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March 28, 2024, 03:27:24 PM

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RMC's FPGA Gaming Console

Started by Sebastian Cobb, October 01, 2021, 03:29:17 PM

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Sebastian Cobb

Has anyone else seen this? I've gone on about the Mister DE-10 before, which is an FPGA-based system that can hardware-emulate nearly every pre-psx system. Being hardware-emulated rather than software means everything's truer to the original system, if not indistinguishable.

What the Bob Ross of retro restoration has done is take the development kit and spec some extra changes and expansions to the board and package it in a console form factor.

The expansions add interchangeable modules that can be used to add original controller ports to the machine etc.

This seems to be great as it gets over the limitations of the 'mini consoles' and hopefully satisfies the 'I don't want to fuck around with something like a raspberry pi to just play some games' crew.

First look video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDIz8WY6zLE&t=622s
Launch/FAQ video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzbuHErNQGs&t=10s

Cold Meat Platter

That looks great. £140+VAT isn't that bad either. It all seemed a faff when I looked into it a while back.
Input lag really irritates me when I notice it so this intrigues and tantalises me.

beanheadmcginty

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on October 01, 2021, 03:29:17 PM
the Bob Ross of retro restoration

This is such a perfect description of the man. I watch his videos religiously even though I have zero interest in playing the games of my childhood.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on October 01, 2021, 04:42:21 PM
This is such a perfect description of the man. I watch his videos religiously even though I have zero interest in playing the games of my childhood.

I feel I owe Buzby some credit for that one as I think he coined it in a youtube thread!

Sebastian Cobb

#4
Quote from: Cold Meat Platter on October 01, 2021, 04:20:11 PM
That looks great. £140+VAT isn't that bad either. It all seemed a faff when I looked into it a while back.
Input lag really irritates me when I notice it so this intrigues and tantalises me.

Looking at it, that's the expansion board, so you'll still need a DE-10 nano board with the actual FPGA on it. Digikey seem to sell them for £120. You'll probably want the case, which is another £35. So probably looking nearer £300.

But when you consider the mister and the ram runs to about 100 quid and it's another 30 quid for the usb hub, it's not a bad deal at all.

I'd have probably already snapped up the mister+ram+de10 if it was about £50 cheaper than it is without even thinking but it's just about in the level where I keep umming and ahing about it.

Cold Meat Platter

Yeah I've gone off it now.
Complete load of old fucking bollocks for cunts.
Cheers.

Pinball

Quote from: Cold Meat Platter on October 01, 2021, 10:37:28 PM
Yeah I've gone off it now.
Complete load of old fucking bollocks for cunts.
Cheers.
Sure, but mate, your avatar...

Cold Meat Platter


madhair60

Not meaning this in a snide way but it's genuinely funny how this went from "console form factor to improve on mini consoles" to "well, only this one component is £140, you'll also need this additional string of meaningless letters..."

I'm still not sold on this FPGA stuff. I still think software emulation will be the way to go for the foreseeable.

It's still emulation at the end of the day and is only as accurate as the guy backwards engineering the chips and creating the cores. It's definitely something to keep an eye on, but right now, it's too early to jump over for me.

You can be accurate to a fault as well. Most of the old stuff ran at 60hz with vsync on and had high input lag. With software emulation you can crank up the refresh rate, turn off vsync, even use run ahead if you're that bothered.

I'd have to try it for myself, but I've got some really nippy versions of mame that I'm more than happy with and this needs to offer me something better and more convenient with a greater library of games, which currently it doesn't do.

Definitely something to keep an eye on. Would be great if one day they made a FPGA pci board that you just slotted into your pc.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: madhair60 on October 02, 2021, 09:34:38 AM
Not meaning this in a snide way but it's genuinely funny how this went from "console form factor to improve on mini consoles" to "well, only this one component is £140, you'll also need this additional string of meaningless letters..."

That's only the basic kit we were talking about, they do a deluxe one where you get everything you need to get going and a load of accessories. I wouldn't be surprised if they start offering something in the middle, enough to get you going without the add-ons and things like a big SD card (as you may already have one etc).

In terms of price it does seem a bit steep but if you put it in terms of mini consoles, you get every retro console for just over the cost of about two of them.

I suppose you're right to a degree, it probably is aimed at people with a bit more technical acumen than an off the shelf mini console, but I think there's a bit of crossover there maybe at the more technically minded part of the customer base that simply can't be arsed setting up a rpi or whatever. I'd like to say perhaps it'd get more user-friendly if take-up is good but it's probably too niche and expensive.

Chedney Honks

Finally the definitive emulation box!

Pinball

Their most expensive offering @ £454.80 is still a kit. It would be nice to be able to buy a built version for that money.

https://rmcretro.store/multisystem-deluxe-package-board-3d-printed-case-de10-nano-psu/

Here's an interesting option:

https://www.d3fmod.com/mini-itx-ironclad-plus/

Another consolised Mister, but designed to fit into a mini ITX (and, by extension, Micro ATX or ATX) case of your choice.

Cold Meat Platter

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on October 02, 2021, 10:35:33 AM
I'm still not sold on this FPGA stuff. I still think software emulation will be the way to go for the foreseeable.

It's still emulation at the end of the day and is only as accurate as the guy backwards engineering the chips and creating the cores. It's definitely something to keep an eye on, but right now, it's too early to jump over for me.

You can be accurate to a fault as well. Most of the old stuff ran at 60hz with vsync on and had high input lag. With software emulation you can crank up the refresh rate, turn off vsync, even use run ahead if you're that bothered.

I'd have to try it for myself, but I've got some really nippy versions of mame that I'm more than happy with and this needs to offer me something better and more convenient with a greater library of games, which currently it doesn't do.

Definitely something to keep an eye on. Would be great if one day they made a FPGA pci board that you just slotted into your pc.

What versions of MAME ae you using?

I use shmupmame 4.2 mostly, and I've got a build of mame 0191 for newer stuff.