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FPGA Based Videogame System


kevtris

Interest in an FPGA Videogame System  

682 members have voted

  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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As someone else pointed out, it's from JY company... but I have it because we found that logo hidden inside a game I had reverse engineered the mapper to (the infamous mapper 90) hidden in a bunch of the CHR banks of a game, but didn't know how to activate it for a long time. It was so weird I had to use it as an avatar. My avatar originally was the wrong colours. Turns out, a button combo makes it activate, and thus we knew the correct palette finally which is what is now used in the avatar.

That is so freaking awesome, both to them burying it and for you to dig it up like pirate treasure.

 

All glory to Warren Robinette, the first easter egg hider.

Edited by Flangle
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first I have heard of this problem. If it's a mac, they drop all sorts of extra/duplicate meta data files onto the SD card which made life difficult before- there's a hidden file for each file on the card sometimes. I thought I got rid of those by hiding hidden files, but maybe there's something else there. On a mac this problem might not be visible since the OS probably strips them out for display. I couldn't repro the problem until I had someone zip up the contents of an SD card doing it, that's when I found all sorts of hidden dirs and files sprayed everywhere in the file system. I might need an example dir with the problem zipped up (on a windows machine) to be able to find it.

 

Just FYI, for those that are on a Mac, there is a little utility called CleanEject that you can drag an SD card onto to remove all of these hidden files (.Trashes, .Spotlight-V100, .DS_Store, etc) and eject the disk. Very useful for any drive that you plan on using with systems which may or may not play nice with those files.

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I've combed through this thread a few times now and don't believe this been brought up, but if it has already sorry in advance. I loaded a few ROMs into the NES folder on JB firmware ("1.8") and I see duplicate names in the list, e.g. there are 2 ROMs listed with the same name per ROM in the folder. I popped the SD card back in my PC to verify and to make sure there weren't any hidden files, etc. Any thoughts on what may be causing this?

 

I'm having the same problem too. I'm on a PC, JB firmware 1.8. In the NT Mini NES folders, I have duplicates of every game listed. They all play. The NES folders seem to be the only ones doing it right now.

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first I have heard of this problem. If it's a mac, they drop all sorts of extra/duplicate meta data files onto the SD card which made life difficult before- there's a hidden file for each file on the card sometimes. I thought I got rid of those by hiding hidden files, but maybe there's something else there. On a mac this problem might not be visible since the OS probably strips them out for display. I couldn't repro the problem until I had someone zip up the contents of an SD card doing it, that's when I found all sorts of hidden dirs and files sprayed everywhere in the file system. I might need an example dir with the problem zipped up (on a windows machine) to be able to find it.

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.

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Hi kevtris,

 

wanted to chime in and congratulate you on your awesome work. Your jailbreak made a way too expensive luxury toy a must have for any retro enthusiast. I've been playing on my new NT mini for some days now and have had a blast doing so.

 

Here is one possible small bug I stumbled upon. On the Game Gear core, Castle of Illusion has weird colors and won't normally. I tried both the US and Japanese rom from the Smokemonster romset which I believe are No Intro roms so should be fine. I am using your latest firmware.

 

On another note, I noticed that none of my famicom controllers intended for the expension port are working on my system. I tried several Hori gamepads and a XE-1 Pro Controller. No button input would be recognized. Is there something I need to enable in the menu to make them work? I had to make an RGB Scart cable following Analogues instructions from their webpage to have my system work with my CRT TV which requires a connection to its USB port. Could it be that this disables the expansion port somehow? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I actually have no possibility to check myself as I don't own a HDTV.

 

And finally here is a suggestion for the file browser. Since a lot of file or folder names cannot be displayed fully as for the low resolution on a CRT, would it be possible to implement scrolling of the name of the highlighted file or folder, similar to what a SD2SNES card would do? It's sometimes impossible to know which file exactly you're choosing when two files names only differ by something the display won't show.

 

Sorry for the lenghty first post and again, thanks for your hard work. I'll be following this project as well as any news on your Z3K which sounds very intersting as well.

 

Cheers

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Hi kevtris,

 

wanted to chime in and congratulate you on your awesome work. Your jailbreak made a way too expensive luxury toy a must have for any retro enthusiast. I've been playing on my new NT mini for some days now and have had a blast doing so.

 

Here is one possible small bug I stumbled upon. On the Game Gear core, Castle of Illusion has weird colors and won't normally. I tried both the US and Japanese rom from the Smokemonster romset which I believe are No Intro roms so should be fine. I am using your latest firmware.

 

On another note, I noticed that none of my famicom controllers intended for the expension port are working on my system. I tried several Hori gamepads and a XE-1 Pro Controller. No button input would be recognized. Is there something I need to enable in the menu to make them work? I had to make an RGB Scart cable following Analogues instructions from their webpage to have my system work with my CRT TV which requires a connection to its USB port. Could it be that this disables the expansion port somehow? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I actually have no possibility to check myself as I don't own a HDTV.

 

And finally here is a suggestion for the file browser. Since a lot of file or folder names cannot be displayed fully as for the low resolution on a CRT, would it be possible to implement scrolling of the name of the highlighted file or folder, similar to what a SD2SNES card would do? It's sometimes impossible to know which file exactly you're choosing when two files names only differ by something the display won't show.

 

Sorry for the lenghty first post and again, thanks for your hard work. I'll be following this project as well as any news on your Z3K which sounds very intersting as well.

 

Cheers

I mention that GG game in the readme. it's an sms game that ran in sms mode on a game gear. run it in SMS mode and it will work. (load it thru the sms core).

 

the expansion port controller working or not depends on the game loaded. it only works on NES/fami titles, and then when they support it in software. i.e. SMB will support it, but other games like kirby's adventure might not. It does not work on other cores than the nes/fami.

 

you only need the usb power if you are using SCART. if you're using BNCs then it's not needed and you just need one of those 5 BNC "pentapus" cables.

 

I don't have plans to change the menu interface now since it's so far along and I am going to be working on paid work soon so that will put a crimp on it.

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I mention that GG game in the readme. it's an sms game that ran in sms mode on a game gear. run it in SMS mode and it will work. (load it thru the sms core).

 

the expansion port controller working or not depends on the game loaded. it only works on NES/fami titles, and then when they support it in software. i.e. SMB will support it, but other games like kirby's adventure might not. It does not work on other cores than the nes/fami.

 

you only need the usb power if you are using SCART. if you're using BNCs then it's not needed and you just need one of those 5 BNC "pentapus" cables.

 

I don't have plans to change the menu interface now since it's so far along and I am going to be working on paid work soon so that will put a crimp on it.

 

Yes I understand, thanks for clarification.

 

Have a good one!

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first I have heard of this problem. If it's a mac, they drop all sorts of extra/duplicate meta data files onto the SD card which made life difficult before- there's a hidden file for each file on the card sometimes. I thought I got rid of those by hiding hidden files, but maybe there's something else there. On a mac this problem might not be visible since the OS probably strips them out for display. I couldn't repro the problem until I had someone zip up the contents of an SD card doing it, that's when I found all sorts of hidden dirs and files sprayed everywhere in the file system. I might need an example dir with the problem zipped up (on a windows machine) to be able to find it.

Mac user here!

Haven't run into this issue with my NT Mini.

 

I've seen it on other devices (stuff from AtGames) but not on my Analogue

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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, there is a free utility that removes both window and mac junk files on eject. I use this for my other flash carts with great success: http://macpaw.com/cleanmydrive

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Thanks for all the hard work on the cores for the Analogue NT Mini. I can honestly say that the accuracy and attention to detail that the Analogue NT Mini delivers, has me enjoying the NES like I had years ago on my 27 inch CRT. For people like myself in cramped quarters in NYC having a system (without dragging out a tiny CRT) that I can play "Mike Tyson's Punchout" with no noticeable lag is truly amazing. I am looking forward to playing SMS as well!

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@Kevtris, I'm not sure if this is intended, but there's a flow that allows you to quit a game without ever being prompted to save. It's a little convoluted to describe, but it actually happens quite naturally in practice:

 

1. Load a rom that has save ability (I picked The Legend of Zelda)
2. I wanted to start by modifying a video setting so I hit SELECT+DOWN to bring up the file browser. It prompts me if I want to "Save Game RAM?". I haven't done anything in the game yet, but I select "Yes".
3. I then hit START to enter the Settings menu. I change a setting and then hit SELECT to dismiss the Settings menu.
4. Then I play the game for awhile and make some progress, and eventually do an in-game save after dying.
5. Then I want to quit so I hit SELECT+DOWN. This time it takes me to back to the Settings menu (b/c that's where I was last), so I hit "A" to go back to the file browser.
6. Then I hit SELECT to quit the file browser and I get prompted with "Really Exit?", but there's never the prompt to save.
To save my game I would have had to know to do this instead for step 6:
6. Hit SELECT and pick "Back" when prompted to "Really Exit? to force the game to remain open
6.5. Then hit SELECT+DOWN to enter the file browser again. Because you're starting at the file browser this time it will prompt to "Save Game RAM?".
I imagine this issue is even more problematic (due to lack of menu prompt feedback) if you have "Always Save" selected instead of "Prompt" but I haven't tried it.
Edited by cacophony
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@Kevtris, I'm not sure if this is intended, but there's a flow that allows you to quit a game without ever being prompted to save. It's a little convoluted to describe, but it actually happens quite naturally in practice:

 

1. Load a rom that has save ability (I picked The Legend of Zelda)
2. I wanted to start by modifying a video setting so I hit SELECT+DOWN to bring up the file browser. It prompts me if I want to "Save Game RAM?". I haven't done anything in the game yet, but I select "Yes".
3. I then hit START to enter the Settings menu. I change a setting and then hit SELECT to dismiss the Settings menu.
4. Then I play the game for awhile and make some progress, and eventually do an in-game save after dying.
5. Then I want to quit so I hit SELECT+DOWN. This time it takes me to back to the Settings menu (b/c that's where I was last), so I hit "A" to go back to the file browser.
6. Then I hit SELECT to quit the file browser and I get prompted with "Really Exit?", but there's never the prompt to save.
To save my game I would have had to know to do this instead for step 6:
6. Hit SELECT and pick "Back" when prompted to "Really Exit? to force the game to remain open
6.5. Then hit SELECT+DOWN to enter the file browser again. Because you're starting at the file browser this time it will prompt to "Save Game RAM?".
I imagine this issue is even more problematic (due to lack of menu prompt feedback) if you have "Always Save" selected instead of "Prompt" but I haven't tried it.

 

Yeah this is kind of an issue but I am not 100% sure how to fix it. It's because you exited back to the menu from somewhere other than the file browser. It only performs the save check when exiting TO the file browser. The workaround is to go back to the file browser after making settings changes. If you forget, you can go back to the file browser, hit select then dismiss the menu to return to the game. Then exit the game again and you will get the prompt. If you go back to the cores menu, it will erase the RAM when you reload the game.

 

@Kevtris

 

JBfirmware 1.8 fixed my audio problem for my Samsung monitor far as I can tell.

 

Thank you very much for your help and support for this console.

 

If there is anything I can do to help please let me know.. :)

 

great! glad it worked. That should finish up audio issues then all around.

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Hey Kevtris,

 

Been playing RC Pro AM and noticed the text on the track near the start line saying "RC Pro AM" flickers when using HDMI on my LCD. At first thought this was due to do the horizontal and width settings but this is not something I've been able to tweak away. Get no flicker with RGB on a CRT with the NT mini or original NES. Do you know a setting that would sort this or is this just a side effect of the scaling?

 

Mentioned this over on the thread about the video output and confirm someone else has noticed the same.

 

Thanks

 

Oli

Edited by Radfoo
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Yeah this is kind of an issue but I am not 100% sure how to fix it. It's because you exited back to the menu from somewhere other than the file browser. It only performs the save check when exiting TO the file browser. The workaround is to go back to the file browser after making settings changes. If you forget, you can go back to the file browser, hit select then dismiss the menu to return to the game. Then exit the game again and you will get the prompt. If you go back to the cores menu, it will erase the RAM when you reload the game.

 

 

great! glad it worked. That should finish up audio issues then all around.

 

Not sure how easy these would be to implement but here are a couple ideas:

 

1. Bringing up the menu via SELECT+DOWN *always* starts with the file browser regardless of where last where. So you'll always get the save prompt.

 

or alternatively

 

2. Bringing up the menu via SELECT+DOWN *always* starts wit the Settings menu (and there's no save prompt on entry). But the Settings menu has a new entry for "Exit to roms...", and when you select that it does the save prompt. I like this method because it allows you to play with and dismiss settings without getting needless save prompts. It's also a consistent user experience when compared to outside the cores area in that SELECT+DOWN always brings up the Settings menu.

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Well it's firmware friday again! This time, it's Odyssey^2 including The Voice. Since this is a system with a keyboard, I also finished the PS2 keyboard adapter. These aren't for sale yet though, but I have included a schematic for those who wish to build it. I have made it so start/select/A/X on the controller emulate pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 on the keyboard to allow most games to be started. Only a couple really need the keyboard.

 

http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/ntm_firmware_verJB1.9.zip

 

If you wish to build one, it only needs 6 parts. It plugs into the fami expansion port on the nt mini. I built it using a small PCB that fits fully inside the plastic back shell of the connector. The mini DIN locks it in place, so I could cut the plastic ears off the back shell that normally retain the DB15 connector, without it falling apart. This way it plugs into the mini and doesn't hit the enclosure.

 

Some pictures of the adapter below, and of my unique hot pink/purple mini, too.

 

ps2adapter_3.jpg

 

ps2adapter_1.jpg

 

ps2adapter_2.jpg

 

 

ps2adapter_4.jpg

 

 

ps2_adapter_schematic.png

 

Enjoy!

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Well it's firmware friday again! This time, it's Odyssey^2 including The Voice. Since this is a system with a keyboard, I also finished the PS2 keyboard adapter. These aren't for sale yet though, but I have included a schematic for those who wish to build it. I have made it so start/select/A/X on the controller emulate pressing 1, 2, 3, 4 on the keyboard to allow most games to be started. Only a couple really need the keyboard.

 

http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/ntm_firmware_verJB1.9.zip

 

If you wish to build one, it only needs 6 parts. It plugs into the fami expansion port on the nt mini. I built it using a small PCB that fits fully inside the plastic back shell of the connector. The mini DIN locks it in place, so I could cut the plastic ears off the back shell that normally retain the DB15 connector, without it falling apart. This way it plugs into the mini and doesn't hit the enclosure.

 

Some pictures of the adapter below, and of my unique hot pink/purple mini, too.

 

ps2adapter_3.jpg

 

ps2adapter_1.jpg

 

ps2adapter_2.jpg

 

 

ps2adapter_4.jpg

 

 

ps2_adapter_schematic.png

 

Enjoy!

I am beyond jealous of THAT NT mini!!!!
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Strange. I'm getting "File not found" when I attempt to load Oyssey^2 roms

 

Here's everything I did.

  1. Flashed latest v1.9 firmware
  2. Copied over SYSTEM/CORES/o2.cor
  3. Named all bios files according to readme

I don't see any other updated files. Did I miss something? Thanks

 

My mistake. Had dashes instead of underscores in the speech files. Oops :-)

Edited by simbin
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Thanks so much kevtris!!! I am not at home yet to test it out but on the new core and future systems that use keyboards rather than use or make a ps2 adapter can I use my family computer keyboard?

 

Thank you

 

not at this time

To follow up on Namdor's question, will the famicom network controller be supported for this core since it has a number pad itself?

nope not yet

 

re: the galaxy of controllers possible to use on cores: I don't have time right now to add half a dozen controllers to every core unfortunately. I need to get the rest of these cores converted before I run out of time. Deadlines on paid stuff are fast approaching so I am trying to get the last few cores released before that hits. So unfortunately I can't do a lot of controller adding and stuff yet. Eventually I hope to go back and add more options and things but for now I don't have the time.

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