Welcome to the MiSTer FPGA LOVE Fest ;)

[pbj]

I’m in the same boat, Ken, but I’ve already owned a Jaguar and a lot of the library.  Bought one copy of everything out of that cave in Missouri.  That system was terrible in every way.  Even Alien vs Predator.

Saturn emulation I thought was a sure thing circa 2005 and sold my games dirt cheap.  Could have made a couple mortgage payments with them now.  Oh well.  I threw in the towel and bought a Japanese console for ~$60, a Fenrir drive emulator for ~$140, and a wireless controller for $30 and I’m done.  It outputs a beautiful image in composite and SVideo, and has native RGB…. So why emulate?

3D0 has always eluded me.  Some day. 

[csnow]

I already have so much rarely played retro hardware

Agreed - Between arcade and consoles, I have more games than my inner 11 year old self could have dreamed of back in the early 80s.  When I had the time, I didn't have the games.  Now that I have the games, I don't have the time.  The irony of life.

[opt2not]

FYI, lots of progress is being made on the Saturn core. This thing is happening.
https://twitter.com/srg320_/status/1557427798536503302?s=21&t=E6qAXE8CzDQAlKFo1IGYZg

[chopperthedog]

Was trying to build yesterday and a couple DBG_REGN entries were causing compile to quit. He updated his github bout 44min ago, should take my old computer just over 2 hours to compile.


good day.

[gamepimp]

Was trying to build yesterday and a couple DBG_REGN entries were causing compile to quit. He updated his github bout 44min ago, should take my old computer just over 2 hours to compile.


good day.

Is there a good reference on compiling MiSTer cores from source code? It would be neat to give this one a try. I usually just wait until there are unofficial beta builds, but if compiling isn't too challenging it might be cool to give it a go.

[dmckean]

I hear the next version of the analog board is supposed to use direct video but at the cost of not supporting simultaneous HDMI and analog output. I know that is an important feature for something, especially those who stream.

The MiSTer still remains one of the best purchases I’ve made in the last few years.

I can agree with this now.

After the honeymoon with my initial stack, the shortcomings started to become apparent. The component video out functioned and looked OK, but it was lacking that pop,.my s-video modded consoles looked better. Ended up learning about the 18bit cap and limited color range on the analog out of the i/o, tried direct video with an hdmi to vga thingy and what an impressive difference.

Next, my audio system has optical provisions because of the ass analog audio from a PS2 fat, but I defaulted to using the optical with MiSTer in the begining. Noticed that my system would cut off the first couple ms of a sound, i.e. the jump sound in pitfall or the nintendo snes chime would get clipped. Games that had music or other continuous noises happening were fine. No fault of the MiSTer, just something with my system. Figure I'll just try the analog audio out from the i/o. Welp, on first core launch 3 loud pops made my sub and speakers scream in pain, analog audio from i/o had no use for me. Snagged an optical to analog box and got a good clean signal with happy speakers.

So, now I have a pile of random bits that make up my MiSTer "rig" under my TV, not the easiest thing to kinda set up and tear down when I want to use one of my other consoles.






Attached everything to a chunk of shelf and got mine "consoleized" with easy power in and audio/video outs for easy hook up and storage. The MT32-pi is the only item not attached, left that loose to have that center space to use snac adapters. Got me thinking about all these really expensive multi system, ironclad itx and other all in one boards, it's just the same design of the stock stack with all the shortcomings on a single fancy PCB and box. I almost got sucked into one of those boards.... PHEW!





This isn't a knock on the MiSTer, I always noticed on my 27" TV, that the top an bottom were clipped. I had NO clue that consumer crt's had service menus. One of them "wish I knew this sh!t years ago" moments. Got the vertical dialed in and now I can see all scores, insert coins, power meters, lives left and everything else fully now.



good day.

[chopperthedog]

Is there a good reference on compiling MiSTer cores from source code? It would be neat to give this one a try. I usually just wait until there are unofficial beta builds, but if compiling isn't too challenging it might be cool to give it a go.

It's stupid easy.

I'm using windows 7, steps may vary with other os.

1. Download and install "Quartus Prime Lite 17.1" (close to 6gb file).
2. Pick a repository i.e. NeoGeo_Mister, click green button that says "code" and click "download as zip"
3. Extract zip to know location.
4. Open Quartus, hit "Open Project" and navigate to your "NeoGeo_Mister_Master" folder you extracted and select "NeoGeo.QPF" and click compile (little play button).
5. Once it finishes in your NeoGeo_Mister_Master folder you will now find an "output_files" folder and in there you will find your new RBF.

The saturn core is a tad different, for that you need the "Saturn_Mister" "Saturn" and "SH" repositories. After extracting the zips you need to take the "_Master" part off the "Saturn" and "SH" folders. If you don't quartus will error out because the script in looking for folders with out the "_Master" added.



good day.

[gamepimp]

Is there a good reference on compiling MiSTer cores from source code? It would be neat to give this one a try. I usually just wait until there are unofficial beta builds, but if compiling isn't too challenging it might be cool to give it a go.

It's stupid easy.

I'm using windows 7, steps may vary with other os.

1. Download and install "Quartus Prime Lite 17.1" (close to 6gb file).
2. Pick a repository i.e. NeoGeo_Mister, click green button that says "code" and click "download as zip"
3. Extract zip to know location.
4. Open Quartus, hit "Open Project" and navigate to your "NeoGeo_Mister_Master" folder you extracted and select "NeoGeo.QPF" and click compile (little play button).
5. Once it finishes in your NeoGeo_Mister_Master folder you will now find an "output_files" folder and in there you will find your new RBF.

The saturn core is a tad different, for that you need the "Saturn_Mister" "Saturn" and "SH" repositories. After extracting the zips you need to take the "_Master" part off the "Saturn" and "SH" folders. If you don't quartus will error out because the script in looking for folders with out the "_Master" added.



good day.

Awesome. Thanks for the info! I usually use a Win 10 machine, but have one with Win 7 I can use if things go pear shaped when I try it on the newer rig. 

[opt2not]

I hear the next version of the analog board is supposed to use direct video but at the cost of not supporting simultaneous HDMI and analog output. I know that is an important feature for something, especially those who stream.

I’m ok with that. I stopped using the dual output a while ago. Now I just upscale the analog out to the capture card and not be bothered with dealing with 2 separate resolutions. It’s cleaner this way.

[chopperthedog]

I have a soft spot for some of the PSX driving games, with any emulation set up and different usb adapters I've tried over the years the negcon protocol never worked right. I've got a couple favorite hand held driving controllers that are negcon based and only way to use them was on original hardware.

My PSX snac adapter came in yesterday and I'm a happy camper. All I had to do was set snac as controller, launch game and in the options of the game it acknowledged there was a negcon plugged in. Rocked some R4 for about an hour and it felt like og hardware.

I also gave the input selector relay a workout on my CRT with having my real PSX plugged in via s-video and MiSTer with component. Set up situations where I could quickly switch inputs for comparisons. Was quite impressed to see almost zero difference between the 2 signals, something not possible with video from i.o board.

fun stuff.


good day.

[nitrogen_widget]

Can it play Gauntlet legends?
serious question.
I'm curious about just how powerful this is.

[dmckean]

No.

There's not enough bandwidth or logic elements on the DE-10 Nano to tackle something like a Voodoo card. 1995 will probably end up being a pretty hard cutoff year for arcade hardware.

[chopperthedog]

Awesome. Thanks for the info! I usually use a Win 10 machine, but have one with Win 7 I can use if things go pear shaped when I try it on the newer rig. 

The read me got a nice update over the weekend.  https://github.com/srg320/Saturn_MiSTer


good day.

[chopperthedog]

I hear the next version of the analog board is supposed to use direct video but at the cost of not supporting simultaneous HDMI and analog output. I know that is an important feature for something, especially those who stream.

Direct video does not support mode lines, so I will have to keep the analog i/o for those times I want to muck with a couple of the computer cores on my CRT.


good day.

[gamepimp]

Awesome. Thanks for the info! I usually use a Win 10 machine, but have one with Win 7 I can use if things go pear shaped when I try it on the newer rig. 

The read me got a nice update over the weekend.  https://github.com/srg320/Saturn_MiSTer


good day.

I saw that! As luck would have it someone posted the rbf file in the MiSTer forum so I was able to just download it this time. Not many games seemed to work for me, so I will probably just wait for the beta on this one. It was pretty cool to see how far this one has advanced already though. Srg320 is a mad genius!

[chopperthedog]

The snac adapter and negcon support was perfect, BUT while playing R4 I set a new record, but I couldn't save it. There are a handful of games that only read/save to mem card slot 1 and R4 is one of them. That makes the virtual memory card in slot 2 on the MiSTer unusable with some games. I saw the mem card provisions on the snac pcb. Got crafty on a rainy day and made a little pcb using sweeps from a chip socket so I could plug a memory card in my snac thingy. Worked out great, copied file on real hardware to cheap memory card and the MiSTer loaded my R4 data.





good day.

[EvilNuff]

My backordered de10 finally came in (like 10 months or so backorder I think it was) and I have to say I am really impressed.  Now I need to look into controllers and figure out if there is a better way to organize games than just the default menus per console.

[KenToad]

Seems like ordering directly from Terasic is the only way to get a DE-10 Nano board these days, but they want more than $40 for shipping a 10 ounce PCB. If they were an Ebay seller, this would be a scam I guess.

Also, I'm still following Mister news and kind of amused by the gushing "the PS1 core is perfect" then 3 updates later "the PS1 core is even perfecter."

Can we just get a better FPGA released already? Maybe one that supports boxart and rewind? 

[Zeosstud]

Got my Dig Dug upgrades installed last night. Different CRT monitor with next to no burn in, switching power supply, True 4 way version of the Dominux8 leaf switch joystick and the DigDug to Jamma adapter from Arcadeshop, which allowed me to install my Mistercade without doing any damage to the original wiring harness ( I did tap into the sound connector to be able to use the speakers and a buddy soldered the 12v from the new power supply to the adapter). The Mistercade boots up into the last game played and stuff really looks amazing. I think it is pretty cool that like 85% of the games that I have messed with, ones that use a joystick and 1 button, allow me to make minor adjustments on a per game basis to the horizontal and vertical picture position, wish it was 100% but no matter, all games look great ( so far ). Here is the icing on the cake, I played 15 screens of the 9th key on Pac-man and the ghosts acted exactly the same, every time, it was perfect. This is the glory of the Mister, I have tried Mame, BitKit, 60-n-1 and the Mister out to an HDMI monitor, Sanwa Joysticks with default spring, 2lb, 3lb, 4lb, Tornado Terrys 4 way, Happ Supers, no setup has looked better or played better than what I have now, I am ready to sit back and play some now, just enjoy for awhile, that is a good feeling.

Zeosstud

[bobbyb13]

Very cool to hear this has come so far.
I really need to finally put mine together.
Any issues with mating to the CRT?
I have a Kortek multisync that I figured would be a good one for this purpose that is in the target cabinet already.

[Zeosstud]

No sir, no issues using the monitor with this setup. I do have the breakout board available thru to coin door if I need to adjust anything but so far that has not been the case. As I recall we made all the adjustments while playing Pacman on the monitor, so that I could see everything inside the monitors bezel, with the other games, for the most part if they were off a little up and down or left to right I could adjust them on a per game basis in the settings, this did come in handy a few times.

Zeosstud