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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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Something tells me that there should be a line (well at least 3 or 4 interested parties) at kevtris door to build the Z3K, the market is there (or so it seems).

What would be even better is if kevtris could make a living out of it .... build a company and a sustainable model to work and having fun doing it at the same time.

 

Doesn't he have a business named Zimba Labs or something like that?

Why people keep on arguing that the 500 price tag is correct just because it happened to be the price tag that they come up with?

 

It could have been 1000 and we would have been having the same discussion if I only dared to say 500 would be more like it. If there was no JB FW it will be simply very expensive and it still is for the things that are not cores.

The fact that kevtris decided to make us an enormous gift giving away his cores for free is completely tangential.

 

Because that's probably what the current estimated BOM sets it at. If it was $1000, then it would be $1000, probably again because that's what BOM sets it at.

 

Either way. I don't want to see insufficient parts being used.

Not to be a contrarian, the name is funny and all (I'm aware of it's origin), but it's way too close to both Zumba (the silly exercise fad), and Roomba, on top of having absolutely nothing to do with describing the product. It's very hard to remember. A bit of clever marketing goes a long way, but I agree it should not have "retro" or "box" or "gaming" in the title. What about the Funtastic 3000?

Edited by Tusecsy

Just an idea/question, probably no point at the moment. Technically could the NT mini be upgraded through the cartridge slot to make it closer to the Zimba 3000 spec?

 

It probably could. But you're basically just sticking a new FPGA in the cartridge slot, and having to tell the FPGA in the NT Mini to just operate as an upscaler. It would have the same effect as the Super Gameboy.

Why people keep on arguing that the 500 price tag is correct just because it happened to be the price tag that they come up with?

 

It could have been 1000 and we would have been having the same discussion if I only dared to say 500 would be more like it. If there was no JB FW it will be simply very expensive and it still is for the things that are not cores.

The fact that kevtris decided to make us an enormous gift giving away his cores for free is completely tangential.

 

Let's repeat "KEVTRIS IS GIVING AWAY HIS CORES FOR FREE" and that's an "AWESOME GIFT" period. I believe he has (or should have) an agreement for a percentage on every console sold as it should be, if not I don't know what happened.

 

Whatever sits around HIS HARDWARE DESIGN is not strictly necessary (heck the RPi comes with no case/power at all to keep costs low on purpose and it sold 12M units) and as it stands now that part of the hardware is definitely overpriced and I bet they got caught quite off-guard with the price of the AVS [not the feature set], I am not digging all this "premium this, premium that" you guys seems so fond of, I am not pissing anyone off here, kevtris won't stop giving away his cores just because I HAVE AN OPINION, Analogue will continue selling and rightly so as there's no alternative, the AVS has too small of an FPGA for attempting the higher cores (but the lesser may appear eventually just so the sales can continue).

Also if the cores would NOT have included SD load (aka embedded flashcart support) we would be having a third kind of discussion but I digress.

 

So once again "KEVTRIS CORES ARE PURE AWESOMESAUCE, RETROGAMER BLISS" but the hardware necessary to play them can be built cheaper, light as a feather (so it won't cost 40US$+ to ship) etc...etc...

 

So told please keep plunging 500US$ a pop to support the developer, he deserves it and then same, it's awesome business for Analogue and when they reach 2000 units in sales they would have generated 1M$ in business right there .... 5000 and we [well they really] are at the 2.5M$ mark and that's Coleco Chameleon kickstart territory :D

"eat your socks" MK.

No one is "making up" the $500 price point as being a "good price".

https://www.game-tech.us/product-category/pre-modified-consoles/

 

This is where the market is at. The above hdmi modded nes is made with a Kevtris created hdmi mod. Again, you are paying for his expertise and the consistent quality of work. He is arguably one of the most talented developers/ engineers when it comes to retro video game consoles/modifications, and as such products with his name tied to it come at a higher price point.

 

I'm sensing some frustration in your posts that no one is agreeing with you that it's "too expensive". You are posting on a forum full of people who decided it's not too expensive, and are enjoying all the features (intended by the original manufacturer or not). We read you loud and clear, you don't want to buy one because of the price, but that doesn't mean everyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong (just like you're not wrong for not buying one). Regardless of whether or not the cores were "given away", they are useless to the average consumer without an NT Mini, so they should still be included in your assessment of whether or not the NT mini is a good value. Also, it all depends on personal preference. For someone like me who almost exclusively plays NES games, it was more than worth it. If you're a casual nes hobbyist, then of course it's not worth your time, and you'd be better suited with an AVS, raspberry pi, or OEM NES.

  • Like 2

Why people keep on arguing that the 500 price tag is correct just because it happened to be the price tag that they come up with?

 

It could have been 1000 and we would have been having the same discussion if I only dared to say 500 would be more like it. If there was no JB FW it will be simply very expensive and it still is for the things that are not cores.

The fact that kevtris decided to make us an enormous gift giving away his cores for free is completely tangential.

 

Let's repeat "KEVTRIS IS GIVING AWAY HIS CORES FOR FREE" and that's an "AWESOME GIFT" period. I believe he has (or should have) an agreement for a percentage on every console sold as it should be, if not I don't know what happened.

 

Whatever sits around HIS HARDWARE DESIGN is not strictly necessary (heck the RPi comes with no case/power at all to keep costs low on purpose and it sold 12M units) and as it stands now that part of the hardware is definitely overpriced and I bet they got caught quite off-guard with the price of the AVS [not the feature set], I am not digging all this "premium this, premium that" you guys seems so fond of, I am not pissing anyone off here, kevtris won't stop giving away his cores just because I HAVE AN OPINION, Analogue will continue selling and rightly so as there's no alternative, the AVS has too small of an FPGA for attempting the higher cores (but the lesser may appear eventually just so the sales can continue).

Also if the cores would NOT have included SD load (aka embedded flashcart support) we would be having a third kind of discussion but I digress.

 

So once again "KEVTRIS CORES ARE PURE AWESOMESAUCE, RETROGAMER BLISS" but the hardware necessary to play them can be built cheaper, light as a feather (so it won't cost 40US$+ to ship) etc...etc...

 

So told please keep plunging 500US$ a pop to support the developer, he deserves it and then same, it's awesome business for Analogue and when they reach 2000 units in sales they would have generated 1M$ in business right there .... 5000 and we [well they really] are at the 2.5M$ mark and that's Coleco Chameleon kickstart territory :D

"eat your socks" MK.

No one is "making up" the $500 price point as being a "good price".

https://www.game-tech.us/product-category/pre-modified-consoles/

 

This is where the market is at. The above hdmi modded nes is made with a Kevtris created hdmi mod. Again, you are paying for his expertise and the consistent quality of work. He is arguably one of the most talented developers/ engineers when it comes to retro video game consoles/modifications, and as such products with his name tied to it come at a higher price point.

 

I'm sensing some frustration in your posts that no one is agreeing with you that it's "too expensive". You are posting on a forum full of people who decided it's not too expensive, and are enjoying all the features (intended by the original manufacturer or not). We read you loud and clear, you don't want to buy one because of the price, but that doesn't mean everyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong (just like you're not wrong for not buying one). Regardless of whether or not the cores were "given away", they are useless to the average consumer without an NT Mini, so they should still be included in your assessment of whether or not the NT mini is a good value. Also, it all depends on personal preference. For someone like me who almost exclusively plays NES games, it was more than worth it. If you're a casual nes hobbyist, then of course it's not worth your time, and you'd be better suited with an AVS, raspberry pi, or OEM NES.

 

It probably could. But you're basically just sticking a new FPGA in the cartridge slot, and having to tell the FPGA in the NT Mini to just operate as an upscaler. It would have the same effect as the Super Gameboy.

Yeah, I suppose. Trying to remember the last spec Kevin gave for the Zimba 3000, did it have 2 FPGAs anyway with one being for the video? I suppose it would depend on how well it could integrate with the mainboard, maybe it could be used for offloading things like the audio to give more capacity on the NT Minis FPGA, or maybe as a RAM expansion? Of course all hypothetical and completely dependent on Kevin and/or Analogue.

Edited by Radfoo

 

It probably could. But you're basically just sticking a new FPGA in the cartridge slot, and having to tell the FPGA in the NT Mini to just operate as an upscaler. It would have the same effect as the Super Gameboy.

I know nothing of the inner workings but would it be possible to do a add on through the expansion port for the Famicom Disk System?

Is anyone else having a difficult time finding the Atarivox bios files? I believe I found them in the source code of stella. Are they the .cxx and .hxx files that need to be renamed for the NT Mini 2600 core? If so, how do they correspond to the renamed files in the readme file? I'm relatively new here so I don't know if this is a question I should be asking in the forums. I'm still waiting for my NT Mini to arrive, so I don't have a way to test these. I'm just trying to get my SD card set up properly in the meantime. Thanks.

Yeah, I suppose. Trying to remember the last spec Kevin gave for the Zimba 3000, did it have 2 FPGAs anyway with one being for the video? I suppose it would depend on how well it could integrate with the mainboard, maybe it could be used for offloading things like the audio to give more capacity on the NT Minis FPGA, or maybe as a RAM expansion? Of course all hypothetical and completely dependent on Kevin and/or Analogue.

Yes that's right. There are two so that a menu can be up during core reloading, and it would handle all the scaling, taking a load off the FPGA running the cores. All that A/V scaling takes a lot of resources on the FPGA in the nt mini. I was also going to use the FPGA to speed up loading by doing some hardware acceleration on the SD card so I could theoretically get it to run at the maximum speed the card can support. The 'system' FPGA that is reloaded for the various cores was designed to have four RAM busses for lots of memory and lots of bandwidth.

 

I think the system should have no less than 4 FPGA chips and a processor for the OS.

 

And that's why I am designing it. 4 would not be cost-effective.

 

Not to be a contrarian, the name is funny and all (I'm aware of it's origin), but it's way too close to both Zumba (the silly exercise fad), and Roomba, on top of having absolutely nothing to do with describing the product. It's very hard to remember. A bit of clever marketing goes a long way, but I agree it should not have "retro" or "box" or "gaming" in the title. What about the Funtastic 3000?

 

At the time, I don't know if zumba existed or not. I have had the name "Zimba 3000" for about 6 or 7 years now, but I never revealed it until the whole retro video game system debacle. You can call it the "Z3K" if you need something easier to remember.

  • Like 2

Yes that's right. There are two so that a menu can be up during core reloading, and it would handle all the scaling, taking a load off the FPGA running the cores. All that A/V scaling takes a lot of resources on the FPGA in the nt mini. I was also going to use the FPGA to speed up loading by doing some hardware acceleration on the SD card so I could theoretically get it to run at the maximum speed the card can support. The 'system' FPGA that is reloaded for the various cores was designed to have four RAM busses for lots of memory and lots of bandwidth.

Cool. Would an add-on to the NT Mini be plausible then? Suppose its irrelevant if thats not the way you want to go with it, just though it was a good idea. Suppose even if its do-able the market might be small, thinking of all those Sega Mega Drive/Genesis add-ons that never sold well!

 

Think the Zimba 3000 name is good, it is different, but think of the daft names that Nintendo come out with, no one complains later and it wont get mixed up with all the other random clone/emu boxes.

Edited by Radfoo

Cool. Would an add-on to the NT Mini be plausible then? Suppose its irrelevant if thats not the way you want to go with it, just though it was a good idea. Suppose even if its do-able the market might be small, thinking of all those Sega Mega Drive/Genesis add-ons that never sold well!

 

Think the Zimba 3000 name is good, it is different, but think of the daft names that Nintendo come out with, no one complains later and it wont get mixed up with all the other random clone/emu boxes.

 

it's certainly be doable, but I'd rather go onward and upward vs. making what amounts to an FPGA on a cart. I wanted other things like 4 USB ports for controllers and a "pony" connector (i.e. I want everything and a pony!) for other add on stuff like cart adapters.

  • Like 2

 

it's certainly be doable, but I'd rather go onward and upward vs. making what amounts to an FPGA on a cart. I wanted other things like 4 USB ports for controllers and a "pony" connector (i.e. I want everything and a pony!) for other add on stuff like cart adapters.

Fair enough, suppose no point compromising or you will just end up doing re-designs over and over and not getting anywhere. Sorry if our ramblings / questions on this forum are a distraction, don't want to slow down all your hard work with daft questions! Though thanks for replying, it is good to understand and have this contact with the developer of such a system.

 

Had a tracking update and I should receive my NT Mini on friday, looking forward to having a play with it over the weekend.

Edited by Radfoo

I think the system should have no less than 4 FPGA chips and a processor for the OS.

And that's why I am designing it. 4 would not be cost-effective.

 

I'm looking at it from a future-proof standpoint. How much spare capacity do you think z3k will have? By that I mean z3k will ship with x amount of cores doing x amount of systems. How much is left over for future cores? And how complex can they become?

Edited by Keatah

Yes that's right. There are two so that a menu can be up during core reloading, and it would handle all the scaling, taking a load off the FPGA running the cores. All that A/V scaling takes a lot of resources on the FPGA in the nt mini. I was also going to use the FPGA to speed up loading by doing some hardware acceleration on the SD card so I could theoretically get it to run at the maximum speed the card can support. The 'system' FPGA that is reloaded for the various cores was designed to have four RAM busses for lots of memory and lots of bandwidth.

 

 

And that's why I am designing it. 4 would not be cost-effective.

 

 

At the time, I don't know if zumba existed or not. I have had the name "Zimba 3000" for about 6 or 7 years now, but I never revealed it until the whole retro video game system debacle. You can call it the "Z3K" if you need something easier to remember.

I'm gonna buy it no matter what you call it, but you are shooting yourself in the foot sales-wise with a non-sensical, hard to remember name like that. It doesn't really matter when you thought of it, only it's validity when it's released. is it Zima? Zumba? Roomba? I do like the 3000 part quite a bit, and just trying to help.

 

it's certainly be doable, but I'd rather go onward and upward vs. making what amounts to an FPGA on a cart. I wanted other things like 4 USB ports for controllers and a "pony" connector (i.e. I want everything and a pony!) for other add on stuff like cart adapters.

 

Odd idea, but would it theoretically be possible to reverse the i/o to use the NT-mini as an upscaler for other things? eg plug composite/component/s-video/VGA into the analog ports and push it through the HDMI? Only suggesting this since the framemeister is no longer going to be produced and the NT Mini is right at the same price point.

FWIW, I find Zimba3000 a very memorable name precisely because it is kitschy.

 

With the proper hardware the name won't matter, unless its something offensive. I doubt the government of Zimbabwe would mind to be vaguely associated with quality retro entertainment.

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