FPGA Based Videogame System

[atmn]

I vaguely remember someone explaining to me that the controller pin-out was slightly different between the ColecoVision and the Genesis.

 

Ye, might be possible. I know that C64 and Genesis are not compatible, you will short the C64 if you press start.

[mr_me]

Controller pinouts are different, is there any reason the fpga can't be configured to switch controller types?

[CZroe]

Received my Mega SG the same day the JB Firmware was released. Ive got all my stuff loaded. Its a beautiful scene with my Mini NT, Super NT, and Mega SG all sitting there side by side!!!

Awesome! Last year I got my Super Nt the same day as the JB released too. There was no delay in shipping out... just a slow carrier that took a full week to deliver our two systems. Was fuming because we paid so much for shipping and the second one was being re-shipped to someone who specifically did not want to wait (added even more time).

[SanfordSeven]

Tried my Mega Sg for a bit tonight with the jailbreak. It's really fantastic so far.

 

A minor quibble: Does anyone else find the mechanics of the power button to be kind of odd? I have to press it on either the left or right side for it to work. Pressing it in the middle does nothing. I guess this could be due to the LED being in the middle of the button?

After a night of pretty intense gameplay and tinkering, the question did come across my mind as I looked at the power button for the Mini NT vs. Super NT vs. Mega SG

 

I have a bit of concern about how durable this versions power button will be over the years. To me personally I love the Super NTs power button much more than the Mini NT or Mega SG, but thats just me.

[Pixelboy]

Controller pinouts are different, is there any reason the fpga can't be configured to switch controller types?

Well, I would expect that if the ground pins are different between controller ports, then that would pose a problem even on a FPGA where pins can be decoded in a custom manner. I could be wrong about that though, I'm no expert on the matter.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Pixelboy

[Bmack36]

Genesis uses 5V output on pin 5 and Gnd on pin 8. On CV these pins switch back and forth to ground to select the different controller modes. The only way it would work is if the pins were able to be switched to either 5V or ground, but most likely they are just set to the voltage needed for the genesis.

[SanfordSeven]

Awesome! Last year I got my Super Nt the same day as the JB released too. There was no delay in shipping out... just a slow carrier that took a full week to deliver our two systems. Was fuming because we paid so much for shipping and the second one was being re-shipped to someone who specifically did not want to wait (added even more time).

Now Im trying to consider do I want to part ways with my Smokemonster Everdrive Pack in favor of the No Intro Romsets since the former was mentioned as the favorable set for the Mega SG.

 

Ive stood with the SMPs for my Mini NT and Super NT, but I honestly have some work to do to find the most up-to-date No-Intro set if Im gonna make the change for the Mega SG. I was very surprised to read that the SmokeMonster Everdrive Pack was hit or miss for the SG

[CZroe]

Cores is a menu option but to switch you have to go back to the menu, press B until it warns you youre about to quit, and then hit A on that message to actually quit. You cant be in one core and launch a different one.

 

Having a dedicated menu button on the M30 is nice since you have to go to the menu to write the game save to the SD card.

Yeah. That message is really annoying because it says you’re about to go “Back” and will lose progress if you do, so you look at the key assignments and see which of the two main navigational buttons are for “Back,” press the OTHER one only to have it go “back” and lose everything anyway.

 

Stupid!

[CZroe]

Now Im trying to consider do I want to part ways with my Smokemonster Everdrive Pack in favor of the No Intro Romsets since the former was mentioned as the favorable set for the Mega SG.

 

Ive stood with the SMPs for my Mini NT and Super NT, but I honestly have some work to do to find the most up-to-date No-Intro set if Im gonna make the change for the Mega SG. I was very surprised to read that the SmokeMonster Everdrive Pack was hit or miss for the SG

SmokeMonster says that all his verified ROMs come from the No Intro set... ateast for other platforms. Not sure why Genesis would be different. I just moved my SD card over from the Mega Everdrive X5 and tweaked the folder arrangement as suggested by the JB notes and it’s played everything from my SD card I’ve tried so far. My Genesis Smokemonster set hasn’t been updated since 2017 so unless something major changed since the. I’d expect his more current sets to work just as well. Edited April 2, 2019 by CZroe

[derFunkenstein]

I've had no problems with my Mega Everdrive card rearranged to match the new folder structure. Not a single ROM I've tried doesn't work, including weird ROMs like UMK Trilogy and Bad Apple in one piece that I can't play on my cheaper X5.

Tried my Mega Sg for a bit tonight with the jailbreak. It's really fantastic so far.

A minor quibble: Does anyone else find the mechanics of the power button to be kind of odd? I have to press it on either the left or right side for it to work. Pressing it in the middle does nothing. I guess this could be due to the LED being in the middle of the button?

I agree that the power button is strange, but there might be something wrong with your unit. I haven't had to be careful at all about where I press, it just works. The Super Nt's button is much nicer, though.

Yeah. That message is really annoying because it says you’re about to go “Back” and will lose progress if you do, so you look at the key assignments and see which of the two main navigational buttons are for “Back,” press the OTHER one only to have it go “back” and lose everything anyway.

I'm sure it's to prevent people from accidentally B'ing their way out of a core, but it's a little arbitrary. I'd much rather the Core menu (that you get when you hit Start) had a Quit Core option. Then it's Menu -> Core Menu -> Quit. C'est la vie, I can't complain about my free upgrade too much.

A Game Boy/Game Boy Color core seems like it might be less likely to negatively affect future sales of an Analogue system since it's tough to see a consolized Analogue Game Boy ever happening. Maybe some day when Kevtris gets a breather and gets bored since he surely doesn't know what free time and relaxation is at this point, Super NT owners will be pleasantly surprised by a new update with something neat like this or NES support.

That's a great point, and I already have an AVS + Everdrive so it's not a big deal. A GB/GBC core would give me something I didn't already have, which would be a much better value.

Edited April 2, 2019 by derFunkenstein

[NE146]

Now Im trying to consider do I want to part ways with my Smokemonster Everdrive Pack in favor of the No Intro Romsets

 

From my understanding, the no-intro romset is the entire basis of the Smokemonster packs (which is basically just taking it and duping the roms across multiple categories).

 

Which particular games didn't work out of curiosity? The current version of the Mega EverDrive Pack is v7.0.7. That what you're using?

[SanfordSeven]

 

From my understanding, the no-intro romset is the entire basis of the Smokemonster packs (which is basically just taking it and duping the roms across multiple categories).

 

Which particular games didn't work out of curiosity? The current version of the Mega EverDrive Pack is v7.0.7. That what you're using?

NE146 - Ive personally had no issues but what had me concerned was this:

 

Been playing around with the JB and find the smoke monster mega everdrive genesis roms pack is hit and miss. As they said in the pdf the No Intro Roms work nearly 100%.

So this quote above from RetrogamerX is what I was referencing. Id like to know if anyone else has had a hit or miss experience like RGX. Hopefully Ive made sense.

[Laner]

Everything I've tried from Smokemonster's packs works fine.

[NE146]

NE146 - Ive personally had no issues but what had me concerned was this:

 

 

So this quote above from RetrogamerX is what I was referencing. Id like to know if anyone else has had a hit or miss experience like RGX. Hopefully Ive made sense.

 

Well yes it makes sense and let me be the first to say that in the past I HAVE had issues with ROMS in the smokemonster packs in the past.

 

I forget exactly which game but it went like this. If I chose "Metroid" (just used as a simple example) from the "Best of Lists" directory, it wouldn't load, but if I chose the regular one from the "J-N" directory or whatever, that one worked fine even though it was the same rom supposedly. Again this is a purely made up example. I forget what game, and what exact directory the faulty rom was in. As we all know in SM packs, a game like Mario, or Metroid would appear multiple times across multiple directory categories. However I don't think I've come across this scenario in more recent updated packs.

[CZroe]

 

Well yes it makes sense and let me be the first to say that in the past I HAVE had issues with ROMS in the smokemonster packs in the past.

 

I forget exactly which game but it went like this. If I chose "Metroid" (just used as a simple example) from the "Best of Lists" directory, it wouldn't load, but if I chose the regular one from the "J-N" directory or whatever, that one worked fine even though it was the same rom supposedly. Again this is a purely made up example. I forget what game, and what exact directory the faulty rom was in. As we all know in SM packs, a game like Mario, or Metroid would appear multiple times across multiple directory categories. However I don't think I've come across this scenario in more recent updated packs.

Sounds like a device that doesn’t support a specific character in or length of a longer path.

[derFunkenstein]

Sounds like a device that doesn’t support a specific character in or length of a longer path.

I was thinking the same thing. And since I only have an 8 GB card in my Everdrives, I always skipped that folder when creating ED cards, favoring more hacks instead.

[Austin]

Well, that only took a few hours of thinking. Just ordered a Mega SG (thanks, jailbreak!).

[Kaide]

 

My guess why the Sg got the coleco core is because of the controller port, suppose you can use native colecovision controllers on the Sg. I hope I'm wrong.

 

 

Dont know if there is any more core that use this 9pin port.

My guess is more that it’s because the Colecovision uses the Z80. Same CPU used by the Master System and included in the Genesis (which is how it gets backwards compatibility IIRC).

 

It’s probably similar enough that it could use the existing Z80 implementation that was included for the Sega consoles. Not sure why other non-Nintendo Z80 consoles aren’t included though.

 

As for a GBA FPGA, if Nintendo patented anything in the hardware you need to reimplement, then it gets murky. You can try to work around them, but you can also wait for them to fall into the public domain in a few years, probably (20 years on the patent IIRC).

[RetrogamerX]

SmokeMonster says that all his verified ROMs come from the No Intro set... ateast for other platforms. Not sure why Genesis would be different. I just moved my SD card over from the Mega Everdrive X5 and tweaked the folder arrangement as suggested by the JB notes and it’s played everything from my SD card I’ve tried so far. My Genesis Smokemonster set hasn’t been updated since 2017 so unless something major changed since the. I’d expect his more current sets to work just as well.

 

I have the newest smoke monster pack and not every game works. Some games give black or blue screen,but every single no intro pack is working perfect.

 

Never mind. It was a older sd card. Had some errors. Used a new card and smokes packs are working fine now.

Edited April 2, 2019 by RetrogamerX

[mr_me]

Genesis uses 5V output on pin 5 and Gnd on pin 8. On CV these pins switch back and forth to ground to select the different controller modes. The only way it would work is if the pins were able to be switched to either 5V or ground, but most likely they are just set to the voltage needed for the genesis.

Even a microcontroller can reconfigure it's pins between data and ground. I guess it depends how it's wired but I'd be surprised if it's designed that way. I figure analog inputs like atari paddles mights require extra electronics and would be the problem. Edited April 2, 2019 by mr_me

[atmn]

Thinking of the hi rez file bowser... why wouldn't you want to have that?

 

Well, if you using 240p on a CRT... Could the DAC be available sooner rather than later?

[afx_acid]

 

On the subject of scanlines, i've noticed that in 720p mode at 3x screen height, using the normal non-hybrid scanlines the line darkness/intensity will reach its maximum somewhere on the depth slider between 60-80 and anything more than that doesn't seem to affect them at all.

 

It's only when you go in to the Width & Height settings and change the height to anything less than 720 that the scanlines will darken beyond this at higher depth settings, although by changing the height to a non-integer scale this obviously starts to mess up the scanline spacing a bit.

 

This probably got lost in all the jailbreak excitement, but can anybody test the above on their system and confirm if this is an issue?

[bird333]

Has anybody tried to update the firmware with a micro sd card and adapter? Any issues doing that?

[atmn]

Has anybody tried to update the firmware with a micro sd card and adapter? Any issues doing that?

 

 

Using that right now, no issues at all, Kingston microSD 16GB and a samsung adapter.

[PearlJammzz]

Has anybody tried to update the firmware with a micro sd card and adapter? Any issues doing that?

I have, it's the only SD card that would work. I did manage to get a 32GB SD card to work by using the official SD card formatter program from sdcard.org. The MegaSG has read the SD card every time w/o issue since then.