FPGA Based Videogame System

[Jurai]

With no NT Mini coming they need to add nes core on the next jailbreak update? At least do this Analogue if your not doing another round of the nt mini. So many of us don't have a nt mini and have loads of nes carts. I don't understand Analogue's logic in not bring it back to market?

 

I don't see the original NT Mini coming back, the aluminum design was cost prohibitive, they should have offered a plastic based alternative but they knew people would shell out the $500. I don't see a cheaper NT Mini coming without a redesign to a lower price point that would pull in as many sales as the Super NT. They can't even keep Super NT in stock, why produce more $500 NT Minis that will just sit in their warehouse

[Jurai]

does the Super NT mini support built in Game Genie type codes?

 

It has game genie code support built in if you update the firmware from stock yes

[LewisD]

Can you post a screen shot of the folder tree (structure)?

 

It should be drive letter > system folder > roms

 

Here is mine:

My SD cards file structure is identical. I can play ROMs for every other core without issue. The problem is NES/Famicom and NSF player. Really weird.

[F34R]

My SD cards file structure is identical. I can play ROMs for every other core without issue. The problem is NES/Famicom and NSF player. Really weird.

Files zipped or unzipped?

[LewisD]

Files zipped or unzipped?

Unzipped, .nes files.

[F34R]

Unzipped, .nes files.

Is this the first time you've used it, or have you played nes files on it previously? Or is this just coming from the way you did it with the SM pack?

Edited April 3, 2018 by F34R

[RetrogamerX]

 

I don't see the original NT Mini coming back, the aluminum design was cost prohibitive, they should have offered a plastic based alternative but they knew people would shell out the $500. I don't see a cheaper NT Mini coming without a redesign to a lower price point that would pull in as many sales as the Super NT. They can't even keep Super NT in stock, why produce more $500 NT Minis that will just sit in their warehouse

 

 

I never said I wanted the $499 nt mini. I've been saying all along a cheaper plastic nt mini would be the way to go. It could be done cheaply too, but analogue choose not too After this last round on super nt's they could do a late summer, early fall cheap plastic nt mini model. They would sell loads.

Edited April 4, 2018 by RetrogamerX

[LewisD]

Is this the first time you've used it, or have you played nes files on it previously? Or is this just coming from the way you did it with the SM pack?

I originally loaded .nes ROMs onto the card previously and they played fine. I then got the Smokemonster rom pack and loaded that.

[bikerspade]

I never said I wanted the $499 nt mini. I've been saying all along a cheaper plastic nt mini would be the way to go. It could be done cheaply too, but analogue choose not too After this last round on super nt's they could do a late summer, early fall cheap plastic nt mini model. They would sell loads.

I don't know about loads. The last batch of NT Mini last year took several months to sell out. Most people that badly wanted one had ample opportunity to buy one and already did. Most casual users are content with the AVS or other clones.

[Riptide]

I don't know about loads. The last batch of NT Mini last year took several months to sell out. Most people that badly wanted one had ample opportunity to buy one and already did. Most casual users are content with the AVS or other clones.

Yeah I'm not sure why everyone thinks this would sell tons. I'd definitely like to see them make it but with the second NT Mini preorders being open as long as they were coupled with the continued availability of the AVS, I'm not sure the demand is truly there. If they made one, and the core store got ported, I'd probably buy it so my OG NT Mini could stay permanently hooked up to the CRT. Maybe.

[F34R]

So, I just got this in today...

 

 

I tried to dump it via copysnes and when I run it from the copysnes folder, I only get a black screen. It runs fine from the cart.

I got this to dump properly simply by changing the ROM size from 1MB to 4MB. When I dumped at 2MB, it would have graphical anomaly problems. 4MB plays the same as the cart. Runs fine via SD on the Super NT and via SD2SNES on the Super NT, original SNES, and 1chip Jr.

 

Also, dumped my SMW2 Yoshi's Island cart via Super NT, and it plays find via SD2SNES on all the above listed machines.

Edited April 4, 2018 by F34R

[bikerspade]

Yeah I'm not sure why everyone thinks this would sell tons. I'd definitely like to see them make it but with the second NT Mini preorders being open as long as they were coupled with the continued availability of the AVS, I'm not sure the demand is truly there. If they made one, and the core store got ported, I'd probably buy it so my OG NT Mini could stay permanently hooked up to the CRT. Maybe.

Why not keep it permanent connected now? I keep my NT Mini connected to both my CRT and LCD at the same time, with only one of the displays turned at any given time.

[RetrogamerX]

I don't know about loads. The last batch of NT Mini last year took several months to sell out. Most people that badly wanted one had ample opportunity to buy one and already did. Most casual users are content with the AVS or other clones.

I disagree. There are more people then you think that want this and are willing to pay for it.

[Riptide]

Why not keep it permanent connected now? I keep my NT Mini connected to both my CRT and LCD at the same time, with only one of the displays turned at any given time.

LCD is in the living room whereas CRT is in my office.

 

I disagree. There are more people then you think that want this and are willing to pay for it.

But what about it do you think they want exactly that the AVS didn't already offer them?

Do you think a ton of people felt like lack of 1080p was a dealbreaker?

The only thing that would make sense to me would be the "Core Store," but that would require porting to a new PCB, which we haven't seen happen yet for the SNT so...

[RetrogamerX]

LCD is in the living room whereas CRT is in my office.

 

But what about it do you think they want exactly that the AVS didn't already offer them?

Do you think a ton of people felt like lack of 1080p was a dealbreaker?

The only thing that would make sense to me would be the "Core Store," but that would require porting to a new PCB, which we haven't seen happen yet for the SNT so...

 

 

I think if it does happen it'll happen this year, if not then I'll move on, but I believe something better is coming in the next 6 months? Let me dream

[Riptide]

 

 

I think if it does happen it'll happen this year, if not then I'll move on, but I believe something better is coming in the next 6 months? Let me dream

Legit question though, would you buy it if the core store was never going to be ported? Just trying to make sure I'm not missing something stupidly obvious.

[cacophony]

Legit question though, would you buy it if the core store was never going to be ported? Just trying to make sure I'm not missing something stupidly obvious.

There are significant advantages: ability to play roms with inevitable jailbreak, NSF player, 1080p, in game menu bring up, lots more customizability including palettes off sd card, upcoming DAC compatibility, better interpolation (assuming it gets same technique used by SNT)

[Riptide]

There are significant advantages: ability to play roms with inevitable jailbreak, NSF player, 1080p, in game menu bring up, lots more customizability including palettes off sd card, upcoming DAC compatibility, better interpolation (assuming it gets same technique used by SNT)

ability to play roms via jailbreak is in the same league as core store, probably not something Analogue is taking into account when considering the market.

DAC compatibility - if someone wanted analog output they probably bought the NT Mini

 

so we're left with:

1080p

NSF Player

in game menu

color palettes

interpolation - based off assumption

 

I agree these are obvious advantages, and if this hypothetical NT Mini el cheapo edition (or whatever) had come out at the same time as the AVS it probably would've sold more; however, I don't see anything in that list that seems likely to be a dealbreaker for someone considering an AVS. If anyone reading this didn't pull the trigger on the AVS because it didn't have an NSF player, or because it didn't load color palettes, by all means please correct me. Please don't misinterpret, I'm not saying I don't want Analogue to produce this; I wish they could sell the OG NT Mini as well as a new cheaper model forever. What I am saying is that I don't think there is enough of a demand for an FPGA based NES to justify the development costs since most of the people who wanted one either bought the AVS or the NT Mini.

[Kismet]

what are everyones preferred video settings?

 

Left at defaults, adjust to integer scale for video capture, otherwise stock. I don't really care if there is a large window box around the picture, but if I'm not capturing it, I'm just going to play it at whatever size the game reasonably looks correct at. Some games you can crop a bit, others you can not. Like I have at least one game where you can tell the developers intended to for the overscan to not be seen (because the character portraits end 1 tile from the bottom, and cropping it at that point actually produces an even border all around if you crop the same 1 tile space from the top.

[Kismet]

ability to play roms via jailbreak is in the same league as core store, probably not something Analogue is taking into account when considering the market.

DAC compatibility - if someone wanted analog output they probably bought the NT Mini

 

so we're left with:

1080p

NSF Player

in game menu

color palettes

interpolation - based off assumption

 

I agree these are obvious advantages, and if this hypothetical NT Mini el cheapo edition (or whatever) had come out at the same time as the AVS it probably would've sold more; however, I don't see anything in that list that seems likely to be a dealbreaker for someone considering an AVS. If anyone reading this didn't pull the trigger on the AVS because it didn't have an NSF player, or because it didn't load color palettes, by all means please correct me. Please don't misinterpret, I'm not saying I don't want Analogue to produce this; I wish they could sell the OG NT Mini as well as a new cheaper model forever. What I am saying is that I don't think there is enough of a demand for an FPGA based NES to justify the development costs since most of the people who wanted one either bought the AVS or the NT Mini.

 

They would have to produce it at a price at, or below the Super NT, which would likely mean using the exact same Super NT PCB and only changing the cartridge slot/controller ports. That's the most logical thing to do, but probably not what people want for a NES clone. With a SNES clone the only thing that I felt was missing from the Super NT was having 4 controller ports like the NT Mini, but there aren't that many games that would use it, thus it's not a big loss, it just would have helped if it had the "core store" for allowing 4 players on NES games.

 

At any rate we shouldn't second-guess what people want. There is a point of diminishing returns, and I feel Analogue knows this, and why they decided that implementing the NA expansion port would have been a waste of time, as there's no NA accessories that use it, and all the Japanese accessories that did (the Sattellaview) aren't usable anymore. It was easier to implement the FC expansion port because it's barely derivative of an existing connector, and it acts as a controller port 2 on FC's where as the NES expansion port was not used at all.

 

Like at some point you just have to say "adding this part adds $2.00 to the cost, but only enables one game that only sold 10,000 copies", that adds up if you're building 10,000 machines. So realistically the amount of people who might use it probably 10. It would be different if new games were being built specificly for the NT Mini or Super NT, but that's not really the case.

 

I remember thinking about stuff like this when I was 10, and reading the BASIC book for my Tandy 1000, and going "well what if I make the light pen work?" and then realizing that the light-pen was something that was ONLY on the Tandy 1000, not other PC's, and I didn't have one anyway.

 

That's why most accessories for game consoles fail. If it doesn't come with the system, developers will just shun the extra development cost for it. I'd like to have seen a lot more light-gun games, but realistically they are just the same game over and over again with different art, there's not a lot you can do with that mechanic, just like with the Wii, there was not a lot you can do with the motion controls itself (too far ahead of the VR race) yet it inspired Sony and Microsoft to come up with their own motion controls, and the Kinect was kinda the right idea , but again, too far ahead of the VR race. Nobody really wants a game to use motion controls unless they are exercising, simulating an instrument or dance moves, everything else was awful. When VR eventually doesn't suck, and doesn't make people vomit after 5 minutes, we may see a more practical "VR console" rather than these half-assed mobile-phone-posing-as-a-HMD "accessories" that cost more than the console. Everyone needs to repeat Sega's mistake with the 32X before they realize that people don't want accessories, they want complete out-of-the-box.

 

So with the NT Mini/Super NT, it is complete, out of the box, all you need is the software and a TV/Monitor, and if you didn't buy any controllers, some controllers. Most of us who have games, have controllers and didn't need to buy any.

[cacophony]

ability to play roms via jailbreak is in the same league as core store, probably not something Analogue is taking into account when considering the market.

DAC compatibility - if someone wanted analog output they probably bought the NT Mini

 

I would think they'd take the rom playing ability via unofficial firmware into account when predicting sales and potential market.

 

A sub $200 NES + sub $100 DAC is significantly less than the cost of an Nt Mini, so there is some untapped market there.

 

That said, I don't necessarily feel that a cheaper NES would sell enough to make it worthwhile, and I would personally prefer to see them spend time and resources on other systems.

[Andromeda Stardust]

So, I just got this in today...

 

 

I tried to dump it via copysnes and when I run it from the copysnes folder, I only get a black screen. It runs fine from the cart.

Thanks for the heads up. I just ordered one. Been waiting for an email announcement but it never came. Glad I didn't miss out.

 

 

Could do some kinda weird banking setup, the Joe & Mac caveman collection only dumps the rom selection menu, not the games themselves

LOL. I "dumped" my Piko 4-in-1 cart using my Retrode and got a perfect copy of the title screen. Selecting a game resets the menu...

 

All his other homebrews dump fine through the retrode. I still have Classic Kong on my Everdrive with the Piko splash screen. It is 1 megabyte, about 4x larger than the 256 kbyte publicly released rom.

[F34R]

Thanks for the heads up. I just ordered one. Been waiting for an email announcement but it never came. Glad I didn't miss out.

 

 

LOL. I "dumped" my Piko 4-in-1 cart using my Retrode and got a perfect copy of the title screen. Selecting a game resets the menu...

 

All his other homebrews dump fine through the retrode. I still have Classic Kong on my Everdrive with the Piko splash screen. It is 1 megabyte, about 4x larger than the 256 kbyte publicly released rom.

I am going to play through the dump today to make sure it is all there lol. Weird, when it goes from transition screens, it has glitchy graphics popping up. That's when using the cart or the dump. Like, when you die, and it goes to the lives left screen, then back to the game screen, you'll see it. I'll try and get a cap of it.

[spaz1982]

having many save delete issues on carts. Have had 1st save slot erased on multiple games many times. Also have had randomly all saves erased. I am not removing the cart when pwrd on or anything. Happened on all firmwares and on 2 different Super NTs. Original and clone carts, multiple games.

 

Anyone else suffering from this?

[Chronos30]

having many save delete issues on carts. Have had 1st save slot erased on multiple games many times. Also have had randomly all saves erased. I am not removing the cart when pwrd on or anything. Happened on all firmwares and on 2 different Super NTs. Original and clone carts, multiple games.

 

Anyone else suffering from this?

 

How old are the save batteries on these carts? Did you see or load the data recently before it went away?

Edited April 5, 2018 by Chronos30