Reg Posted March 27, 2021 Report Share Posted March 27, 2021 Today I have been working on getting my MiSTer FPGA running. I've created a guide for what I have done so far and attached to this document. If you don't know that a MiSTer FPGA is, it's bacially 100% accurate gameplay on legacy devices and does not use emulation. The hardware is programmed on a device by device basis in to a Field-programmable gate array. The hardware is known as core's and you load what you want very easily. It's trumps emulation as it's not software based in terms of how emulators are traditionally written. Do a quick google and look on YouTube if this sounds even slightly interesting to you. I was not aware of this product until @Gary brought it to my attention and damn am I glad he did. The document on this thread is complete, but a live document and will be updated with more content as I continue to use this over the near future. 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted March 27, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2021 The Guide MiSTer FPGA v1.00.pdf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyL Posted March 28, 2021 Report Share Posted March 28, 2021 This looks really cool. I saw on FB earlier someone had built some new PCB's for a Monaco gp arcade cab using an FPGA... I'm always interested in FPGA's and ASIC's as they're the one thing that's impossible to repair or reproduce on original Fruit machine boards. Hopefully one day we'll be able to drive our classic fruity techs with new FPGA's... it's beyond me at the moment but Imagine a fresh impact or m1 mpu driven by an FPGA. That would be awesome. Keep us posted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geddy Posted March 28, 2021 Report Share Posted March 28, 2021 Imagine if they could do that with old fruit machine technologies... I mean they probably can but probably not worth it.. Not Retired from FME June 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted March 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2021 Working on getting some collections on this device I remember in the past and I found this site here. Maybe of interest to some of you that enjoy emulation and things of the past... https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/games/index.htm ...if you want to convert the images to .ST format, use this... http://msaconverter.free.fr/index-uk.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle64 Posted March 30, 2021 Report Share Posted March 30, 2021 This popped up in one of my retro groups on facebook, maybe some interesting links at bottom: https://retrogamecoders.com/mister-fpga-tutorial-getting-started-with-mister/?fbclid=IwAR35Jfz5hQyloCDitG-UluL-3Q1xnVZ-5W0bUNbDW1pNR_XO8WhJH7wmy4o 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted March 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2021 Thank you - I'll take a look at that see if I missed anything. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted April 2, 2021 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2021 For anyone that is following this, I have it pretty well setup now. I wanted to show what it was like running in real-time for anyone that has a slight interest across multiple systems - this includes changing cores etc. When I bring the menu up to do this, I use the LEFT + RIGHT shoulder buttons to bring the menu up to change core. All of this happens in real time. Unfortuantly, the showing of games ended up a bit longer then I planned. The first game, New Rally X, I have always been reasonably ok at and I used to love it as a kid. Playing it here, it runs faster then MAME but beause it is a 1:1 recreation of the original hardware in the FPGA and therefore more accurate, the horrible jagedness and updating of the scrolling maze is GONE ! For some strange reason - the game being a perfect 1:1 recreation - my skills from all those years ago are actually better now and I amanaged to get to a level I had never hit before and a score much higher then I've ever done on MAME. If you're bored of watching me play Rally X, skip to 11:10 on the minutes and you'll see loads of other systems loaded briefly with one game quickly played then on to the next one. As a final the whole system is customisable in what you see the opening background of a CBM64 is one of the sytem I have a decent setup of and everytime you reboot the MiSTer this changes. Here's what it looked like on the TV - everything going through HDMI. The LCD settings are nice for some of the handhelds - but all this can be changed. The strange thing us - this making the GB / GBA / GC / Atari Lynx and GG into full screen consoles is something else and the experience is very different playing it on the large screen and a much more positive one as well. I am not an expert on this - but have my system setup pretty well - feel free to ask questions. The Amiga part of it is also something else - that is a pre-configured hard drive image it boots into just before I play Xmas Lemmings with pretty much every game and demo you could want for. Looks like I screwed up on the editing and the Amiga section is not there, when I merged the two clips guess what system I cut ! 1942 - Gameboy Color Bomber Man - TurboGFX Sonic - Megadrive 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbb Posted April 8, 2021 Report Share Posted April 8, 2021 Haha My head was saying dismiss this as another Pi clone, but I had never heard of this and im on quite a few emulation groups, I am now looking into ordering one of these after I attempt at building a pinball cab. I have a Pi conected to my main TV and it just doesn't feel right so cheers Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted April 8, 2021 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2021 7 minutes ago, pbb said: Haha My head was saying dismiss this as another Pi clone, but I had never heard of this and im on quite a few emulation groups, I am now looking into ordering one of these after I attempt at building a pinball cab. I have a Pi conected to my main TV and it just doesn't feel right so cheers Pete Excellent ! I'll try to get another video done over the weekend doing different games and such ( plus the missing Amiga ). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zippy Posted April 8, 2021 Report Share Posted April 8, 2021 (edited) Feel like getting the Gamecube out, Streetfighter, Ghost and Goblins, Gauntlet, Smash Tv and a whole heap of other stuff like Narc and Rampage and all Streets of rage with Final Fight or that could of been the PS1 or 2. Edited April 8, 2021 by Big J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbb Posted April 9, 2021 Report Share Posted April 9, 2021 15 minutes ago, Reg said: Excellent ! I'll try to get another video done over the weekend doing different games and such ( plus the missing Amiga ). I always have trouble with Amiga, end up binning everytime, had launchbox, coin ops but cos of different disks it goes pear shaped! and i grew up with an Amiga (50 now) so pinball dreams, cannon fodder, giana sisters, rainbow islands were my go to games. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaphod79 Posted April 15, 2021 Report Share Posted April 15, 2021 I got one of these last year and the speed of updates on it recently has been incredible - for arcade stuff we are already at CPS2 (if you subscribe to the dev's patreon) and although its fiddly to setup the fact that its a straight emulation of the chips which then runs the real code makes it feel so much better than any other 'emulators' out there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niallquinn Posted December 24, 2024 Report Share Posted December 24, 2024 Love my Mister, got right into it, doing testing and feedback for the Jag dual ram cores and Slamys CDI core at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jabbathehut Posted December 24, 2024 Report Share Posted December 24, 2024 Yeah dual ram.Got a mister pi shame i wasn't aware of this at time, should have been part of the package.Not sure i can be bothered to dismantle it to add it on.Yes it is a very enjoyable piece of kit which is now available at a decent price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niallquinn Posted December 24, 2024 Report Share Posted December 24, 2024 (edited) Regarding the clones, Qtech and Takis. There's little nuances appearing, they're not complete clones. Eg the latest Next core, uses the main sd to boot, and it's the only core that can use the secondary sd as another drive, well that didn't work on the clones, as according to Sorg they don't have that bit wired up, so the core had to be modified for that to work. Other ones I've heard of, no sound in various arcade games, again due to a shortcut. Various gfx problems, various input problems. I'm sure more things will materialize. Don't get me wrong, I bought Takis megapack as a 2nd Mister for 150quid, but it's not a complete clone, as I found out and made it dual ram. The dual ram works, but then you can't plug in the audio board, so don't get analog sound out, only digital. Nor do you get it via HDMI, cos that bit isn't there either. Bought a 20quid convertor this week, to convert the fibre 3.55mm lead digital sound back to analog. The public are buying them in 1000's, but the cores have to be modified in the case of the Next to work with them, most of the devs don't like them. It's hard enough to copy a chip with 50,000 transistors on it without having to fanny on with other stuff. I wish I knew Verilog, and had the patience. The devs are fantastic people, I pay most of them on Patreon. Sorg for everything, Jotego, Electron Ash (do you read his posts on the Dreamcast core in discord, it's fascinating stuff). Even if it is aimed at Mikes Replay 2 which should see the light next year. Edited December 24, 2024 by niallquinn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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