FPGA Based Videogame System

[+Razzie.P]

12 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.

My memory is a bit fuzzy, so apologies if I'm wrong here, but I think the Super Nt and Mega Sg initially had the same type of mess, where they sold out fast and people couldn't get one -- website crashing, horror stories galore, and then they came back a bit later and were quite easier to get.   And I kinda got the impression that would be the same for Pocket, so hopefully you'll get a shot to pick one up during a future stock.

 

 

[Flojomojo]

That’s my feeling as well. They’ll make more. The Pocket plays old games; you can wait a bit for another production run, and a good product is always a good product. 

[cacophony]

17 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

My memory is a bit fuzzy, so apologies if I'm wrong here, but I think the Super Nt and Mega Sg initially had the same type of mess, where they sold out fast and people couldn't get one -- website crashing, horror stories galore, and then they came back a bit later and were quite easier to get.   And I kinda got the impression that would be the same for Pocket, so hopefully you'll get a shot to pick one up during a future stock.

 

 

I think the difficulty really started with the Pocket. IIRC the Super Nt and Mega Sg had open preorders for months. Super Nt might have closed orders briefly right before shipping but there was plenty of time before that to order it.

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, Ricdeau said:

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.

Once again, if you go on their store, it says "out of stock" for products that are not limited, and "discontinued" for limited products like the Nt Mini.

Kev told me the Pocket will not be limited (even though of course, in 20 years, they'll probably not make them anymore, like any video game system anyway).

 

Regarding the Super Nt and Mega Sg, the first Super Nt's restock in the Spring was indeed a mess like Pocket's pre-orders, but the latest in the Summer was fine. Once again, everything is available right now in the store (at least everything was the last time I checked). I know they took measures to avoid problems, and cancelled orders made by scalpers.

[Bod2019]

Just to share, and to answer a couple of repeated question I’ve seen (and have had myself), it seems the new OS will not be making its way to pre-existing Analogue consoles (Mega SG Super Nt, etc..,.) for the time being at least.

 

I’ve pasted an excerpt from a Polygon.Com article with Christopher Taber.  Link below.

 

AnalogueOS is the underlying software that will run the upcoming Pocket and Duo, and other “future” consoles, the company says. (And no, the existing Analogue consoles “are not planned to be updated with AnalogueOS at this time” we’re told.
 

https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/22728859/analogue-pocket-save-states-playlists-library-fpga

[Ricdeau]

7 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Once again, if you go on their store, it says "out of stock" for products that are not limited, and "discontinued" for limited products like the Nt Mini.

Kev told me the Pocket will not be limited (even though of course, in 20 years, they'll probably not make them anymore, like any video game system anyway).

You are missing my point. I understand Analogue’s intent is to continue to produce the products, but if they aren’t just readily available then they are by definition limited. I’m not talking about Analogue’s definition of a limited edition product. There were long expanses of time that you could not buy the Super Nt and Mega Sg. My concern is that given that the target audience is small, the company is small, there are major supply chain issues, there are rising costs on pretty much everything in the industry, scalpers, etc. There is a lot working against them on this. This is a real problem many companies are facing right across many different industries where they are having to make difficult choices about what products are realistic to continue to produce. In the industry (IT) I work in I know we’ve faced a tremendous about of difficulties where stock of normal things we sell to customers daily sell out in minutes, back orders can last for months, vendors have hiked prices by substantial amounts for a variety products, and we are seeing extremely sudden decisions to discontinue products that should have had years left on their lifecycles.

 

Maybe I’m being cynical, maybe I’m just sour because I wasn’t able to preorder, I can accept that. I am, however, still concerned about the longevity of their ability to provide any of their products long term.

 

In answer to the other comment about not remembering how the Super Nt and Mega Sg went that someone else mentioned. The initial preorders for the Super Nt and Mega Sg provided ample time to preorder, and was very easy. They didn’t have restrictions on the preorders either because the scalping issue wasn’t as prominent yet. The real issues started after the Mega Sg launch with the cart adapters which was a mess and then the Pocket where they did impose a limit of 2.

 

Anyway this particular discussion has carried on too long so can move on to other topics. It wasn’t my intention to start any argument or debate.

Edited October 17, 2021 by Ricdeau
Partial response directed at wrong person.

[Ricdeau]

4 hours ago, Bod2019 said:

Just to share, and to answer a couple of repeated question I’ve seen (and have had myself), it seems the new OS will not be making its way to pre-existing Analogue consoles (Mega SG Super Nt, etc..,.) for the time being at least.

 

I’ve pasted an excerpt from a Polygon.Com article with Christopher Taber.  Link below.

 

AnalogueOS is the underlying software that will run the upcoming Pocket and Duo, and other “future” consoles, the company says. (And no, the existing Analogue consoles “are not planned to be updated with AnalogueOS at this time” we’re told.
 

https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/22728859/analogue-pocket-save-states-playlists-library-fpga

I suspect that maybe the secondary FPGA is in play for AnalogueOS, and that might be the reason it’s not planned for older products. That’s just my guess though.

[vanfanel]

33 minutes ago, Ricdeau said:

I suspect that maybe the secondary FPGA is in play for AnalogueOS, and that might be the reason it’s not planned for older products. That’s just my guess though.

My guess is an ARM core running Linux, just like the community-driven FPGA efforts.

[Atariboy]

Have any of you happened to ever try Eurit on your Super Nt via the jailbreak? Tried that prototype just now and it's not working. Multiple roms all result in a black screen. There's no indication this used a special chip that's not supported by the jailbreak. 

 

Other than a DSP-1 game (Hind Strike), this is the first one I've had not work on the Super Nt's SD card. 

[hyrulebr]

On 10/17/2021 at 12:21 PM, vanfanel said:

My guess is an ARM core running Linux, just like the community-driven FPGA efforts.

Maybe I'm wrong but the Pocket doesn't seem to have an integrated ARM. I think that OS/scaling/input are done by secondary FPGA.

 

 

[Atariboy]

In order to simplify things and with so many systems that rely on USB power in my collection, I've been considering this.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-10-Port-Charger-PowerPort-iPhone/dp/B00YRYS4T4/ref=asc_df_B00YRYS4T4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312111908612&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16723441048802425904&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9005349&hvtargid=pla-455880507506&psc=1

 

Could anyone advise me if this is suitable, just in case this wouldn't be recommended for things like the Mega Sg and Super Nt (And presumably Pocket and the Duo will be powered similarly), AVS, and various plug and plays like the NES Classic Edition?

 

I wouldn't be too worried destroying a cheap plug and play, but obviously don't want to damage something like the Super Nt (I haven't even dared to connect my Analogue systems to my tv's USB ports out of an abundance of caution). 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Atariboy

[Kaide]

7 hours ago, Atariboy said:

Could anyone advise me if this is suitable, just in case this wouldn't be recommended for things like the Mega Sg and Super Nt (And presumably Pocket and the Duo will be powered similarly), AVS, and various plug and plays like the NES Classic Edition?

 

I wouldn't be too worried destroying a cheap plug and play, but obviously don't want to damage something like the Super Nt (I haven't even dared to connect my Analogue systems to my tv's USB ports out of an abundance of caution). 

Anker is one of the brands I look at first when looking for USB power hubs like this. But unless it's totally out of spec, I wouldn't be super concerned. With electronics, so long as the power source is the right voltage, it's the load that determines current. But if you say, hook up something expecting 5V to 12V, then it will pull too much current and can lead to damage that way.

 

I use one of their smaller 4-5 port power hubs for my Super NT and Mega SG (and charging controllers). 

[Reaperman]

19 hours ago, Atariboy said:

In order to simplify things and with so many systems that rely on USB power in my collection, I've been considering this.

 

Could anyone advise me if this is suitable, just in case this wouldn't be recommended for things like the Mega Sg and Super Nt (And presumably Pocket and the Duo will be powered similarly), AVS, and various plug and plays like the NES Classic Edition?

 

I've got 3 unbranded ones (link)--one on my workbench, my crt corner, and wife's computer desk.  I love them to bits and have charged/run all manner of items off of them. The most I think I've ever asked from it was running a PSTV and one of those 15.6" mobile monitors at the same time--I'm going to guess it could have still run a couple more of that setup at the same time too. The PSTV isn't supposed to be a usb device, and some so-called "fast chargers" haven't been able to power it when it goes full-blast, but that one will, even with an overclock.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Reaperman

[+adamchevy]

Edit*I figured it out*

 

In case someone reads this in the future and tries multiple 7800 bios files and still nothing will work, it’s not the bios file, it’s the roms. Stop using No intro roms and go find Trebors pro rom pack and use those roms instead.

[SegaSnatcher]

Rise from your grave thread.   Glad to see Pocket will be shipping this year.  Congrats to Kevtris and Analogue for being able to release this year. 

[Reaperman]

3 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said:

Rise from your grave thread.   Glad to see Pocket will be shipping this year.  Congrats to Kevtris and Analogue for being able to release this year. 

Yeah, I was pretty surprised. I'm glad it won't be arriving coincident to the Steam Deck because then I'd have a real dilemma. (or the VS console, but we all know who wins then) I wonder if it's just the handheld shipping, or all the trimmings too.

 

Are these all still kevtris cores, or have they branched out to the point where it's more of a team effort?

Edited November 23, 2021 by Reaperman

[roots.genoa]

He had already done the Game Gear one for the Mega Sg, the GBA core is clearly his, and I think he's currently working on the Lynx. I know he won't be in charge of the PC Engine core, but I have no idea about the NGPC one.

[+jgkspsx]

I should have mine by New Year’s! Can’t wait for the Lynx and Hucard adapters but I have lots and lots of Game Boy and Game Gear games to play in the meantime  

[SegaSnatcher]

8 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Yeah, I was pretty surprised. I'm glad it won't be arriving coincident to the Steam Deck because then I'd have a real dilemma. (or the VS console, but we all know who wins then) I wonder if it's just the handheld shipping, or all the trimmings too.

 

Are these all still kevtris cores, or have they branched out to the point where it's more of a team effort?

The TG-16 core that will be on Pocket is from another team.  

[HoraceKSmith]

On 3/23/2017 at 2:21 PM, Andromeda Stardust said:

Windows does this too. The .DS_Store files on MacOS are like the thumbs.db files on Windows. There are hidden directories on Windows folders but "show hidden files" is not enough. You must also uncheck "hide protected operating system files" then the junk is visible. You can delete it after going through a prompt that asks you for admin privleges (and sometimes ask a password if your account have login) but it's a fruitless endeavor. As soon as you do anything in the directory, add, modify, delete files or simply open something, the hidden files are instantly regenerated. MacOS is similar I'm afraid. If you train your software to ignore any files with an "h" or "s" attribute, and also ignore any filename beginning with ".", then most of the Windows/MacOSX garbage should disappear. I would not hide files from view with the "a" (archive) or "r" (read only) attribute, because many software will edit these and some users manually add the read only attribute to protect files. Windows also auto sets read only whenever files are copied from read only media such as CD-ROM or locked SD card, which can be a pain later when doing bulk file management operations.

 

I don't know of a scrubber utility to bulk remove Mac/Win OS files, but I imagine it would be a pain. You would also need admin privleges in windows to remove windows files and likewise removing MacOS files on Mac. And again, merely inserting the SD card and viewing files without setting the write protect tab (which is pointless to do if you want to add stuff to it) and all the OS junk files come back.

For Mac users, deleting .DS_Store files would save a lot of space for Mac. Use Terminal to help with that. Enter this command will work: sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \

[HoraceKSmith]

19 hours ago, HoraceKSmith said:

For Mac users, deleting .DS_Store files would save a lot of space for Mac. Use Terminal to help with that. Enter this command will work: sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \

Also to delete .DS_Store files regularly, type the command: sudo crontab -e

Then enter your password.

Enter command again: 15 1 * * * root find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;

Follow this format: <Minute> <Hour> <DayOfMonth> <Month> <DayOfWeek> <User Command>

After that, press Enter and then Shift+Z+Z.

Edited December 1, 2021 by HoraceKSmith
forgot something

[blzmarcel]

On 11/30/2021 at 7:14 PM, HoraceKSmith said:

Also to delete .DS_Store files regularly, type the command: sudo crontab -e

Then enter your password.

Enter command again: 15 1 * * * root find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;

Follow this format: <Minute> <Hour> <DayOfMonth> <Month> <DayOfWeek> <User Command>

After that, press Enter and then Shift+Z+Z.

By the way, while using -exec rm {} \; work fine, this can be done more directly (and more efficiently if there are a lot of hits) with -delete instead, as it's a built-in feature.

 

So you can just use:

find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -delete

 

Further, according to the documentation [1] for find(1), the use of -delete implies -depth, so this can be reduced to just

find / -name ".DS_Store" -delete

 

 

[1]

https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/find.1.html

This should apply to any version of findutils from at least the past decade, if not further back.

[SegaSnatcher]

Monday is going to be fun.  I expect a lot more coverage for Pocket than any previous Analogue product.  

[Ricdeau]

For anyone interested:

Analogue on Twitter: "Pocket will be available to purchase on December 14th at 8am PST. It is our goal for everyone who wants a Pocket to be able secure an order."

 

I guess I should set an alarm this time so I don't miss out again.

[Atariboy]

Have they elaborated about how they're handling accessories? Curious if it's safe to defer for now an order for the dock and just secure a Pocket preorder on the 14th. Would just as assume hold off on the dock for a bit if my order gets slotted into one of the later fulfillment windows.