MISTer FPGA?

D_I_O

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I have to do a bit more research but I'll probably pick one of these up, I saw there is an Amiga core anyone have first hamd experience with it? Because hell if that works I mightget instead of an Amiga for space reasons more than anything.
 

shelcoof

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Would the upcoming Neo-Geo core suffice?

Nah... going to take more than that. I'm sure their going to need more time fine tuning that core as well.

Mister is in its very infant stage. Even the hardware looks incomplete and undecided with all these add-ons. Its far too complex and undeveloped.

Going to wait for the final tuning of it before I jump on

Until then... I have a very tiny PC that emulates everything I want near perfectly
 

RAZO

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Man, all this talk about Mister had me curious. I ordered the stuff and set it up like 2 weeks ago. I've been messing around with it and I'm a believer. I've been comparing it to some of the arcade and console stuff I still own and it's pretty much been on point. I'm testing it out on my Samsung Led and PVM and both have been solid. Although I prefer the PVM because of how beautiful the cores look with the natural scanlines, playing on the Led is great. I played Punch Out for the first time on a HDTV with no lag issues. It was glorious.

This device really has potential. Some cores like X86k are running but still require alot of work. I've been messing around with some of the new JT CPS2 cores and so far so good.
 

ShootTheCore

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I agree - the MiSTer definitely lives up to the hype. Well, with the well-maintained cores anyway. I never got much into software emulation because it always "felt off" but with most MiSTer cores I doubt I'd ever be able to tell the difference from original hardware in a blind side-by-side matchup. It's getting harder to justify Everdrives for OG consoles when the MiSTer gives you the same functionality. I'm still keeping my original games and consoles for now at least but I expect a day will come where something will snap where I'll sell it all and just keep the MiSTer.
 

Gremlin

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I will suck Mister's cawk every chance I get, if you're at all interested then it's completely worth it. I'm mostly in it for the arcade stuff, and as hard as it's been since I'm emotionally attached to the big stupid plastic carts, I've been slowly shuffling my MVS games away after I did a hard side-by-side with my 4 slot and I could not tell a difference at all. The Capcom CPS1 and CPS1.5 cores are so good that it's completely cooled any desire to pick up any of them, and I don't have the real deal DoDonPachi pcb because I'm a dirty poor but it plays fantastically and I can't imagine anyone besides Japanese superplayers complaining about the implementation.

The value proposition of Mister is insane for someone who's been priced out of the market cause of shelf queens, if you just want to play games authentically then it's a no brainer. I still love my real hardware but when issues start appearing with your expensive, fragile shit it makes you evaluate why you even bother

Also don't understand the "complex" complaints, maybe I'm just more technically inclined but the update-all script will massage your titties for you while it grabs everything. It'll even download the correct arcade roms like a wizard. From someone who's set up Pi's and GroovyMame it's really not that bad
 
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RAZO

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I agree - the MiSTer definitely lives up to the hype. Well, with the well-maintained cores anyway. I never got much into software emulation because it always "felt off" but with most MiSTer cores I doubt I'd ever be able to tell the difference from original hardware in a blind side-by-side matchup. It's getting harder to justify Everdrives for OG consoles when the MiSTer gives you the same functionality. I'm still keeping my original games and consoles for now at least but I expect a day will come where something will snap where I'll sell it all and just keep the MiSTer.
I will suck Mister's cawk every chance I get, if you're at all interested then it's completely worth it. I'm mostly in it for the arcade stuff, and as hard as it's been since I'm emotionally attached to the big stupid plastic carts, I've been slowly shuffling my MVS games away after I did a hard side-by-side with my 4 slot and I could not tell a difference at all. The Capcom CPS1 and CPS1.5 cores are so good that it's completely cooled any desire to pick up any of them, and I don't have the real deal DoDonPachi pcb because I'm a dirty poor but it plays fantastically and I can't imagine anyone besides Japanese superplayers complaining about the implementation.

The value proposition of Mister is insane for someone who's been priced out of the market cause of shelf queens, if you just want to play games authentically then it's a no brainer. I still love my real hardware but when issues start appearing with your expensive, fragile shit it makes you evaluate why you even bother

Also don't understand the "complex" complaints, maybe I'm just more technically inclined but the update-all script will massage your titties for you while it grabs everything. It'll even download the correct arcade roms like a wizard. From someone who's set up Pi's and GroovyMame it's really not that bad

I feel you guys. I'm strongly contemplating on whether I should keep the rest of my arcade stuff. I don't have much left anyways outside of a few superguns and CPS2 multi's, a 2 slot mvs, and like 10 or so carts that I'm selling. Don't have any cabs anymore and just want to still be able to play on the crt's I have left. This mister device does all that and saves space. Going to just keep the Aes and few carts because it's some of the cooler stuff I still own and I think that's it boys.
 

ChuChu Flamingo

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I agree - the MiSTer definitely lives up to the hype. Well, with the well-maintained cores anyway. I never got much into software emulation because it always "felt off" but with most MiSTer cores I doubt I'd ever be able to tell the difference from original hardware in a blind side-by-side matchup. It's getting harder to justify Everdrives for OG consoles when the MiSTer gives you the same functionality. I'm still keeping my original games and consoles for now at least but I expect a day will come where something will snap where I'll sell it all and just keep the MiSTer.

You really need the right setup for software emulation to be imperceivable for good emulators . Usually that means a powerful computer to take advantage of runahead/frame delay,, 120 hz monitor/crt for video output, low-lag controller input and windows 7. Also outputting the correct refresh rate with groovymame or its alternatives to your monitor.
 

ShootTheCore

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You really need the right setup for software emulation to be imperceivable for good emulators . Usually that means a powerful computer to take advantage of runahead/frame delay,, 120 hz monitor/crt for video output, low-lag controller input and windows 7. Also outputting the correct refresh rate with groovymame or its alternatives to your monitor.

Oh believe me - I tried all the tricks there for a while. I had a highly tuned Groovymame setup at one point based around a Core i5, AMD card with custom BIOS and a JPAC running to an 15kHz arcade monitor (there's an old thread on here somewhere that I wrote up when I was putting it together). But it still always flunked my "feels off" test. OCD is a bitch.

I'm one of the beta testers for the MiSTercade JAMMA add-on now and it delivers equal-if-not-better results to Groovymame in a CRT arcade cab on the maintained cores with a LOT less setup, configuration and tuning effort. Groovymame still kills MiSTer in terms of the quantity of arcade games supported and menu options though.
 

ChuChu Flamingo

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I don't really consider mame a good emulator in terms of accuracy. In terms of playability and feeling good to play with groovymame yeah. A lot of games have speedhacks or weird problems. Like Violent Storm having crunchy music whenever beating bosses/visual glitches, CPS1/CPS2 not having wait states emulated right (which affects accurate slowdown), very wrong speed on Street fighter 2 Hyper Fighting etc.

Doesn't surprise me really. Remember mame is supposed to be preservation, playing is a secondary effect according to the current developers lol. Atleast jotego lit a fire underneath their ass and some of his work got ported to mame for CPS1 iirc.

But yeah groovymame isn't perfect and the frame delay needs tweaking per game as each mame driver runs at a different speed unthrottled.
 
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Gremlin

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Since this seems to be the official NG Mister thread, wanted to give a heads up that Jotego randomly dropped a beta Shinobi core on Sega System 16 hardware - good times ahead folks. Everyone will be creaming over Golden Axe and Altered Beast but I can't wait to be able to play Alien Syndrome and Fantasy Zone.
 

Neo Alec

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Youtubers with the Analog FPGA consoles act like they're as good as the real thing (perhaps because of how ironed out and well-established those console cores are). My Life in Gaming gave me some doubts about the bulletproof 'as good as the real thing' status of FPGA in their latest episode of Analog Frontiers, comparing it against software emulation. I don't know. I suppose in general the cores being made now are more than good enough, especially when they're out of beta status.

 

ChuChu Flamingo

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People need to keep in mind fpga is a different means to an end than software emulation.The cores are only as good as they are programmed. It definitely has the potential to be more accurate in theory just by how it inherently works. For one it doesn't have to go through layers of obfuscation in operating systems.

Do you think most FPGA authors are as meticulous as Jotego or Kevtris (analogue mini/super nt mini) and a few others i've forgot? Even though analogue isn't on the mister it can show the downfalls of HDL code. The later is also massively easier to make then most arcade shit imo. The super NT mini had various problems from what I remember due to how the HDL logic was implemented to simulate hardware. He seemed to have fixed most of the problem games now. Even the CPS1 core isn't 1:1 although we are fast approaching it.

I just don't see most core authors going the extra autistic length unless there is an incentive. It is a lot of work. It makes sense most console cores are good since most are well documented. The same cannot be said with arcade shit. Someone is going to need to probe these custom chips on the arcade boards to verify shit much how Jotego did.

With that said mister is real nice for what it is. Much like emulation on a PC it is a nice compliment to my physical collection. Like you I have my qualms about people saying boomer shit like bulletproof about it as well. Even a bulletproof vest isn't bulletproof.
 
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Neo Alec

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Do you think most FPGA authors are as meticulous as Jotego or Kevtris (analogue mini/super nt mini) and a few others i've forgot?
They are really the only FPGA core authors I know, so I'm kind of curious who the others are you're referring to. People who worked on old arcade cores, I guess?

Probably one of the biggest advantages of FPGA vs software is input lag. So even if you are playing a buggy core, at least it might be responsive.

I assume most will say that most current FPGA implementation is more than accurate enough, and I suppose I generally agree. I just want to be cautious about the assumption that FPGA is always identical to the original, because obviously it isn't. As you point out, the attention of the core author can make all the difference.
 

GohanX

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I got one of these a couple of weeks ago finally, it's great. But it's really more console-centric, the console cores all seem to be mature and very close to perfect, while the arcade cores are mostly 70s and 80s games and all over the place. CPS1 is solid, and the beta Shinobi core isn't (yet) perfect but I'd still take it over emulation at the moment.

I've been a fan of Pi setups for years now, and after tweaking mine were very, very close to indistinguishable from the original systems. This Mister, with very little setup (seriously, it's much easier than a Pi) and it absolutely is indistinguishable from the original systems for me. It's telling that I have an actual SNES system with a SD2SNES right next to the Mister and I'd rather use the Mister.
 

HornheaDD

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I just found out about the MisterCade. And naturally it's sold out.
 

Jeneki

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Been farting around with a mister build over the last few weeks. Very nice piece of tech. Mostly good with a bit of weirdness, as I've run into a few bugs on certain arcade cores. But this project is still young enough that I'm willing to forgive minor bugs, considering the massive amount of cores supported in such a short time frame. It'll be replacing my old travel solution (laptop emulation).
 

Lastblade

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Just got one, need to watch some videos on how to set it up! Is there a max size of Sd card I should be aware of or just get the biggest one?
 

Jeneki

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CPS2 core got released to the public today. Congratulations to everyone who made it possible. :buttrock:

It's still considered in beta, so if you're using the update_all script to make updates easy, you might need to change a setting to get beta cores.
 

mr_b

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I've been wanting to try out the cps2 core but it doesn't do anything when launching a cps2 game. There really is no error message. It just kicks back to the main mister menu where you can select (Arcade,Computer, Console, etc). I have the rbf file in _Arcade/Cores and mra files in _Arcade. I've tried placing the roms in multiple spots like _Arcade/mame as mentioned in the readme as well as ./games/mame/

The CPS1 core works fine without issue and I used that for trying to troubleshoot file location. Anyone have a problem with the CPS2 core?
 

mesmer

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Has anyone compared the mistercade vs using something like the jpac for hooking up to a jamma cab? Jpac is only $60 i think.

Also, what is the point in a neosd now that mister is so good, you are either emulating just the cart in fpga or the whole system...
 

ShootTheCore

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I've used a JPAC with my MiSTer and I'm one of the beta testers for the MiSTercade add-on. Here's the pros and cons:

J-PAC advantages versus MiSTercade
- J-PAC is cheaper
- J-PAC can be used for more things besides just MiSTer (eg. Raspberry Pi, PC)

J-PAC disadvantages versus MiSTercade
- J-PAC has more cables to connect and manage compared to MiSTercade
- J-PAC doesn't pass mono audio through the JAMMA harness - you have to handle audio separately. MiSTercade has an on-board amplifier with volume dial to drive mono JAMMA audio but also provides RCA stereo line-level ports for cabs with stereo amps.
- MiSTercade implements kick harness and CHAMMA support for 6 button fighting games. J-PAC is 4 button only.
- MiSTercade implements special control signal (Down + Start) to call up the MiSTer menu.
- MiSTercade implements coin mechanism and coin counter support for cabs that have them. J-PAC does not.
- MiSTercade will have drag-and-drop of all necessary configuration files to instantly setup video output and control bindings. J-PAC requires manual setup and manual control binding.
- MiSTercade includes hardware buttons (Menu, OSD, Reset), 3.5mm headphone jack, VGA output (for 31khz cabs) and digital TOSLINK audio on the PCB. You have to purchase an IO board to get those features on a MiSTer otherwise.
- MiSTercade includes a heat sink and cooling fan for the FPGA chip. Those must be purchased seperately otherwise.

As for the MiSTer's Neo Geo core, it still has some audio glitches that you don't get in real hardware, but it's overall polished and works great most of the time. Given the other cores besides Neo Geo you get with MiSTer, it's fantastic bang-for-buck.
 
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Ajax

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I thought the primary advantage of the Mistercade was less input lag when compared to JPAC. Never heard definitively on that though.

It's a bummer that you can't buy a Mistercade. I've been checking on the page close to every day, but no dice.
 

mesmer

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Here's the pros and cons:
Thanks for the rundown! I have an IO board for my mister, and would use a stereo amp for audio either way.

> to instantly setup video output
I thought the j-pac was essentially a pass-through video amp and all the configuration would be on the mister anyway?
 

ShootTheCore

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It's a bummer that you can't buy a Mistercade. I've been checking on the page close to every day, but no dice.
I think PorkchopExpress will open up another round of orders soon-ish. It still isn’t shipping yet-he wants it to be 100% right before releasing it. Input lag is less than 1 ms on MiSTercade; not sure what it is on a JPAC.
> to instantly setup video output
I thought the j-pac was essentially a pass-through video amp and all the configuration would be on the mister anyway?
A JPAC only accepts 15khz video so depending on what cores you’re using you may have to customize your mister.ini file. Every core also has to be bound manually the first time you use it.

With the MiSTecade, all the config files and bindings for all the MiSTer cores have already been setup in advance, so you just drag and drop the config files onto the SD card, add your ROMs, plug it into your cab and play. You can still override the control bindings if you want to, but the testers are trying to make sure the MiSTercade default bindings are smart ones with each core.
 
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