FPGA Based Videogame System

[Tanooki]

17 hours ago, M-S said:

Why ask for it on the FPGA thread though? Anyways, the ones from 8BitDo and Retro-Bit are good options, just be careful to choose the correct dongle, 2.4GHz is also faster than Bluetooth, and if you are feeling like spending more, I heard good things from the ones from RetroUSB, that one is the closest to zero lag.

Anyways, here's a new video on the FunnyPlaying GBC: 

Compatibility seems to not be perfect yet for original GB games and cheap flash carts, but it seems like they are targeting a 69U$ price tag, which is insanely cheap. You could buy this, a GBA clone, the official Everdrive GB and a modded GBP and it would still be cheaper than the Analogue Pocket.

Whoa how had I not heard of this?!  That looks fantastic as a budget handheld to run all the goodies.  Most of the gripes are nitpicky, but the fact it can't seemingly run at the right speed, it seems much like it's a hair off such as the SNES Gameboy player is over time.  I could see buying this, being an FPGA it should be updateable for fixes.  I'd love to make my Atomic purple stock again and return it to its box since I have to kid gloves that thing as I have no other GBC. :\

[M-S]

I posted the video from Makho on both this thread and the GameBoy one. People shouldn't be using Everdrive clones anyway, if Krikkz sold them for way too much then it would make sense, but it's only like 10$ more than the clones.

[Tanooki]

10 hours ago, M-S said:

I posted the video from Makho on both this thread and the GameBoy one. People shouldn't be using Everdrive clones anyway, if Krikkz sold them for way too much then it would make sense, but it's only like 10$ more than the clones.

Uh these last couple of years now he does.  He peddled if I remember right this bs story that the parts were not readily available/sunsetted by his suppliers, so he got new parts, faster/larger parts for his kits, called them PRO and jacked up the price quite a lot to cover it.  Yet, the models he just retired started to get released anyways from chinese factories who supplied those supposed sunsetted pieces of tech and for a price that's still under what his original stuff cost.  A decade ago those same pirates were trying to clone his kits, thye were shit with bugs, ran slow, various games glitched as well, the works.  Personally I was a fan, I'm not anymore given both models could be supplied as a budget model, then a pro one, but that ended up being the road not taken.  ANd they're not $10 more, not sure where you're getting that.

 

The last new one I got from him (via SAG but pricing from his own page) Turbo Everdrive ($89) and the Pro ($220).  And for the popular NES/FC you have the N8 at $105, and the Pro for $205.  So ... $10?  You can get the non-pro model copies from China now for 50% of the price of the one he did sell.   Gameboy is a bit smaller, also hasn't done a Pro per say just the X5 vs X7 and that's $89 vs $133 where the X7 gives a real time clock and save states/in game menus for +44.

[M-S]

The Everdrive clones are X3 based as far as I know, which Krikkz sells for 44$. The Pro models are a completely different thing though.

[M-S]

And here it is: https://funnyplaying.com/products/fpgbc-kit?variant=40858870284349

[Tanooki]

WOW only $70?! That's solid.  Looks like what $80 out the door and you get a lean analogue pocket for just gameboy 8bit which is perfect!

[Ricdeau]

Analogue Duo is set to ship out on December 11th. Pretty excited about that.

[Tanooki]

They also have dual Pocket/Pocket DOCK updates coming early/mid-late Dec.

 

Makes me wonder if they finally got the dock to do as they sold it on 2 years ago.  Will it let you finally use whatever USB or 2.4g controller and not like 10% of what exists?  Will you be able to configure the buttons or is that still grayed out?  Will the dock save your screen settings since it defaults to one on square shaped games that cut off like 8x8 tiles at the top and bottom as that sucks resetting that each time?

 

I hope they fix it for people who held onto the dock.

[Austin]

1 hour ago, Ricdeau said:

Analogue Duo is set to ship out on December 11th. Pretty excited about that.

Hell yes!! In time for Christmas. Thanks for the update!

[roots.genoa]

And before someone complains about it, the adapters have been delayed to February though. 😔

 

Since I remember Kev working on the Lynx and more recently on the PC Engine (which he wasn't supposed to tackle himself initially), my (educated) guess would be they delayed them to allow him to work on the NeoGeo Pocket core.

[impetus_maximus]

any news/ETA on V5.0 firmware for V2 Mega Sg?

[Razzie.P]

https://www.yankodesign.com/2023/12/04/analogue-duo-console-revives-turbografx-cartridges-and-cds-with-a-catch/amp/

 

 

 

 

 

I read that and I'm not sure what they're saying is "the catch."  Unless the catch is "you gotta have the games," which is a really weird catch that would seem stupid applied to, well, anything.  So I figure that's not it.

 

Maybe I just overlooked it.

 

[Bill Loguidice]

2 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

https://www.yankodesign.com/2023/12/04/analogue-duo-console-revives-turbografx-cartridges-and-cds-with-a-catch/amp/

 

<snip>

 

I read that and I'm not sure what they're saying is "the catch."  Unless the catch is "you gotta have the games," which is a really weird catch that would seem stupid applied to, well, anything.  So I figure that's not it.

 

Maybe I just overlooked it.

 

At first I thought that person broke the embargo, but they're just doing superficial coverage of existing info. I'm not going to break the embargo for my upcoming IGN review, so I'll just say there's absolutely nothing to worry about.

[Lost Monkey]

Useless AI article.  The fact that it is styled after the PC-Engine Duo / TurboDuo was apparently lost on this person. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Lost Monkey

[Reaperman]

I keep forgetting that I even ordered the duo. It's happened at least 3 times now. That's why 'pre-buy and get it when you don't care about it any more' isn't my favorite sales model. 

 

Still, once I do remember I still get a little 'jazzed' to be able to play real turbografx-cd games for the first time, and do want to give myself a little of the full duo retail experience by grabbing at least one game. But wow, does ebay ever remind me that I picked the wrong decade to attempt that. Even the PCEworks fakes are priced a little crazily, but I'm guessing that's the direction I'm headed.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Reaperman

[DragonGrafx-16]

3 hours ago, Reaperman said:

I keep forgetting that I even ordered the duo. It's happened at least 3 times now. That's why 'pre-buy and get it when you don't care about it any more' isn't my favorite sales model. 

 

Still, once I do remember I still get a little 'jazzed' to be able to play real turbografx-cd games for the first time, and do want to give myself a little of the full duo retail experience by grabbing at least one game. But wow, does ebay ever remind me that I picked the wrong decade to attempt that. Even the PCEworks fakes are priced a little crazily, but I'm guessing that's the direction I'm headed.

I got the retail PCE CD experience having bought a copy of Hypernova Blast (homebrew) for $10. It is sad how much the price of games for the system have risen both CD and HuCard. I'm glad I have a Turbo Everdrive now. Also I can play US HuCard games now so can actually enjoy the RPG and adventure games.

[Reaperman]

On 12/6/2023 at 12:31 AM, DragonGrafx-16 said:

I got the retail PCE CD experience having bought a copy of Hypernova Blast (homebrew) for $10. 

mindrec's closed down, but I did manage to snag a vax remastered collection for a high, but probably-not-too-scalpy price. Now at least I can test the drive.

 

My attempts to purchase pirated games from etsy keep getting shut down by their anti-fraud algorithm. They like to shut down the buyer, auto-cancel orders, keep making them reset their password, send them to 10+ min of captcha hell, etc, and then having their support just be rude/disconnect--when etsy's the one still offering the product. 🙄

 

super darius for pce/cd seems to be the most reasonably priced legit import for non-japanese speakers at ~$30, but I couldn't make myself do it. 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Reaperman

[Razzie.P]

On 12/5/2023 at 2:41 PM, Bill Loguidice said:

At first I thought that person broke the embargo, but they're just doing superficial coverage of existing info. I'm not going to break the embargo for my upcoming IGN review, so I'll just say there's absolutely nothing to worry about.

Not worried, here.  I have all their hardware, and they're all flawed but I like them anyways.  I'm confident this will be the same.   I was just curious to what they were considering "the catch."

 

When's the embargo over?  If you can say, that is.

[Bill Loguidice]

2 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Not worried, here.  I have all their hardware, and they're all flawed but I like them anyways.  I'm confident this will be the same.   I was just curious to what they were considering "the catch."

 

When's the embargo over?  If you can say, that is.

December 11. And I can say I agree with you in general, but I feel like this time they clearly learned some things.

[roots.genoa]

2 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

I was just curious to what they were considering "the catch."

From what I read, I think "the catch" is just that you need to bring your own games, which sounds unusual to the journalist because he's comparing the Duo to other retro consoles like the PC Engine Mini. Clearly he's introducing the system to a very general audience, it's not a review at all.

[newtmonkey]

The "catch" is this one game console plays your TG16 AND PCE games and the game industry hates it -- and that's a good thing! Click for more information!  Remember to smash that like button, subscribe, and comment below!

[Reaperman]

I will say that for the money I still think I should get a US-spec controller port, or a built in turbotap. But I did pick up 2x of the 8bitdo wireless controllers, which hopefully (THIS TIME) I won't have to flash with exclusive firmware to use with the console, because eff-that.

 

My old setup's a Turbografx with an rgb-modded tennekoe 2, which is an odd configuration that had me locked into US-region hucards for 30 years. US games were cheap enough when I bought them all but...so sorry gen-z... 😁  Now I get to be one of those 'baller giga-chads' with a region-free duo setup. and I've been going nuts on ebay.  Etsy also apologized for inadvertently preventing me from purchasing their pirated CDs, so... 😈

 

And yes, I have an everdrive, mister, pocket, and probably some other ways to play the games today, but let me be excited for the plastic squares and discs again! This doesn't happen often.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Reaperman

[Ricdeau]

1 hour ago, Reaperman said:

And yes, I have an everdrive, mister, pocket, and probably some other ways to play the games today, but let me be excited for the plastic squares and discs again! This doesn't happen often.

Who can fault a man for being excited about plastic cards and CDs. For me a lot of the joy of a physical collection is stupid chunks of plastic that I no longer need to actually play the games. I'm far more likely to complete a game playing on an actual cart than from a rom to be honest.

[impetus_maximus]

12 minutes ago, Ricdeau said:

I'm far more likely to complete a game playing on an actual cart than from a rom to be honest.

indeed. escaping to a menu makes it TOO easy to give up on a game/section.

[Atariboy]

14 hours ago, Reaperman said:

But I did pick up 2x of the 8bitdo wireless controllers, which hopefully (THIS TIME) I won't have to flash with exclusive firmware to use with the console, because eff-that.

I'm not optimistic that the situation will change with the Duo's built-in 2.4g 8BitDo receiver. I have a feeling that the Pocket dock situation will carry over, requiring Duo specific controller firmware to be flashed to 2.4 8BitDo controllers.

 

That said, they just added Pocket compatibility for the wired USB TG16/PC Engine/CoreGrafx Mini gamepad. Seems like a great sign that the Duo will have similar support, which perhaps means that we'll at least be able to just plug in the 8BitDo's own 2.4g USB receiver into one of the Duo's USB controller ports and utilize the controller in its stock form without having to flash exclusive firmware to it that breaks compatibility with everything else.

 

Using an external receiver isn't as seamless as it should be, but if it happens it at least will make using the same controller on a mix of non-Analogue systems and the Analogue Duo actually practical (since who wants to repeatedly reflash controller firmware).

Edited December 10, 2023 by Atariboy