Mister FPGA

Timber · 11 Feb 2022 at 10:55

@Metalface Mark very nice, IBM Model M vibes - looks period authentic, particularly to the PC core.

I'd love to have a Model M (or similar) for MiSTer but I don't really have the space for a full size keyboard.

Metalface Mark · 11 Feb 2022 at 11:12

It’s a bit spongey but it looks the part with the Phillips brilliance monitor I’m using, I’ve also ordered one of the new Amiga 2 button usb mouses that are out end of next month to finish it off

Timber · 11 Feb 2022 at 12:48

Metalface Mark said:
It’s a bit spongey but it looks the part with the Phillips brilliance monitor I’m using, I’ve also ordered one of the new Amiga 2 button usb mouses that are out end of next month to finish it off

Ditto! I'm with you on the mouse - suits the setup brilliantly.

You can obviously spend crazy money on keyboards but with MiSTer (or any retro emulation) it's not a daily driver so I'm not sure it makes sense.

Metalface Mark · 11 Feb 2022 at 13:13

Timber said:
Ditto! I'm with you on the mouse - suits the setup brilliantly.

You can obviously spend crazy money on keyboards but with MiSTer (or any retro emulation) it's not a daily driver so I'm not sure it makes sense.

I have a mister setup in my living room (the mistercade one so it looks quite consoley) - i just use button shortcuts for that one.

Timber · 25 Feb 2022 at 14:27

Prompted by another forum, I thought I'd finally jump in to trying the new PSX core. And struggling, although great to hear that splash/boot up sound again!

I tried the Akuma-GIT update unstable script and also manually placing the latest rbf file on my MiSTer and neither worked (both the 20220224 file). The Core will boot to the memory card/CD player screen and try to load a game but never gets further than this screen. Tried different versions of the recommended 1001 bios, different images of the games; CUE/BIN and CHD. And loading the games from my CIFS storage or the mSD card. Even tried an Update_all and this now results in an E2 error upon trying to load the core. So obviously something it doesn't like about my setup.

Beyond this I have been playing some Sharp X68000 Core and wow. Particularly where the games support MT32 (i.e. Castlevania/Akumajou Dracula) MIDI. Although a lot of games on the X68000 have native General Midi support rather than MT32 support. Still some fantastic games on that system even just with the native audio.

Metalface Mark · 25 Feb 2022 at 17:51

That’s strange, I have the pax core running on both my misters ok, if the bios isn’t right you don’t get the splash screen so guessing that’s not the problem , I use bin cue but I’ll switch over to chd now they work

Timber · 25 Feb 2022 at 20:28

Metalface Mark said:
That’s strange, I have the pax core running on both my misters ok, if the bios isn’t right you don’t get the splash screen so guessing that’s not the problem , I use bin cue but I’ll switch over to chd now they work

I know! Pleased to report it is working now

Spent some with it tonight and have tested Ridge Racer & R-Types, the former with both CUE/BIN & CHD file. All working gloriously.

Not sure what happened but I left the unstable script and rbf file untouched. Then deleted the games folder for both the mSD and network storage and created a new folder on my server. This seems to have resolved the issue.

Metalface Mark · 25 Feb 2022 at 20:38

Weirdly I deleted my older builds and downloaded the latest and im getting the problem you had now , I’m just downloading the chds to try

Timber · 26 Feb 2022 at 00:32

Metalface Mark said:
Weirdly I deleted my older builds and downloaded the latest and im getting the problem you had now , I’m just downloading the chds to try

Yea, there are definitely a few people experiencing similar issues. For me neither CHD or BIN/CUE files worked beyond the SCE start-up sequence. Whereas now both work perfectly. Definitely some odd gremlins with this Core setup that hopefully disappear once it releases into the Update_all.

Metalface Mark · 26 Feb 2022 at 17:07

chd's worked fine, weird!

Zatoichi.uK · 2 Mar 2022 at 14:34

What cases are you guys using? I quite fancy a metal one now but the official one looks to be £85!

Metalface Mark · 2 Mar 2022 at 15:44

Zatoichi.uK said:
What cases are you guys using? I quite fancy a metal one now but the official one looks to be £85!

Ive got a mistercade and a basic plastic case for my two misters. Mistercade is good if you dont already have all the bits, otherwise a bit expensive, its mini itx though so you can use any case with that.

Zatoichi.uK · 2 Mar 2022 at 16:45

Don't you have to modify Mini ITX cases to fit the Mister? Also kind of tempted to stick it in a bartop cab. My RP3b+ is getting on a bit now...

Metalface Mark · 3 Mar 2022 at 11:03

Zatoichi.uK said:
Don't you have to modify Mini ITX cases to fit the Mister? Also kind of tempted to stick it in a bartop cab. My RP3b+ is getting on a bit now...

depends what io board you have, theres several that are mini itx.

Chaos · 1 Apr 2022 at 14:12

My Life In Gaming just released a 2 hour Mister video -

JoeBoi · 2 Apr 2022 at 12:18

Chaos said:
My Life In Gaming just released a 2 hour Mister video -

I started watching this last night, the videos these two put out are amazing. I found the insight on the Mega Drive core very interesting. Still got half the video to watch.

Timber · 2 Apr 2022 at 19:37

Chaos said:
My Life In Gaming just released a 2 hour Mister video

Ty for the heads-up.

I didn't watch it all as someone who's quite familiar with MiSTer, but I thought the section on video and audio settings was useful. I've been using no interpolation video filters before to stop shimmering, but it's a worth a watch. Particularly the audio part talking about the nuances of different audio settings.

Zatoichi.uK · 2 Apr 2022 at 22:08

I use the trinitron preset for most stuff. Looks great, though can be a tad dark on some games.

Cyber-Mav · 3 Apr 2022 at 15:22

does this play the same as using software emulator on pc or is there a different feel to the game when played on the mister?

Nemiyen · 3 Apr 2022 at 15:39

Cyber-Mav said:
does this play the same as using software emulator on pc or is there a different feel to the game when played on the mister?

Using the Mister is hardware level emulation so in theory IF the cores are coded correctly then the emulation is as good as the original device.

PC emulation is done in software and due to cpu cycles, hardware interrupts and a few other things it's supposedly not as close to fpga emulation that Mister does.

For most people it will look and work exactly the same though and you can still enjoy whatever it is you want to emulate both ways, providing the emulator or the core is coded correctly.