I'd really like to see a portable/handheld leverage this technology for on-the-go gaming.
The Analogue Pocket[1] is exactly this (albeit proprietary). Out of the box it recreates GB, GBC, and GBA using the Altera Cyclone-V platform. [1] https://www.analogue.co/pocket
MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
11–20 of 111 posts
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#12This isn't really new, right? I've heard of this years ago. But it is an amazing project. Instead of emulating, they actually rebuilt the old custom ICs (which 8-bit computers were full of) in an FPGA. Really impressive.
It is indeed an amazing project, especially its open source nature. It provides some impressive power savings and latency reductions that are very hard to match with general purpose CPUs. But in most cases, it is emulation, as the lead developer will attest. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki/Why-FPGA "From my point of view, if the FPGA code is based on the circuitry of real hardware (along with the usu…
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#13This isn't really new, right? I've heard of this years ago. But it is an amazing project. Instead of emulating, they actually rebuilt the old custom ICs (which 8-bit computers were full of) in an FPGA. Really impressive.
It is indeed an amazing project, especially its open source nature. It provides some impressive power savings and latency reductions that are very hard to match with general purpose CPUs. But in most cases, it is emulation, as the lead developer will attest. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki/Why-FPGA "From my point of view, if the FPGA code is based on the circuitry of real hardware (along with the usu…
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Analogue Pocket[1] is exactly this (albeit proprietary). Out of the box it recreates GB, GBC, and GBA using the Altera Cyclone-V platform. [1] https://www.analogue.co/pocket
I wonder, why is there no DIY Analogue Pocket-style MiSTer project? Is the DE10-Nano too large or inefficient for this?
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Analogue Pocket[1] is exactly this (albeit proprietary). Out of the box it recreates GB, GBC, and GBA using the Altera Cyclone-V platform. [1] https://www.analogue.co/pocket
I wonder, why is there no DIY Analogue Pocket-style MiSTer project? Is the DE10-Nano too large or inefficient for this?
But with some effort, it would be awesome.
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#16I don’t really know much about game emulation so I was curious about what differentiates this FPGA game project vs traditional CPU emulation. From their github page [1]: >Traditional emulators on CPUs execute code sequentially. This is a tricky method of emulation because real hardware has many chips and all of them work in parallel...This requires a lot of CPU power to emulate even an old and slow retro computer. So…
If you've actually decapped the original chips and duplicated them exactly in an FPGA, that's pretty cool. But otherwise it's just another approximation. The lower power requirements are nice, of course.
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, it really is an amazing application for FPGAs—preserving computing and gaming history. The list of cores available for MiSTer is simply staggering: > Computers - Classic • Acorn Archimedes • Acorn Atom • Alice MC10 • Altair 8800 • Amiga • Amstrad CPC 6128 • Amstrad PCW • ao486 (PC 486) • Apogee • Apple I • Apple II+ • Apple Macintosh Plus • Aquarius • Atari 800XL • Atari ST/STe • BBC Micro B,Master • BK0011M •…
I'm still waiting for the KENBAK-1 core.
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is indeed an amazing project, especially its open source nature. It provides some impressive power savings and latency reductions that are very hard to match with general purpose CPUs. But in most cases, it is emulation, as the lead developer will attest. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki/Why-FPGA "From my point of view, if the FPGA code is based on the circuitry of real hardware (along with the usu…
So it's not perfect but it's better than emulators...
If you take the SNES core, my software emulator has 100% compatibility and no known bugs, and synchronizes all components at the raw clock cycle level. It also mitigates most of the latency concern through a technique known as run-ahead. But it does require more power to do this.
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is indeed an amazing project, especially its open source nature. It provides some impressive power savings and latency reductions that are very hard to match with general purpose CPUs. But in most cases, it is emulation, as the lead developer will attest. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki/Why-FPGA "From my point of view, if the FPGA code is based on the circuitry of real hardware (along with the usu…
So it's not perfect but it's better than emulators...
But people keep presuming an improved accuracy that there's no basis for.
Re: MiSTer, an open-source FPGA gaming project
#20I don’t really know much about game emulation so I was curious about what differentiates this FPGA game project vs traditional CPU emulation. From their github page [1]: >Traditional emulators on CPUs execute code sequentially. This is a tricky method of emulation because real hardware has many chips and all of them work in parallel...This requires a lot of CPU power to emulate even an old and slow retro computer. So…
byuu wrote a good article about this, unfortunately it's no longer available, but basically it should be self-evident that there's nothing inherently more accurate about hardware emulation. If you've actually decapped the original chips and duplicated them exactly in an FPGA, that's pretty cool. But otherwise it's just another approximation. The lower power requirements are nice, of course.