SegaSnatcher Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 Just curious if anyone here who has a lot of experience with the original hardware has tested the core on MiSTer yet. How do you feel it compares. I don't have any reference to go by, but so far my experiences with the core has been great. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almerian Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 You can also search for and look at experiences with the Atari 8 bit core for the generic FPGA computer MIST and the dedicated Atari FPGA computer EclaireXL. All three are related and originate from the same author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 No. It's something I'd not mind owning but a setup looks pretty pricey. The things I'd be paying attention to would be demos and modern day games. The true test would be things like hardware exploits. But if the cores are in fact based on reverse-engineering by decaps and schematics then it's likely they'd be really accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 I wish, ordered a de10 nano from mouser in October last year and still waiting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinadan67 Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 I am also waiting for my order from october, the DE10-Nano is hard to get at the moment. I am not that interested in the Atari 800 core, as i have plenty of original hardware to play with, but looking forward to trying lots of the other cores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 1 hour ago, Rybags said: No. It's something I'd not mind owning but a setup looks pretty pricey. The things I'd be paying attention to would be demos and modern day games. The true test would be things like hardware exploits. But if the cores are in fact based on reverse-engineering by decaps and schematics then it's likely they'd be really accurate. You can still put together a setup MiSTer setup which will run practically everything barring some bigger arcade games, for about 260USD. But finding a DE10 these days is a big problem. Atari core is a port of EclaireXL, which as it says "runs 99% of Atari software" and "passes all Acid800 tests". From MiSTer side, I do recall somebody saying they had problems with 400/800 specific software. On the other hand, some time ago I've played every game from 1979-81 on this core and can't recall many problematic ones, though there might've been an odd case. Overall, I think this core counts as pretty solid and mature, though it certainly hasn't been tested as thoroughly as the other Big Four microcomputer ones (at least from what I saw during the 1.5 years since I got my MiSTer). If you could recommend some examples of demos or games which could be good for testing, I could try them out (I also have 65XE for comparison). So far, I have played the Prince of Persia port and early Final Assault version on it and they were fine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 3 hours ago, Dinadan67 said: I am also waiting for my order from october, the DE10-Nano is hard to get at the moment. I am not that interested in the Atari 800 core, as i have plenty of original hardware to play with, but looking forward to trying lots of the other cores. I'm going to try the 800 core, and if I like it enough I will certainly downsize my a8 collection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotty Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 I have a crap ton of real A8 hardware, as well as a mister. Real hardware on my desk is an 800XL with Ultimate1MB, FujiNet, Sophia, Ultimate Cart, SIO2PC and an S Drive Max, and probably a couple other things I am forgetting? What did I honestly use most of the time? The Altirra emulator. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 No reason to wait for a DE10-Nano for the 54 week lead time (that it is now) when the MiST is readily available: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=45 As for the A800 core, yeah, it works great. I am using it on the MiST and for all intents and purposes it does the same thing my real 65XE does Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 I probably should also mention that it does a whole lot more than my 65XE does too....namely allowing MUCH more RAM (4MB!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darwinmac Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 2 hours ago, eightbit said: I probably should also mention that it does a whole lot more than my 65XE does too....namely allowing MUCH more RAM (4MB!) I would also mention that the A800 core allows those of us in the US to more easily run PAL software (outside of emulators). I have the MiST version. Bob C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 3 minutes ago, darwinmac said: I would also mention that the A800 core allows those of us in the US to more easily run PAL software (outside of emulators). I have the MiST version. Bob C Excellent point, and now you have reminded me of all of those PAL demos I have always wanted to be able to run properly. I have to do that soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 Yeah, PAL demos work great as expected. Funny how when these cores are mentioned only the MiSTer is mentioned. I think that was always the problem with the MiST FPGA....nobody knew about it. Ironic considering the MiSTer is based off of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolium Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 I have both Mist and Mister. If you are NOT interested in NeoGeo and upcoming Saturn and PlayStation 1 cores and don't mind manually configuring arcade cores and roms Mist is a good choice. Main difference between Mist and Mister: - Mister have much more RAM - Mister have HDMI, VGA, Scart output while Mist have only VGA - Mister can play MIDI music without any additional device, Atari ST, Amiga, PC and X68000 cores supports this - Mist provides classic 5pin MIDI ports and USB MIDI while Mister provides only USB MIDI connection - Mister have built in Linux OS and is automatically updated with scripts, for Mist you need to setup your SD cards manually - Mister have network and with it internet connectivity - Mister is harder to get now and more expensive - for Mist, If you don't have VGA monitor/TV, you will also need HDMI-to-VGA converter, preferably gaming upscaler like OSSC which also can be very expensive - Mist is probably better solution for Atari ST musicians, you just connect and are good to go (after you manually set up SD card, which is really easy for Atari) - Mist have 2x 9pin joystick ports, for Mister you'll need USB joystick/gamepad or adapters Atari 8bit works great on both. On Mist Atari ST and Amiga core even supports direct, RAW SD access for hard disk storage emulation (faster HD), but you can't load floppy images then (FAT16/32 partition on SD is needed for that). If you are interested in Mister, then I would recommend this: https://rmcretro.store/multisystem-board-only/ As you can see, it gets quite pricey. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 43 minutes ago, Nolium said: it gets quite pricey Not really, because that board, case, and the likes of Meanwell PSU are luxury add-ons. You don't need them for normal operation, and can put together functional setup for much less. Alas, it's true that at the moment MiSter is rather hard to obtain. Though it's not "54 weeks", because lead times don't equal availability, which atm is listed for ~July by most major sellers (also available directly through Terasic now, though this piles on costs). So I agree that MiST is a good option - always was - if you don't mind the few caveats, lack of HDMI probably being the biggest one for most people. Personally, I'd actually go for SiDi board in that case, which costs less than half-price of MiST and only lacks some connectivity. Sadly, it's also unavailable at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, youxia said: lack of HDMI probably being the biggest one for most people. Lol, it was the lack of VGA on the MiSTer that bothered me, hence why I purchased the I/O board...lol If you have never experienced the MiST or the MiSTer on a VGA CRT display you are truly missing out. I haven't encountered an HDMI TV yet that is as crisp with the truly jaw dropping smooth scrolling you get from an old school CRT VGA monitor. Everything now however is on pre-order or out of stock.....except the MiST. I really don't believe stock levels will return to "normal" until 2023 to be honest. From what I hear Terasic has no plans of bringing the price down for the DE10-NANO from its current $210 pricetag which is a shame. I guess that it is what it is when a dev board is chosen for a project like this. They can just raise the price whenever they want or even stop production of the board with no notice. But, not to get way off topic, yeah the A800 core is pretty robust and the same on both MiST and MiSTer platforms, so whichever you get a hold of you are going to have a pretty nice A800 experience. I might just sell my 65XE soon as this core seems to handle everything I used it for. Edited February 15, 2022 by eightbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 19 minutes ago, eightbit said: Lol, it was the lack of VGA on the MiSTer that bothered me, hence why I purchased the I/O board...lol That's cool, but you must realize that CRT MiSTer users (which I'm one of) are a minority? HDMI was always MiSTer's main selling point, well before there was even talk of PSX/Saturn - that's just how it is. And you didn't need to splash on I/O board for VGA, since it's even better via Direct Video As for VGA CRT displays, heh, yes, I have experienced them, but wasn't overtly impressed. They have the same flaws as always, what with being smaller, dimmer and much less livelier than consumer CRTs or even modern OLEDs. And I'm a CRT fanatic, most people nowadays don't care a jot for all that and just use modern panels (now that there are shadowmasks and adaptive scanlines on MiSter it's a bit more palatable). But if you like them that's great, sure, but perhaps it's a somewhat unrelated topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 14 hours ago, youxia said: But if you like them that's great, sure, but perhaps it's a somewhat unrelated topic. I certainly do...especially my Truflat Starlogic which looks awesome and is pretty darn lively! It was also free And, yes, unrelated. So, back on topic. The MiST/MiSTer core for this computer is really good indeed. But, there are some things I could not get running that run on real hardware. Bounty Bob Strikes Back would not work the last I tried but maybe I need to go back to the settings and see if something is out of place. I'll have to give this core a real workout I think. Here is the MiST link for this core BTW for MiST users since I have been mentioning it: https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-binaries/tree/master/cores/atari800 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darwinmac Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 @eightbit - I was also surprised that I couldn’t get Bounty Bob Strikes Back to work on the core. Talking with the core developer, the cartridge type is unique to this game and not supported. However, he was surprised to hear that the XEX version didn’t work. I only tried the “fixed” version that someone posted here at AA. I would be interested in what other games did not work for you with the A800 core. Bob C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 26 minutes ago, darwinmac said: @eightbit - I was also surprised that I couldn’t get Bounty Bob Strikes Back to work on the core. Talking with the core developer, the cartridge type is unique to this game and not supported. However, he was surprised to hear that the XEX version didn’t work. I only tried the “fixed” version that someone posted here at AA. I would be interested in what other games did not work for you with the A800 core. Bob C I will try it again tomorrow, but I am fairly certain I tried the XEX version and that didn't work either. But, I test/play with a lot of things so I could be wrong here. I will try again and report back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darwinmac Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 I just said he was surprised. The XEX version didn’t work for me either. I’ve also had problems with Assembloids XE and His Dark Majesty (both homebrew made in the last 3-8 years). I’m still interested in what other games didn’t work for you. Bob C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 (edited) 42 minutes ago, darwinmac said: I just said he was surprised. The XEX version didn’t work for me either. I’ve also had problems with Assembloids XE and His Dark Majesty (both homebrew made in the last 3-8 years). I’m still interested in what other games didn’t work for you. Bob C Why was he so "surprised"? You would think as a core developer of the 800 core that this game would have been one of the first to test due to its popularity. But I guess that is not the case. Edited February 22, 2022 by eightbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 2 hours ago, eightbit said: Why was he so "surprised"? You would think as a core developer of the 800 core that this game would have been one of the first to test due to its popularity. But I guess that is not the case. In Altirra all my XEX-versions work only in XL/XE mode but not on an 400/800. I did not try on hardware or my FPGA yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 3 hours ago, DjayBee said: In Altirra all my XEX-versions work only in XL/XE mode but not on an 400/800. I did not try on hardware or my FPGA yet. It wouldn't work on a 400 or 800 if they are stock models. BBSB requires a 64k machine IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darwinmac Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 8 hours ago, eightbit said: Why was he so "surprised"? You would think as a core developer of the 800 core that this game would have been one of the first to test due to its popularity. But I guess that is not the case. I only tried one XEX version (the one uploaded here to AA). It is possible it will work with another cracked version. I didn’t try other options, like Homesoft, to see if the problem still occurs with those versions as well. Everyone has their own favorites. As a relative newbie to the 8-bit (I had an Apple II+ BITD), I wasn’t familiar with BBSB. Bob C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.