MiSTer FPGA - 7800 Core

[juansolo]

3 hours ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

This is getting off topic for sure but, LOL - no.

 

You can get a working 7800 on ePay for $40-$50. The UAV is $25. The Concerto is $99. SD cards are $10. I know Pokeys are scarce, but not $215 scarce.

Just have to move 3000 miles to get that deal as in the UK, where he lives, a working 7800 is £80+, a UAV is £35 (and doesn't work very well on it's own on a PAL 7800...), a YM + POKEY loaded Dragonfly cart is £122 + import duty (so more like £157 all up), say a tenner for an SD card. That lot is £282 which in USD is... $389. His $400 estimate is pretty much spot on.

Edited April 30, 2021 by juansolo

[John Stamos Mullet]

On 4/30/2021 at 5:24 PM, juansolo said:

Just have to move 3000 miles to get that deal as in the UK, where he lives, a working 7800 is £80+, a UAV is £35 (and doesn't work very well on it's own on a PAL 7800...), a YM + POKEY loaded Dragonfly cart is £122 + import duty (so more like £157 all up), say a tenner for an SD card. That lot is £282 which in USD is... $389. His $400 estimate is pretty much spot on.

Yeah - but he has a local pie and mash shoppe on every corner, and we only have McDonalds and Taco Bell, so it all evens out.... I think.

[john_q_atari]

The parts arrived. I'm ready to get my MiSTer on.

 

 

Now where did I put my roms...

 

[+batari]

On 3/22/2021 at 12:37 PM, Kitrinx said:

 

Ah yes, the famous Laughing Shoes post. Well, my core is not related to the core discussed in that thread, however to repeat the answer to the original question: I won't be implementing a 70mhz arm CPU, but if someone wants to, and the implementation is stable and doesn't create timing issues, I would be willing to integrate it.

Just seeing this discussion now.

 

I am reading that the MiSTer supports the GBA, which has the same ARM7TDMI core used for CDFJ and other games. So will the GBA ARM core run at 70 Mhz? If so then the discussion seems moot.

[BrianC]

While the Mister doesn't seem to support the AtariVox from SNAC, I'm under the impression that it should work with the 2600 Daptor II and the AtariVox firmware. There's no option to use it, but the adapter does power on with the intro speech. 

[swapd0]

I hope that someone will port it to MiST

[mimo]

Finally got around to ordering one of these, The DE10 is going to be a xmas gift from my wife and I have a shipment date of Nov 30th from Mouser to the UK. Fingers crossed.
I now need to sneak in buying the other bits during the xmas "ask no questions about the bank account" window   

 

[john_q_atari]

I use a stelladaptor with mine. Works great.

[Skeeter]

Getting back OT to say thanks @Kitrinx for the continued work on the 7800 core. 2600 is in and seems to work great for me, only played a few short games. The core is awesome.

 

 

[gambler172]

What kind of Mister board do i need,to use it for 7800 games?

And what other items do i need?

[cybercylon]

2 minutes ago, gambler172 said:

What kind of Mister board do i need,to use it for 7800 games?

And what other items do i need?

Does Dragonbox.de sell mister items? I was about to give a suggestion, but I just spotted your location, and it probably won't help you for buying, but it might be helpful for reference (hit the shop tab).

 

https://misteraddons.com/

 

I've been looking into getting into a mister setup, but I haven't fully decided. For just the 7800, you probably don't need the whole setup. Obviously, one starts with the DE-10 nano kit (out of stock at this site), but I'll let someone else that is more of an expert chime in as to what else you need.

[youxia]

The only add on you'll really need is SDRAM, 32MB is enough for 7800 & 95% of all the other stuff.

 

USB board, if you don't want to buy an external OTG USB hub which hangs off MiSTer. The latter is less elegant but also ~4x cheaper.

[Skeeter]

A bare bones DE-10 Nano is all you need for the 7800 core. For those in the US Amazon has them now if you want to jump in. It's where I bought mine. Not sure about across the pond availability but I know there's a guy that sells kits and such similar to Mr. Addons in the US if I'm not mistaken.

 

I've had my MiSTer for over a year and the only thing I added was the 128MB SDRAM from Mr. Addons. I can run anything. I also use a cheap USB dongle for connecting my controllers, keyboard, and mouse. You can spend a lot more, I don't even have a case, but it's not needed. I spent about $200 total for the above over a year ago and I haven't spent a dime more since.

 

I've attached the latest 7800 core that has 2600 support in if anyone with a MiSTer wants to try it. I got this from the MiSTer discord's test build channel and it's world's better than the old one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atari7800_pre.rbf

[Trebor]

23 hours ago, Skeeter said:

...

I've attached the latest 7800 core that has 2600 support in if anyone with a MiSTer wants to try it. I got this from the MiSTer discord's test build channel and it's world's better than the old one.

Atari7800_pre.rbf 3.91 MB · 10 downloads

@Kitrinx has done a phenomenal job, even Starpath Supercharger titles are working beautifully. 

 

The "Pre" build also features palette loading, in additional to the provided default ones.  All *.pal files from the PRO PALETTE thread archive file work under both 7800 and 2600 modes.  For developers, it makes checking colors between different display types a breeze.

 

No need to unzip the 'ATARI_PRO_PALETTES_TREBOR-DISTRO_20211021.zip' archive, MiSTer is able to search and select palette files from within it.

 

Once the updates to the MiSTer 7800 core are official, a leaner (*.pal files only) version of the archive will be made available for download at its GitHub page.

 

 

Any desiring a Stella emulator default palette appearance, the approach is significantly different depending on desired region.  Under Stella, the default PAL palette is much darker and richer compared to the NTSC default. 

Recommendation for a comparable Stella emulator PAL region appearance: ATARI_PAL_CRT_V3_DRK-HOT.   
For a similar Stella emulator NTSC region look, try: ATARI_NTSC_CRT_V1_TLS-WARM.

 

Folder navigation assist for aforementioned files in the archive:
%root%\CRT_Colors\Dark\Rich\CRT_V3_DRK\PAL\ATARI_PAL_CRT_V3_DRK-HOT.pal
%root%\CRT_Colors\Bright\Desaturated\CRT_V1_TLS\NTSC\ATARI_NTSC_CRT_V1_TLS-WARM.pal

[Skeeter]

Hell yes on the Starpath Supercharger games. Played some Commie Mutants, it was damn good. At this stage this 7800 core is better than the 2600 core.

 

Much respect to all involved in this.

[Trebor]

17 hours ago, Skeeter said:

At this stage this 7800 core is better than the 2600 core.

Indeed.. 

Fire up Pitfall II and it plays beautifully.

Start up a game of E.T. and listen to the spaceship land; sounds original console perfect.

[theoakwoody]

On 11/13/2021 at 8:02 PM, Trebor said:

Indeed.. 

Fire up Pitfall II and it plays beautifully.

Start up a game of E.T. and listen to the spaceship land; sounds original console perfect.

Great to hear I remember pitfall ii not running on the 2600 core.  Super excited to try different palettes with the 7800.

[PacManPlus]

On 11/13/2021 at 2:36 PM, Skeeter said:

A bare bones DE-10 Nano is all you need for the 7800 core. For those in the US Amazon has them now if you want to jump in. It's where I bought mine. Not sure about across the pond availability but I know there's a guy that sells kits and such similar to Mr. Addons in the US if I'm not mistaken.

 

I've had my MiSTer for over a year and the only thing I added was the 128MB SDRAM from Mr. Addons. I can run anything. I also use a cheap USB dongle for connecting my controllers, keyboard, and mouse. You can spend a lot more, I don't even have a case, but it's not needed. I spent about $200 total for the above over a year ago and I haven't spent a dime more since.

 

I've attached the latest 7800 core that has 2600 support in if anyone with a MiSTer wants to try it. I got this from the MiSTer discord's test build channel and it's world's better than the old one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atari7800_pre.rbf 3.91 MB · 13 downloads

Ok, so I bit the bullet and picked up the Amazon board (it should be here Friday).  I'll have to wait a month for the 128G memory chip, so I didn't get that.  Is there a 64Gb memory module that I can get pretty quick?  This is only for the 7800/2600 and possibly very early arcade games, so I don't need much.

 

(I also downloaded the Atari7800_pre.rbf file, but I may need help loading that as I've never done this before)

 

Thanks guys,

Bob

 

BTW, I really hope this gets to the point where you can put a cart port on it  ... and I mean real-time running from cart, not just to read the image in first  

 

[john_q_atari]

I just checked and Ebay has 2 sellers shipping from the USA for 128gb sdram for mister. I bought my cooling plate/fan and 128gb sdram from misteraddons and they have both in stock as well. If you only want 32gb I think I might be able to find my board somewhere and ship you that if need be so let me know if you want to go that route.

[PacManPlus]

That is extremely nice of you!

 

If 32Gb is enough for the early consoles and early arcade games (i.e. up to about '84), then yes, please.  Just let me know how much you want for it, and we will go that route.

 

Thank you again!

Bob

[Trebor]

13 hours ago, PacManPlus said:

If 32Gb is enough for the early consoles and early arcade games (i.e. up to about '84), then yes, please.  

32MB is more than enough.  128MB if you're going to play newer (Neo Geo) Arcade games. 

[+remowilliams]

28 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

Ok, so I bit the bullet and picked up the Amazon board (it should be here Friday).  I'll have to wait a month for the 128G memory chip, so I didn't get that.  Is there a 64Gb memory module that I can get pretty quick?  This is only for the 7800/2600 and possibly very early arcade games, so I don't need much.

 

Congrats, the MiSTer is awesome : )

 

28 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

BTW, I really hope this gets to the point where you can put a cart port on it  ... and I mean real-time running from cart, not just to read the image in first  

 

That's just something that's not going to happen.  There isn't enough free GPIO to accommodate the use case, and it's nowhere near a project goal.

 

[+Muddyfunster]

On 11/13/2021 at 11:49 PM, Trebor said:

Once the updates to the MiSTer 7800 core are official, a leaner (*.pal files only) version of the archive will be made available for download at its GitHub page.

 

Been testing this tonight, super helpful thanks.

[Skeeter]

36 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

 

(I also downloaded the Atari7800_pre.rbf file, but I may need help loading that as I've never done this before)

 

Once you get your MiSTer set up you'll just copy over this core and roms and go.

 

Grats on the purchase. I sure like mine. I've been spending a lot of time in the X68000 core lately. Such an awesome PC with some great games I never had the pleasure of using before.

[john_q_atari]

39 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

That is extremely nice of you!

 

If 32Gb is enough for the early consoles and early arcade games (i.e. up to about '84), then yes, please.  Just let me know how much you want for it, and we will go that route.

 

Thank you again!

Bob

No problem Bob. I just found it. I sent you a PM and I'll test it tonight to make sure it's good. (I ended up getting a 128mb so never used the 32mb). Looks like it's a "SDRAM XS v2.2 Board 32MB for MiSTer FPGA DE10-NANO" by the way. I think the sram boards are all MB not GB.