FPGA Based Videogame System

[roots.genoa]

8 hours ago, spoonman said:

a Neo•Geo console, with physical AES/MVS/NGCD/NGPC cart/CD support

This would be a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE system. And I still want the Analogue Duo, because it looks slick AF.

[cacophony]

I'd personally like to see a openFPGA multi-system with cart and controller adapters for all major 8/16 bit systems

 

[Reaperman]

Pocket cart adapter set preorder is live, I just went for mine. I wonder how far off those cores are.

 

They didn't instantly sell out--10 minutes in and counting. I'm guessing the doubling of price over the set for mega sg slowed that down.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Reaperman

[+jgkspsx]

Pricing and shipping are just outrageous. If the Lynx and the PCETG were not two of my absolute favorite systems ever I might have skipped.

[hyrulebr]

I got a set too but did you see guys that estimate shipping is Q3 2023? 😔

 

 

Pocket Cartridge Adapters

Pocket Cartridge Adapters will be available for preorder at $99 on Oct 21st at 8am PDT. Shipping Q3 2023. Signup for the stock notification here to be emailed as soon as they are available.

[+jgkspsx]

I am shocked, shocked that they will take forever and a day. Shocked.

[+Razzie.P]

 

If these don't weigh 300 pounds and come in a refrigerator sized box, I'm gonna be disappointed.

 

Silly as it sounds, I'd feel less annoyed if they cost $130 with free shipping.

 

 

[Reaperman]

You know how preorders go these days.

Take the whole day off, refreshing some web page--basically everything a pre-order was supposed to relieve.

Then pay in full, with predatory shipping, and wait a year.

When it (hopefully) eventually shows up you really don't even want it that much, because you're on to the next thing.

Or there's always the alternative of missing out forever. 😒

 

But, we still want the stuff, and it's not like we can get them anywhere else. And as we get more and more of our goods right from the source, these 'preorders' will act less like retail and more like purchases for custom work.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Reaperman

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

Silly as it sounds, I'd feel less annoyed if they cost $130 with free shipping.

Don't complain too much. I paid $160 and there will be import taxes too. 🥲

[Steven Pendleton]

$60 USD just for shipping for just the Game Gear adaptor alone, a thing that is both ultra light and relatively tiny, and with the exchange rate in the toilet, and I'll have to pay an extra 10% or so on top of that for import fees and then there is that foreign transaction fee that they never tell you about. No way. GTFO with that bullshit, Analogue; I've had enough of it. Get a shipping company that isn't complete garbage or whatever.

[Pixelboy]

On 10/20/2022 at 7:32 PM, cacophony said:

I'd personally like to see a openFPGA multi-system with cart and controller adapters for all major 8/16 bit systems

That was the plan for the Zimba 3000 from the beginning, but I guess Kevtris' vision was diluted over all the Analogue systems over the years.

 

Personally, I'd be more partial to a device shaped something like a Coleco tabletop, with its own screen (it could feature the exact same screen as the Analogue Pocket) but also HDMI out, and some USB jacks for alternate controllers. So in other words, the Pocket + Dock but with a different form factor. Analogue could produce USB adaptors to support various external controllers, or perhaps be designed to support Tomee's USB adaptors, like their NES-to-USB and SNES-to-USB adaptors. In terms of cartridge ports, GB/GBC/GBA could be a good choice for the base system, as a better fit for the tabletop form factor, but the real draw would be the SD card slot. Then the device's arcade-cabinet-shaped enclosure would really drive home the idea of a portable arcade machine. There are already lots of similar products on the market, but they're not FPGA-based. With the proper community support, such a device could become an FPGA version of MAME.

 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Pixelboy

[Keatah]

10 hours ago, Reaperman said:

You know how preorders go these days.

Yup!

10 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Take the whole day off, refreshing some web page--basically everything a pre-order was supposed to relieve.

Then pay in full, with predatory shipping, and wait a year. When it (hopefully) eventually shows up you really don't even want it that much, because you're on to the next thing. Or there's always the alternative of missing out forever. 😒

I try not to worry too much about fomo today. In the old days I did - and all it did was rev me up and piss me off.

10 hours ago, Reaperman said:

But, we still want the stuff, and it's not like we can get them anywhere else. And as we get more and more of our goods right from the source, these 'preorders' will act less like retail and more like purchases for custom work.

True enough.

[youxia]

There's no business like retro gaming business. You can get away with stuff which would be unthinkable in most other markets.

[Keatah]

On 10/20/2022 at 6:32 PM, cacophony said:

I'd personally like to see a openFPGA multi-system with cart and controller adapters for all major 8/16 bit systems.

4 hours ago, Pixelboy said:

That was the plan for the Zimba 3000 from the beginning, but I guess Kevtris' vision was diluted over all the Analogue systems over the years.

I was seriously so excited about the original Z3000. It looked like it could've been a serious AIO. So much preferable to drawers and boxes of adapters, controllers, and cartridges.

 

4 hours ago, Pixelboy said:

[..] Then the device's arcade-cabinet-shaped enclosure would really drive home the idea of a portable arcade machine. There are already lots of similar products on the market, but they're not FPGA-based. With the proper community support, such a device could become an FPGA version of MAME.

I suppose the next best things are MiSTer, R-Pi, and SFFPC packed with emulators. And optionally put into a tabletop barcade form.

Edited October 22, 2022 by Keatah

[Keatah]

30 minutes ago, youxia said:

There's no business like retro gaming business. You can get away with stuff which would be unthinkable in most other markets.

Could you give an example or two?

[NE146]

The Pocket is becoming quite a beast. With FPGA GB/GBC/GBA, GG, SMS, SG-1000, NES, Genesis, TG16, SNES, Neo-Geo, and various arcade cores (Galaga, Pooyan, Q-Bert, Asteroids, Xevious, etc.) and that's just to-date all in a gameboy-style handheld. That's pretty hard to beat if you're into that form factor, which I am. 

Edited October 22, 2022 by NE146

[Reaperman]

I'm kind of hoping one big pack of those winds up on archive.org, so I can just unzip the lot on an SD card and don't have to go through downloading them all individually. Or maybe some kind of PC app that builds up an SD card. Something more or less taking the place of the 'update all' script on MiSTer.

[Kaide]

3 hours ago, Reaperman said:

I'm kind of hoping one big pack of those winds up on archive.org, so I can just unzip the lot on an SD card and don't have to go through downloading them all individually. Or maybe some kind of PC app that builds up an SD card. Something more or less taking the place of the 'update all' script on MiSTer.

 

There are tools for doing the updates:

https://github.com/mattpannella/pocket_core_autoupdate_net (CLI, works on Win/Mac/Linux)

 

There’s also a Windows GUI tool that I’d have to track down to find. But I think RetroRGB has some links here? (EDIT: Found it https://github.com/RetroDriven/Pocket_Updater)

 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Kaide

[NE146]

4 hours ago, Reaperman said:

I'm kind of hoping one big pack of those winds up on archive.org, so I can just unzip the lot on an SD card and don't have to go through downloading them all individually. Or maybe some kind of PC app that builds up an SD card. Something more or less taking the place of the 'update all' script on MiSTer.

Yeah what he said above. You can just run it on your SD card to update everything directly, or even just on a folder on your PC to copy over later. I shied away from it for a while but now I totally use it. Makes it easy.

 

If you're running windows There's a Windows GUI version or a command line version. 

 

Or if you just want to do it manually, a good list of existing cores (sortable by date) can be found here: https://joshcampbell191.github.io/openfpga-cores-inventory/analogue-pocket.html

Edited October 22, 2022 by NE146

[Reaperman]

4 hours ago, Kaide said:

There’s also a Windows GUI tool that I’d have to track down to find. But I think RetroRGB has some links here? (EDIT: Found it https://github.com/RetroDriven/Pocket_Updater)

 

4 hours ago, NE146 said:

If you're running windows There's a Windows GUI version or a command line version. 

 

Yep that's what it needed. Now to wait for the roms to copy over from the MiSTer backup folder...

Tomorrow the wife is hauling me to this mardi gras doubloon swapping club. (not a euphemism for something entertaining...) So the big question I've got to figure out is Pocket or Steam Deck--good problem to have.

[NE146]

Nice man.. we have a Steam Deck too, however it remains in box to give to the kid at Christmas   However, I'm definitely looking forward to checking out the emulation on it especially for newer games beyond the 8 &16 bit stuff, like N64, PSP, PSX, etc.

Edited October 23, 2022 by NE146

[spoonman]

Name an unlikely openFPGA core that you'd love to see on the Analogue Pocket.

I'll go first.. The PHILIPS CD-i

 

We almost always see the popular stuff released, which is awesome, but the CD-i, has neither decent software support, nor cheap, and readily available, hardware. Most systems also have issues with their game saving, and other issues, due to its Time Keeper battery being implanted within a silicon chip. It requires some delicate surgery to separate the two and replace the battery. Risking damaging a $500 - $1000 system. 

 

The CD-i gets a much worse reputation that it deserves, I feel. This, due to such YouTube videos as the AVGN, showing them trying to play educational and documentary titles, as well as the countless YTP Legend of Zelda (My BOI!) videos/Memes. They were no great games, ecu when comped to the flawless Nintendo games, but they still had some interesting things.about them. (Link: The Faces of Evil, and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon anyway). 

 

There were a handful of worth while titles released for the CD-i, and like most other technology systems, they really needed to be experienced in its time in order to truly be appreciated. After all we're talking about the very first all inclusive CD multimedia system meant for the living room, in 1990 (12/1990). It would go on to play CD Audio discs, CD+G (standard CDs with (some times hidden) graphical bonuses of 8-bit color images, lyrics, trivia, and more), CD-i (of course!), Kodak Photo-CD (display developed camera film, via gold PCD CDR discs, on your living room TV), and Video-CD (precursor to the 5" DVD video disc).

 

It had the best LaserDisc home ports, of games such as Dragon's Lair 1 and 2, Space Ace, Brain Dead 13. ALG titles such as Mad Dog McCree, which could even use a light gun, which operates with a sensor bar, (Nintendo stole this for the Wii.. Quite literally.. They settled with Philips, out of court) so these will work with HD displays. People tend to enjoy the version of TETRIS, with it's laid back OSTand FMV background animation. I personally enjoyed Hotel Mario, Burn Cycle, Name that Tune, The Apprentice, Jeopardy!, Thunder in Paradise, Flashback, Lemmings, Pac-Attack, Mystic Midway, Palm Springs Golf, Escape From Cyber-City, Laser Lords, and many of the non game stuff as well. It's hard to convey just how mind blowing it was to insert the Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia into the CD-i in 1992 and browse through an entire set of encyclopedias, which is all hyperlinked, with FMV, digitized audio, and thousands of photos from a single 5" CD. This was well before Wikipedia.

 

I have to admit a good deal of my love for the CD-i is nostalgia-based, and I also worked for Philips between 1991-1993. Did I do a good job selling it above? Haha.. Probably not. I dozed off a couple of times while typing! (That really happened). So anyway I'd love to have it available as a Pocket core. The best emulator doesn't have very good compatibility, and the titles it does play tend to have a lot of flaws. I always wanted the Sony portable CD-i unit (yes, that was a real product!) So playing it on the Pocket would let me live that dream.. And what glorious dream it would be! 😂

Edited October 23, 2022 by spoonman

[roots.genoa]

I'm not sure it would be easy to play, though... My picks would be Pokémon Mini and WonderSwan.

[Reaperman]

Quote

I'm not sure it would be easy to play, though... My picks would be Pokémon Mini and WonderSwan.

I'd really like to see that kevtris 7800 core--it's where I spend most of my NT Mini time. The vast majority actually.

 

If I had a time machine, I'd go back to tell past-Reaperman:

"Dood, that 7800 you have--another 25 years or so is when the library really starts to take off"

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't believe me.

 

I suppose of the MiSTer/3rd-party cores, probably a800. I think the MiST/MiSTer a800 core had an offshoot that even fit on MCC TV, which has to be a pretty small FPGA. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Reaperman

[NE146]

1 hour ago, Reaperman said:

I'd really like to see that kevtris 7800 core--it's where I spend most of my NT Mini time. The vast majority actually.

Really? That's interesting.. What games for example?

 

I guess I'm kind of similar in that whenever I fire up my MiSTer, the majority of my time playing is 5200.