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FPGA Based Videogame System


kevtris

Interest in an FPGA Videogame System  

682 members have voted

  1. 1. I would pay....

  2. 2. I Would Like Support for...

  3. 3. Games Should Run From...

    • SD Card / USB Memory Sticks
    • Original Cartridges
    • Hopes and Dreams
  4. 4. The Video Inteface Should be...


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What blur? The blur I would get if I tried to get my 42" TV to show the dithering or other CRT effects. I guess that wasn't clear. I prefer the so-called "Lego block" look.

 

Well, trying to make a digital display look like a 15 kHz CRT is an exercise in futility anyway. I haven't been talking about using "CRT effects" on a digital display; I've been talking about using a real CRT (which is relevant to the question of whether or not this potential FPGA-based console should have analog video outputs). Vintage graphics would look fantastic on a 42" CRT (which I believe is the largest size ever sold to consumers), especially if displayed at their native resolution via an RGB signal. A 15 kHz CRT can display those old video games fullscreen in their native resolution, because the games were designed around 15 kHz CRTs in the first place. On the other hand, it is impossible to display them fullscreen in their native resolution on a digital HD display. The only way to get them to fill the screen is to "upscale" them.

 

By the way, a CRT isn't "blurry" at all, unless it is defective, out of adjustment, or being fed a low-quality video signal.

Edited by MaximRecoil
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My entire point was that to be able to be somewhat profitable it needs some numbers behind it.

In short:

if kevtris were to sell 1000 units at 300US$ and made a profit of 100US$ each, that would net him 100K$, which is barely 2 cores' worth (kevtris mentioned at a point he was seeking 50K for the juicy cores).

[disclaimer: I am not attempting to calculate how much money kevtris could make, that is his business/choice and his alone, I am just putting some numbers to see if it makes sense and what kind of return one could expect ... 30% is likely too high of a ROI]

 

That is why I said what I said. The math needs to add up.

And that is why I am so mad at those RVGS amatuers. If they had a proto and stable specs by now there would be a chance to get 5000K units at a KS, which means targetting 10K+ extra at least after KS, making everyone involved time' plenty worth, and setting up the kind of production/distribution machinery you referred to.

 

The other way would be to make this bare and so cheaper and offload the "mundane" parts [uSB, HDMI out, Networking] to some other board (hence my old suggestion to make it a HAT for RPi2) and advertise it as an accessory there to gain somewhat higher numbers.

 

Krikzz has been making CPLD then FPGA based flash carts for years but I doubt many of them broke the say 20K unit sold [my speculation, I have no data to back this up] because the more interesting are also the more expensive, and the cheaper ones are for system with generally less traction ... it kevtris wants to probe with Krikzz he should get an idea of what kind of retro market really is out there.

 

 

Yeah I was thinking selling 1000 units is the number I have to hit to make it worthwhile, though 500 might be doable these days. I have run the numbers many times, and honestly I wouldn't be doing this to make enough money to retire (I'm NEVER retiring. That'd be boring as hell. My job's too much fun!) Not quite sure what kind of profit I'd make but again it's more about releasing something I really believe in vs. making "Retro VGS" levels of money. If I can cover costs of production and make some bucks at it, I'm all for it. There's no way I'm going to ever get paid back for the time I put into these cores, but again this is like the hardware version of a homebrew 2600 game. You do it because you love it and if a few bucks can be made to offset the costs, great!

 

I had a couple ideas for reducing the costs while still trying to accommodate everyone I can reasonably. The first idea which seems to be good is to offload the video/audio hardware 100% onto a small add-on plug in board. This would allow swapping in and out the following boards:

 

* HDMI

* composite/S-vid and audio

* RGB (or component) and audio

* VGA and audio

 

Maybe let the user choose which add on video board to buy, instead of trying to include everything on a single board like before, even if it's a massive plug in analog board. This cuts down the IO count massively which saves PCB area (routing), FPGA IOs, and all importantly cost. Using a PCIe connector is fairly cheap and edge mount ones are available.

 

The only downer is you can't run HDMI + some analog output at the same time, but there's probably only a small percentage (< 5%) that would want such a feature. Having everyone pay so the 5% can have it is in effect subsidizing it, while driving up end user costs.

 

I figure these boards would be fairly small, on the order of 2*2 inches. Basically wide enough to account for the connectors needed. It's possible that I can change the width of the board to suit, and use a laser cut plastic cover with thumb screws to hold the board in and cover up the gaping hole in the back panel. By putting it on the corner of the main board, this would allow for "adjustable" width up to a point as suggested.

 

Figure the cost of the A/V boards would be in the $30-40ish range retail each, with a parts cost of $10-15 not including assembly. It'd require a plastic cut back panel cover and board. I got free access to a laser cutter so this is not a problem at all.

 

The other cost saving measure would be to use partial reconfiguration on the FPGA. This is still kind of a pipe dream, but looking at the Cyclone V, it does seem to support it. I was reading through Altera's guide on partial reconfiguration. Basically what this means is I can have part of the FPGA that is running all the time, and swap out part of the FPGA for each system core. So things like video handling and DDR memory handling can be the same for every core, and then I can just update the core functionality at will during operation.

 

If partial reconfig is a bust, I will pretty much need two FPGAs. Though, the video/IO FPGA can be a much cheaper model. Right now, the main FPGA is a Cyclone V 49K LE part with four DDR 16 bit wide DRAMs connected to it. This was selected to give me enough memory bandwidth to ideally run Neogeo. I designed for Neogeo, which is absolute brute force and contains no less than 5 different busses on the massive dual PCB carts. Obviously I could never offer a cartridge adapter for Neogeo due to the hugeness of it all, but I still am designing for this level of core support.

 

Was thinking of stuffing the 49K LE on my current board though, and seeing what I can do with it in regards to partial reconfiguration so I have a better idea of what I'm up against. I don't want to rush into making another prototype only to find out it's a bust and I have to redo a bunch of stuff. Measure twice and cut once and all that.

 

As for cartridge adapters, I am unsure what kind of footprint these would be. Would it be some doodad that slots onto the side? (my original idea) or would it be like the 2600 adapter for the 5200 that plugs into the top? I originally wanted to make a massive add-on with like 16 cartridge ports but this is ridiculous (and I knew this- I was going for ridiculous) and absolutely unsellable. It'd just be a fun thing to make.

 

Making what amounts to pin converters to convert say, NES or 2600 or INTV to some "Standard" connector like a PCIe one would be a simple matter. The hard part is wrapping a plastic case around it. This might be possible with laser cut acrylic, but to make it pro really needs an injection mold in the $7-9K range per adapter. (and someone to design them. I'm the hardware guy and not so much on software).

 

Speaking of packaging, I was originally going to house it in a laser cut acrylic case of my own design, something I have done before. If volume is there, obviously injection molding is definitely the way to go. As my boss says, "volume fixes all problems".

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Yeah I was thinking selling 1000 units is the number I have to hit to make it worthwhile, though 500 might be doable these days. I have run the numbers many times, and honestly I wouldn't be doing this to make enough money to retire (I'm NEVER retiring. That'd be boring as hell. My job's too much fun!) Not quite sure what kind of profit I'd make but again it's more about releasing something I really believe in vs. making "Retro VGS" levels of money. If I can cover costs of production and make some bucks at it, I'm all for it. There's no way I'm going to ever get paid back for the time I put into these cores, but again this is like the hardware version of a homebrew 2600 game. You do it because you love it and if a few bucks can be made to offset the costs, great!

 

I had a couple ideas for reducing the costs while still trying to accommodate everyone I can reasonably. The first idea which seems to be good is to offload the video/audio hardware 100% onto a small add-on plug in board. This would allow swapping in and out the following boards:

 

* HDMI

* composite/S-vid and audio

* RGB (or component) and audio

* VGA and audio

 

Maybe let the user choose which add on video board to buy, instead of trying to include everything on a single board like before, even if it's a massive plug in analog board. This cuts down the IO count massively which saves PCB area (routing), FPGA IOs, and all importantly cost. Using a PCIe connector is fairly cheap and edge mount ones are available.

 

The only downer is you can't run HDMI + some analog output at the same time, but there's probably only a small percentage (< 5%) that would want such a feature. Having everyone pay so the 5% can have it is in effect subsidizing it, while driving up end user costs.

 

I figure these boards would be fairly small, on the order of 2*2 inches. Basically wide enough to account for the connectors needed. It's possible that I can change the width of the board to suit, and use a laser cut plastic cover with thumb screws to hold the board in and cover up the gaping hole in the back panel. By putting it on the corner of the main board, this would allow for "adjustable" width up to a point as suggested.

 

Figure the cost of the A/V boards would be in the $30-40ish range retail each, with a parts cost of $10-15 not including assembly. It'd require a plastic cut back panel cover and board. I got free access to a laser cutter so this is not a problem at all.

 

The other cost saving measure would be to use partial reconfiguration on the FPGA. This is still kind of a pipe dream, but looking at the Cyclone V, it does seem to support it. I was reading through Altera's guide on partial reconfiguration. Basically what this means is I can have part of the FPGA that is running all the time, and swap out part of the FPGA for each system core. So things like video handling and DDR memory handling can be the same for every core, and then I can just update the core functionality at will during operation.

 

If partial reconfig is a bust, I will pretty much need two FPGAs. Though, the video/IO FPGA can be a much cheaper model. Right now, the main FPGA is a Cyclone V 49K LE part with four DDR 16 bit wide DRAMs connected to it. This was selected to give me enough memory bandwidth to ideally run Neogeo. I designed for Neogeo, which is absolute brute force and contains no less than 5 different busses on the massive dual PCB carts. Obviously I could never offer a cartridge adapter for Neogeo due to the hugeness of it all, but I still am designing for this level of core support.

 

Was thinking of stuffing the 49K LE on my current board though, and seeing what I can do with it in regards to partial reconfiguration so I have a better idea of what I'm up against. I don't want to rush into making another prototype only to find out it's a bust and I have to redo a bunch of stuff. Measure twice and cut once and all that.

 

As for cartridge adapters, I am unsure what kind of footprint these would be. Would it be some doodad that slots onto the side? (my original idea) or would it be like the 2600 adapter for the 5200 that plugs into the top? I originally wanted to make a massive add-on with like 16 cartridge ports but this is ridiculous (and I knew this- I was going for ridiculous) and absolutely unsellable. It'd just be a fun thing to make.

 

Making what amounts to pin converters to convert say, NES or 2600 or INTV to some "Standard" connector like a PCIe one would be a simple matter. The hard part is wrapping a plastic case around it. This might be possible with laser cut acrylic, but to make it pro really needs an injection mold in the $7-9K range per adapter. (and someone to design them. I'm the hardware guy and not so much on software).

 

Speaking of packaging, I was originally going to house it in a laser cut acrylic case of my own design, something I have done before. If volume is there, obviously injection molding is definitely the way to go. As my boss says, "volume fixes all problems".

Most of it sounds reasonable is just I don't see one single person doing all the work .... ever thought of partnering up to have someone else do the labor (lotharek, Kirkzz, whomever can help ... one is in Poland, the other in Ukraine and the actual price of labor there is much cheaper and somehow I believe they have help [i picture little minions doing the oven reflowing]).

 

The idea of separate video/sound boards is great, I venture that you couldn't coerce an RPi2 to do exactly that (it already has Composite + HDMI) because as you stated you're the HW guy not so much the SW guy and this kind of integration requires an heavy piece of SW on the RPi 2 that does not exist. Am I right?

Because at 35US$ it is damn cheap and you can even use it for the SD part (as it already has one) and USB controller with 4 ports, and Ethernet and more.

[somehow I bet if you contact them directly they wouldn't mind lending a hand and assist as they can, especially if there's a part in it for them: they care about the teaching aspect so it must be possible to fiddle/twiddle with the FPGA with somewhat ease at that point]

 

Anyway just suggestions, it seems you know pretty well what you want to do and how to go about it.

[I know I sound like a broken record, sorry!!]

Edited by phoenixdownita
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I had a couple ideas for reducing the costs while still trying to accommodate everyone I can reasonably. The first idea which seems to be good is to offload the video/audio hardware 100% onto a small add-on plug in board.

I'm surprised to see HDMI also be split off here, although if that makes the design simpler and easier, that's a good thing.

 

Would the VGA board be 31khz only, or would it also have 15khz (perhaps with csync over the hsync pin which appears to be a psuedo-standard)?

 

The only downer is you can't run HDMI + some analog output at the same time, but there's probably only a small percentage (< 5%) that would want such a feature. Having everyone pay so the 5% can have it is in effect subsidizing it, while driving up end user costs.

I'm ok with buying two or more output boards if it brings the price down for everyone else.

 

I'll be sincere, I think there is a flaw in the questionary, because there is a question about the Price Point, but it's not relating that to the Features People expect.

Yeah, more granular price questions are probably good;

 

1: What would you pay for what it can do now (before output board)?

2: How much more would you pay if 16bit systems were implimented?

3: How much more would you pay if home computers were implimented?

4: How long are you willing to wait for 2 and 3 above?

5: Which output boards would you purchase?

6: Would you buy real cartridge addons?

 

So on, so forth.

 

But that kind of granularity is what replying to the thread is for, atleast.

 

For my answers;

 

1: $250 without hesitation. Easy to justify by selling my NESRGBed AV Famicom.

2: Hard to answer without knowing addon capabilities. Sky's the limit if NeoGeo or the PCE's CD addon is possible.

3: Atleast the price of a MiST board, probably more than that.

4: As long as I have to, quality demands patience. And I will enjoy the existing cores in the meantime.

5: VGA at first, probably HDMI later.

6: Not unless I have to, after losing my collection once I don't really have any positive nostalgia for real cartridges anymore.

 

EDIT:

Yeah I was thinking selling 1000 units is the number I have to hit to make it worthwhile, though 500 might be doable these days. ... If I can cover costs of production and make some bucks at it, I'm all for it. There's no way I'm going to ever get paid back for the time I put into these cores, but again this is like the hardware version of a homebrew 2600 game. You do it because you love it and if a few bucks can be made to offset the costs, great!

This is probably why I am on the "take my money" side of this, because I know and appreciate what this represents above and beyond software emulation and wish I had some kind of expertise to contribute.

Edited by Asbrandt
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As for cartridge adapters, I am unsure what kind of footprint these would be. Would it be some doodad that slots onto the side? (my original idea) or would it be like the 2600 adapter for the 5200 that plugs into the top? I originally wanted to make a massive add-on with like 16 cartridge ports but this is ridiculous (and I knew this- I was going for ridiculous) and absolutely unsellable. It'd just be a fun thing to make.

As for cartridges adaptors, is possible to plug them by a cable? Like an external HD?

 

So you can plug them each other, see the image :

 

post-10940-0-73938800-1442969866_thumb.png

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[..]

Yeah, more granular price questions are probably good;

 

1: What would you pay for what it can do now (before output board)?

2: How much more would you pay if 16bit systems were implimented?

3: How much more would you pay if home computers were implimented?

4: How long are you willing to wait for 2 and 3 above?

5: Which output boards would you purchase?

6: Would you buy real cartridge addons?

[..]

 

1- $400, not much more

2- Another 100-200

3- Same 100-200

4- No special time limit. As long as progress is being made it's a good thing. I waited 10 years for some emulators to be perfected, this is no different.

5- I would get them all. Never know when you might want something later..

6- I would buy them for completeness sake. Since I have few carts for few systems I wouldn't be using them much.

 

I'm still thinking around $500 for the whole shebang. HDMI, Composite, and Analog Audio - absolute must-have's today, dare I say all that is needed? Other output standards, can be optional or forgotten.

 

And I'd be more than satisfied with SD-only as the storage options. Do we really need a cart interface. You can just put the rom on sd, and keep your cart on the shelf. Data's the same.

 

Doesn't making expansion connections and multiple sku-numbers increase overall cost of operations? I'm of the one-model-fits-all school for some things, cover everything in one shot. Don't waste resources making tiers and options and add-ons. If someone needs an extra 100 or 200 bucks to afford the higher price, there are ways to save. Cut out some cheap daily activity for a month or two, excess soda, coffee, fast-food, a night out on the town.. And there's your extra money!

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Keetah he said providing options for video would reduce costs....your sounding like the soup Nazi with this no tiers/option/add-on stuff... lol.. It is even more amusing that you say don't add the options that some people want but then to suggest that folks can't afford the device and need to cut back from stereotypes.

 

Maybe let the user choose which add on video board to buy, instead of trying to include everything on a single board like before, even if it's a massive plug in analog board. This cuts down the IO count massively which saves PCB area (routing), FPGA IOs, and all importantly cost. Using a PCIe connector is fairly cheap and edge mount ones are available.

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I'm actually most excited about the idea of cartridge adapter modules! Especially if they could be done for rare and difficult-to-get-working systems like Astrocade and MP1000. Obviously I don't expect an Astrocade cartridge adapter to come to fruition (shame, because if any console needs one, that's it), but even adapters for more common cartridges like NES, 2600/7800, Colecovision, and Genesis are an exciting concept to me.

Even an SD card-based HDMI-equipped base console is a great start. This whole thing is exciting. :thumbsup:

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I'm interested.. This FPGA system is something I could get excited about!

 

No disrespect to the other guys but it already looks way more promising than the RVGS.

If I could play every classic 8-bit console and computer in HDMI, (especially ones I will probably never pursue collecting) then its worth it's weight in gold to me.

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If I could play every classic 8-bit console and computer in HDMI, (especially ones I will probably never pursue collecting) then it's worth its weight in gold to me.

 

:thumbsup:

 

youtube.com/watch?v=RbONR2mI2GM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbONR2mI2GM

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Making what amounts to pin converters to convert say, NES or 2600 or INTV to some "Standard" connector like a PCIe one would be a simple matter. The hard part is wrapping a plastic case around it. This might be possible with laser cut acrylic, but to make it pro really needs an injection mold in the $7-9K range per adapter. (and someone to design them. I'm the hardware guy and not so much on software).

 

Speaking of packaging, I was originally going to house it in a laser cut acrylic case of my own design, something I have done before. If volume is there, obviously injection molding is definitely the way to go. As my boss says, "volume fixes all problems".

For the casing of both your FPGA console and any cartridge adaptor you may want to make, you really should try to get some help. You do have plenty of time to find a partner since you said yourself that your FPGA board needs to go through another design iteration. I do have some experience in these matters myself, and you're right about the $7-9K figure for making a metal mold from which the plastic enclosures would be produced. That's why you need a one-size-fits-all enclosure for the cart adaptors. You only need a removable flat panel on the top side of the adaptor with a hole that matches the width/thickness of each cartridge type. See the attached image below, which demonstrates (in a very rough manner) what I'm talking about.

post-7743-0-12173300-1442979900_thumb.png

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Alternatively instead to try to find/build a case to match it could be possible to make your design matching an existing chinese case.
If I am not wrong PikoInteractive said he has contacts or something and he has seen many cheap ones.

It may be a worth endeavor to try to see if you can adapt the design to an existing case of your liking, not sure if there's a catalog per se but you never know.

If your board is very small, reading from the "carts" shouldn't be an issue via a "riser" or "extender" of sort so you can place what you need where you need it, maybe breaking the board into pieces with interconnects.

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I like not seeing distinct pixels at all, given that they were never intended to be seen, and have no relationship to any artform man ever came up with prior to it being forced by technical limitations of low-powered computer hardware. Since CRTs have no pixels, but rather, round phosphor dots, the problem of harsh/blatant pixelization doesn't exist on them, at least not on ~15 kHz CRTs. The problem does exist on high-resolution CRTs (e.g., CRT PC monitors) with a tiny dot pitch, because their phosphor dots are so small that they can create the illusion of razor sharp corners at a normal viewing distance, making them not much better for displaying vintage graphics than modern digital displays.

I tend to see Atari pixels just fine on my CRTs. It's the NES and later 16-bit consoles that blur the pixels a bit. One thing i love is the glow of a CRT but I also enjoy crisp pixels on an HD set. CRT artifact emulation isn't quite there yet but I can see effects such as CRT bloom, RF bleed, and phosphor trails being emulated on UHD 4k sets in the future, especially on OLED displays that fix the black level issues with LCD. At 1080p, CRT mask emulation is not quite there yet.

 

Wii-U's Mario maker has a faux CRT mode but it looks distorted in 480p on the gamepad. I need to try it on my LCD display. I wouldn't expect someone like Nintendo to get it right anyhow.

 

 

 

Just my opinion...

If I'm running HDMI on a 32" or 42" TV, the amount of blur would be brutal. I design pixels with real (or virtual) graph paper to be square, not rounded or blurred. In my mind, pixels are supposed to be square, and any TV that doesn't display them as square is inferior (yes, I understand there could be issues/compromises, but that works both ways). I like pixels, and if I can see them properly, so much the better for my gameplay - I hate the fuzziness of new games where I don't know if my player is going to be "hit" or not.

/don't shoot me. ;)

Ditto. What I don't really care for is the blurry effect of composite/RF through modern LCD telivision. Really I enjoy playing games with both retro and modern display options. Scanlines with razor sharp pixels over HDMI is a cheap way to get a nice clean razor sharp pixel look that's still retro. And I like the idea of 720p consoles outputting integer scalars of the 240p game consoles.

Edited by stardust4ever
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Speaking of packaging, I was originally going to house it in a laser cut acrylic case of my own design, something I have done before. If volume is there, obviously injection molding is definitely the way to go. As my boss says, "volume fixes all problems".

 

Put it in a case like the Atari Video Music, replete with real wood grain cover and a couple big switches. Problem solved.

 

Cartridge slot in the front end (like an old 8-track) large enough for the largest supported carts + adaptor. Put the adaptor into the slot, slide the cartridge into the adaptor, flick the large power switch, and get it on.

Edited by Lost Monkey
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I had a couple ideas for reducing the costs while still trying to accommodate everyone I can reasonably. The first idea which seems to be good is to offload the video/audio hardware 100% onto a small add-on plug in board. This would allow swapping in and out the following boards:

 

* HDMI

* composite/S-vid and audio

* RGB (or component) and audio

* VGA and audio

 

Maybe let the user choose which add on video board to buy, instead of trying to include everything on a single board like before, even if it's a massive plug in analog board. This cuts down the IO count massively which saves PCB area (routing), FPGA IOs, and all importantly cost. Using a PCIe connector is fairly cheap and edge mount ones are available.

 

The only downer is you can't run HDMI + some analog output at the same time, but there's probably only a small percentage (< 5%) that would want such a feature. Having everyone pay so the 5% can have it is in effect subsidizing it, while driving up end user costs.

Kevtris, I would like to add that as someone who uses an analog sound system and a DVI monitor, separate analog audio output makes things a hell of a lot more convenient for me. A stereo minijack alongside the HDMI connector would be doable, I hope. I would definitely buy the HDMI and composite/S-Video add-on boards, but have no use for RGB stuff as I can't display them.

 

I would also like an option to output natively to 4x3 monitors over HDMI/DVI (1600x1200, 1280x1024, etc). They are a rare breed but displays like this do exist and have the perfect form factor for retro video games.

 

= = = = = = = =

 

As for the cartridge adapters, I would focus on popular systems first. Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, GB are a must. Existing 3rd party pin adapters already exist to allow SMS/Famicom on Genesis/NES (but no reason not to include adapters for these) and 7800 is b/c with 2600 by default so design a 7800 core and you get 2-in-1 (although 7800 connectors would be hard to source).

 

Next focus on the underdogs like Coleco, Intelli, 5200, A8-bit, etc... 5200 needs it's own core as it would be easy to convert your 8-bit efforts over but the two systems are mutually incompatible due to differences in design. Rare or Boutique collectible systems such as Vectrex, TG-16, and Neo Geo might as well be given the SD card treatment.

 

I would question the use of Retron5 style adapters with multi-in-one because bus contentions could cause serious conflicts if multiple carts are plugged in. If you do go the multi-in-one route, I would do one adapter for NES/FC/SNES/Genesis/GB ala Retron and one adapter for all the pre-crash systems. Also I am fine with bare PCB addons, but if you're catering to a wide customer base, they'll need enclosures. ESD is a real thread and could kill the entire system ie if the user slides across a carpet and touches a bare PCB that's plugged in, poof goes the FPGA. There also needs to be some sort of safeguard to "dummy proof" it and prevent backwards insertion of carts. Most game carts are symmetrical or do not use keyed connectors and rely on the cart housing to prevent backwards insertion.

Edited by stardust4ever
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I'm still thinking around $500 for the whole shebang. HDMI, Composite, and Analog Audio - absolute must-have's today, dare I say all that is needed? Other output standards, can be optional or forgotten.

Keatah, we all know you're willing to pay $500+ for a system that does everything retro plus the kitchen sink, but most retrogamers don't have Neo-Geo sized budgets.

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Love the system, my idea to help with keeping the cost down for the modulars with the cart ports would be: 1. Have the controller port on the board 2. All systems that the contoller port works with would have the cart port ex 9 pin. Have genesis, sms, atari on one mod. 2. Have the default controllers usb or bluetooth. 3. Possibly add a disc addition for people that want to use the original games. 4. For retro nerds like myself hive the rgb option for our awesome crt, i dont like hd lag, so if its only hd, please have something to help calibrate the lag. Its awesome what you have done

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

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Keatah, we all know you're willing to pay $500+ for a system that does everything retro plus the kitchen sink, but most retrogamers don't have Neo-Geo sized budgets.

 

I just want to see the project get done.

 

I also believe the use of existing PC-style connectors for interconnections, whether they be Apple II expansion slots, PCIe, PCI or ISA, is a great choice. I always beat those and they keep working and working and working.

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4. For retro nerds like myself hive the rgb option for our awesome crt, i dont like hd lag, so if its only hd, please have something to help calibrate the lag.

I would suspect that the output board plugged in would determine the video processing or lack thereof, but even if it doesn't, you probably won't have to worry too much about lag;

 

The cause of display latency in scaling devices, including the ones in modern TVs and Monitors, is that when scaling is needed it buffers and processes an entire frame before outputting it.

 

This is not the case with Kevtris' scaling on the HiDefNES board, iirc he buffers 35 lines at worst case, which is a latency of under 2.5ms (out of 16.666~ for a frame), which even with an added ~2ms of a -good- modern monitor vs a CRT, is still around 5/16ths a frame at worst.

 

And it's possible that he can reduce this even further when he has total control of the system's workings with the Z3K.

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I think above $129.99-149.99 level, it might become exclusive to the more niche collector. Also, having a design where hardware will not need to be upgrade is pretty important. I know Krikzz has taken flack for offering revisions that don't change a whole lot, and leaves people who spent over $100 on his previous versions feeling somewhat disappointed.

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I think above $129.99-149.99 level, it might become exclusive to the more niche collector. Also, having a design where hardware will not need to be upgraded is pretty important.

Any "upgrades" will likely be fixes to FPGA cores, transmitted to the hardware via SD card. If you spot a problem while playing your favorite game, you will likely appreciate the fact that you can report this problem and obtain a new FPGA core at a later date.

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