MiSTer: FPGA gaming

[DeciderVT]

21 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

For non-Mister consoles, flashcarts, ODEs and digital output mods are all a thing worth looking into.

 

Hmm. I'm steering clear of those, as the specialist scaler market is now better than ever. I'd rather have a RetroTINK that I can easily replace with a better model in future than internal mods that will be superseded.

[Colonel Panic]

That's a fair statement.

 

To be clear, I've got a RetroTink 2x SCART, OSSC and RetroTink 5x Pro, so I'm on your side of things. Digital output mods are just a nice all in one solution if that's what people want.

 

Also, they are EXPENSIVE - https://8bitmods.com/mod-kits/sega/dreamcast/dreamcast-hdmi-dchdmi-kit/

[Kevvy Metal]

Yes. For non-MiSTer things I own a RetroTink 5x Pro*. 

Marry that with an N64 (over s-video, don't even need an RGB mod) and an Everdrive, and you have the whole library. 

A PS2 with the network adaptor and free McBoot gets you all of that. 

A Soft-mod Wii with USB storage for the massive Wii and GC library. 

 

I do also have a MODE ODE in my Dreamcast and Saturn, but here's hoping the Saturn core comes soon for that extra bit of convenience. 

 

* I've also actually before run the RGB Scart video output from the MiSTer into the RetroTink 5x Pro and got some absolutely incredible results. It's such a good scaler, with excellent scanline filters. 

[Tomdominer]

5 hours ago, Vespa Alex said:

Is there likely to be a more powerful MiSTer 2 any time in the next year that would support more modern systems, or is that still a distant prospect?

 

Just to add to the other comments, I've read that past the fifth generation of consoles, FPGA becomes less important anyway, as their are less chips to "simulate". The advantages of FGPA is that it can process all the motherboard (and cartridge) chips in parallel, but the PS2 and xbox (and onwards) design started to move towards a more homogeneous chip design.

 

The only real hold out for me is the N64. There is an existing FPGA N64 project which is nearly finished, but this is running on (I believe) a Nexys A7, which costs $349.00, and isn't widely support at the moment.

 

I think there will definitely be a more towards a more powerful board at some point, but just to put this in context, I asked the same question two years ago, and we've had the PS1 and Saturn cores since then, and also there are 3DO and CPS3 FPGA cores in development, so you may as well jump in!

[SuperFamiTom]

Been listening to the ‘MiSTer FPGA Stage Events’ podcasts recently. 
 

They’re discussions between Artemio and some of the other big names in MiSTer development and are fascinating. 
 

Some of the more technical stuff is way over my head, but it’s very listenable regardless. Highly recommended. 

[Vimster]

Is there any good record of what's added to MiSTer chronologically? I hit update_all and have to do a "can you see what's different?" scroll through the arcade cores etc. 

[SuperFamiTom]

Maybe not the answer you were looking for, but I follow Lu's Retro Source on YouTube.

 

He does a weekly MiSTer FPGA News video that gives an overview of all the updates and changes that week. It covers the stuff that won't be picked up by update_all too.

[spanky debrest]

7 minutes ago, Vimster said:

Is there any good record of what's added to MiSTer chronologically? I hit update_all and have to do a "can you see what's different?" scroll through the arcade cores etc. 

 

I check Updates and Changelog thread over on the official forum every so often:

 

https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=147

[Mr Monday]

Has anyone had a go with the Acorn Archimedes core?  I can get disk games running but I can’t get the hard disk image I downloaded in the same archive to be recognised. It’s probably my lack of knowledge as apart from having tinker at school, I know very little about the platform. 

[Tomdominer]

On 27/12/2022 at 14:10, Tomdominer said:

I've now had a (second) DE-10 nano on order from mouser.co.uk since the 1st of February. It keeps updating the order with "Production Issues Reported – Delivery Unknown".

 

I ordered a DE10 from terasic and it shipped the next day. Lolly.

 

Anyway, so, if I wanted to set-up a second mister inside an arcade cabinet. I was wondering, is the best option to set up the second mister just to pc copy the entire SD card I have to the new set-up?

[AceGrace]

I would say so, yes, then re-configure it from there
 

Unless you want to start fresh then I would

 

 Put Mr Fusion on the new SD card.
Run it on the Mister

put back in PC and put in update_all script.

Back in Mister and run the script.

Copy across all ROMS from one SD to the other.

[Tomdominer]

Why do you even need to run the Mr Fusion script? Surely it just sets up the SD card? Or does it install to the nano internal flash memory or something?

[Colonel Panic]

If you want to drag and drop everything from old to new then just make it’s formatted to whatever Mister needs. Probably exFat. 
 

I think it might take care of some of the Linux stuff for you. Can’t remember if that’s on another partition or not. 

[AceGrace]

I meant that if you want to set up the 2nd SD card from scratch then MrFusion is the fastest way to do it.

 

AFAIK everything needed to boot the Mister is on the SD card, not internal firmware.  If you don't have the SD card inserted, it won't boot.

 

 

[roobarb]

On 10/01/2023 at 10:15, Tomdominer said:

 

I ordered a DE10 from terasic and it shipped the next day. Lolly.

 

Anyway, so, if I wanted to set-up a second mister inside an arcade cabinet. I was wondering, is the best option to set up the second mister just to pc copy the entire SD card I have to the new set-up?

https://www.retrorgb.com/building-a-dedicated-mister-arcade-setup.html

[pastry]

The disc is partitioned so can't just drag drop, but you could probably clone the whole drive. 

But I'd probably Mr Fusion it.

[SeanR]

Mr. Fusion expands the partition to use the whole card from a tiny install. Which, when moving to a bigger capacity SD card is easier than cloning your existing one.

 

as I found out tonight, by proxy.

 

 

I’ve told him to sign up, as pretty much everything I know about the mister I learned from this thread.

[Tomdominer]

Thanks guys. I think following that retrorgb.com video seems prudent, as I want to make sure the thing is all set-up before having the extra complexity of attaching it to an arcade cab.

 

Another question. What hardware options do I need? I'll order the 128mb ram, as I want the neo geo core to work, but I assume I'll also need the analogue board, so I have VGA out? And I want to attach a USB wifi dongle. I don't need a USB hub for that, so I assume I can just get a usb micro adapter for the dongle or something?

 

[Tomdominer]

Oh, it appears the mistercade has a vga out and at least four usb ports on it.

[Vimster]

I think I already know the answer to this but I was trying to play a GBC game and every time the screen clears and displays something else the MiSTer output goes black for a second. I believe it does this for other cores too. On my old telly the screen would reset but not go off like that. It's bloody annoying. I'm guessing that's just the way the MiSTer outputs via HDMI, am I right?

[ImmaculateClump]

While in the gameboy colour core, go to the audio and video options

 

 

and turn this option on

 

 

If that doesn't sort it, you could change the vsync settings that core is using.
If you're using vsync_adjust=2 for lower lag, try adding this to the end of your mister.ini file.

 

[GAMEBOY]
vsync_adjust=1

 

and then try changing it from 1 to 0 if it's still wonky.

[Vimster]

That's brill, cheers. Will give it a shot later.

[Vimster]

20 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

While in the gameboy colour core, go to the audio and video options

 

 

and turn this option on

 

 

If that doesn't sort it, you could change the vsync settings that core is using.
If you're using vsync_adjust=2 for lower lag, try adding this to the end of your mister.ini file.

 

[GAMEBOY]
vsync_adjust=1

 

and then try changing it from 1 to 0 if it's still wonky.

Yes that worked perfectly. Cheers again.

[ImmaculateClump]

Ay. Nice one

I had to turn that setting on too. My monitor was shitting it's pants every five minutes the same as yours.

What were you playing on the gameboy colour? I really like magical tetris challenge.

 

Check this out, some clever folk have been making colour hacks for old gameboy games.

 

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=33121.0

 

Kirby's pinball land is great but really benefits from a nice splash of colour - https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6079/

 

You can patch the roms online here and it's all totally painless.

 

https://www.romhacking.net/patch/

 

[Vimster]

Another query, this one about the Amiga core: I just updated Mega AGS and was checking the recommended config settings in the readme. Under Aspect Ratio it says 40:27, yet in the core the only options I have are Original and Full Screen. Was playing the superb Roadkill the other night and in menus the top and bottom of the screen are cut off. Did they remove 40:27 as an option recently?

[shiffy]

7 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

Ay. Nice one

I had to turn that setting on too. My monitor was shitting it's pants every five minutes the same as yours.

What were you playing on the gameboy colour? I really like magical tetris challenge.

 

Check this out, some clever folk have been making colour hacks for old gameboy games.

 

https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=33121.0

 

Kirby's pinball land is great but really benefits from a nice splash of colour - https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6079/

 

You can patch the roms online here and it's all totally painless.

 

https://www.romhacking.net/patch/

 

 

 

Funnily enough, I was playing around with some of these GB color hacks only a few days ago. I thought that Kirby's Pinball was the best of the bunch. Done a small comparison video ..... excuse the crap qualtiy, but I think it highlights the improvements pretty well.

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

21 hours ago, Vimster said:

Another query, this one about the Amiga core: I just updated Mega AGS and was checking the recommended config settings in the readme. Under Aspect Ratio it says 40:27, yet in the core the only options I have are Original and Full Screen. Was playing the superb Roadkill the other night and in menus the top and bottom of the screen are cut off. Did they remove 40:27 as an option recently?

 

Sorry, I haven't gotten around to trying the amiga yet, but sniffing around the net, it looks like that's part and parcel of the 5x integer scaling they're employing - https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2227
For some games, they're happy to crop the image so long as it doesn't effect the gameplay.

Look at this gif of mega lo mania as an example.

 

 

Are most of the other games fine and it's just that one that overscans like that?

It says your mister has to be set up as 1080p output, so maybe double check that first.

They say they're having to go through each individual game and tailor the settings accordingly so maybe they haven't gotten around to that game yet. It looks like it's scaling up 5x when you just want 4x if that's any help narrowing down things in the options, and maybe turn off any cropping options there are if you can see any.

 

Hopefully someone else has dabbled with the amiga core and can help a lot better than that.

[Count Buffalos]

Does anyone have experience of m running the MiSTer through a 14” CRT? I’m eyeing up a Trinitron but I’m a bit concerned that the screen is going to seem far too small. 

[Swainy]

I use 14” CRT’s, I’ve got 3 hooked up to my MiSTer plus a CRT VGA monitor. I’ve got 3 because I can swap between vertical & horizontal arcade games (and some of the vertical games display upside down hence the 3rd CRT).

 

[jonnyalpha]

Just sit closer and then you can appreciate the amazing pixel work on some of those old games. I put mine through a 14" pvm at times and the image is stunning. It's definitely worth it if your set up allows you to sit close enough and your playing single player.