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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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1 hour ago, Chindabin said:

Looks like the ips patch by BestPig was updated a few days ago to fix crashing issues. I've also had kirby and ninja gaiden crash during the ending cutscenes (both fixed now). These guys are doing their best I'm sure and I'm super appreciative of these patches. Jailbreak can't come soon enough though haha.

lol too late. I deleted everything and put the SD card back in my SD2SNES where it originally came from. I'll just play it from the Everdrive, as I stupidly left my copy in the USA like a fool.

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20 hours ago, Chindabin said:

Looks like the ips patch by BestPig was updated a few days ago to fix crashing issues. I've also had kirby and ninja gaiden crash during the ending cutscenes (both fixed now). These guys are doing their best I'm sure and I'm super appreciative of these patches. Jailbreak can't come soon enough though haha.

It's these crashing and other issues that keep coming up that kind of bothers me. These are systems that have been advertised as being 100% compatibility, due to using FPGA to recreate the original hardware, yet some games are not acting like they would on original hardware. And while I don't want to bring up other systems, I have not observed these sort of compatibility issues on the likes of the Mister, including Metroid II on Gameboy, as well as those SMS games like Desert Strike, and other examples I had previous checked on, after seeing posts here, when I was able to use my friend's Mister.

 

Do not misunderstand. Analogue makes some great systems, but it's hard to feel complete confidence that all of the original behavior of these classic systems is being properly replicated here. And a lot of that stems from the closed source nature, which I understand the reason for, but at the same time it is hard to deny the benefits of have cores open to the community, as there is a very clear difference in how fast issues get resolved with Analogue's cores vs. something like the Mister's or even libretro cores and mame as well.

 

Again, I'm not knocking Analogue here, just saying that the difference is pretty clear and perhaps that they should consider opening the cores themselves, while keeping everything closed, so that they themselves don't have to keep struggle to find time to address every little issue for a given core (whether built-in or "jailbreak".)

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1 hour ago, blzmarcel said:

It's these crashing and other issues that keep coming up that kind of bothers me. These are systems that have been advertised as being 100% compatibility, due to using FPGA to recreate the original hardware, yet some games are not acting like they would on original hardware. And while I don't want to bring up other systems, I have not observed these sort of compatibility issues on the likes of the Mister, including Metroid II on Gameboy, as well as those SMS games like Desert Strike, and other examples I had previous checked on, after seeing posts here, when I was able to use my friend's Mister.

 

Do not misunderstand. Analogue makes some great systems, but it's hard to feel complete confidence that all of the original behavior of these classic systems is being properly replicated here. And a lot of that stems from the closed source nature, which I understand the reason for, but at the same time it is hard to deny the benefits of have cores open to the community, as there is a very clear difference in how fast issues get resolved with Analogue's cores vs. something like the Mister's or even libretro cores and mame as well.

 

Again, I'm not knocking Analogue here, just saying that the difference is pretty clear and perhaps that they should consider opening the cores themselves, while keeping everything closed, so that they themselves don't have to keep struggle to find time to address every little issue for a given core (whether built-in or "jailbreak".)

The crashes I mention are specifically due to the .pocket file conversion required to have them run off the sd card. Modders are patching the roms in this case so we're not exactly talking about original hardware.

 

But yes, lots of people are having issues with everdrives on the pocket where they would work on original hardware. All reports I've seen of the pocket running original games though, what it's actually advertised to do, suggest that it works fine. I just wish there was a built in rom loader already so we wouldn't have to rely on these workarounds which may or may not introduce bugs.

 

A well designed handheld for sure, but clearly unfinished on the software side of things. Feels like we're the beta testers in some respects.

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13 minutes ago, Chindabin said:

The crashes I mention are specifically due to the .pocket file conversion required to have them run off the sd card. Modders are patching the roms in this case so we're not exactly talking about original hardware.

 

But yes, lots of people are having issues with everdrives on the pocket where they would work on original hardware. All reports I've seen of the pocket running original games though, what it's actually advertised to do, suggest that it works fine. I just wish there was a built in rom loader already so we wouldn't have to rely on these workarounds which may or may not introduce bugs.

 

A well designed handheld for sure, but clearly unfinished on the software side of things. Feels like we're the beta testers in some respects.

I'm not yet very keen on these .pocket files, but it'll be far nicer to have a rom loader to load regular rom images proper. I really do not believe that the world needs yet another proprietary / device specific rom format.

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14 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Is the Dock supposed to not save your video settings or is there a save thing that I am missing somewhere?

I wonder the same. I’d like to play on my tv with the filters and frame blending enabled but I don’t know how to get into the menu while docked.

 

15 hours ago, blzmarcel said:

I'm not yet very keen on these .pocket files, but it'll be far nicer to have a rom loader to load regular rom images proper. I really do not believe that the world needs yet another proprietary / device specific rom format.

I have been having a lot of fun with GB Studio. I understand why analog is being careful to try to cater to home brew but also avoid the CND hammer of Nintendo.

 

there will eventually be a jailbreak. But there will always be folks buying things for the potential vs the advertised features.

 

I feel the advertised features work just fine. It’s wishlist items that leave some folks disappointed.

 

I have tons of original carts. So I’m happy enough. Though I hope the Lynx and TG 16 adapters release soon.

Edited by dashv
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22 hours ago, blzmarcel said:

It's these crashing and other issues that keep coming up that kind of bothers me. These are systems that have been advertised as being 100% compatibility, due to using FPGA to recreate the original hardware, yet some games are not acting like they would on original hardware. And while I don't want to bring up other systems, I have not observed these sort of compatibility issues on the likes of the Mister, including Metroid II on Gameboy, as well as those SMS games like Desert Strike, and other examples I had previous checked on, after seeing posts here, when I was able to use my friend's Mister.

What issues does the Pocket have with Metroid II? I haven't seen any reports of crashing with that cart. It works as advertised. 

 

22 hours ago, blzmarcel said:

... so that they themselves don't have to keep struggle to find time to address every little issue for a given core (whether built-in or "jailbreak".)

You seem to have the relatively common confusion that Analogue would have any obligation to address issues with a jailbreak (*wink*).  Just saying.. i.e if or when it shows up, they won't even acknowledge it exists. As far as they're concerned, what they support is the playing of original carts.

Edited by NE146
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4 hours ago, NE146 said:

What issues does the Pocket have with Metroid II? I haven't seen any reports of crashing with that cart. It works as advertised. 

 

You seem to have the relatively common confusion that Analogue would have any obligation to address issues with a jailbreak (*wink*).  Just saying.. i.e if or when it shows up, they won't even acknowledge it exists. As far as they're concerned, what they support is the playing of original carts.


I was referring to this:

On 12/28/2021 at 10:37 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

If anyone tries the Pocket Metroid II patch that was released a few hours ago, let me know. It always crashes instantly when I enter the final boss room, although I suppose it's also the only boss room, as the game only has 1 boss.

 

Which isn't a jailbreak issue, since that doesn't exist yet for the Pocket, but something at the stock firmware level.

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5 hours ago, blzmarcel said:


I was referring to this:

 

Which isn't a jailbreak issue, since that doesn't exist yet for the Pocket, but something at the stock firmware level.

If I'm understanding correctly, that's an unsupported method of playing ROMS via patching of games, renaming them to the *.pocket extension, putting them on the SD card inside a folder called GB Studio, and loading from tools > GB Studio.  You can't expect the company to support that, anymore than Nintendo could support TG16 Military Madness not running correctly on a hacked 3DS. ?

 

 

Edited by NE146
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22 hours ago, NE146 said:

If I'm understanding correctly, that's an unsupported method of playing ROMS via patching of games, renaming them to the *.pocket extension, putting them on the SD card inside a folder called GB Studio, and loading from tools > GB Studio.  You can't expect the company to support that, anymore than Nintendo could support TG16 Military Madness not running correctly on a hacked 3DS. ?

 

 

Not sure if that is a good comparison, as the 3DS does not advertise any capability to play games of other consoles (outside of any virtual console stuff at least, if TG16/PC-Engine games were on it), while the Pocket does advertise being able to play Gameboy games, IIRC, so it stands to reason that it should work, or am I misunderstanding something?

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On 12/20/2021 at 7:23 PM, Great Hierophant said:

Did you test an original cart or an EverDrive?  I see the same flicker with Pocket and an EverDrive GG X7, but I also see the same kind of flicker when I run Hurricanes with the EverDrive and an original unmodified Game Gear.

Tested with a real cartridge, and it works fine on the Pocket.

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Anyone?? ... please try Opa Opa JP (Fantasy Zone the Maze) as that usually shows it in 30secs or less once you are in the maze.

I cannot believe to be the only one with the combo here on AA .... I added my voice to a krikzz thread ('cause at least one other soul has the issue):
https://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=11586.0

I messaged @kevtris here on the forum only yesterday, I emailed support@analogue.co today let's see.


It's possible it's a HW revision of the MegaEDPro but given it works on real HW and at https://www.analogue.co/mega-sg
they say : "Total accuracy." ....
(to be fair with a MegaEDv1 and MegaEDx7 it all works fine ... so it is peculiar to MegaED PRO and possibly to the batch I bought)

I'm so afraid the 2 parties will point at each other and I won't even know what's the actual cause (could be timing, voltage, glitches, new PCB etc...etc...). 

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Don't worry too much, but be patient. Kev may not reply but, in my experience, he follows these things very closely. Of course he's focused on the Pocket right now (which has its own problems with flashcarts) but it doesn't mean the Mega Sg and Super Nt will never get firmware updates in the future. They're not discontinued after all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I haven't been playing docked much at all, but there's a new firmware out which adds a lot of controllers to the compatible list, also I don't recall the dock doing a gbc pixel border mode before, but it does now and it looks good (though not as good as onboard screen)

 

I was really getting into a game, when it did the controller disconnect thing--which I'd heard about from a friend with a pocket, but figured it'd probably be fixed with the update. It's not. ?

 

Game was *really* fun though--'Power quest' on gbc.  Never played it before, came up on a few hidden gems lists. Kind of a fighting game with RPG elements, in the same way Final Lap Twin (tg16) is a racing game with rpg elements.  And it actually handles itself well as a fighting game.

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  • 3 months later...

I have to admit that the lack of updates for the Analogue Pocket, and especially the Analogue Pocket Dock, is rather disappointing. I assumed it would be feature rich by May 2022, with the whole Analogue Memories front-end, but as it is my 8Bitdo 2.4g controllers aren't even supported. Controllers which were said to work with it.

 

I also understand that they aren't expected to release a jailbreak, even secretly, but when the cartridge adapters aren't yet available for the ATARI LYNX, NEO•GEO POCKET, TG-16/PCE, It would be nice to at least have the cores available via JB, so we can play them while we wait for these to come in stock.. (In 2022, 2023? 2024??).

 

It would also be nice to have someone at Analogue actually communicate with their customers on Twitter, or even on here. Aside from the strange animated GIF of a portable game, every few weeks, it's just radio silence. They've never been great with customer relations, but maybe it's time for that. 

 

Finally. Does anyone know if there will still be a way for developers to port their own FPGA cores to the Pocket? Or was that a pipe dream to lure people into thinking this would become something of a portable MiSTer? I know I've thought that it would be pretty amazing to have various 8-bit and 16-bit console cores show up on the Pocket. Perhaps even Kevtris would be nice enough to bring his 20 or so cores over to the Pocket. It would certainly make this portable even more desirable. 

 

 

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