Lu

MiSTer FPGA News & Updates – TMNT Images, SNES MSU-1, PC XT and More

Posted on by Lu

Alpha Mission Core Released and Converted to Multi-Game Core

Core developer RndMnkIII has switched his Alpha Mission core to a multi-game SNK arcade core. It will encompass the so-called SNK Triple Z80 platform that groups several games developed by SNK in the mid-1980s. Some of the games included in that platform are:

Alpha Mission, IKari Warriors, Guerilla War, Victory Road and more.

So far only Alpha Mission is supported.

MiSTer Core Development

MiSTer Retro Wolf has released episode 13 of his MiSTer Core development series. In this video he tackles hardware addressing, the usefulness of MAME for FPGA core development and you will do your first core launch.

If you have any interest in FPGA development and MiSTer core development, check these videos out.

PlayStation Core is Official!

The PlayStation core for MiSTer is no longer in beta and can finally be officially downloaded the next time you update your MiSTer FPGA. 

It was a core that several years ago was unknown if it would’ve been possible to fit on the DE10 Nanos FPGA chip. And after seeing that it was feasible, 2 RAM sticks seemed like it was going to be a requirement.

But thanks to the dedicated hard work done by Robert Peip, he made the core possible with only 1 RAM stick and added some additional optional features that are not on an original Playstation like save states, a CPU data cache for faster frame rates, texture filtering to smooth out blocky textures, widescreen support and more.

New PC XT Core in Development

Spark2k06 on the MiSTerFPGA forums has started development of a MiSTer PCXT core. The PCXT was IBM’s second computer in its Personal Computer line and was released in 1983.

It had an Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.66 MHz, 128 to 640KB of RAM, 10MB hard drive, MDA or CGA graphics and a PC speaker for sound.

Jotego Updates

Core developer Jotego has been busy working on multiple cores. He and others have been doing work on the Sega System 18 schematics directly from the PCB. He expects it will take the whole month working full time to complete the schematics.

The Sega System 18 board ran arcade games like Shadow Dancer, Alien Storm, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker and others.

For the Neo Geo Pocket progress, 93% CPU instructions are implemented, so we are really close to having a Neo Geo Pocket CPU implementation.

MiSTer Multisystem and Portable Updates

RMC – The Cave has posted a video that updates us on the MiSTer Portable device that’s being worked on and also their current MISTer Multisystem IO Board.

For the MiSTer Multisystem, they talk about the s-video/composite cartridge, the MT32 pi cartridge and other accessories they are planning for the future.

For the MiSTer portable, they go over the evolution of the prototypes they’ve built so far. Keep in mind that this is super early in development and nothing is set in stone so they are asking for the community’s suggestions on what they want in a MiSTer portable. You can post your suggestions on their twitter account.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Core

Furrtek, has posted the first in-game pictures for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles core. They are currently generated through simulation and not yet running on a DE10 Nano yet, but it’s cool seeing the journey core developers go on when creating an FPGA core. 

Unstable SNES MSU-1 Core Build

If you want to try out MSU-1 Audio on the SNES core, there is an unstable nightly build that you can download from the MiSTer discord that has the feature built-in. You will also need an unstable nightly build of the Main MISTer software for it to work.

The MSU-1 is a custom virtual co-processor that gives the SNES the ability to playback CD quality audio as well as addressing 4GB of data which can be streamed for full motion video playback. Think about it as what a SNES CD add-on could’ve been.

Other Miscellaneous MiSTer Updates and Fixes

And other cores getting miscellaneous fixes and updates are:

There have been many updates and fixes for the arcade cores

Finalizer – Super Transformation
Iron Horse
And Jackal

The Main MiSTer software has added fixes that help with the PlayStation core.
A path fix for TurboGrafx 16 CD files was fixed for MiSTer Game Launcher files.
There is initial support for driving wheels, this I will have to revisit because I tried driving wheel support in AO486 and it didn’t work well.
There were more fixes, by David Shadoff, for the turbografx16 CD core.
And fixes to help CRT light guns by Nolan Nicholson.