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MiSTer: FPGA gaming

Dr_Dave

By Dr_Dave
in Retro & Arcade Gaming

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Camel

Camel

Posted
Posted

Right I've bent my pin back successfully, no problem.

 

Is there a good guide to assembling these things? I've attached my SDRAM, got my heatsink on and I've connected my analog IO board above the nano board. I've used the long part of my spacers between IO board and Nano board. All good so far, but if the USB hub goes under the Nano board, the short spacers aren't going to be long enough between the bottom of the Nano board and the USB board. What's the correct configuration?

 

EDIT: looking at pics online, I guess I want long spacers between both.

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Camel

Camel

Posted
Posted

Yes but I'm an idiot and didn't consider putting long spacers into long spacers.

 

It's alive! I can't play anything yet though and I as I don't have any ROMs and I haven't put the case together yet. Putting the analog board on was pretty tense and I hope I don't have to do that again any time soon.

 

Looking back through this thread it looks like the recommended way to get the necessary arcade files on board is to run a "retrodriven" script. Is that still the way?

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Ninja Doctor

Ninja Doctor

Posted
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The default update script doesn’t include any copyrighted files for obvious reasons. If you find update_all by ypsilion then things might fall out of the internet when you update. 
 

It might take quite a while though. 

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Camel

Camel

Posted
Posted

Thanks. I'll try this later when my daughter is in bed.

 

Must admit I was surprised at the idea that the main script would download a bunch of arcade ROMs.

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Camel

Camel

Posted
Posted

First impressions from a MiSTer noob:

Putting it together was a lot more fraught than I was expecting and I neglected to attach my audio input board so if I ever decide I want to use that, I'm going to have to take it apart and put it together again. Yikes.

 

I'm having to use tweezers to remove the SD card with the acrylic case on which seems far from ideal.

 

I can see me always wanting to have a USB keyboard nearby (eg to change some DIP switches, or switch players around and whatnot) and I can see me faffing around with lots of different controllers. Maybe I'll settle on a controller eventually and stop faffing about with settings.

 

First impressions of some actual games (arcade cores and some SNES classics): it feels great. Really nice being able to sit back with a controller on the sofa and play some arcade games and have it all feel really zippy.

 

How are people accessing the core menu mid-game? A joypad button combination mapping?

 

EDIT: anyone using an inline switch? Switching off/on at the wall is a pain.

 

 

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pastry

pastry

Posted
Posted

My MiSTer has remained naked and I am cool with that - no issue getting the SD out, and I don't bother very often anyway – more than enough games to play on the thing! But if i was adding a case I'd consider using an extension cable off the micro SD slot to a more permanent mounting point, to prevent wear and tear and to make it easier to get to.

image.png.a5ade0e28cd1667ea2bf19d2e6647c67.png

I have an inline switch, works fine. Still a bit of a pain as it's inside the TV cabinet - would love a software shut down/start up option.

 

To access the OSD i've mapped the third small button on my M30 and the PS button on my DS4. You can do this from the top level of the MiSTer, ie when not in a core. No need for case button once done.

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Swainy

Swainy

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Camel said:

 

I'm having to use tweezers to remove the SD card with the acrylic case on which seems far from ideal.

Remember that you can access the MiSTer via FTP. I can’t remember the last time I removed my SD card.

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Goemon

Goemon

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I just stole (well it may as well have been steeling) a pre-made MiSTer, so without setting it up myself I’m a bit out of the loop of setup.

 

I’ve ordered a Wi-Fi dongle, can someone explain or point me to a tutorial of setting up a dongle and setting up the MiSTer to be viewable on my PC to access files/folders? I’m guessing this is possible)

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Swainy

Swainy

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Goemon said:

I just stole (well it may as well have been steeling) a pre-made MiSTer, so without setting it up myself I’m a bit out of the loop of setup.

 

I’ve ordered a Wi-Fi dongle, can someone explain or point me to a tutorial of setting up a dongle and setting up the MiSTer to be viewable on my PC to access files/folders? I’m guessing this is possible)

 

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Protocol Penguin

Protocol Penguin

Posted
Posted

How I do things is: ROM sets on SD card, disc images for CD systems on a USB stick (for easy access/removal), wireless SMB from my Mac to send over patched ROMs and scripts. Seems to work. Might be room for improvement somehow, though.

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Goemon

Goemon

Posted
Posted

Can someone tell me where you can see explanations of the options on a core?

 

For example I was looking at Dodonpachi and it had video and audio options that I didn’t really understand, so it would be good to see what these meant.

 

There was a refresh option for 57hz and another for 60hz. Could someone explain the finer details of these two options?

 

/noob

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Swainy

Swainy

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Goemon said:

Can someone tell me where you can see explanations of the options on a core?

 

For example I was looking at Dodonpachi and it had video and audio options that I didn’t really understand, so it would be good to see what these meant.

 

There was a refresh option for 57hz and another for 60hz. Could someone explain the finer details of these two options?

 

/noob


Dodonpachi runs at 57hz in the arcade but some consumer TV’s will struggle with that so 60hz is there as an option should someone’s TV not cope with 57hz.

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Goemon

Goemon

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Swainy said:


Dodonpachi runs at 57hz in the arcade but some consumer TV’s will struggle with that so 60hz is there as an option should someone’s TV not cope with 57hz.


When you say ‘struggle’, what do you mean?

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Kevvy Metal

Kevvy Metal

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Goemon said:


When you say ‘struggle’, what do you mean?

 

CRT's kinda don't care what refresh rate you feed it. It can be slightly off-spec, which means it's slower or faster than your usual 50 or 60 Hz, and the CRT will ouput at that weird refresh rate, no bother. Loads of arcade games are like this. Some consoles too.

A modern flat panel is WAY more fussy with this. If it's off-spec it will either show no picture or a garbled one.... or sometimes it works dependant on your TV model. 
A fix for this is to adjust it to the proper on-spec refresh rate using the MiSTer's frame-buffer, which can add a tiny bit of lag.

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Goemon

Goemon

Posted
Posted

Has anyone else had issues when loading different Arcade cores?

 

I will load a core, reset back to the front, select another game and at a random point I will get a graphical corruption on the game I load. Resetting the system completely and reloading the game makes it load fine but it’s something I’ve seen a few times now when hoping around cores.

 

Just wondered if this was common or if I have to set something up to avoid this?

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