FPGA Based Videogame System

[Keatah]

I thought it was pretty plain language... It's not like I used big words

 

What if you used words that were too small?

 

Ohh hahaha!! I was meaning the customer service department. Are THEY not able to understand basic language or what? It's still a problem today, people not UNDERSTANDING what is being said. Hearing, yes. Understanding, no.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Keatah

[cacophony]

Hey kevtris I lost a save on the gbc core after switching to the 7800 core for a while and then going back. Do you always lose saves when you switch cores? Just want to be sure before I put more time into games. Thanks.

 

I have a saved Zelda game that didn't go away when I switched to other cores. I'm sure you already know this but you still need to use the game's built in save functionality and then save the ram on game exit.

Edited March 16, 2017 by cacophony

[genfuyung]

 

I have a saved Zelda game that didn't go away when I switched to other cores. I'm sure you already know this but you still need to use the game's built in save functionality and then save the ram on game exit.

Is it a GBC zelda game?

[ntscpal]

Can anyone confirm if the 7800 core displays in color or black & white with composite (or s-video) output? I did more testing with the 7800 core on composite, other TVs still displayed it as black and white. Even the menu is in b&w, no green. These are all NTSC TVs.

 

Other cores are fine on composite/s-video. I tested more with the Colecovision, and I just think the palette is different than I'm used to, component palette to me looks like what I remember. NES has the best reproduction on composite and s-video, the green in the menu is noticeably more vibrant than when switching to other cores.

 

Is anyone even using composite?

[cacophony]

Is it a GBC zelda game?

 

I just tried starting a new GBC game (Link's Awakening), registering a character, and walking around till I got a game over screen. I did the "save and quit", and then exited the core and saved the ram. I then switched to a 7800 game, played for a bit, and when I returned to Link's Awakening my registered character was still there.

[NE146]

Is anyone even using composite?

I plan on it once I get my monoprice cable in. I totally did not realize it had a VGA out for all analog.. I was assuming it have standard RCA jacks.

 

Yeah I don't look at things before I buy it.

[genfuyung]

 

I just tried starting a new GBC game (Link's Awakening), registering a character, and walking around till I got a game over screen. I did the "save and quit", and then exited the core and saved the ram. I then switched to a 7800 game, played for a bit, and when I returned to Link's Awakening my registered character was still there.

Weird. I wonder what caused mine to erase then. Switching cores was the only thing I could think of.

[cacophony]

Weird. I wonder what caused mine to erase then. Switching cores was the only thing I could think of.

 

Maybe try a few tests and see if you can reproduce the issue. If you have reproducible steps, I'm sure kevtris will fix it.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Much better than the nes30 anyway.

Try the FC30. The Dpad responds like butter compared to the NES30, and the molded beveled edges are more ergonomic while still retaining the classic rectangular shape.

 

As for dropped inputs, it depends on how congested your local 2.4Ghz wireless environment. Apartment dwellers with neighbors who stream a lot of content can forget using it, but if you live in a suburban home with only one active wifi network, you won't have issues with bluetooth lag or dropped inputs.

[kevtris]

Hey kevtris I lost a save on the gbc core after switching to the 7800 core for a while and then going back. Do you always lose saves when you switch cores? Just want to be sure before I put more time into games. Thanks.

I have not had that happen and it shouldn't happen.

[sanspolanco]

I'm curious if anyone here has done any testing of game performance when you play roms off the SD Card versus straight from a cartridge? Would I possible get better controller responsivity if I use carts? I don't have any yet, I've only tried roms. Every now and then even when using an original wired Nintendo controller, I get the occasional input dropout if I press the button super fast (for instance in Ninja Gaiden if I jump and then start pressing the sword swing button rapidly sometimes it won't even swing once). The problem seems to happen more often when I use the 8bitdo controller. Or is it just my controller? I've already been to the local retro store and tried and returned a few. The problem seems the same...

[Wolf_]

So I've been trying to sort out what we can expect from the Nt Mini and Z3k just for fun and here is what I suspect will be the likely outcome: (Anything marked with a "?" is probably possible for the nt mini but might not get done because Kev just doesn't want to deal with them for one reason or another. Anything with a "?" for the Z3k is not confirmed and wishful thinking.)

Analogue Nt Mini - Colecovision, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, Master System, GameGear, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Wonderswan?, NeoGeo Pocket Color?, TurboGrafx16?

Z3k - SNES, Gesesis(32X and CD?), NeoGeo, Cdi?, GBA?, Atari Jaguar?, TG-CD?, N64?, Saturn?

Now if you are going to support the Genesis then imo you should support the 32X and Sega CD as well because otherwise it doesn't replace that console from my setup. At the very least the addons should be supported but that is a really cruddy solution so I'm going to guess that the goal for minimum specs of the Z3k will be to cover the Sega Mega CDX. Arguably the Saturn which came out about the same time has about the same processing power. If that is the minimum then the TG-CD and N64 should also be possible. I'm not sure if that also encompasses the ps1 but I kinda doubt it, if it does though that would be amazing.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Wolf_

[cacophony]

 

Analogue Nt Mini - Colecovision, Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, Master System, GameGear, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Wonderswan?, NeoGeo Pocket Color?, TurboGrafx16?

 

It sounds like Genesis is way more likely for the Nt Mini than the TG16.

[Wolf_]

 

It sounds like Genesis is way more likely for the Nt Mini than the TG16.

I don't believe the unlikeliness of TG16 support is a hardware issue. And I'm hoping positive fan passion will overcome the bad taste the elitist snobs have left in his mouth about the system. It really has a lot of amazing games.

[cacophony]

I don't believe the unlikeliness of TG16 support is a hardware issue. And I'm hoping positive fan passion will overcome the bad taste the elitist snobs have left in his mouth about the system. It really has a lot of amazing games.

 

I agree that getting TG16 would be amazing. So here's hoping

 

But I'd be equally excited to get Genesis

Edited March 16, 2017 by cacophony

[Andromeda Stardust]

I don't believe the unlikeliness of TG16 support is a hardware issue. And I'm hoping positive fan passion will overcome the bad taste the elitist snobs have left in his mouth about the system. It really has a lot of amazing games.

Didn't it have something to do with the SD-RAM having too much latency to work with TG-16 ROMs? Turbografx is 4x the clock speed of NES and 2x the clock speed of SNES. Not sure of the exact Genesis or Neo Geo clocks. SD-RAM and the faster DDR varieties were designed to quickly move data into the CPU cache. From there, the CPU would run instructions on the internal caches which had extremely low latency unlike the main system RAM.

 

The Zimba-3000 might benefit from having parallel RAM chips, if such an animal still exists in sizes large enough to fill the ROMs. 32-bit parallel RAM would have the benefit of running dual bus for the 16-bit systems, or two 16-bit parallel chips could exist side by side, one for RAM and one for ROM, or even multiplexed, with no perceptible latency.

 

My Everdrive N64 has a 64Meg RAM on it, and it's lightening fast, ~3 seconds to load an Conker's Bad Fur Day, but IIRC N64 ROMs use a series/parallel interface so the latency issue may not be a factor there.

[Wolf_]

Didn't it have something to do with the SD-RAM having too much latency to work with TG-16 ROMs? Turbografx is 4x the clock speed of NES and 2x the clock speed of SNES. Not sure of the exact Genesis clocks.

All I heard was that some elitist snob trolls really ticked Kev off and he was too disgusted to find the motivation to work with the system.

 

If that is the case I wonder if an adapter could be made for the tg-16 and using the everdrive would help at all?

[gulps]

I have many switching power supplys and none of them sounds like this.

 

I must disconnect the supply every time I use it because the noise is so disturbing.

 

What kind of AC adapter is used at the analogue nt mini? How many volts/amps?

I didn't found it at the PDF spects...

Maybe have to buy another from another brand (like Leicke at Europe) with protection and good efficiency.

[kevtris]

I have finally released a video! Been a loong time. This video is all about the 8 cartridge adapters I have created so far. There's a show-off of the assembled adapters, and then a time lapse of me dorking around making them in altium, set to a SID music bed. Hope y'all enjoy! Not too bad, a bit under 2 weeks from design to finished product.

 

 

[Wolf_]

Amazing! And completed at an insane pace as always. Can't wait to pick one up for every system I have physical games for.

[gulps]

I have finally released a video! Been a loong time. This video is all about the 8 cartridge adapters I have created so far. There's a show-off of the assembled adapters, and then a time lapse of me dorking around making them in altium, set to a SID music bed. Hope y'all enjoy! Not too bad, a bit under 2 weeks from design to finished product.

 

 

 

 

WOAH! Your are a genius! Good effort!

One question about the VGA-to-EuroSCART. For the RGB cable schematics it uses the USB to activate the RGB (1v/3v EuroSCART-Pin16 - blanking) at the CRT-TV. I see that the sync configuration has to be setted to "sync on composite" (this output csync on VGA-Pin13 H-SYNC).

But.. Can whe get this 1v/3v from VGA V-SYNC, or is this disabled? For getting the blanking RGB as this schema:

 

The Nexus: Projects - VGA to SCART Converter - [2]

http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/voltage_from_vsync/view

Just curiosity!

--

I have too a PC Engine CD. This is a "must" system with good games and convertions!

Genesis SegaCD and Saturn too. Due optical lens fails... but I suppose this would be a lot of effort.

--

Edit: I have moved this questions at the new topic Analogue NT Mini Hardware, my apoligies!

Edited March 16, 2017 by gulps

[Schizophretard]

I have finally released a video! Been a loong time. This video is all about the 8 cartridge adapters I have created so far. There's a show-off of the assembled adapters, and then a time lapse of me dorking around making them in altium, set to a SID music bed. Hope y'all enjoy! Not too bad, a bit under 2 weeks from design to finished product.

 

 

 

[Fafner]

Second time I've accidentally double posted.

Is it possible for me to completely delete this post or just edit it like I did?

Edited March 16, 2017 by Fafner

[Fafner]

I have finally released a video! Been a loong time. This video is all about the 8 cartridge adapters I have created so far. There's a show-off of the assembled adapters, and then a time lapse of me dorking around making them in altium, set to a SID music bed. Hope y'all enjoy! Not too bad, a bit under 2 weeks from design to finished product.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmQ_IGoJHLY

Incredible work!

I assume the Gameboy one will be able to use GB and GBC carts?

Also will it be compatible with the GB Everdrive?

 

I'm not a tech person but I don't quite understand why the 2600 and 7800 couldn't work on the same adapter...

Since you can plug 2600 games into the 7800 I thought they just added more pins on the sides for the 7800 carts?

[gulps]

System specs that a proposed system would have:

 

* SD card for storing ROMs/save games/FPGA configurations

* Quad RAM busses to allow up to neogeo level systems

* Enhanced video scaling (see my HDMI NES project for a taste of my HDMI capabilities)

* 49K logic element FPGA

* Quad USB ports for controllers/mice/etc Most likely HID only

* HDMI video/audio, 1080p and 48KHz audio standard

* Port to allow plugging in cartridge adapters

* Maybe one or two built in ports for i.e. NES or SNES or similar

* 256Mbytes of RAM

 

 

 

 

Hi kevtris, Could you think to add a SPDIF (Coaxial) digital audio output for those that we use external DAC?

 

 

I didn't see if anyone asked this option at the thread. Sorry if proposal repeated!

Edited March 16, 2017 by gulps