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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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1 minute ago, Pixelboy said:

I don't have any insider info or anything, but one other possible reason for the "secrecy" (aside from pandemic-related issues) could be that they're trying to see if they can release the Pocket and the Dock on the same date. That alone would greatly boost sales, but it would also make their production schedules more complex, let alone putting more pressure on the development side of things. Under such circumstances, it would be understandable to delay making announcements until they're sure that they can deliver both the Pocket and the Dock simultaneously.

 

I think it was a pretty stupid idea to not release them together to begin with, so hopefully this is part of it.

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Whatever it is, I hope that it's that Analogue has made the correct choice and decided to make a HuCARD adaptor and that's at least part of the announcement. Preorders or whatever would be fine. I'd laugh if they did a thing like the US Sega Saturn launch. Whatever it is, I just want a handheld PC Engine that isn't rare, expensive, and fragile so I don't have to get a GT. I hope someone makes a PC Engine core for this thing, and preferably one that supports SuperGrafx and and all types of CD games. I can play my Game Boy games on one of my 3 GBAs... if I hadn't left 2 of them and all of my games on another continent in a different hemisphere.

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1 minute ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Whatever it is, I hope that it's that Analogue has made the correct choice and decided to make a HuCARD adaptor and that's at least part of the announcement. Preorders or whatever would be fine. I'd laugh if they did a thing like the US Sega Saturn launch. Whatever it is, I just want a handheld PC Engine that isn't rare, expensive, and fragile so I don't have to get a GT. I hope someone makes a PC Engine core for this thing, and preferably one that supports SuperGrafx and and all types of CD games. I can play my Game Boy games on one of my 3 GBAs... if I hadn't left 2 of them and all of my games on another continent in a different hemisphere.

While that would be really cool, and certainly welcome, that would almost be like hoping they released a cart adapter for Genesis games since the Nomad was a thing. I wouldn't hold your breath on that, but it's certainly possible a PCE core may be ported to it at some point, whether through a jailbreak from our current mysterious benefactor, or a community effort.

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8 minutes ago, jamon1567 said:

While that would be really cool, and certainly welcome, that would almost be like hoping they released a cart adapter for Genesis games since the Nomad was a thing. I wouldn't hold your breath on that, but it's certainly possible a PCE core may be ported to it at some point, whether through a jailbreak from our current mysterious benefactor, or a community effort.

Oh, I wouldn't be opposed to that, either, but seeing as I already have a Nomad and HuCARDs wouldn't be ridiculously huge, I'd rather have HuCARD support. We already know the system is capable of running MD/Genesis games, so it would be nice, even if it is impractical.

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On 7/22/2020 at 7:21 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

They haven't "announced" anything; they've shown a date and time and nothing else. At most, they have announced an announcement. What's happening on that date and time? It could be the date and time that preorders are beginning, but it could be something else. Only Analogue knows for sure.

I never said they announced anything. I was responding to a post that claimed Analogue stated there wouldn't be pre-orders. I have seen no evidence to back up that claim, and the tweet I linked says the opposite.

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32 minutes ago, cacophony said:

I never said they announced anything. I was responding to a post that claimed Analogue stated there wouldn't be pre-orders. I have seen no evidence to back up that claim, and the tweet I linked says the opposite.

I never said that you said they announced anything. I just felt like taking a cheap shot at Analogue because I can.

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If the dock is expensive like I'm sure it will be, I'd actually be glad to see it delayed for months like the Mega Sg's cart adapters. Would spread the pain in the wallet out a little bit. 

 

The better alternative would be for the dock to not cost an arm and a leg, and also not be something where if you blink you might be stuck just enjoying your new system in handheld mode. But I suspect it will be $99.99 + shipping and will be a limited quantity item.

 

I wish we had a way of knowing if a consolized version could follow later on, since it's the tv side of the Pocket I care about rather than the portable component of it. I'm basically going to be paying for things like an expensive high quality screen that I won't be using, and a more complicated and expensive setup to interface it with my tv.

Edited by Atariboy
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2 hours ago, Atariboy said:

If the dock is expensive like I'm sure it will be, I'd actually be glad to see it delayed for months like the Mega Sg's cart adapters. Would spread the pain in the wallet out a little bit. 

 

The better alternative would be for the dock to not cost an arm and a leg, and also not be something where if you blink you might be stuck just enjoying your new system in handheld mode. But I suspect it will be $99.99 + shipping and will be a limited quantity item.

 

I wish we had a way of knowing if a consolized version could follow later on, since it's the tv side of the Pocket I care about rather than the portable component of it. I'm basically going to be paying for things like an expensive high quality screen that I won't be using, and a more complicated and expensive setup to interface it with my tv.

Couldn't you just get a Super Game Boy 2 or a GBA Consolizer? Neo Geo Pocket Color Consolizer and Game Gear Consolizer are in development, so at that point, the only thing you're missing is Lynx.

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I'm happy with my Super Game Boy 1 via my Super Nt and GBC/GBA on my Game Boy Player (And Game Gear via the jailbreak feature on my Mega Sg). But of course visually there's room for improvement on the Game Boy side.

 

The icing on the cake that probably will push me to hit the buy button are Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx support, since I own neither at this time and always wanted to be able to get a Super Game Boy style solution for both. 

Edited by Atariboy
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5 minutes ago, Atariboy said:

I'm happy with my Super Game Boy 1 via my Super Nt and GBC/GBA on my Game Boy Player (And Game Gear via the jailbreak feature on my Mega Sg). But of course visually there's room for improvement on the Game Boy side.

 

The icing on the cake that probably will push me to hit the buy button are Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx support, since I own neither at this time and always wanted to be able to get a Super Game Boy style solution for both. 

At that point, I'd just wait for the NGPC Consolizer if you don't want it as a handheld. It would probably be cheaper, anyway, since the GBA Consolizer is like $140 preassembled and you already have solutions for the rest aside from Lynx. I don't know anything about the Lynx, so I'm not sure what to say about that one. Your choice, though.

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8 hours ago, Atariboy said:

If the dock is expensive like I'm sure it will be, I'd actually be glad to see it delayed for months like the Mega Sg's cart adapters. Would spread the pain in the wallet out a little bit. 

 

The better alternative would be for the dock to not cost an arm and a leg, and also not be something where if you blink you might be stuck just enjoying your new system in handheld mode. But I suspect it will be $99.99 + shipping and will be a limited quantity item.

 

I wish we had a way of knowing if a consolized version could follow later on, since it's the tv side of the Pocket I care about rather than the portable component of it. I'm basically going to be paying for things like an expensive high quality screen that I won't be using, and a more complicated and expensive setup to interface it with my tv.

That seems to inexpensive to me. Doesn't it have an FPGA in it? I'm going to go with $150-200. But I hope I'm wrong, or maybe it's cheaper in a bundle with the Pocket.

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If the dock is just a pass-through type device it might not be too expensive.  Like if the HDMI signal is being formed inside the system and the dock just routes it to the TV or to the DAC there might not be too much to it.  The Nintendo Switch dock is like $90 new and seems to do about the same thing.  Also, the DAC is $80 and has a lot going on inside of it.  If the MegaSG cart adapters are anything to go by it is going to be very limited along with the cart adapters that are supposedly going to be available.  But, I suppose with shipping it could easily get to $150, LOL.

Edited by Toth
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1 hour ago, XtraSmiley said:

That seems to inexpensive to me. Doesn't it have an FPGA in it? I'm going to go with $150-200. But I hope I'm wrong, or maybe it's cheaper in a bundle with the Pocket.

I don't see why the dock would have a FPGA in it.

 

I can't imagine that Analogue expects $150-$200 for just the dock to interface the system with a television and a USB controller. But I guess never say never.

Edited by Atariboy
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Would be cool if they made a bundle, like Pocket + Dock 269USD, and sell it for like 99USD separate, hard to find it worth more than the DAC.

 

It might go more expensive than that. I would assume it will be mostly a passtru with BT built in.

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7 hours ago, Toth said:

If the dock is just a pass-through type device it might not be too expensive.  Like if the HDMI signal is being formed inside the system and the dock just routes it to the TV or to the DAC there might not be too much to it.  The Nintendo Switch dock is like $90 new and seems to do about the same thing.  Also, the DAC is $80 and has a lot going on inside of it.  If the MegaSG cart adapters are anything to go by it is going to be very limited along with the cart adapters that are supposedly going to be available.  But, I suppose with shipping it could easily get to $150, LOL.

Agree, but Nintendo has economies of scale and it's STILL $90 for their dock.

 

Besides, I think Analogue said it had an FPGA in it for developers didn't they?

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Now that I think about it, if Analogue is letting people do stuff with the Pocket, I wonder if it would be possible for someone to make the thing compatible with a generic USB-C to HDMI thingy so you can just tell the dock to go to hell and use your own cheap thing from Amazon. Not sure how you'd charge it when using it like that, though, and I don't have anything that uses USB-C except the Switch and I have basically no familiarity with it, so I'm not sure how it works.

 

I imagine that the system and the dock would sell out before that happens, but if they had unlimited supply of the system and the dock until the planet is destroyed in several billion years, I imagine they'd find a way to make it impossible to do this so they can sell the dock.

 

A tasty edit: https://support.analogue.co/hc/en-us/articles/360034270472-Analogue-Pocket-FAQ

 

"With developer access to Analogue Pocket's hardware slot, developers will be capable of making cartridge adapters and more."

 

Yay, I can't wait to plug Sonic 3 & Knuckles into the Pocket and play it on the train as everyone looks at me like I'm insane. I'd add a Game Genie, but I don't have one. I suppose the Mega Adaptor with a Mark III game would be pretty awesome, too.

Edited by Steven Pendleton
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4 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Now that I think about it, if Analogue is letting people do stuff with the Pocket, I wonder if it would be possible for someone to make the thing compatible with a generic USB-C to HDMI thingy so you can just tell the dock to go to hell and use your own cheap thing from Amazon. Not sure how you'd charge it when using it like that, though, and I don't have anything that uses USB-C except the Switch and I have basically no familiarity with it, so I'm not sure how it works.

Depends on what USB-C mode is used between the Pocket and the dock.

 

HDMI alt mode is one option. Pros: USB 2.0 support for a dock-side hub that only supports HID inputs is plenty, if the Pocket is 1080p through the dock, then the limit of HDMI 1.4b isn’t a big deal. Cons: Uses the PD pins, so charging will be limited to 5V/2.1A (12W), which may be fine.

 

DisplayPort alt mode is another.  Pros: USB 3, PD and 1080p are all supportable here at the same time. Cons: Dock needs to have a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter built into it.

 

Anything else is probably overkill, to be honest. But the fact that it’s DAC-compatible makes me suspect HDMI alt mode is more likely here? But my understanding is that the smaller FPGA that isn’t available to devs is also the one responsible for output to the screen or dock, and receiving input, so I doubt that developers would be able to override how the USB-C port works. 

 

The Switch uses something called MyDP which is somewhat like DisplayPort alt mode, but pre-dates USB-C, making it incompatible with the newer alt modes. It requires a special chip in the dock to pull apart the DisplayPort, Audio and USB data signals that have been multiplexed over the USB cable. A little surprising, but perhaps support for it was already baked into the Tegra platform, and they just used it as-is. PD should still be supported in this setup as well (since it doesn’t need the PD pins). 

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On 7/25/2020 at 11:45 PM, Kaide said:

Depends on what USB-C mode is used between the Pocket and the dock.

 

HDMI alt mode is one option. Pros: USB 2.0 support for a dock-side hub that only supports HID inputs is plenty, if the Pocket is 1080p through the dock, then the limit of HDMI 1.4b isn’t a big deal. Cons: Uses the PD pins, so charging will be limited to 5V/2.1A (12W), which may be fine.

 

DisplayPort alt mode is another.  Pros: USB 3, PD and 1080p are all supportable here at the same time. Cons: Dock needs to have a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter built into it.

 

Anything else is probably overkill, to be honest. But the fact that it’s DAC-compatible makes me suspect HDMI alt mode is more likely here? But my understanding is that the smaller FPGA that isn’t available to devs is also the one responsible for output to the screen or dock, and receiving input, so I doubt that developers would be able to override how the USB-C port works. 

 

The Switch uses something called MyDP which is somewhat like DisplayPort alt mode, but pre-dates USB-C, making it incompatible with the newer alt modes. It requires a special chip in the dock to pull apart the DisplayPort, Audio and USB data signals that have been multiplexed over the USB cable. A little surprising, but perhaps support for it was already baked into the Tegra platform, and they just used it as-is. PD should still be supported in this setup as well (since it doesn’t need the PD pins). 

Okay, great. I really doubt that users will be able to get the thing to output video and audio through a converter, but I suppose we'll have to wait until the thing is released to find out. It would certainly be interesting if it's possible, but anyone who wants video and audio output should get the dock instead of hoping for something that might not be possible.

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1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Okay, great. I really doubt that users will be able to get the thing to output video and audio through a converter, but I suppose we'll have to wait until the thing is released to find out. It would certainly be interesting if it's possible, but anyone who wants video and audio output should get the dock instead of hoping for something that might not be possible.


if it does use HDMI alt mode, you’d just need a passive USB-C to HDMI cable.
 

But yes, since we don’t know how it is spitting out the signal, we should assume the dock is going to be the best way to do it. 

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1 hour ago, Kaide said:


if it does use HDMI alt mode, you’d just need a passive USB-C to HDMI cable.
 

But yes, since we don’t know how it is spitting out the signal, we should assume the dock is going to be the best way to do it. 

Yeah, nothing to do at this point but wait.

 

Speaking of waiting, whatever they were teasing the other day will happen in around 7.5 hours, I think. I will not be surprised if it goes on sale and I almost expect it to do so.

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Pocket page updated, ships next May. Preorders open on the 3rd. I forgot that today is the 28th lol

 

And it seems you have to be found "suitable" to develop for it. Well, that's not very pleasant, but whatever. It's not like I know how to do it.

 

Also, this is interesting:

 

"GB Studio is a quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favorite handheld video game system."

 

Hell yeah, my favourite handheld is the Nomad! This means I get to make Genesis/MD games, RIGHT???

 

Anyway, half-joking aside, it's time to go to bed. I look forward to reading the comments tomorrow.

Edited by Steven Pendleton
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