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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's more fair to say that a RPi probably isn't powerful enough to run the emulators that are completely accurate, because some of them do exist.
You may get good emulators but not many will be console accurate on all fronts
Very cool. I have wanted to try some FPGA stuff out but it seems like its very encumbered by proprietary toolchains and industry secrets. Wondering what the pros/cons are of using this vs a raspberry pi.
Raspberry is emulation which will not be console accurate. The FPGA would more accurate since it is recreating the console on a hardware level(chip)
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To expand on that, Higan[1] is a super accurate SNES emulator that requires a decent CPU to run at full speed due to all of the weird quirks and on-cartridge chips[2]. For the popular games, typical emulators are probably good enough, but for true accuracy of all the quirks and special chips you need quite a bit of compute power. In the case of Speedy Gonzales, at least for a time (not sure if it's still the case) th…
Byuu, the author of Higan, has been quite critical[1] of the claim that the Super NT is as accurate as stated. It may be tempting to assume "FPGA = hardware recreation = perfect", but we don't have access to the original SNES schematics, so anything we recreate involves some level of guesswork. Higan has been in development for more than a decade, and literally every first party SNES game has been tested to ensure 10…
Edit: only 10 of the known issues are confirmed and graphical/timing related.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Byuu, the author of Higan, has been quite critical[1] of the claim that the Super NT is as accurate as stated. It may be tempting to assume "FPGA = hardware recreation = perfect", but we don't have access to the original SNES schematics, so anything we recreate involves some level of guesswork. Higan has been in development for more than a decade, and literally every first party SNES game has been tested to ensure 10…
Byuu's work in emulation and ROM preservation should be commended but his FPGA dismissal seems rooted in envy. After spending 14 years developing Higan, I can sympathize. The fact is, the SNES chips are well understood (partly through the work of Byuu). The SuperNT FPGA code from Kevtris mimics almost every perceptible quirk of these chips in gameplay and I'm sure MiSTer will get to the same point if enough talent is…
20 known issues is significantly more than Higan's zero known issues (for the SNES emulator specifically; other Higan emulators are of varying degrees of quality and maturity). Unless you count issues like, there's a certain game that appears to randomly crash slightly less often in Higan than on real hardware, which was still being investigated as of when I last checked.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Byuu's work in emulation and ROM preservation should be commended but his FPGA dismissal seems rooted in envy. After spending 14 years developing Higan, I can sympathize. The fact is, the SNES chips are well understood (partly through the work of Byuu). The SuperNT FPGA code from Kevtris mimics almost every perceptible quirk of these chips in gameplay and I'm sure MiSTer will get to the same point if enough talent is…
To me, Byuu didn't come across as dismissive of the SuperNT so much as the idea that FPGA's are inherently more accurate than software emulators. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. 20 known issues is significantly more than Higan's zero known issues (for the SNES emulator specifically; other Higan emulators are of varying degrees of quality and maturity). Unless you count issues like, there's a certai…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me, Byuu didn't come across as dismissive of the SuperNT so much as the idea that FPGA's are inherently more accurate than software emulators. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. 20 known issues is significantly more than Higan's zero known issues (for the SNES emulator specifically; other Higan emulators are of varying degrees of quality and maturity). Unless you count issues like, there's a certai…
I'm not dismissing the incredible work of Byuu. I'm simply suggesting it is far easier to get cycle accuracy and correctness in an FPGA than through software emulation. Kevtris probably spent less than a year in his spare time to pull off nearly identical results with his FPGA. He also hasn't gone back to work through the known issues because of his work on the MegaSG.
This is the line I would disagree with. What about an FPGA makes cycle accuracy and correctness easier than with an emulator written in software?
Make no mistake, Kevtris is immensely talented. But he also had the advantage of additional research going in (such as byuu's), and, well, I truly don't think the accuracy is comparable as of right now. The difference in effort required to get between 99% and 100% compatibility is immense, and the Super NT is clearly at 99% right now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not dismissing the incredible work of Byuu. I'm simply suggesting it is far easier to get cycle accuracy and correctness in an FPGA than through software emulation. Kevtris probably spent less than a year in his spare time to pull off nearly identical results with his FPGA. He also hasn't gone back to work through the known issues because of his work on the MegaSG.
> I'm simply suggesting it is far easier to get cycle accuracy and correctness in an FPGA than through software emulation. This is the line I would disagree with. What about an FPGA makes cycle accuracy and correctness easier than with an emulator written in software? Make no mistake, Kevtris is immensely talented. But he also had the advantage of additional research going in (such as byuu's), and, well, I truly don'…
SuperNT - I love it, i don't have the jailbroken firmware and play strictly from games. I have made several Super Mario based carts from Rom Hacks and i find not having save states has probably made me a better player. The system is dirt simple, i plug a game in and it plays. There is a menu and you can play with settings but you dont have to. Using only purchased carts makes this legal .
Retropi - Very nice allows you to play up to the PSX. All is pretty much smooth and there are so many howto's anyone can set it up. If you have never played on the original hardware you will never probably never know if there are any issues with the emulation. Still a very nice choice and cheap. Unless you dump your own ROMs you have to use illegal content on this (and dont lie, almost no one dumps their own ROMs).
MiSTer - This is very nice. It boots quick, the emulation is great. The menu is easy to navigate, but very ugly (no scraping or any game information very folder driven). controller set up is not difficult, but is not as straight forward as retropi. Installation is simple compared to retropi. Very expensive ($130 for the board and at least $25 for the SDRAM board unless you build your own, USB Hub as well). Arcade support is limited. Still have to provide your own ROMS.
All three choices are still great depends what you want to do. There is always room for all three options (I realize the SuperNT is not a multisystem machine, but it i mean a dedicated FPGA system, they are coming out with their sega genesis FPGA as well).
I have the MiST, the predecessor to this and really like it. It was originally made for Atari ST emulation but quickly acquired other cores. Mine even has MIDI ports like the original ST. It's odd the MiSTer page doesn't even list an Atari ST core as available. Odd given the heritage (and name). On the other hand, there's an X68000 core. That's pretty amazing. But apart from bigger FPGA one of the big advantages of M…
https://twitter.com/smokemonstertwi/status/10523148009807298...
I have the MiST, the predecessor to this and really like it. It was originally made for Atari ST emulation but quickly acquired other cores. Mine even has MIDI ports like the original ST. It's odd the MiSTer page doesn't even list an Atari ST core as available. Odd given the heritage (and name). On the other hand, there's an X68000 core. That's pretty amazing. But apart from bigger FPGA one of the big advantages of M…
Like the LL Cool Joy add on board: https://twitter.com/smokemonstertwi/status/10523148009807298...