MiSTer FPGA

[Razzie.P]

Anything think the N64 may represent the "ceiling" for MiSTer?  I haven't tried PS1 or Saturn yet, all earlier consoles I've played on here felt virtually flawless.  N64, though... just feels a bit off.  I did some reading to see if there's some combo of settings I can play around with, but nothing stuck out.  I did see a couple of references to the developer saying something like "nothing more I can do given the limitations" but not sure if that's accurate, out of context, etc.

 

 

[NE146]

Oh you should definitley play PS1 on the MiSTer. Not sure why you haven't yet  I put all my psx faves on it like Einhander, etc.

[Austin]

PS1 is great on the MiSTer. Can't vouch for Saturn or PS1 as I still haven't gotten around to troubleshooting my unit yet. It's been out of commission for like.. a year now. 😅

Edited April 19 by Austin

[+Gemintronic]

The ceiling may be random stuff getting removed when doing an update_all.  Been hearing people complain about cores and games just disappearing. 

 

Not feeling being paranoid and backing up 1tb+ TF cards  just to see if something has been updated.

[+remowilliams]

2 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

The ceiling may be random stuff getting removed when doing an update_all.  Been hearing people complain about cores and games just disappearing. 

One of the 'unofficial' contributors had a meltdown and deleted their repos from what I've heard.  If you use update_all you'd be affected by it.

 

PS1 core is a stunning effort by Robert, as is the N64 core which is mostly finished but will have no further work due to specific limitations.

 

Saturn core has received a slew of updates and is very good, still in beta.

 

[awbacon]

 

[Razzie.P]

5 hours ago, NE146 said:

Oh you should definitley play PS1 on the MiSTer. Not sure why you haven't yet  I put all my psx faves on it like Einhander, etc.

I'm a slow mover 😁  I just picked up a bunch of SNACs recently and PS1 was part of them, so its on my "to do" list.  But I dove into the N64 one first and spent quite a bit of time with that.  May load some PS1 this weekend and give it a shot.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

The ceiling may be random stuff getting removed when doing an update_all.  Been hearing people complain about cores and games just disappearing. 

 

Not feeling being paranoid and backing up 1tb+ TF cards  just to see if something has been updated.

 

3 hours ago, remowilliams said:

One of the 'unofficial' contributors had a meltdown and deleted their repos from what I've heard.  If you use update_all you'd be affected by it.

 

 

Yeah, I had a similar problem after using update_all.  I mentioned it about 6 awbacon videos ago. That's a bit of a bummer.

[+5-11under]

What cores are removed with update_all?

[+remowilliams]

1 hour ago, Razzie.P said:

I mentioned it about 6 awbacon videos ago. That's a bit of a bummer.

So, about three hours ago then.

[+Gemintronic]

9 hours ago, 5-11under said:

What cores are removed with update_all?

 

Not an informed answer.  But, I think the dev who yanked things was mostly involved with arcade cores.  So, not a biggie for me since I test homebrew with the MiSTer.  It's the fact it could happen again with cores that I DO regularly use that worries me.

 

I hope they find some sort of compromise where update_all only creates or updates existing cores/files.  Had no idea it could remove them.

[Reaperman]

Also interested in figuring out the core removal stuff. I'm subscribed to the big 3 youtube news channels, but somehow it flew under my radar.

I do remember when the 2600 core went obsolete, update_all didn't remove it. not only that but I just checked, and somehow I now have 3x 2600 cores...and the 7800 one.

 

@awbacon which video did I skip to miss the drama?

[Razzie.P]

My issue wasn't really "missing cores," but for some reason multiple arcade games stopped working and gave a "missing roms" error.  Not sure if that's related at all.

[awbacon]

5 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Also interested in figuring out the core removal stuff. I'm subscribed to the big 3 youtube news channels, but somehow it flew under my radar.

I do remember when the 2600 core went obsolete, update_all didn't remove it. not only that but I just checked, and somehow I now have 3x 2600 cores...and the 7800 one.

 

@awbacon which video did I skip to miss the drama?

its being fixed. I got the proper set and sent it to the right people. Well I didnt...my Discord server did. I have a lot of help hunting for people.

 

It should be fixed shortly

[Atariboy]

16 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Also interested in figuring out the core removal stuff. I'm subscribed to the big 3 youtube news channels, but somehow it flew under my radar.

I do remember when the 2600 core went obsolete, update_all didn't remove it. not only that but I just checked, and somehow I now have 3x 2600 cores...and the 7800 one.

 

@awbacon which video did I skip to miss the drama?

I suspect it's about all the Mars drama, the trouble that they're giving people like Pixel Cherry Ninja on YouTube if they offer any sort of criticism of their project, and the withdrawing of MiSTer support that they've done.

[awbacon]

 

[awbacon]

 

[awbacon]

 

[awbacon]

 

[Reaperman]

Where all do Saturn SNACs come from?  anybody seen any around?

 

I can't see any on ebay/etsy/aliexpress (the usual suspects), ultimate-mister had them, but like everything cool on that site, it's out of stock and they tend to never restock (or at least never send restock emails).

 
misteraddons is sold out too, but of course it's their own expensive+exclusive 'snax' ecosystem. I'm not bought-into that and would rather not be.

Edited April 28 by Reaperman

[NE146]

While I get the appeal of the SNAC it just seems like a lot of hassle with multiple interfaces just to be able to use the old/native controllers which if I really wanted to use.. I could just break out the original console and it'd be original controllers all day. 😛

 

But yes.. I guess it'd make sense for stuff like N64 where certain control schemes don't exactly translate well to others. Also occasionally I do plug in the USB TG16 Mini controller to bring back that TG16 feel, especially with the turbo button switches. But that's about it. For the most part I'm totally happy with a PS5 pad for nearly every other MiSTer core.

 

 

 

Edited April 28 by NE146

[Razzie.P]

12 minutes ago, NE146 said:

While I get the appeal of the SNAC it just seems like a lot of hassle with multiple interfaces just to be able to use the old/native controllers which if I really wanted to use.. I could just break out the original console and it'd be original controllers all day. 😛

 

But yes.. I guess it'd make sense for stuff like N64 where certain control schemes don't exactly translate well to others. Also occasionally I do plug in the USB TG16 Mini controller to bring back that TG16 feel, especially with the turbo button switches. But that's about it. For the most part I'm totally happy with a PS5 pad for nearly every other MiSTer core.

 

 

 

Ya know, I thought the same thing and never bothered giving them a chance until recently, but that's really not the case at all.  I only have 1 interface plugged in, so whenever I want to use a "real" controller, all I have to do is plug it in.  No extra configuring or any sort of hassle like that.  And if I don't wanna be bothered with it and wanna stick to my usb gamepad, that works too.   It really is the best of bother worlds, from what I can see.

 

But.. I did go with MiSTer Addons and their Snax interface, and I guess from what @Reaperman is saying, it's a proprietary sort of thing maybe, so that simplicity might not translate to others?  I didn't read too much into it, just order the Snax64 (interface) and all the appropriate controller adaptors.

 

4 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Where all do Saturn SNACs come from?  anybody seen any around?

 

I can't see any on ebay/etsy/aliexpress (the usual suspects), ultimate-mister had them, but like everything cool on that site, it's out of stock and they tend to never restock (or at least never send restock emails).

 
misteraddons is sold out too, but of course it's their own expensive+exclusive 'snax' ecosystem. I'm not bought-into that and would rather not be.

I got mine from misteraddons but yeah, looks like they're showing sold out now.  

[awbacon]

 

[Reaperman]

3 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

But.. I did go with MiSTer Addons and their Snax interface, and I guess from what @Reaperman is saying, it's a proprietary sort of thing maybe, so that simplicity might not translate to others?  I didn't read too much into it, just order the Snax64 (interface) and all the appropriate controller adaptors.

Actually the snax ecosystem is slightly more messy in terms of simplicity, with compatibility warnings and charts. I think get why it's the way it is, but I don't want in at this point. Mind that it's not unmanageable, but I'd say it's more to deal with than non-mister-addon snac products. 

 

As best I can piece together it's a bit of evolutionary remnant of the recent past. A few years ago, before the SNAC ecosystem really took off, people wanted to use HDMI adapters for bliss-box to connect controllers to snac. because those were products that existed, they had the right controller ports already, and didn't have to be hand-made. 

 

Mister-addons bought into this hdmi-controller ecosystem big-time for their snac solution, probably since it was easily retailable, and at the time was the most user-friendly. (which is what mister-addons is about, afterall) But then along the way mister addons was unable to maintain full compatibility between old bliss adapters, mostly with newer cores, and their snac board(s), so now they have charts and warnings in various spots.

 

Generally it's fine as long as one keeps shopping at mister-addons, but I bet if they had a time machine they'd go back and undo most of this. because not too long into the mister-addons hdmi snac ecosystem, very inexpensive chinese SNAC adapters flooded the market removing 100% of the barrier to entry, and the general unavailability of custom snac products with proper console-specific controller ports.

Somebody let me know how wrong I've gotten this, because I got into MiSTer after that above paragraph happened, so went for cheap snac, and it's hard to figure out what happened exactly when/why looking backward on the internet. I've spent many cycles trying to piece together the hdmi-controller thing, because from a current standpoint it's a bit of a 'just why?' 🤦‍♂️

Edited April 28 by Reaperman

[Razzie.P]

2 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Actually the snax ecosystem is slightly more messy in terms of simplicity, with compatibility warnings and charts. I think get why it's the way it is, but I don't want in at this point. Mind that it's not unmanageable, but I'd say it's more to deal with than non-mister-addon snac products.

 

Ah well, there ya go -- seems like no matter which route they go, it's gonna be nice and simple for them.  I came in late, so I didn't really stress over warnings and charts and such and so far, it's really been as simple as "whichever controller i wanna use, just plug it in" so I've been pretty happy with it.

 

 

[awbacon]