FPGA Based Videogame System

[jamon1567]

1 hour ago, XtraSmiley said:

I'll respectfully disagree. Sega CD is the next easiest thus logical step. I would tell you to not hold your breath on a PS1, after all, even Sony has decided they are passing on it.

 

I would venture a guess that Kevtris might be trying to come up with a 32x solution as well, but this might be a reach!

I mean, anything is possible, but the way you stated it made it seem like you thought they could just slap a CD drive on it and it would be ready to go, which is not he case. It would be quite a bit of effort and that's why they didn't do it to begin with. For PCE it literally was just slapping a CD drive on it for the most part, so it was a lot easier to justify. Also, I kinda suspect the idea to do this may have at least been partially motivated by wanting to help fill out the Pocket with PCE and they figured, what the hell, lets release the Duo as well. I simply don't see them going backwards and revisiting Sega. It's going to be onward to something else, and PS1 is most likely due to install base and practicality of implementation IMO.

Edited October 18, 2020 by jamon1567

[hyrulebr]

 

 

There is a talk that this PC engine core wasn't programmed by Kevtris. ?

 

 

 

 

[jamon1567]

That's interesting, although I do recall Kev specifically not doing the PCE core previously because of some toxicity from that crowd. Perhaps that played into this, but if they have other ppl capable of this there then I'd like to start seeing all of these issues from previous consoles addressed.

[phoenixdownita]

Am I the only one a little upset wrt to

 

 ?

 

I don't care about their "square" shape design, and I really hope they registered the logo and not the acronym FPGA .... if they registered literally the 4 letters f p g a that would be so stupid, FPGA existed way before analogue did, and project MiST started way way before (I am sure there were even earlier ones, I just used MiST as an example)

 

 

So weird, I guess they really want to stress their being FPGA based, at the same time I am not sure you can really register something like that (a little like Intel could not register numbers for their 586 and switched to Pentium etc...).

 

[XtraSmiley]

12 hours ago, jamon1567 said:

I mean, anything is possible, but the way you stated it made it seem like you thought they could just slap a CD drive on it and it would be ready to go, which is not he case. It would be quite a bit of effort and that's why they didn't do it to begin with. For PCE it literally was just slapping a CD drive on it for the most part, so it was a lot easier to justify. Also, I kinda suspect the idea to do this may have at least been partially motivated by wanting to help fill out the Pocket with PCE and they figured, what the hell, lets release the Duo as well. I simply don't see them going backwards and revisiting Sega. It's going to be onward to something else, and PS1 is most likely due to install base and practicality of implementation IMO.

That's fair too, I just think the Sega CD FPGA implementation is easier (it's been already been accomplished by TO and Krikzz) than the PSX, which no one has done yet.

[XtraSmiley]

4 hours ago, hyrulebr said:

 

 

There is a talk that this PC engine core wasn't programmed by Kevtris. ?

 

 

 

 

Damn, that's interesting. If he's NOT been spending time on it, what HAS he been doing?

 

If he didn't do this core, what did he do for the Pocket, if anything?

 

Does that mean there may not be a JB for this, since that was Kevtris' personal thing?

 

Now it's getting interesting...

[Steven Pendleton]

37 minutes ago, XtraSmiley said:

That's fair too, I just think the Sega CD FPGA implementation is easier (it's been already been accomplished by TO and Krikzz) than the PSX, which no one has done yet.

PlayStation is WIP for MiSTer right now. It's coming eventually.

[AtariNerd]

Been waiting for this one, but a little uncertain if it wasn't created by Kev, whether it will get the support.  Hmmm, that looks more like a PC-E port and not a TG-16 port. Maybe a typo.

[Steven Pendleton]

2 hours ago, AtariNerd said:

Hmmm, that looks more like a PC-E port and not a TG-16 port. Maybe a typo.

Yeah, it's wrong, just like the dimensions of the system are on their website as of this post, which show the size to be identical to the Mega Sg.

 

Here's the PC Engine controller port (on the multitap, anyway, since this was the only picture I could find that is decent and although I could just take a picture myself, you don't want to see my photography skills).

 

 

Here's the TurboGrafx controller port.

 

[Einhandr]

In case anyone was worried about Kev’s involvement in the Duo, he actually got a promotion!  
 

 

[jamon1567]

Thanks for that. It's interesting there wasn't the usual media blitz this time around with the Duo announcement. I looked at a handful of articles from the usual sites and they were all just vanilla stuff basically restating the Analogue press release. No interviews with Taber or anything like that. Not sure why, but interesting observation.

[XtraSmiley]

9 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

PlayStation is WIP for MiSTer right now. It's coming eventually.

Yeah, but "eventually" and already done two times is the difference. Maybe they won't release a Mega SG CD, but it's more likely as the next system than a PSX. IMO anyway.

 

I think the PSX is coming, just that the Mega SG CD would be first.

 

2 hours ago, Einhandr said:

In case anyone was worried about Kev’s involvement in the Duo, he actually got a promotion!  
 

 

This is great news, congrats Kevtris!!

 

I'm glad he's getting help!

 

That being said, if the team has grown THAT much, then it's a no-brainer that there are more cores coming, and hopefully some fixes for the old cores!

[Pixelboy]

It's interesting to see Analogue having developed a true R&D department, with Kevtris as director. Just think of all those people learning from the master. 

 

I would imagine that his team of a "dozen people" is currently split between the Pocket (including the Dock and the cart adaptors) and the Duo. So plenty of work to go around for everybody involved right now. But what is such a large team going to do next, after those two sets of products will have been released? One can only wonder, although I suppose if there's a will to do the PlayStation, they've probably started doing some preliminary work on the project already.

 

There's a little voice inside my head that hopes they'll do a TV-only mini-console version of the Pocket (i.e. cartridge slot on the console, with wired or wireless hand controller) but I know that's unlikely to happen.

 

Edited October 19, 2020 by Pixelboy

[Einhandr]

9 minutes ago, Pixelboy said:

It's interesting to see Analogue having developed a true R&D department, with Kevtris as director. Just think of all those people learning from the master. 

 

I would imagine that his team of a "dozen people" is currently split between the Pocket (including the Dock and the cart adaptors) and the Duo. So plenty of work to go around for everybody involved right now. But what is such a large team going to do next, after those two sets of products will have been released? One can only wonder, although I suppose if there's a will to do the PlayStation, they've probably started doing some preliminary work on the project already.

 

There's a little voice inside my head that hopes they'll do a TV-only mini-console version of the Pocket (i.e. cartridge slot on the console, with wired or wireless hand controller) but I know that's unlikely to happen.

 

I think there’s about a dozen analogue employees, not engineers. So between marketing/finance/engineering/etc his team is probably closer 3 or so. 

[Pixelboy]

1 hour ago, Einhandr said:

I think there’s about a dozen analogue employees, not engineers. So between marketing/finance/engineering/etc his team is probably closer 3 or so. 

Ah, yes, you're probably right.

 

[Toth]

It doesn't seem like they sell very much stuff to cover the salaries of 12 people.  

[lame gag]

So who has the position of updating bugs on previous machine releases?

[zetastrike]

This is one of the reasons I don't like discord at all.  There's a lot of information now that's only found there and can't just be googled.  You're kind of forced to join it or be entirely out of the loop.

[NE146]

11 minutes ago, zetastrike said:

This is one of the reasons I don't like discord at all.  There's a lot of information now that's only found there and can't just be googled.  You're kind of forced to join it or be entirely out of the loop.

It's on their faq too.  https://support.analogue.co/hc/en-us/articles/360051105131-Analogue-Duo-FAQ

[blzmarcel]

On 10/16/2020 at 10:49 AM, konradklaus said:

Just like the pocket it has the warning about no roms.  I wonder if the days of jailbroken analogue devices is over.  This really makes me want the pocket more... Hope they open those preorders up again so everyone who'd like one can order one.

I honestly feel that Analogue has places an overemphasis on using game cartridges. It's great to have that option, but they seem to be missing a very important reason to have ROM file support, which is preservation. It's (near the end of) 2020, a lot of game cartridges from the 90s, 80s, and 70s are quite old now, and putting them back into constant use can wear them out. For example, a lot of NES/Famicom, and SMS/SG-1000 games are approaching 40 years old.

 

This is why I have dumped all the games I originally owned and have held onto over the years, and generally play their ROM counter parts while keeping the originals in a safe, cool, and dry place. This is very similar to how people have ripped DVD and CD libraries over the past couple decades.

 

Preservation should not be under estimated. It is my humble opinion that any modern retro gaming system that has cartridge slots, should have the ability to dump the cartridges to ROM files that can then be loaded instead of the cartridges, out of the box, without any need to "jail break." This feels especially true for something like the Pocket. While I don't mind using real cartridges, it's much nicer to be able to choose from a menu containing my whole library, while keeping my original cartridges safe.

 

Edited October 19, 2020 by blzmarcel

[zetastrike]

12 minutes ago, blzmarcel said:

I honestly feel that Analogue has places an overemphasis on using game cartridges. It's great to have that option, but they seem to be missing a very important reason to have ROM file support, which is preservation. It's (near the end of) 2020, a lot of game cartridges from the 90s, 80s, and 70s are quite old now, and putting them back into constant use can wear them out. For example, a lot of NES/Famicom, and SMS/SG-1000 games are approaching 40 years old.

 

This is why I have dumped all the games I originally owned and have held onto over the years, and generally play their ROM counter parts while keeping the originals in a safe, cool, and dry place. This is very similar to how people have ripped DVD and CD libraries over the past couple decades.

 

Preservation should not be under estimated. It is my humble opinion that any modern retro gaming system that has cartridge slots, should have the ability to dump the cartridges to ROM files that can then be loaded instead of the cartridges, out of the box, without any need to "jail break." This feels especially true for something like the Pocket. While I don't mind using real cartridges, it's much nicer to be able to choose from a menu containing my whole library, while keeping my original cartridges safe.

 

It's also 2020, where huge corporations like Nintendo have the power to nuke small outfits like Analogue if they feel that their products are encouraging piracy of their back catalog.  It's a very fine line to straddle.

Edited October 19, 2020 by zetastrike

[blzmarcel]

10 minutes ago, zetastrike said:

It's also 2020, where huge corporations like Nintendo have the power to nuke small outfits like Analogue if they feel that their products are encouraging piracy of their back catalog.  It's a very fine line to straddle.

I get that, but at the same time there are many of third party consoles, FPGA or just regular emulation, that support ROMs just fine, and some also allow dumping, yet have not been shutdown, as far as I'm aware.

[blzmarcel]

14 hours ago, AtariNerd said:

Hmmm, that looks more like a PC-E port and not a TG-16 port. Maybe a typo.

PC-Engine and TG-16 are the same console. The former was renamed to the latter for the NA market, and I could swear they used the same controller ports (I can remember a friend back in the 90s using a white PC-E controller on his North American TG-16 console.)

[Einhandr]

4 minutes ago, blzmarcel said:

PC-Engine and TG-16 are the same console. The former was renamed to the latter for the NA market, and I could swear they used the same controller ports (I can remember a friend back in the 90s using a white PC-E controller on his North American TG-16 console.)

The ports on the TG16 are slightly larger than PCE. it may have the same number of pins (I can’t remember) but they’re not compatible without an adapter. 

[blzmarcel]

2 minutes ago, Einhandr said:

The ports on the TG16 are slightly larger than PCE. it may have the same number of pins (I can’t remember) but they’re not compatible without an adapter. 

Huh, strange that they would do that. I can't think of any other console that came to NA from Japan in the 80s or 90s, that didn't originally have hard-wired controllers (ahem, Famicom), that used a different port when it was brought over. The closest I can think of was the model 2 Genesis and Mega Drives using a smaller DIN for A/V over the model 1.