FPGA Based Videogame System

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Once again you've missed the point entirely. You may not have noticed this but the nt mini doesn't support the psx or any console with dual analogue sticks. The point is:

If you have a better WIRED LAGLESS connection that works with the nt mini and has an analogue stick feel free to post it but so far you have not.

 

This means you can play Atari 2600 and 7800 games without delay on a proper joystick. Nothing you have mentioned will do that.

 

I make no claims that this controller is pretty, simply that it is the only thing I have found that will do the job. Show me a better option and I'll switch.

Dual Analog serves no function on an NES controller. It's frivolous. A waste. Why even have them on the controller?

 

A/B buttons are slanted at an inverted angle which looks and feels wrong. See also: NES2 Dog Bone.

 

As a PC controller, the lack of proper "diamond" layout makes it useless for modern twin stick games.

 

And no, it you think those dual analogs and triggers can be accessed by the NT Mini through the NES controller port, then you need to study how the bits for NES/SNES encoding work. Excluding the SNES Mouse, there is no protocol for transmitting X/Y coordinate data.

[Wolf_]

Dual Analog serves no function on an NES controller. It's frivolous. A waste. Why even have them on the controller?

 

A/B buttons are slanted at an inverted angle which looks and feels wrong. See also: NES2 Dog Bone.

 

As a PC controller, the lack of proper "diamond" layout makes it useless for modern twin stick games.

 

And no, it you think those dual analogs and triggers can be accessed by the NT Mini through the NES controller port, then you need to study how the bits for NES/SNES encoding work. Excluding the SNES Mouse, there is no protocol for transmitting X/Y coordinate data.

Not on the nes maybe but what about on the other cores this system supports? As long as the controller can send that data and the system can receive it and the core expects it then it should work. I never once said two analogue sticks were required or that the triggers were good for anything, simply that it has them. I think you are being a baby about the A & B buttons though.

 

The nes advantage looks pretty interesting though with the turbo buttons, I'm just not fond of the tabletop design and prefer a controller I can hold in my hands. Being able to adjust the speed of the turbo is a really cool feature for such an early controller.

[gulps]

The following are in the process of being ported:

 

• Intellivision
• SPC Player

 

Unfortunately the mandelbrot zoomer cannot be ported due to a lack of multipliers.

 

 

I hope those will added on future if possible

 

 

The following are in the process of being ported:

• Intellivision
• SPC Player
• PC Engine
• Commodore 64

 

Addons:

• PC Engine CD (CD-ROM ISO/BIN-CUE emulation at Jailbreak)
• Famicom expansion port to D-15 to DB9 adapter gamepad (Genesis/Megadrive, NeoGeo, Midi Joysticks, ...)
• Enable USB to use generic usb gamepad, mouse or keyboard (for keyboard emulation)
• Enable USB to connect external SD-HDD host (FAT)
• SPDIF digital audio output (coaxial)
• Gamepad adaptors as seen over the cartridge socket

 

Software:

• Autofire configuration with enable/disable shortcut on NES gamepad
• Gamepad button custon configuration (like Goofy Foot - NES Controller Mod Kit)

 

 

Maybe

[Wolf_]

 

 

I hope those will added on future if possible

 

 

The following are in the process of being ported:

 

• Intellivision
• SPC Player
• PC Engine
• Commodore 64

 

Addons:

• PC Engine CD (CD-ROM ISO/BIN-CUE emulation at Jailbreak)
• Famicom expansion port to D-15 to DB9 adapter gamepad (Genesis/Megadrive, NeoGeo, Midi Joysticks, ...)
• Enable USB to use generic usb gamepad, mouse or keyboard (for keyboard emulation)
• Enable USB to connect external SD-HDD host (FAT)
• SPDIF digital audio output (coaxial)
• Gamepad adaptors as seen over the cartridge socket

 

Software:

• Autofire configuration with enable/disable shortcut on NES gamepad
• Gamepad button custon configuration (like Goofy Foot - NES Controller Mod Kit)

 

 

Maybe

Given the limits of the nt mini hardware imo it would be a lot easier to include it in a second generation. As is for it to work on the nt mini that would require a lot of tweaking to get it within spec. A much easier solution (and saving more of Kevtris' time as a result so he can keep on chugging) would be just code it on a second gen fpga console that it was within the specs of. Also that console could have an extension port on it that might work with the TG-CD and sega cd (combined with a 32x in the cartridge port or maybe even a 32x core that would cover everything the Genesis can do).

 

With the fpga tg-cd console the upergrafx plugged in you could even still get 720p hdmi out, sadly the sega cd and sega mega cd (all 7 games) would be in analogue video but considering it eliminates a console from the chain that is pretty worthwhile. At least until the third gen comes out which would hopefully include a disk drive and be able to cover them on its own.

 

I have this really cool image in my head of a James Bond style clamshell case and when opened it has foam cutouts for all the cartridge and controller slots this thing would support. That way the console would only need a single universal cartridge slot and metal bar of 4 controller ports [=X=X=X=X=] so you could just plug in whatever cart adapter and controller bar you wanted and could cut costs by not purchasing the ones you are not interested in and not needing to have multiple cart slots and controller ports on the console itself.

[gulps]

Yes I known that some points would be hard to implement at the Analogue NT Mini. But some others maybe not

 

 

I like the MiSTer FPGA that mixed both sides of FPGA + ARM (Linux). This is a great idea to implement CD-ROM emulation and loading, plus SD-HDD host over USB.

 

 

 

I forgot to add (8bit side):

 

 

 

The following are in the process of being ported:

• Intellivision
• SPC Player
• PC Engine / Turbografx-16
• Commodore 64
• Famicom Disk System (FDS) emulation

We have to prepare soon for the 16bits side

[Andromeda Stardust]

I believe an all-in-one fpga emulation machine should include through the 16-bit generation, including cartidge systems genesis, pc engine/turbo-16, and snes.

 

Bonus for a deluxe edition to include the 16-bit era cd consoles via a pata or sata cable to attach a generic cd-rom drive, in addition to neo-geo. Starting with Jaguar moving into 5th generation, 3D graphics (ie N64/psx/saturn) would be better served with emulation, at least until current technology improves.

[Wolf_]

I believe an all-in-one fpga emulation machine should include through the 16-bit generation, including cartidge systems genesis, pc engine/turbo-16, and snes.

 

Bonus for a deluxe edition to include the 16-bit era cd consoles via a pata or sata cable to attach a generic cd-rom drive, in addition to neo-geo. Starting with Jaguar moving into 5th generation, 3D graphics (ie N64/psx/saturn) would be better served with emulation, at least until current technology improves.

 

If I had to break it down by best guess:

Analogue Nt Mini: (Eta: Now)

Confirmed/done: Colecovision, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Master System, GameGear, NES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color

Possible: Atari 5200

Second Gen: (Eta: few months-1 year)

Confirmed/Possible/High Priority: SNES, SNES Super Game Boy 2 Mode, Gesesis, NeoGeo, NeoGeo Pocket Color, Atari Lynx, Wonderswan, TurboGrafx-16

Probably possible: 32X, Cdi, GBA

Possible with an extension port: TG-CD, Sega CD

Third Gen: (Eta: 3-5 years(For the hardware))

N64, Wideboy64 AGB Game Boy Mode, Sega Saturn, PS1, Neo Geo CD, TG-CD, Sega CD, Atari Jaguar, Jaguar CD

 

Fourth Gen: (Eta: too far in the future to guess but this generation would need ethernet for the Ps2 and internal/external hard drive support because if I have to switch between all those sd cards I will go full Anakin and murder all the younglings. At the very least support the 1 or 2tb sd cards)

PSP, PS2, GameCube, Game Boy Player Mode, Game Boy Interface Mode, Nintendo Ds/Dsi

 

Fifth Gen:

Sega Dreamcast, Wii

 

Sixth Gen:

Xbox

 

I'm not really that familiar with pc-consoles though like the C64, Apple Pippin, and TRS-80 (those are actually all I can think of off the top of my head) so I won't pretend to know what kind of resources they would need to run.

[Tusecsy]

We aren't gonna see tg16 or c64 on the nt mini and it seems stupid for Kevtris to waste his time on them at this point (time better spent on the next gen).

 

i'd say the gens go more like this...

 

2nd gen - snes, gen, tg16, neogeo, sega cd, 32x, tg16 cd, gba

 

3rd gen - n64, saturn, ps1, 3do, ds

 

4th gen - ps2, cube, wii, dreamcast, xbox

 

3rd and 4th gen might merge together though if fpga tech keeps accelerating the way it has.

 

the actual cd hardware is going to die off in the next 10 years as hard drive/flash solutions become cheaper and more readily available. there's already a tg16 cd flash solution out there so sega cd can't be far behind. ps2/cube/wii/dreamcast/xbox/3do already have them.

Edited October 14, 2017 by Tusecsy

[Wolf_]

We aren't gonna see tg16 or c64 on the nt mini and it seems stupid for Kevtris to waste his time on them at this point (time better spent on the next gen).

 

i'd say the gens go more like this...

 

2nd gen - snes, gen, tg16, neogeo, sega cd, 32x, tg16 cd, gba

 

3rd gen - n64, saturn, ps1, 3do, ds

 

4th gen - ps2, cube, wii, dreamcast, xbox

 

3rd and 4th gen might merge together though if fpga tech keeps accelerating the way it has.

 

the actual cd hardware is going to die off in the next 10 years as hard drive/flash solutions become cheaper and more readily available. there's already a tg16 cd flash solution out there so sega cd can't be far behind. ps2/cube/wii/dreamcast/xbox/3do already have them.

The only way that would be possible is if there is a 10-15 year gap between the 3rd and 4th generations or fpga tech makes a massive breakthrough.

[Tusecsy]

The only way that would be possible is if there is a 10-15 year gap between the 3rd and 4th generations or fpga tech makes a massive breakthrough.

 

I feel it's going to happen much faster than we think. There are many other collectible hobbyist industry's which are chomping at the bit for better FPGA tech. Music production for instance where drum machines and synths from the 80s can command 4-5000$+ easy for a small device. Time will tell I guess, but my guess is 5-6 years from now we're almost at 4th gen already.

[Wolf_]

 

I feel it's going to happen much faster than we think. There are many other collectible hobbyist industry's which are chomping at the bit for better FPGA tech. Music production for instance where drum machines and synths from the 80s can command 4-5000$+ easy for a small device. Time will tell I guess, but my guess is 5-6 years from now we're almost at 4th gen already.

The upergrafx is powerful enough for my estimated 3rd gen of hardware but it isn't a standalone console so I'm not sure how much the tg-16 contributes to its overall processing power, and it doesn't work with every game, and it introduces a maximum of 1 frame of lag (as claimed by the developer) so it isn't nearly up to Kevtris' standards but I could see that happening relatively quickly.

 

If we get to my estimated 4th gen in 5 years or less or your estimated 4th gen in 10 years or less I'll be astonished that's for sure. We may have to clone Kevtris for him to keep up with all the cores though haha

Edited October 14, 2017 by Wolf_

[Keatah]

I believe an all-in-one fpga emulation machine should include through the 16-bit generation, including cartidge systems genesis, pc engine/turbo-16, and snes.

 

Bonus for a deluxe edition to include the 16-bit era cd consoles via a pata or sata cable to attach a generic cd-rom drive, in addition to neo-geo. Starting with Jaguar moving into 5th generation, 3D graphics (ie N64/psx/saturn) would be better served with emulation, at least until current technology improves.

 

No technical reason multiple FPGA chips couldn't be used. Or even multiple FPGA chips per "super-custom" chip from the simulated console.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

If I had to break it down by best guess:

Analogue Nt Mini: (Eta: Now)

Confirmed/done: Colecovision, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Master System, GameGear, NES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color

Possible: Atari 5200

Second Gen: (Eta: few months-1 year)

Confirmed/Possible/High Priority: SNES, SNES Super Game Boy 2 Mode, Gesesis, NeoGeo, NeoGeo Pocket Color, Atari Lynx, Wonderswan, TurboGrafx-16

Probably possible: 32X, Cdi, GBA

Possible with an extension port: TG-CD, Sega CD

Third Gen: (Eta: 3-5 years(For the hardware))

N64, Wideboy64 AGB Game Boy Mode, Sega Saturn, PS1, Neo Geo CD, TG-CD, Sega CD, Atari Jaguar, Jaguar CD

 

Fourth Gen: (Eta: too far in the future to guess but this generation would need ethernet for the Ps2 and internal/external hard drive support because if I have to switch between all those sd cards I will go full Anakin and murder all the younglings. At the very least support the 1 or 2tb sd cards)

PSP, PS2, GameCube, Game Boy Player Mode, Game Boy Interface Mode, Nintendo Ds/Dsi

 

Fifth Gen:

Sega Dreamcast, Wii

 

Sixth Gen:

Xbox

 

I'm not really that familiar with pc-consoles though like the C64, Apple Pippin, and TRS-80 (those are actually all I can think of off the top of my head) so I won't pretend to know what kind of resources they would need to run.

 

Why lump Sega Dreamcast with the Wii? Game Cube/PS2 were both more powerful.

[Wolf_]

Why lump Sega Dreamcast with the Wii? Game Cube/PS2 were both more powerful.

Actually the dreamcast is pretty damn epic. I'm not sure about under the hood but in terms of the video quality it outputs the dreamcast is scary good. Maybe it is 4th gen but as it is 5-10 years away minimum by my guess I didn't think anyone would care. Also the Wii looked lonely being the only 5th gen fpga core lol

 

Tbh the wii is basically an overclocked gc but I wasn't sure if it could be done in the same generation or not... seemed like a lot to ask so I bumped it to the next generation. Also the wii would need a bluetooth receiver to work so that seemed like enough of an ask to justify bumping it up a generation.

[RadikusRLZ]

I Need quick reply,

 

I got weird problem with my Analogue NT Mini with latest working Jail Break Firmware v1.7

When I use Everdrive N8 Famicom with latest software v16.

When I turn my tv or monitor off my game corrupted. This happens with the different HDMI cables. Everytime my game corrupted.

Is there somebody else have this same problem?

[RampantOctopus]

I just pre-ordered something, this should be fun.

Edited October 16, 2017 by RampantOctopus

[gulps]

 

Super Nt

 

 

 

"A reimagining of perhaps the greatest video game system of all time. Engineered with an FPGA. No emulation. 1080p. Zero lag. Total accuracy. The Super Nt is not a plug n' play toy. It is the definitive way to explore Nintendo's 16-bit era. Compatible with the 2,200+ SNES and Super Famicom game cartridge library. Explore and re-live one of the greatest video game systems of all time with no compromises."

 

 

Compatibility

• - SNES cartridges, Super Famicom cartridges*
• - Region Free
• - Worldwide Compatibility [PSU: 100-240v, 50-60hz]

Video

• - HDMI 1080p/720p/480p
• - NTSC & PAL Support
• - Lag free, zero signal degradation

Audio

• - 48KHz 16 bit
• - Digital audio via HDMI

Special Features

• - Original-style SNES/SFC Controller Ports
• - SD card firmware updating [via Super Nt SD card slot]

Other Features

• - Scanline options
• - Scaler options
• - Horizontal position adjust
• - Horizontal stretch
• - Vertical position stretch
• - & more

•  

  Price: $189

 

Mmmm interesting, but only digital output.

[Laner]

Is Kevtris ready to spill the beans?

 

Edit: No analog output, bummer. But if that's the tradeoff to cut the price in half compared to the NT Mini, it's OK in my book.

Edited October 16, 2017 by Laner

[jamon1567]

I just pre-ordered something, this should be fun.

 

Dat shipping doe.....

[Toth]

At first I was kind of curious why there would be no analog output but the thing is my original SNES can output RGB or S-video already and there are even those HD retrovision cables that can do component 240p so I am fine for CRT on my original SNES. So, really this probably kept the price down quite a bit along with them using plastic instead of aluminum and will be great for HDTVs.

 

That shipping is interesting though...UPS ground is pretty slow but it is priced at like the overnight price.

Edited October 16, 2017 by Toth

[funkwad]

Is Kevtris ready to spill the beans?

 

Edit: No analog output, bummer. But if that's the tradeoff to cut the price in half compared to the NT Mini, it's OK in my book.

 

I was wondering if Kevtris is even involved in this model? looks like Analogue is getting the price right

[Namdor]

I'm so excited for this thread to come to life again! Hopefully Kevtris can talk now and not have to wait until closer to launch. I pre-orderd a couple. Looking forward to helping to test any jailbreaks. Looking forward to more cores!!! Im going to be having PC Engine/TG-16 Fever Dreams.

[gulps]

 

 

The core functionality of the system is engineered directly into an Altera Cyclone V, a sophisticated FPGA.

 

 

Mmmm... Is this the same Cyclone V as the Analogue NT Mini (5CEA2)?

 

Whoa! Could this means that we could have SNES core at the NT mini??!!

 

 

I hope!

 

 

PD: Next gen would be for 4K resolution¿?

 

[Wolf_]

 

Dat shipping doe.....

yea they hit me with $37 shipping rip. That seems pretty retarded unless they are based in North Korea or the Galapagos Islands. Also ESL denied my purchase because it was flagged as fraudulent on the company's end until I called them up and frantically told them to unblock me before the pre-orders sell out. ESL are pretty retarded though and just saw a bunch of money moving from people to Analogue and panicked... almost as dumb as people that can't find shipping cheaper than $37.

 

I love that they are offering less expensive shells and kept the option to have a black version and have reduced the price by literally almost $300 from the previous black version.

 

The no analogue support bothers me but I wonder if it is possible to convert hdmi to analogue and have gun games work? If it does then I'm fine with it.

 

Looks like there is no way to get a TG-CD or Sega CD hooked up to this so RIP those consoles. That was kinda a super extra feature I was hoping for though.

 

And they are still keeping with the 1 kind of controller port and no universal cartridge slot so that sucks.

 

The dealbreakers for me will be if it has a jailbreak to support other cores or not and if the snes cartridge chips will be covered or not.

 

Edit: Hopefully Kevtris can comment on if it supports the fx chips or not now...

Edited October 16, 2017 by Wolf_

[Laner]

We aren't gonna see tg16 or c64 on the nt mini and it seems stupid for Kevtris to waste his time on them at this point (time better spent on the next gen).

 

 

I don't think C64 support is *that* much of a stretch. Though obviously it's up to him how and what he chooses to develop.