MiSTer FPGA?

[SuperDerpBro]

I've been mulling over buying an AVS, Super NT and now a Mega SG for like.. ever. Recently I found out about the MiSTer project. Seems pretty danged cool. Anyone here tried it out?

[bmoc]

I haven't tried it out myself but I have watched a few youtube videos about it over the past few months. It is pretty neat but at this point it is more work than I am willing to put into it. I definitely see it gaining in popularity as its FPGA cores improve and kits become more readily available. Maybe when the NeoGeo core is released and stable, I'll give it another look.

[SuperDerpBro]

Dang. I was hoping they were using the same cores :/

[Jagosaurus]

Sorry for my late reply.

I'd recommend watching the GameSack video on it. Joe does a solid job of explaining their ecosystem. Awesome, in depth video as always from him.
https://youtu.be/dibLXWdX5-M

Also, here's the RB article on it:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/mister-f ... eservation

[SuperDerpBro]

Yea, i saw those after i posted. Doesn't seem ready to me. I bought a cheap (220 CAD) micro PC with a i3-8100T to run RetroArch on instead (for now).

[Shogun]

I got one a while back. Just with the de10-nano you can do genesis and tg-16 emulation among a number of other systems. I ordered the SDRAM off someone on ebay and can do everything else now. I have to say I am really impressed! The development on this thing hasn't been that long and the number of people programming for it is pretty small. There is really good documentation to get you going but the more advanced stuff is a bit lacking. I really like the filters & scanlines and am trying to figure out how to tweak them. I bought the de10-nano, a $6 usb hub, and the SDRAM. I think in total it came out to around $170. I've got the video card add-on to hook it up to my crt on order from mister-addons but still waiting to ship. I also had no problem hooking up both a wireless keyboard and wireless controller to that same $6 usb hub. Only thing I am sorely needing is save states. I am too shoddy to be any good at many of these games!

[marurun]

I think once someone offers an affordable, easy-to-construct or pre-made kit, that's when it will really take off.

[SuperDerpBro]

^probably.

I think i made the right choice (for me) though. i'm in love with RetroArch's excellent CRT shaders, RetroAchievements and less than OG hardware/CRT input lag. I can't think of anything better for Atari to PS1.

[nickfil]

I'm bringing this dead thread back from the grave!

I've been using a MiSTer for about a week now and have a bunch of thoughts on it, but the TLDR is that I love it- and it has straight up replaced some of my original hardware.

At first I was pretty anti-fpga stuff. I wanted original hardware only. Eventually I had some extra money and just kind of walked into the Analgoue Nt mini noir going on sale, so I pre ordered. Now, the NES needs *a lot* of work to pull a good looking RGB video signal out of it. And the alternative to modding the console is to get one of two FPGA based consoles. The NT noir (if you can find one), or the Retro USB AVS (which, while good, only puts out a 720p singal). This is kind of how I justified cracking the door open for FPGA, and the NT noir is what switched me over to more seriously considering picking up a mister. I installed the jailbreak. Started booting up gameboy cores, gamegear cores. Was really enjoying it. They added Famicom disk system support, which was really great! Here is the thing though- I wasn't ever plugging in a single cart to the machine. I never pulled one off the shelf and played it. The FPGA was *so good* at what it was doing I'd just load a rom and go! I had a raspberry pi, but this felt different. It felt right. But still- the NT noir didn't do everything I wanted. I was looking for Turbografix16 stuff in particular, and it just doesn't have that core. I never had a Turbografix16 growing up and wanted to try the library, but didn't really want to collect it.

A year or so after getting that analogue console- I bought a junked SNES. Cleaned, re-shelled, re-capped it and brought it back from the brink. I have a few SNES carts, but started to look up how much flash carts were and could not shake this feeling that spending 250 bucks on a cart is 250 bucks I should dump into the MiSTer. So I jumped. No flash cart for the SNES. Lets try the MiSTer.

A week after getting the MiSTer I'm boxing up my genesis, snes, and nt noir for storage. The thing just flat out replaced them. It has an analogue signal in addition to hdmi, so I plugged right into my PVM and did everything those systems did and more. The lag with the controller is under a frame with the wireless controllers I'm using. It doesn't exist with the SNAC port. Navigating the UI is easy. Cheats and save states (if they are on the core) are so easy to use. One of the things that seemed intimidating to me was setting up the arcade cores. I've wrestled with mame enough in the raspberry pi to know that sometimes a game can get complicated or only kinda work. The MiSTer was like a dream! I ran a script, it pulled not only the cores for me to play those arcade boards, but the bios (for everything) and the actual games down from the internet archive. I didn't have to do anything. They just updated ready to play. All I ever had to do after running the update scripts was drop roms/isos for the consoles into the library. I never have slowdown. I never have problems. Everything *just works*.

I've got a CPSII Arcade cab that I'm thinking of putting a second MiSTer into tbh.

If it was just Nes/Snes/Genesis/Sega CD stuff though- I'd be kinda medium on it. I have those systems. I don't need to replace them. But the reality is I replaced them, and added the capcom playsystem 1 and 2, pc engine, wonderswan, pc-88, zx spectrum, x6800, neo geo. Its bonkers. If you love retro games, you have to pick one up.

I haven't tried the MT-32pi yet- but its on my short list. The project attaches a raspberry pi to the SNAC port and will output Roland MT-32 midi sound for compatible games. This is the kind of old computer stuff I always wanted to get into, but never had the space to dedicate to. Plus, a lot of that stuff is getting expensive, and extremely delicate. Not only that, but if I ever wanted to try a real Roland MT-32 with the mister, I can hook that up!

I will say- the one thing from the MiSTer that is kind of a double edge sword is that the analogue out on it is set in stone. It is whatever the original hardware put out. So if the arcade board of pac man needs a tate mode monitor, you are locked into that. You can't flip it in the options. If a core puts out a funky signal because it is a PAL region, or an odd 80s machine, you are locked into that. This is very apparent on handhelds, as the gameboy core has thick borders on my CRT. It is after all only 140 pixels tall! HDMI works like a dream for all these devices though, giving you a bunch of options.

There are a few things that have me especially excited that are coming this year for the MiSTer. A few cores- the NGPC, PSX, and PC-Engine CD (i think) should all be coming this year at some point. The other thing that is just getting off the ground is guncon2 support. You can currently use lightguns, but they have to be specific to the system. I can plug in my konami justifier into the SNAC port and play lightguns on the genesis and sega cd, but have to change to the NES zapper to play duck hunt. I like lightgun games, but keeping a lightgun for every system is kinda a pain, and some of them aren't great peripherals. Apparently the guncon2 is getting folded into every core. I'm not sure how that works, but I'm excited for it. It is experimental now, but will absolutely be a selling feature.

So yeah- from someone who was anti fpga, and felt like the raspberry pi felt wrong..... I'm all in on the MiSTer. Try one. I think its better than putting money into an array of analogue systems, and maybe the best piece of equipment for retro game preservation I've ever seen.

[Melek-Ric]

I'm bringing this dead thread back from the grave!

I've been using a MiSTer for about a week now and have a bunch of thoughts on it, but the TLDR is that I love it- and it has straight up replaced some of my original hardware.

At first I was pretty anti-fpga stuff. I wanted original hardware only. Eventually I had some extra money and just kind of walked into the Analgoue Nt mini noir going on sale, so I pre ordered. Now, the NES needs *a lot* of work to pull a good looking RGB video signal out of it. And the alternative to modding the console is to get one of two FPGA based consoles. The NT noir (if you can find one), or the Retro USB AVS (which, while good, only puts out a 720p singal). This is kind of how I justified cracking the door open for FPGA, and the NT noir is what switched me over to more seriously considering picking up a mister. I installed the jailbreak. Started booting up gameboy cores, gamegear cores. Was really enjoying it. They added Famicom disk system support, which was really great! Here is the thing though- I wasn't ever plugging in a single cart to the machine. I never pulled one off the shelf and played it. The FPGA was *so good* at what it was doing I'd just load a rom and go! I had a raspberry pi, but this felt different. It felt right. But still- the NT noir didn't do everything I wanted. I was looking for Turbografix16 stuff in particular, and it just doesn't have that core. I never had a Turbografix16 growing up and wanted to try the library, but didn't really want to collect it.

A year or so after getting that analogue console- I bought a junked SNES. Cleaned, re-shelled, re-capped it and brought it back from the brink. I have a few SNES carts, but started to look up how much flash carts were and could not shake this feeling that spending 250 bucks on a cart is 250 bucks I should dump into the MiSTer. So I jumped. No flash cart for the SNES. Lets try the MiSTer.

A week after getting the MiSTer I'm boxing up my genesis, snes, and nt noir for storage. The thing just flat out replaced them. It has an analogue signal in addition to hdmi, so I plugged right into my PVM and did everything those systems did and more. The lag with the controller is under a frame with the wireless controllers I'm using. It doesn't exist with the SNAC port. Navigating the UI is easy. Cheats and save states (if they are on the core) are so easy to use. One of the things that seemed intimidating to me was setting up the arcade cores. I've wrestled with mame enough in the raspberry pi to know that sometimes a game can get complicated or only kinda work. The MiSTer was like a dream! I ran a script, it pulled not only the cores for me to play those arcade boards, but the bios (for everything) and the actual games down from the internet archive. I didn't have to do anything. They just updated ready to play. All I ever had to do after running the update scripts was drop roms/isos for the consoles into the library. I never have slowdown. I never have problems. Everything *just works*.

I've got a CPSII Arcade cab that I'm thinking of putting a second MiSTer into tbh.

If it was just Nes/Snes/Genesis/Sega CD stuff though- I'd be kinda medium on it. I have those systems. I don't need to replace them. But the reality is I replaced them, and added the capcom playsystem 1 and 2, pc engine, wonderswan, pc-88, zx spectrum, x6800, neo geo. Its bonkers. If you love retro games, you have to pick one up.

I haven't tried the MT-32pi yet- but its on my short list. The project attaches a raspberry pi to the SNAC port and will output Roland MT-32 midi sound for compatible games. This is the kind of old computer stuff I always wanted to get into, but never had the space to dedicate to. Plus, a lot of that stuff is getting expensive, and extremely delicate. Not only that, but if I ever wanted to try a real Roland MT-32 with the mister, I can hook that up!

I will say- the one thing from the MiSTer that is kind of a double edge sword is that the analogue out on it is set in stone. It is whatever the original hardware put out. So if the arcade board of pac man needs a tate mode monitor, you are locked into that. You can't flip it in the options. If a core puts out a funky signal because it is a PAL region, or an odd 80s machine, you are locked into that. This is very apparent on handhelds, as the gameboy core has thick borders on my CRT. It is after all only 140 pixels tall! HDMI works like a dream for all these devices though, giving you a bunch of options.

There are a few things that have me especially excited that are coming this year for the MiSTer. A few cores- the NGPC, PSX, and PC-Engine CD (i think) should all be coming this year at some point. The other thing that is just getting off the ground is guncon2 support. You can currently use lightguns, but they have to be specific to the system. I can plug in my konami justifier into the SNAC port and play lightguns on the genesis and sega cd, but have to change to the NES zapper to play duck hunt. I like lightgun games, but keeping a lightgun for every system is kinda a pain, and some of them aren't great peripherals. Apparently the guncon2 is getting folded into every core. I'm not sure how that works, but I'm excited for it. It is experimental now, but will absolutely be a selling feature.

So yeah- from someone who was anti fpga, and felt like the raspberry pi felt wrong..... I'm all in on the MiSTer. Try one. I think its better than putting money into an array of analogue systems, and maybe the best piece of equipment for retro game preservation I've ever seen. :arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

You, along with all the other coverage of the Mister have convinced me that this is the future of retro gaming. I am probably going to order one soon and then offload the consoles I own, it'll replace. I'll keep ones from 6th gen on. Probably buy an N64 one day. I read N64 won't be possible on the Mister.