FPGA Based Videogame System

[infinest]

Hello there!

I'm one of the happy people who just received their NT mini today.

The console just keeps on amazing me. I especially enjoy the NSF player and it's capability to play multi-chip songs.

Anyways, I noticed two thing that I haven't seen anyone mention yet so I thought I'd write them down so you may put them on your list or something Kevtris.

First thing is that if you switch filtering modes (even if you keep pressing A on None) the picture position keeps shifting around slightly.

Second thing is that the GBC core doesn't seem to support MBC3's RTC. I don't know if it's possible to keep time while not playing but at least having the time progress while ingame would be really neat.

I know the GBC core is still not finished but I haven't read of anyone mention that particular quirk yet.

[Kismet]

Man, you've had rotten luck with SNES consoles. Mine was a Goodwill find, purchased in 2004 with World/All Stars Combo cart, three random other games, and two controllers. You can see it next to the SNES Mini. There's almost no yellowing at all.

 

I don't have the mobo revision info handy but mine is a two chip with the a/v circuit located on the main board. My SNES lacked the cartridge lock but I bought a locking mechanism from NES Repair shop and added it back in. Anyhow the SNES seems just as reliable as any Nintendo made console. Since Nintendo hardware used Japanese caps as opposed to Taiwanese knockoffs, they generally don't suffer from capacitor rot like other early 90s game consoles.

 

The APU model has only 1 chip for the audio instead of separate S-SMP and S-DSP.

 

The GPM-02 doesn't have the "metal can" around the APU, but otherwise simply has an identical layout to CPU-01 on the mainboard. The SFC, and the three dead SNES's are SHVC-CPU-01, some have the big cap, some don't. GPM-02 has S-PPU2 C , S-CPU B and S-DSP A. So this is the best model you can get before you get into the combined APU (RGB models) and 1-Chip models. The 1-chip models have a better output I hear, but are less compatible. The CPU-01 models may have S-CPU or S-CPU A. http://projectvb.com/nss/logs.htmbad CPU ( S-CPU or S-CPU A) indicates the CPU to be the most common reason of SNES death. It's too bad you can't just pop it out and replace it since it's not an off the shelf part (I have to wonder if you could take a cpu from a clone, as it seems like "most compatibility" is better than dead.)

 

Hence the base line for the Super NT needs to be at least as good as GPM-02 with S-CPU B. However I believe the encoder in the 1-chip models is probably better, which is why the 1-chip models are more coveted despite being less compatible with previous models.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Kismet

[Tusecsy]

 

That is still uncertain, Yes they are ROMs, but are they on an SD Card? That would mean the system ships with an SD Card. They could just exist in the on-board system somewhere that is accessible in a totally different manner than the SD Card.

 

That being said, I fully expect load from ROMs to occur...just not sure how the Turricans play into it.

 

It's on the system not on a card that comes with it, thought this may be an indicator that it plays roms off an sd card without much trouble, but probably not an indicator of much.

[Radfoo]

 

That is still uncertain, Yes they are ROMs, but are they on an SD Card? That would mean the system ships with an SD Card. They could just exist in the on-board system somewhere that is accessible in a totally different manner than the SD Card.

 

That being said, I fully expect load from ROMs to occur...just not sure how the Turricans play into it.

Agree, all uncertain at the moment..

 

Just a guess, trying to read into some of Kevtris comments (he mentioned earlier Turrican does not need expansion chips), so assuming we are going to get SNES jailbreak, I would not expect all the expansion chips (at least at first), I know Kevin is a genius but I would be surprised if everything was available and working from the SD early on.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Radfoo

[Kismet]

Agree, all uncertain at the moment..

 

Just a guess, trying to read into some of Kevtris comments, but think we are going to get SNES jailbreak but would not expect all the expansion chips (at least at first), I know Kevin is a genius but I would be surprised if everything was available in the first version.

 

Well he would have to get access to carts with those chips, and those chips have embedded firmware blobs that you can't just copy and distribute.

[Radfoo]

 

Well he would have to get access to carts with those chips, and those chips have embedded firmware blobs that you can't just copy and distribute.

I do not doubt he can do it, others have done most of expansion chips already, see - https://krikzz.com/store/home/27-sd2snes.html so I am certain Kevin can, these things just take time.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Radfoo

[phoenixdownita]

 

Well he would have to get access to carts with those chips, and those chips have embedded firmware blobs that you can't just copy and distribute.

All of them have been dumped already (decapped and all) so it's not an issue, it will be the customer job to find and use them appropriately like they would do to use bsnes/higan.

SD2SNES ships with the CX4 data tables (that's all there is really) as part of the OS already, you can find the 4 DSPs and the 3 STs chips dumps here

https://www.caitsith2.com/snes/dsp/

 

So that is NOT gonna be a problem because Jailbreaking means you do some of the legwork and I'm sure SmokeMonster would release a ready to use package anyway with ALL the goodies, he already did for SD2SNES/SuperED AND the Nt Mini [with all the BIOSes etc...etc.... that he could find I believe the AtariVox is missing on request of the author or something but you get my drift ]

[gulps]

 

Just received today the shipping info (to Europe) at mailing

 

I will write when received!

 

 

Woah! Received the Nt Mini today at Barcelona, Spain. Very quick shipping to Europe

 

Great! Now testing this great machine from Dr. @kevtris and Analogue.

 

 

PD: Please @kevtris update the PDF for the VGA pin-out for don't use the USB

[DadsGlasses]

 

 

Woah! Received the Nt Mini today at Barcelona, Spain. Very quick shipping to Europe

 

 

 

Great! Now testing this great machine from Dr. @kevtris and Analogue.

 

 

PD: Please @kevtris update the PDF for the VGA pin-out for don't use the USB

Wow! I'm jealous! I got my shipping notice on 10/23 and I'm being told it won't arrive at my house until 10/32 and I live in the US!!

[gulps]

Wow! I'm jealous! I got my shipping notice on 10/23 and I'm being told it won't arrive at my house until 10/32 and I live in the US!!

 

I hope it will arrive to you soon. Maybe I have very lucky because I sended directly to a DHL Express shop as pickup!

[infinest]

Wow! I'm jealous! I got my shipping notice on 10/23 and I'm being told it won't arrive at my house until 10/32 and I live in the US!!

That's really odd. I also got mine shipped to germany. DHL picked it up on 10/25 and it arrived today on the 27th. Never got something shipped that fast from outside Europe before. At least I know why shipping was so darn expensive.

[DadsGlasses]

That's really odd. I also got mine shipped to germany. DHL picked it up on 10/25 and it arrived today on the 27th. Never got something shipped that fast from outside Europe before. At least I know why shipping was so darn expensive.

I paid over $40 shipping and they're saying it will take over a week to ship within the US. Not sure why they chose to use UPS? Twice as expensive and 1/2 as fast as Fedex.

[Riptide]

Got my Mini today as well; very nice piece of kit. One odd thing though, sometimes it shows the serial number as 1, other times it shows (what I'm assuming is correct) a number in the 5000s, is this cause for concern?

[Wolf_]

Got my Mini today as well; very nice piece of kit. One odd thing though, sometimes it shows the serial number as 1, other times it shows (what I'm assuming is correct) a number in the 5000s, is this cause for concern?

Yes, that means the serial number is in a constant state of temporal flux due to quantum entanglement. Please adjust your flux capacitor.

[cacophony]

 

Anyways, I noticed two thing that I haven't seen anyone mention yet so I thought I'd write them down so you may put them on your list or something Kevtris.

First thing is that if you switch filtering modes (even if you keep pressing A on None) the picture position keeps shifting around slightly.

 

This was fixed in jailbreak v1.8.

Kevtris called it the "wigglin' scalers" issue, lol. See the first page for download links, etc: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242970-fpga-based-videogame-system/page-1

[Tusecsy]

Got my Mini today as well; very nice piece of kit. One odd thing though, sometimes it shows the serial number as 1, other times it shows (what I'm assuming is correct) a number in the 5000s, is this cause for concern?

 

the NT mini has one foot in our world, one foot in kevtris land. in kevtris land, all nt minis have serial numbers of 1.

[sprokets]

All of them have been dumped already (decapped and all) so it's not an issue, it will be the customer job to find and use them appropriately like they would do to use bsnes/higan.

SD2SNES ships with the CX4 data tables (that's all there is really) as part of the OS already, you can find the 4 DSPs and the 3 STs chips dumps here

https://www.caitsith2.com/snes/dsp/

 

So that is NOT gonna be a problem because Jailbreaking means you do some of the legwork and I'm sure SmokeMonster would release a ready to use package anyway with ALL the goodies, he already did for SD2SNES/SuperED AND the Nt Mini [with all the BIOSes etc...etc.... that he could find I believe the AtariVox is missing on request of the author or something but you get my drift ]

I was going to preorder a Super Nt but my only "issue" was the enhancement chips. I figured it'd be able to play ROMs off an SD card but I wasn't sure if a jailbreak could open enhancement chip options too.

 

However, based on this thread and looking at the ability of the FPGA board likely used for the Super Nt it seems most chips will be easily simulated and also input from knowledgeable members like yourself I've gone ahead and placed a preorder, so huge thanks

 

Edit to add: Some might find this thread on nesdev interesting for technical stuff on implementing enhancement chips onto an FPGA, seems the OP knows kevtris and they're in touch

 

https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15143

Edited October 28, 2017 by sprokets

[infinest]

 

This was fixed in jailbreak v1.8.

Kevtris called it the "wigglin' scalers" issue, lol. See the first page for download links, etc: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242970-fpga-based-videogame-system/page-1

Huh, yeah thanks for telling me. It hat the standard 2.3 firmware when I got it. I just retested it now since I don't usually use filters and it indeed doesn't do it anymore on jb 2.0.

Anyways the Problem with RTC on MBC3 GBC games still remains even on the newest JB it seems.

[Toth]

My Nt mini shipping updated from Monday to today! Saturday ground delivery! It's going to be a good weekend.

[Riptide]

Yes, that means the serial number is in a constant state of temporal flux due to quantum entanglement. Please adjust your flux capacitor.

Lol good one. I will admit I did quite the double take when I first saw a serial number of 1. Thought they must've accidentally started the count over with the latest batch. Then later when it switched to 5000+ I got to thinking that maybe some chip was already going bad. Does this happen to everyone or just me?

 

Also noticed most NES ROMs are listed twice, but searching through this thread revealed that wasn't just me so not worried there.

 

Unrelated, I can confirm the latest version of Legend of Link (updated a few days ago, not in smokemonsters pack) still doesn't save/load properly. It appears to do both but the in game save file is missing. Might end up buying a repro cart of this just because the game looks so damn good.

 

 

 

 

[Keatah]

I was going to preorder a Super Nt but my only "issue" was the enhancement chips. I figured it'd be able to play ROMs off an SD card but I wasn't sure if a jailbreak could open enhancement chip options too.

 

Surprised that a basic question like this hasn't been answered yet.

[cacophony]

 

Surprised that a basic question like this hasn't been answered yet.

 

I think they're being careful...

 

 

Probably to avoid appearing like a piracy device. As long as it's never shipped with the ability to play pirated roms out of the box, it's no different from any other clone as long as it doesn't say "Nintendo" on it.

 

Like, even if they did, they would never ship with rom files unlike the pirates selling JB NES/SNES Classic Mini's, for more than the price of the Super NT.

 

The home recording (VCR) boom in the 80's basically proved you can't ban a device just because it's capable of piracy, you can only stop a piracy-capable device if it's only purpose is to play pirate software. Hence the cartridge slot. It doesn't matter that it can play pirated software, it only matters that it can play legitimate software.

Edited October 28, 2017 by cacophony

[Tusecsy]

Even when the snes core is released, they won't comment on it. They didn't with the NT mini why would this be any different? It's a legal issue, pretty easy to read between the lines. More I think about it I would bet the farm that Kev's snes core runs at least msu-1 and super fx off the sd card. I don't think he could sleep at night without it.

[Keatah]

Yes of course.

[Toth]

I had a quick question about the 5x height option. I am playing Metroid and if I choose the 5x height it seems like it's cutting off way too much of the top and bottom. I'm running it on a Dell monitor. I'm just not sure if I'm missing something I'm supposed to do when selecting 5x. Like it's cutting off the entire top and bottom row of blocks at the first screen after pressing start. Or maybe I just don't know how much I'm supposed to be seeing of the game?

Edited October 28, 2017 by Toth