feeling the adapters were stupidly popular in Japan.

You really think so? I didn't think Japan was really into retro gaming to begin with which is why Japanese versions of all these old games are so cheaply and readily available.

Edited February 8, 2020 by jamon1567

[spoonman]

Since Analogue is going to be selling more of these is there anyone who purchased an extra set willing to part with one in exchange for "free shipping"?

I'll pay the entire Analogue shipping price ($20-$25) + shipping to me.

[Atariboy]

Glad I lack a Sega 8-bit cartridge collection and was satisfied with the jailbreak functionality...

 

I just hope I'm able to get an Analogue Pocket and I don't miss the five minute window of opportunity later on to buy the necessary dock to use the system in the manner I'm buying it for (While I'll surely take advantage of it as a handheld here and there, it's the tv-out feature I'm primarily interested in). And hopefully the dock won't have a 12 month wait like mere cartridge adapters did. 

 

Analogue has really done a lackluster job with these cartridge adapters. Taking a year from the release of the Mega Sg for them to actually arrive, prices are inflated from what we were initially told to expect, no option to buy them individually (I could see many customers skipping the SG-1000 adapter), and shipping fees are outrageous for tiny lightweight cartridge adapters. 

 

I hope they up their game with the Pocket where the handling of the accessories is concerned.

 

Edit: Glad to see them not only doing the right thing in regard to preorders, but actually letting us know about it in advance.

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by Atariboy

[RetrogamerX]

A friend of mine just got his ghostly super Nt and it didn’t come with a controller and receiver?  I also looked on the super nt subreddit and a few others just received the console minus controller and receiver . That can’t be right?  You’re paying $249 And you get no controller and receiver. If I bought one I would return it for a full refund.

[phoenixdownita]

6 hours ago, kevtris said:

The DAC uses non-standard HDMI signaling so the switch probably doesn't like it. 

How's the hi-res for Genny implemented?

odd/even line at 60-ish hz with the other half black/dark-grey as it may be?

Does it just cut luminosity (maybe you compensate for it) or can one see the "original flicker"?

[jamon1567]

50 minutes ago, Atariboy said:

Edit: Glad to see them not only doing the right thing in regard to preorders, but actually letting us know about it in advance.

 

Honestly not sure if that's good or bad knowing that quantities will be limited. Just gives eBay resellers more time to game plan....although now that I think of it, I thought they weren't doing a pre-order and were just gonna sell them when they're ready? If they're doing pre-orders I would hope they just leave them open for a period of time and then shut them off some time before the launch.

Edited February 8, 2020 by jamon1567

[Jagasian]

1 hour ago, jamon1567 said:

Mine is the M revision, so we both have the same TV. Should be interesting to see your results. Also, I agree about the D-series. I have several high end broadcast monitors and I'll be damned if I haven't been thinking about just selling them and rolling with my D-series. I also have a Sony KV-32FV310 and I'll prob be getting rid of that as well. It doesn't help that it needs a yoke and convergence adjustment, and that I'm not crazy about getting in there to do it with the TV on, but even if it were perfect I really just love my D-series. Granted mine is in pretty damn good shape, but the picture is great, it has the inputs you would want, it's got the look with the nice curved (and blackened) tube and it's a slot mask which I prefer to aperture grill. Oh, and it's a lot lighter than the Trinitrons to boot!

 Sony made some really great CRTs, but truth is that all arcade CRTs and the overwhelming majority of home CRT TVs were shadow mask curved CRTs.  The flat CRTs and aperture grille CRTs make games look different than what I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

Then again, I might be crazy because I prefer the look of composite for NES and many SNES and Genesis games.  Some games look better in component though.  Hence the D-Series where I can have it all.

[jamon1567]

2 minutes ago, Jagasian said:

 Sony made some really great CRTs, but truth is that all arcade CRTs and the overwhelming majority of home CRT TVs were shadow mask curved CRTs.  The flat CRTs and aperture grille CRTs make games look different than what I grew up with in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

Then again, I might be crazy because I prefer the look of composite for NES and many SNES and Genesis games.  Some games look better in component though.  Hence the D-Series where I can have it all.

Well unfortunately, unless you're really crazy, I don't think you'll want to be using composite on the Mega Sg through the DAC. Whites are all rainbowy. Then again, my model 1 Genesis looks the same way, so I dunno, maybe that's how you remember it and will like it . Personally, my childhood Genesis was a model 1 and didn't have the rainbow banding, but it also was a TMSS one and not the non-TMSS Genesis I have now. 

[kevtris]

36 minutes ago, phoenixdownita said:

How's the hi-res for Genny implemented?

odd/even line at 60-ish hz with the other half black/dark-grey as it may be?

Does it just cut luminosity (maybe you compensate for it) or can one see the "original flicker"?

it's interlaced like the genesis does it, with the same timing

[spoonman]

This is a bit OT, but I think at least a couple of people in here also pre-ordered Watermelon's Paprium (a few years ago). Obviously there was a lot of drama there, and most of the people working on it had left the project, because Fonzie stopped paying them. Then Watermelon claimed PayPal froze their account, and after promising many customers they would receive a refund, they  went completely silent for months.. Then they popped up again around the time of the Mega Drive's 30th anniversary with a disaster of a "release party", which turned out to be some sort of Euro dance party showing a very incomplete beta of Paprium, which was full of bugs, and had no sound. The owner of Watermelon, Fonzie, was said to be broke, and had spent all of the pre-order money on his rent and other bills, allegedly.

 

Cut to 2020.. Watermelon has been teasing Paprium news once again, this time showing what looks to be a PCB with a SEGA sticker on one ikf the chips. Can anyone make out any of this. Does it look legit? Is it using an FPGA chip for it's "DATENMEISTER" audio add-on? Tbisnof course is supposed to be a 48KHz, 24 channel audio processor running off the cartridge itself, which is also an 80MEG rom.

 

As someone who preordered a copy a long time ago, I had pretty much given up all hope of ever receiving a copy. This is interesting, but I'm not going to believe anything until I'm holding a working copy in my hands..

 

The tweet is here... 

 

I normally don't take risks like this, but I have to admit that I was blown away by the game's graphics and music. 

The music is extremely impressive. (Keep in mind this is supposedly what we were to expect on a Genesis.. Not a Neo•Geo, or CD Redbook, but on a standard Genesis cart (with add-on enhancement chip). Also with graphics and animation that give Streets of Rage 2 a run for its money. Including larger sprites than SOR2, and with even more on screen enemies than it as well.

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by spoonman

[Pixelboy]

31 minutes ago, spoonman said:

This is a bit OT, but I think at least a couple of people in here also pre-ordered Watermelon's Paprium (a few years ago).

Not a bit OT, more like completely OT. You should create a new thread for this.