FPGA Based Videogame System

[Jagasian]

3 hours ago, Drunk_Caterpillar said:

The E9 has roughly 15ms of display latency, so it'll be about a frame behind a CRT.

The CRT takes 8.3ms to draw the top half of a frame sent to it.  The E9 takes 13.1ms to draw the top half of a frame sent to it.  That means the E9 has about 5ms delay relative to a CRT at 60hz.

 

I did the 240p side-by-side test to confirm that the LG E9 has less than a frame of lag.  Watch this slow motion video and you can see the frame number on the OLED catch up to the frame number on the CRT just as the CRT’s frame number advances to the next frame.  This shows the OLED is roughly 1/3 a frame behind the CRT.

 

Edited February 28, 2020 by Jagasian

[Reaperman]

Probably been asked (I looked a ways back), but given the new nt mini attention, has analogue perhaps allotted some kevtris time for:

• those sweet cart adapters (adapters for nt mini cores are way more useful for homebrews than the sg's adapters)
• modernizing cores from other consoles. For example, IIRC coleco on SG runs 'super game module' games, and I haven't checked, but I imagine game gear got some polishing for SG.  Granted kevtris may have to trade notes with whatever mysterious stranger jailbroke that system, but I suspect that could be arranged.
• and IIRC there was an intellivision core somewhat close.

If there is new stuff, am I going to need a v2 to run it?  The NT Mini is already my 'stranded on a deserted island' system choice, but I'd have to buy the wife something really nice to make up for upgrading. 

All this NT news has me wanting to play mine this weekend.  

Edited February 28, 2020 by Reaperman

[CZroe]

 
Might depend on "redesign". If redesign is "we found a more appropriate edge connector and used it", then maybe not as much of a guarantee. But if it's an Analogue special like the GG connector, then I'd agree.

They said "we designed" so I assume it's an Anlogue Special.

I am overjoyed that Drunk_Caterpillar confirmed jailbreak compatibility by Kevtris just a moment ago!  I may be the only one that just bought the world's most expensive Atari 7800 that also plays the historic oddball cores and of course the NES. What an expensive way to play Duck Hunt finally.

He called it a "claim" and even that claim seems to have been deleted so I wouldn't consider it "confirmed" just yet.

[Steven Pendleton]

Well... I justified it by realizing I had more disposable cash than I thought. I hate myself for it, though. At least I'll be able to flip it for an insane amount of cash if I need to later.

 

And am I the only one who thinks this was done because Analogue is having production problems with the Pocket, knew there was a demand for the Nt Mini, and is basically using this as a stopgap until they can fix whatever is causing the problems with the Pocket? Hopefully they hold off on the Pocket pre-orders for now so everyone who bought this crazy thing can recover from it.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[+eebuckeye]

I hope this means more work will be done on the NT mini cores including releasing the Intellevision one which I believe Kevtris said was pretty much done a long time ago.  When I bought the NT mini cartridge adapters were in process of being made for it - would be awesome to see these finally come true! 

[zwooky]

30 minutes ago, eebuckeye said:

I hope this means more work will be done on the NT mini cores including releasing the Intellevision one which I believe Kevtris said was pretty much done a long time ago.  When I bought the NT mini cartridge adapters were in process of being made for it - would be awesome to see these finally come true! 

Couldn't agree with you more.

 

Glad everyone is getting a chance at the Mini again, my only fear is that there will be some additions that won't available to us owners of V1.

Debating getting a V2 as well just in case.

Edited February 29, 2020 by zwooky

[Jagasian]

7 hours ago, Enragedwhale said:

Interpolation is only needed if you are playing on a flat panel and not using an integer scale. Due to the pixel width not being an exact match for the pixel widths of your TV the pixels are unevenly sized and it causing a distracting flickering effect when the screen scrolls. 
 

Using an exact integer scale solves this but then you get square pixels which results in an incorrect aspect ratio as on a real NES played on a 4:3 CRT the pixels are wider than they are tall.

 

Interpolation subtly blurs the pixel edges and this reduces the flicker effect a great deal at the expense of a little softness to the image.

NT Mini V2s will be available for years to come.  They will cost more than $2000, but they will be available ?

[Steven Pendleton]

I'm really hoping for the Intellivision core, h. interpolation, and the scanlines from the Mega Sg since those already got moved over to the Super Nt. I wonder if the menu will be redone to match the Super Nt and Mega Sg, but it's fine if it doesn't.

 

And it seems Famicom Disk System is not supported from the SD card, so that's what I'd like the most over everything else.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[Drunk_Caterpillar]

1 hour ago, CZroe said:

He called it a "claim" and even that claim seems to have been deleted so I wouldn't consider it "confirmed" just yet.

 

Confirmed on Discord. Took a look for myself.

[Drunk_Caterpillar]

Can we talk about this attitude for a sec?

I'll buy it now and sell it later for more if I don't want it.

Please don't do this. Video game hardware is rarely a solid resale investment and the conditions that created the inflated used sale prices for the original Nt Mini probably won't repeat themselves. Buy the V2 because it's something you can justify buying for yourself, not because you think it'll appreciate in value. Look at all those fools who're flooding the market with V1s since the V2 got released; you're seeing them drop prices significantly, and so far the only substantial differences between it and V2 is the cartridge slot. All it'll take is for a newer FPGA solution to be released with one more marginal improvement and your "investment" will be essentially worthless—that is, unless you actually use it.

This thing costs almost a month's rent folks; if you're on the fence about whether you should to spend that kinda bread, it's probably a lot smarter to hold tight for the inevitable release of a cheaper/better version.

[Jagasian]

50 minutes ago, Drunk_Caterpillar said:

Can we talk about this attitude for a sec?
 

Please don't do this. Video game hardware is rarely a solid resale investment and the conditions that created the inflated used sale prices for the original Nt Mini probably won't repeat themselves. Buy the V2 because it's something you can justify buying for yourself, not because you think it'll appreciate in value. Look at all those fools who're flooding the market with V1s since the V2 got released; you're seeing them drop prices significantly, and so far the only substantial differences between it and V2 is the cartridge slot. All it'll take is for a newer FPGA solution to be released with one more marginal improvement and your "investment" will be essentially worthless—that is, unless you actually use it.

This thing costs almost a month's rent folks; if you're on the fence about whether you should to spend that kinda bread, it's probably a lot smarter to hold tight for the inevitable release of a cheaper/better version.

I wish a month’s rent was $500.  Where I live, rent is closer to $4,000.

[Steven Pendleton]

22 minutes ago, Jagasian said:

I wish a month’s rent was $500.  Where I live, rent is closer to $4,000.

Sounds like Singapore.

[atmn]

Heck.. I ordered a v2 even if I own a v1.

 

Played some on my NtM yeserday with my N8, (for save states) and I had to reinsert the cart like 10 times before it booted correctly.

 

Hopefully I can sell my v1 and get my money back from that at least. I do not demand a huge profit.

[Steven Pendleton]

4 minutes ago, atmn said:

Heck.. I ordered a v2 even if I own a v1.

 

Played some on my NtM yeserday with my N8, (for save states) and I had to reinsert the cart like 10 times before it booted correctly.

 

Hopefully I can sell my v1 and get my money back from that at least. I do not demand a huge profit.

Is the Famicom cart slot better? Joe Redifer causing the NES cart slot to freak out just by blowing on it wasn't very reassuring, but I imagine the Famicom slot might be a little bit more stable just because FC carts are not so tall and the center of gravity is much closer to the system. I may be wrong, though.

[atmn]

7 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Is the Famicom cart slot better? Joe Redifer causing the NES cart slot to freak out just by blowing on it wasn't very reassuring, but I imagine the Famicom slot might be a little bit more stable just because FC carts are not so tall and the center of gravity is much closer to the system. I may be wrong, though.

I dont know, but I have had not as much problems with the famicom port, if any that I remembered.

 

Famicom games tend to be cheap and... dirty.

[Steven Pendleton]

3 minutes ago, atmn said:

I dont know, but I have had not as much problems with the famicom port, if any that I remembered.

 

Famicom games tend to be cheap and... dirty.

Yeah, Famicom games are usually super cheap unless you go for CIB or stuff that's really in demand. Good to see that the FC port is stable, though. I don't know where to get the FDS adaptor thing without buying the FDS itself, so I might pick up a Famicom Everdrive for FDS support instead of the FDSStick if running FDS games from the SD card doesn't get added to the firmware.

[Fafner]

Hey guys!

 

I know this has been answered But I’m having trouble finding...

Can someone point me towards a guide for the best settings for the NT Mini?

 

Also anyone know how to flip the difficulty switch in the 2600 core?

 

Thanks!

[atmn]

12 minutes ago, Fafner said:

Hey guys!

 

I know this has been answered But I’m having trouble finding...

Can someone point me towards a guide for the best settings for the NT Mini?

 

Also anyone know how to flip the difficulty switch in the 2600 core?

 

Thanks!

I checked the A2600 core specific settings and all I could find was video system settings (PAL/NTSC/SECAM/AUTO) and swap controllers and enable atarivox...something.

Maybe there is a way but I could not find it.

[Fafner]

6 minutes ago, atmn said:

I checked the A2600 core specific settings and all I could find was video system settings (PAL/NTSC/SECAM/AUTO) and swap controllers and enable atarivox...something.

Maybe there is a way but I could not find it.

Where’d ya find the core specific settings?

Been searching and having no luck?

[Steven Pendleton]

How long did it take for this thing to sell out last time it was available? There will always be someone somewhere that wants one and wasn't able to get one for whatever reason, whether it was because they didn't check their email (or they did and it was in the spam folder for some reason), they got hospitalized, were on a military deployment, or just plain forgot. I'm 50% surprised they didn't insta-sell out this time.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[CZroe]

Yeah, Famicom games are usually super cheap unless you go for CIB or stuff that's really in demand. Good to see that the FC port is stable, though. I don't know where to get the FDS adaptor thing without buying the FDS itself, so I might pick up a Famicom Everdrive for FDS support instead of the FDSStick if running FDS games from the SD card doesn't get added to the firmware.

There are a lot of cheap RAM adapters on eBay due to broken/junk drives but I bought a whole boxed FDS for $6.50 a couple months ago. Turns out it needs a belt but it wasn't being sold as junk or anything. 

 

 

Also, my Everdrive N8 sounded terrible compared to a real Sharp twinFAMICOM but that was with old FW in 2016 and it may have improved since then.

 

[XtraSmiley]

4 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

How long did it take for this thing to sell out last time it was available? There will always be someone somewhere that wants one and wasn't able to get one for whatever reason, whether it was because they didn't check their email (or they did and it was in the spam folder for some reason), they got hospitalized, were on a military deployment, or just plain forgot. I'm 50% surprised they didn't insta-sell out this time.

You're 50% surprised because you're 50% fooled by basic marketing. As were the people who thought an online petition reaching 1,000 signatures was what made them make the v2, actually, those people were 100% fooled.

[Jurai]

15 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Probably been asked (I looked a ways back), but given the new nt mini attention, has analogue perhaps allotted some kevtris time for:

• those sweet cart adapters (adapters for nt mini cores are way more useful for homebrews than the sg's adapters)
• modernizing cores from other consoles. For example, IIRC coleco on SG runs 'super game module' games, and I haven't checked, but I imagine game gear got some polishing for SG.  Granted kevtris may have to trade notes with whatever mysterious stranger jailbroke that system, but I suspect that could be arranged.
• and IIRC there was an intellivision core somewhat close.

If there is new stuff, am I going to need a v2 to run it?  The NT Mini is already my 'stranded on a deserted island' system choice, but I'd have to buy the wife something really nice to make up for upgrading. 

All this NT news has me wanting to play mine this weekend.  

Jailbreak cores have never been officially supported so no reason they would make adapters

[+eebuckeye]

Kevtris officially supported the cores for the NT mini when it was released and specifically mentioned adapters and even had a video for them.

[Jagasian]

The fact that both the cartridge connector and the UI are confirmed to be updated suggests that Kevtris has likely added other improvements in the firmware.  He is the only person at the company that works on the UI, which is part of the firmware.  I am crossing my fingers for interpolation support.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Jagasian