FPGA Based Videogame System

[GamingMuscles]

I've done a search and can't see it mentioned, does anybody else get an annoying buzzing tone when opening the inventory in Flashback? It happens for me using both NTSC and JP roms, but not the PAL version.

 

This is using an SD2SNES so I'm not sure if it's an issue with the Super NT or the SD2SNES itself. Can anyone else verify the problem? Also, has anyone got an official Flashback cart to test this?

The buzz does not occur on original hardware with an SD2SNES, so its a bug in the Super Nt.

@Kevtris The bug is still on firmware 4.3 i have tested with my PAL original cartridge of Flashback Edited February 25, 2018 by GamingMuscles

[leods]

I tested Flashback too. There is a buzz sound in the pause menu. I don't have Super Nintendo to test, but people already said that doesn't happen on original hardware.

 

I tested Front Mission and the text was perfect. I didn't see a single instance of a problem. Where does it still appear?

 

I also played some pocky and Rocky, and couldn't see any problems at all. Where was there supposed to be a problem, so I can try to test?

 

Ninja Warriors worked flawlessly of course.

 

People sould be careful. If your colors were fine in the original release of the SNT it might mean your monitr or TV is working on Limited RGB. Remember to activate Limited RGB range and you'll be fine.

 

I changed my monitor to Full RGB and left the Console at Full RGB, but is that better at all? Is there an advantage over limited? I can't seem to see a difference. The only problem is mixing them. That does make some gradients disappear.

 

Good Job Kevtris. 4.3 appears to be great. I hope it survives the test of time now, so you can work on other stuff.

[Loukey]

Excited about all the fixes on this new firmware. Can't wait until our Mysterious Benefactor^TM releases the update to the jail-broken firmware.

[romevi]

Firmware 4.3 has been posted.

 

Changes include:

 

* Fixed Front Mission - Gun Hazard. This game did mid-frame HDMA enables and disables. Pocky and Rocky should be fixed too with this since it does that as well.

* Fixed Ninja Warriors

* Re-fixed the Mecarobot Golf fix, this should fix several random crashes.

* Fixed Uniracers 2 player mode, where player 2 hovered above the track.

* Partial fix on Front Mission - bottom of text box no longer moves, but the text sometimes does.

* Added individual RGB gamma sliders.

* Added "straight through" RGB when not using HQX scalers; this should fix the RGB issues people had. These are under the "scanlines" menu.

* Linearized the brightness steps for the overall screen brightness (PPU reg 2100 bits 0-3).

* Added limited RGB mode checkbox. This is under the "scalers" menu. Also now I am sending out "underscan" flags, and "IT content" flags which should force some monitors/TVs to disable overscan, and any filtering/processing (IT mode).

* Super Powerpak fixed - check "use launch system timing" box under the hardware menu if you wish to use one.

 

https://support.analogue.co/hc/en-us

 

 

Thank you, kevtris!!!

 

Is the Super Gameboy 2 really vastly superior to the old NA Super Gameboy, or do you just not have either, and are going to get the best option?

 

I've used the NA one a lot, and never had any real issues with it.

 

I have the Gameboy Player on my Gamecube too, but currently only have analog output from that, and only S-Video, bleh. But it plays everything up to and including Advance.

 

https://tcrf.net/Super_Game_Boy#Added_Features

[romevi]

I've come to the conclusion that, until a zero lag solution comes along, it's best to just play all game boy games on a GBA SP.

 

 

Nah, dude. The SP is awful thanks to the buttons. Best way is to rip the screen out of them and swap 'em into the AGB-001. Or get the BennVenn GBC kit.

 

Wow, I didn’t notice it before, but the Super NT menu’s background in limited RGB mode mode was slightly bright and greyish. Now it’s a deep, satisfying black.

 

Any recommended gamma settings? I had gamma boost on with no scanlines in the prior firmware, but now with the sliders I don’t know what the old gamma boost was equivalent to.

 

I would like to know as well. I've been using Normal Scanlines set to 200 with Gamma Boost turned off.

 

For me the best solution is to use an early Gamecube (with the digital out port) with the Game Boy Player (You can pick up the $20 version sold without the disc), the SD Media Launcher by codejunkies (GC ODE, only costs $20 and includes a region changing feature), Extrems Game Boy-Interface low latency version (Replacement code for the GBP disc written to have extremely low latency and scale the image correctly), and BadAssConsoles GCVideoX hdmi adapter (Costs $100, or $130 if you want the analogue and hdmi out model but it is a pre order so you wont get it for several months. The GCHD is available on amazon right now for $150 and only does hdmi if you don't want to wait).

 

Also there is a hori gamecube controller designed to be like the snes controller and ideal for GB games but it costs around $60 on ebay and I've never had any problem with the oem gamecube controller.

 

I've heard of people wanting the best playing experience possible, but dude...

 

Do agree with you on the Hori Game Boy Controller, though.

 

Gameboy Colour on the NT Mini is really good, worth a try. Have my best Tetris DX score using it.

 

Yeah, the best way to play on the big screen is the Nt mini. The games look amazing and I've noticed no lag.

[NE146]

I've heard of people wanting the best playing experience possible, but dude...

 

lol yeah I was going to say. I was fine in the past with a SGB going to a cheap CRT. I'm fine now with a SGB going to a Super NT and calling it a day. Gameboy games aren't exactly hardcore twitchfests anyway

[Atariboy]

If you're going to spend all that to create the ideal Game Boy Player setup, I'd suggesting checking out Ralphnet for controller adapters to finish the job. I've been using a Classic Controller to GameCube adapter with a SNES Classic Edition controller for a couple of months now in place of my old setup with an original horizontal style GBA connected by a link cable to my GPB. I highly recommend this setup for the Game Boy Player fan.

 

The expensive Hori gamepad which I bought years ago when a rental chain imported them doesn't have an ideal button layout for Game Boy games. The d-pad is great when compared to the stock Nintendo d-pad on GameCube controllers, but it only accomplishes half the job since you're still stuck with the GameCube button layout which is often less than perfect for classic Game Boy gaming. The Hori controller fell by the wayside quickly as a result, and I doubt I've used it for 5 hours total since 2004 or so.

 

They also make a SNES to GCN adapter that would accomplish the same thing.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Atariboy

[Dylanlip]

 

I changed my monitor to Full RGB and left the Console at Full RGB, but is that better at all? Is there an advantage over limited? I can't seem to see a difference. The only problem is mixing them. That does make some gradients disappear.

 

You should always be using Full -> Full with SNES, as there is color information below 16 & above 235/240 being sent, and setting limited for both will blow out highlights and crush blacks. Detail will be lost. Limited should be used only for compatibility with screens that don't support full range RGB.

 

 

Any recommended gamma settings? I had gamma boost on with no scanlines in the prior firmware, but now with the sliders I don’t know what the old gamma boost was equivalent to.

 

The old gamma boost was necessary to compensate for the lopsided grayscale/gamma distribution/ramp. Now that it's (hopefully) fixed, touching gamma shouldn't be necessary when not using scanlines. I can't say for now what would be good/accurate with scanlines and at what depth.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Dylanlip

[Jakir]

I've heard of people wanting the best playing experience possible, but dude...

 

Do agree with you on the Hori Game Boy Controller, though.

 

 

lol yeah I was going to say. I was fine in the past with a SGB going to a cheap CRT. I'm fine now with a SGB going to a Super NT and calling it a day. Gameboy games aren't exactly hardcore twitchfests anyway

 

Well realistically the total cost would be:

Early GameCube = $40 on ebay

GC GBP without disk = $20 on ebay

GC Optical Drive Emulator = $20 (and lets you region change, back up your saves to sd card, and is a GC everdrive)

Homebrew GCP software = free

GC digital port hdmi plug = $100

 

Assuming you already own a GC that's a $140 cost which isn't even half the cost of the component cables and gives you access to the entire library of GC games and ability to play all Game Boy games. That's pretty affordable all things considered. At least until Kevtris makes a core for it but who knows when he will have time for that, and either way I doubt he will get around to a GC core any time soon and the only difference between the best GC setup and the best GBA setup is some free software and a $20 GBP.

[zeroG]

You should always be using Full -> Full with SNES, as there is color information below 16 & above 235/240 being sent, and setting limited for both will blow out highlights and crush blacks. Detail will be lost.

 

That's wrong. Activating the "limited range" option of the Super Nt should exactly avoid that problem. A working "limited range" implementation will compress the color range to 16-235 and it's hard to see a difference to full range / full range in most cases. Only mixing the settings is a problem and will result in the problems you mentioned.

Edited February 25, 2018 by zeroG

[+eebuckeye]

Since the Super NT is simulating the actual SNES system are these game specific fixes or global changes to make the FPGA as close to 100% as possible? I would think if the FPGA is 100% accurate then no specific game changes would be needed, correct?

 

Thanks!

[leods]

Since the Super NT is simulating the actual SNES system are these game specific fixes or global changes to make the FPGA as close to 100% as possible? I would think if the FPGA is 100% accurate then no specific game changes would be needed, correct?

 

Thanks!

I'll jump in and answer this one, because Kevtris has already mentioned this a couple times. He doesn't do any game specific fixes. What he does is change the machine itself so it works. That's the reason why 4.1 broke a bunch of stuff. He changed something, so it would work with a game, but then other games started having trouble. So he changed it again, and now apparently everything is working. So yes, every bug, every oddity, and every inaccuracy found, will help Kevtris reverse engineering the system, and making it even closer to how the 2 chip SNES works.

 

On that note, I must have spent over 10 minutes going in and out of the house in Zelda trying to crash the game but it just didn't happen. Did that crash the game just in the beginning, or latter or could it be reproduced too? Cause in the beginning I only came out about 10 times.

 

So far the only problem my testing has shown is Flashback's inventory.

Edited February 25, 2018 by leods

[SegaSnatcher]

 

That's wrong. Activating the "limited range" option of the Super Nt should exactly avoid that problem. A working "limited range" implementation will compress the color range to 16-235 and it's hard to see a difference to full range / full range in most cases. Only mixing the settings is a problem and will result in the problems you mentioned.

I switched back and forth and I'm not seeing a difference to be honest.

[RadikusRLZ]

I'm sorry, but at this point I blame user error. Your setup must be whack, because I doubt you could have that much bad luck. Three faulty Analogue NT Minis, I highly doubt that.

 

I've questioned your motive since your original posts about hooking up your HDMI enabled console into a framemeister via composite. Your setup makes zero sense.

 

No there is problem with the firmware, bad code we are try to hack it to work correctly, it is not user error sorry for that

[F34R]

 

No there is problem with the firmware, bad code we are try to hack it to work correctly, it is not user error sorry for that

If that's the case, I'd just simply get a refund; and if I was Analogue, I'd just give you a refund at this point.

[SegaSnatcher]

 

You should always be using Full -> Full with SNES, as there is color information below 16 & above 235/240 being sent, and setting limited for both will blow out highlights and crush blacks. Detail will be lost. Limited should be used only for compatibility with screens that don't support full range RGB.

 

 

The old gamma boost was necessary to compensate for the lopsided grayscale/gamma distribution/ramp. Now that it's (hopefully) fixed, touching gamma shouldn't be necessary when not using scanlines. I can't say for now what would be good/accurate with scanlines and at what depth.

That is true, just with stock settings via 4.3 firmware the gamma seems to be correct. Where in previous firmwares leaving gamma boost off would make some scenes too dark to the point of missing shadow details.

[trismegistus]

Some observations on the 4.3 firmware:

• 720p resolution looks much better on my 4K TV now. On earlier firmwares, the TV's upscaling was introducing all sorts of ugly artifacts, especially when using scanlines. I guess the "IT content" flags convinced it not to do that. The edges still look somewhat soft compared to 1080p, but the artifacting is gone and 720p is now a viable option.
• I tried to replicate the crash in Link to the Past when going in and out Link's house and have been unable.
• I'm still seeing misaligned scanlines at 1200 vertical resolution when vertical interpolation is disabled. With interpolation enabled, they look correct.

[Jagasian]

I am testing out SNT firmware 4.3, and the Monopoly bug still exists. When picking up a Chance card, the displayed card animation loops forever, and the game never progresses. The SNT menu is still accessible using down+select. This is the same behavior of the bug as in firmware 4.1, but in firmware 4.0 the bug has a different behavior: the card animation would play for half a second and then disappear, so the game was still able to progress, but you couldnt ever see what card you got because its animation disappeared so quickly.

[Kismet]

I'll jump in and answer this one, because Kevtris has already mentioned this a couple times. He doesn't do any game specific fixes. What he does is change the machine itself so it works. That's the reason why 4.1 broke a bunch of stuff. He changed something, so it would work with a game, but then other games started having trouble. So he changed it again, and now apparently everything is working. So yes, every bug, every oddity, and every inaccuracy found, will help Kevtris reverse engineering the system, and making it even closer to how the 2 chip SNES works.

 

On that note, I must have spent over 10 minutes going in and out of the house in Zelda trying to crash the game but it just didn't happen. Did that crash the game just in the beginning, or latter or could it be reproduced too? Cause in the beginning I only came out about 10 times.

 

So far the only problem my testing has shown is Flashback's inventory.

 

On 4.1 I had to enter the house 75 times before it crashed with the real cart, and the Japanese version on the SD2SNES. The (smokemonster) version on the SD2SNES only took like like a handful of tries before it crashed or rebooted on 4.1

 

On 4.3 I haven't been able to replicate the crash yet, but I'm going to assume it's fixed if I can't crash it within 5 minutes like before.

[zeroG]

I switched back and forth and I'm not seeing a difference to be honest.

 

If your TV/monitor is set to full range you should see a huge difference if you toggle the "limited range" option on/off. The black borders will switch between black and grey and will only be black if you turn the "limited range" option off.

 

If your TV/monitor is in limited range mode and the Super Nt is sending full range it's not that easy to see. You would need a dark image (night scene) or a test pattern to check the difference. So if you don't see a difference you may need the "limited range" option.

Edited February 25, 2018 by zeroG

[zeroG]

 

Some observations on the 4.3 firmware:

• I'm still seeing misaligned scanlines at 1200 vertical resolution when vertical interpolation is disabled. With interpolation enabled, they look correct.

 

If you don't use any scalers and no vertical interpolation you can move the scanlines with the "Vertical Position" option. Scanlines were not improved, so it should be the same with 4.3.

[SegaSnatcher]

 

If your TV/monitor is set to full range you should see a huge difference if you toggle the "limited range" option on/off. The black borders will switch between black and grey and will only be black if you turn the "limited range" option off.

 

If your TV/monitor is in limited range mode and the Super Nt is sending full range it's not that easy to see. You would need a dark image (night scene) or a test pattern to check the difference. So if you don't see a difference you may need the "limited range" option.

So, I checked my Plasma RGB range settings and it was on Auto, so that is why it wasn't showing a difference. It was correcting for proper range.

 

Now the question is, should I enable or disable limited range via Super NTs settings? What is the correct range to use?

 

Since my Plasma's Auto feature is correctly outputting either range.

 

Also, if I manually choose the RGB range via my Plasma I have 16 - 235 and Non Standard, which I assume is Full Range.

Edited February 25, 2018 by SegaSnatcher

[CZroe]

 

No there is problem with the firmware, bad code we are try to hack it to work correctly, it is not user error sorry for that

Really wish we knew what the heck you were trying to do.

[Dylanlip]

Now the question is, should I enable or disable limited range via Super NTs settings? What is the correct range to use?

 

Since my Plasma's Auto feature is correctly outputting either range.

 

Just use Full -> Full if you have the capability (Which you do since Auto is working correctly). Whilst the difference might be negligable to some, why not just use the best settings for the material instead of compressing the range?

[Great Hierophant]

I tested Flashback too. There is a buzz sound in the pause menu. I don't have Super Nintendo to test, but people already said that doesn't happen on original hardware.

 

I tested Front Mission and the text was perfect. I didn't see a single instance of a problem. Where does it still appear?

Flashback was only discovered the other day, so it will take some time to fix. Front Mission's text jumpiness is random. You may or may not see it when you boot. If you do see it, resetting the console may fix it the next time.

 

I am testing out SNT firmware 4.3, and the Monopoly bug still exists. When picking up a Chance card, the displayed card animation loops forever, and the game never progresses. The SNT menu is still accessible using down+select. This is the same behavior of the bug as in firmware 4.1, but in firmware 4.0 the bug has a different behavior: the card animation would play for half a second and then disappear, so the game was still able to progress, but you couldnt ever see what card you got because its animation disappeared so quickly.

The Monopoly bug (which also manifests itself with Community Chest) was known but not enough time to fix. That information about 4.0 is helpful, I'll pass it along.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Great Hierophant