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FPGA Based Videogame System


kevtris

Interest in an FPGA Videogame System  

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  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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I checked the bug list quickly and I saw a lot of bugs are specific to a particular game, which is probably a pita to fix with FPGA. You can always patch a software emulator to deal with a specific game ("if ROM= this then do that" to simplify a lot). But to fix it with HDL, I guess the only solution is to trace the origin of the bug, which can be very tricky. The good thing is when you fix it, it may fix a lot of other problems. but I'm glad it's not my job. ?

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25 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

I checked the bug list quickly and I saw a lot of bugs are specific to a particular game, which is probably a pita to fix with FPGA. You can always patch a software emulator to deal with a specific game ("if ROM= this then do that" to simplify a lot). But to fix it with HDL, I guess the only solution is to trace the origin of the bug, which can be very tricky. The good thing is when you fix it, it may fix a lot of other problems. but I'm glad it's not my job. ?

There are a few fixes for individual games, like how Golden Axe 2 actually works with a 6-button controller in 6-button mode without having to put it in 3-button mode on the Mega Sg, but yeah. Still, hopefully some of the issues get fixed eventually.

Edited by Steven Pendleton
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Hi all, a question for you all if you don’t mind.

 

i recently took delivery of my Analogue DAC, intending to use this for my Mega SG and Super NT connected to a consumer CRT TV.

 

Long story short (after a bit of hit and miss with power supplies) I managed to get a picture with my DAC in the RGB input on my CRT TV. Success.

 

Problem I have now is that my DAC needs to run through a Scart switch box, in this case a Lotharek Hydra Mini.  This switch works perfectly with all other devices, including Neo Geo MVS (via Supergun), composite connected consoles (wii, ps1 etc..,.). But it will not display a picture from the DAC, it picks up the signal (and ‘locks’ to the input) but only displays a black screen.

 

The DAC is connected to the Hydra using a RetroGamingCables HD15/VGA to Scart lead.

 

It’s a random question, but does anyone have any experience of a DAC with a Scart switch box, any workarounds?  Hope your can help, this is drying me nuts.

Edited by Bod2019
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With respect my above post, I have now sent back the Mini Hydra Scart Switch due to it's incompatibility, seems too sensitive to various signals, shame as it seemed a good product.  I've opted for a 'dumb' switch box, simple mechanical design, with straight pass through, so there shouldn't be any conflict/messing/incompatibility with signals.

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On a completely separate note, given we're in October.  I'm sure you are all aware, historically Analogue seem to announce their new products, annually, on the 16th October each year, since 2017, as far as I can tell.

 

Obviously there has been a hiccup or two with delivery of the Pocket and the Duo hasn't moved forward since it was announced last year.

 

What do people think?  Do you think it's likely Analogue will announce a new product on 16th October, or do they have their hands full with the unreleased products they have already announced?

 

I feel there is potential for damage to the company either way:

  • Reputation damage: should they announce a new product without having released/fulfilled orders of products announced over two years ago.  Potential to alienate a lot of people who have been patiently waiting.
  • Business damage: if they end up with a hole in their release schedule due to the ongoing chip/supply shortage issues.  A lack of new products to promote will undoubtedly go against their business plan, and would be harmful to expansion/or even sustainability as a business.

Personally I'd happily see a reasonable priced NES (in the vain of the Mega SG/Super NT price bracket), or, if I'm dreaming, a Mega CD add on for the Mega SG, especially if it looked like the original model 1, matching the Mega SG's form factor.  Analogue are happy to tussle with CD drives (as per the Duo) so why not?  It would be awesome.

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I think they'd risk derision and annoying their customer base if they were to make a major product announcement this month. Got to get Pocket preorders out and open up Duo preorders with a ship window announced before that can happen, in my opinion. 

 

Pocket support for another significant platform via a cartridge adapter would be pretty cool though and an announcement that their customer base would welcome. We've already seen it expanded once before with last October's announcement of a cartridge adapter for TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine & SuperGrafx cartridges. So I suspect we'll be seeing something more along those lines come the 16th.

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1 minute ago, Atariboy said:

I think they'd risk derision and annoying their customer base if they were to make a major product announcement this month. Got to get Pocket preorders out and open up Duo preorders with a ship window announced before that can happen, in my opinion. 

 

Pocket support for another significant platform via a cartridge adapter would be pretty cool though and an announcement that their customer base would welcome. We've already seen it expanded once before with last October's announcement of a cartridge adapter for TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine & SuperGrafx cartridges. So I suspect we'll be seeing something more along those lines come the 16th.

That's a good point, an announcement of further expansion of something imminent to drop would be more welcome than an attempt to grab more custom/money.

 

I've been wondering whether the 16th could also be a date they use to perhaps open the pre-orders for Duo, if they are confident about the release of Pocket hitting the Nov/Dec expected date.  Just a wild theory, a absolute speculation.

 

What other adapters would people welcome for the Pocket.  Personally I was happy with what has been announced so far, not sure what else I would desire.

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Personally, I hope they re-confirm their plans for actually shipping out the pocket orders this year and maybe give a loose/estimated timeline of how the Duo pre-orders move forward.  I feel a brand new product would not be a good idea right now.  I have to believe at some point there will be a new Nt Mini that is basically a repackaged Super Nt under the hood but it is not the right time to announce a new product.

Edited by Toth
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5 minutes ago, Toth said:

Personally, I hope they re-confirm their plans for actually shipping out the pocket orders this year and maybe give a loose/estimated timeline of how the Duo pre-orders move forward.  I feel a brand new product would not be a good idea right now.  I have to believe at some point there will be a new Nt Mini that is basically a repackaged Super Nt under the hood but it is not the right time to announce a new product.

I had a recent (this week) interaction with Analogue Support (regarding my DAC), and threw in there a question regarding my Pocket order.  I asked if we might likely see some orders go out in November - given the comment of 'no later than December'.

 

The official line from them was "we sincerely apologize for the delay, the shipping schedule has been moved to December and it is unlikely to be shipped earlier than that."

 

I know it's only come from Customer Support, but even so, it reinforces the message that this is definitely a December onward thing, and my vibe from this is it could easily slip into New Year (I hope I'm wrong) - just thinking of the wider delivery network issues etc..,.

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On 10/6/2021 at 7:43 AM, Bod2019 said:

Hi all, a question for you all if you don’t mind.

 

i recently took delivery of my Analogue DAC, intending to use this for my Mega SG and Super NT connected to a consumer CRT TV.

 

Long story short (after a bit of hit and miss with power supplies) I managed to get a picture with my DAC in the RGB input on my CRT TV. Success.

 

Problem I have now is that my DAC needs to run through a Scart switch box, in this case a Lotharek Hydra Mini.  This switch works perfectly with all other devices, including Neo Geo MVS (via Supergun), composite connected consoles (wii, ps1 etc..,.). But it will not display a picture from the DAC, it picks up the signal (and ‘locks’ to the input) but only displays a black screen.

 

The DAC is connected to the Hydra using a RetroGamingCables HD15/VGA to Scart lead.

 

It’s a random question, but does anyone have any experience of a DAC with a Scart switch box, any workarounds?  Hope your can help, this is drying me nuts.

Probably you already returned the Hydra but did you try every sync option in the DAC menu? It's very strange to hydra do not pick up the signal. My friend had one and they told me that the creator uses the official rules (composite signal as sync) but now every scart cable manufacturer sells C Sync RAW cables. Thats probably causes a lot of incompatibilities.

 

When you tried it was you using a HDMI switch in the chain? Because not every HDMI switch works with DAC. I had to buy a mechanical HDMI switch from Japan but now I have a more easy option to find at amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J6GJ448?pldnSite=1

 

I use a DAC plugued in the mechanical japanese HDMI switch and then plugged in a gscartsw and it works fine. 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, hyrulebr said:

Probably you already returned the Hydra but did you try every sync option in the DAC menu? It's very strange to hydra do not pick up the signal. My friend had one and they told me that the creator uses the official rules (composite signal as sync) but now every scart cable manufacturer sells C Sync RAW cables. Thats probably causes a lot of incompatibilities.

 

When you tried it was you using a HDMI switch in the chain? Because not every HDMI switch works with DAC. I had to buy a mechanical HDMI switch from Japan but now I have a more easy option to find at amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J6GJ448?pldnSite=1

 

I use a DAC plugued in the mechanical japanese HDMI switch and then plugged in a gscartsw and it works fine. 

 

 

 

Thanks for the info Hyrulebr.  I did try all of the sync options in the DAC menu.  Didn't seem to make any difference.  The Hydra would lock on, but simply wouldn't display a picture at all.  It's been sent back now.  I've ordered an Otaku 6 input scart, seems to be a straight pass through 'dumb' switch, as such it should work just fine as when plugged directly to my CRT the DAC works great.

 

Thanks for the info on the HDMI switch, I haven't got one as yet (wanted to sort the Scart Switch first), but it is next on my list as I want to use the DAC for Super NT, Mega SG and eventually Pocket (maybe).  I've heard a few people having issues with the HDMI switches, and RetroRGB did a video a little while back with recommendations.

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20 minutes ago, Ricdeau said:

This AnalogueOS sounds neat, but how many people actually were able to order the Pocket previously? I know I missed out on it, and it seems like orders were swarmed by scalpers. I hope there's more available at launch or after launch.

Not familiar with the OS.  Have to go check that out.

 

I was one of the lucky ones, I suppose.  I got an order in pretty easily, if I recall correctly.  

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15 minutes ago, narshe said:

The Analogue store says the Pocket ships in October 2021. Has this always been the case or did this change today with the announcement? 

I just noticed it today prior to the announcement when I was mentally debating if it was going to be Pocket or Duo related. When I saw May 2021 crossed out and October 2021 I was like “oh, it’s definitely going to be Pocket related.”

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4 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Not familiar with the OS.  Have to go check that out.

 

I was one of the lucky ones, I suppose.  I got an order in pretty easily, if I recall correctly.  

It might not have been difficult if you were around when the preorders went live, but I missed that due to work engagements. Later in the day it was gone.

 

You could preorder the Super Nt and Mega Sg for weeks/months before it was closed. I get that from the onset they said the Pocket was limited, but it felt a lot like a modern day special edition Nintendo preorder.

 

I do hope there’s more because I really do like Analogue’s systems.

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11 minutes ago, Ricdeau said:

I just noticed it today prior to the announcement when I was mentally debating if it was going to be Pocket or Duo related. When I saw May 2021 crossed out and October 2021 I was like “oh, it’s definitely going to be Pocket related.”

Looks like it's been that way since at least August. https://web.archive.org/web/20210809084433/https://store.analogue.co/

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4 hours ago, Ricdeau said:

It might not have been difficult if you were around when the preorders went live, but I missed that due to work engagements. Later in the day it was gone.

 

You could preorder the Super Nt and Mega Sg for weeks/months before it was closed. I get that from the onset they said the Pocket was limited, but it felt a lot like a modern day special edition Nintendo preorder.

 

I do hope there’s more because I really do like Analogue’s systems.

No the Pocket is not limited. The Nt Mini was though, and maybe the Duo will.

It has been pushed back once again to December, and they hope to make it available again in January. When the Super Nt and Mega Sg got a restock this summer, it was not hard at all to get them; they're probably still available (except maybe for one or two variations).

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1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

No the Pocket is not limited. The Nt Mini was though, and maybe the Duo will.

It has been pushed back once again to December, and they hope to make it available again in January. When the Super Nt and Mega Sg got a restock this summer, it was not hard at all to get them; they're probably still available (except maybe for one or two variations).

When they announced the Pocket it was stated they would be limited due to the custom spec screen they are using.

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6 hours ago, Ricdeau said:

When they announced the Pocket it was stated they would be limited due to the custom spec screen they are using.

The Pocket will get additional runs in the future and is not limited like the Nt Mini Noir. They'll continue to produce as many Pockets as they can, but clearly people will need to be patient. Those that are patient will probably get improved hardware due to the inevitable fixes ;) 

 

 

Edited by cacophony
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Oh sure, I understand their intent is to continue to produce the product, but Analogue is a small company making products for a very niche group of people. With that in mind the nature of their business revolves around limited product lifecycles (not talking about limited editions). When the Super Nt last sold out prior to the batch that became available when the Nt Mini Noir had its final batch it had been quite a long time with no stock or indication of when a restock would occur.

 

I’m not saying any of this to speak poorly of Analogue because I greatly appreciate what they do. With products like this it is difficult to create an economy of scale. If the demand isn’t strong enough then the product can be too costly to produce. This is especially true with the current world situation where the entire supply chain has been disrupted and subject to a lot of cost inflations. I certainly hope there are more runs, and I also hope these more quantity of those runs because something that sells out in less than a day can be difficult for someone to be able to get if you’re not in the right place at the right time.

Edited by Ricdeau
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