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MiSTer FPGA News – Clones, Future FPGAs and More Clones

Posted on by Lu

 

MiSTer Clone

Taki Udon posted mockups of the IO ports for the upcoming consolized MiSTer consoles. Included are ports for composite, component, VGA, HDMI and more.

There are 4 versions:
Budget versions that will accept either Genesis or SNES cartrdges. These are meant to support only one system.
A mainstream version that will have a sleeker design.
A handheld, which is not ready to be shown.
And a flagship version which is also not ready to be shown.

These consolized versions are different than the DE10 Nano alternative that’s also being developed.

 

Sega Mega Play

Shane Lynch is making progress reverse engineering the Sega Mega Play arcade hardware. He created a custom BIOS to analyze the hardware, got audio working for console games and Splatterhouse 2 is running on the hardware. This game did not get a Mega Play release. A MiSTer core is planned but that is a long term goal.

 

MARSFPGA

The MARSFPGA case, designed by Todd from RetroFrog, has been revealed. Several images have been shown that reveals the IO. It has RCA ports for composite and audio, VGA output, HDMI, 2 USB ports, Ethernet, and Power over USB-C. The console has a modular cartridge slot and a modular port for original console controllers. More details are available at Retro-gamer.jp, but the site is in Japanese, but you can use a Chrome web browser to translate the site.

 

CoinOp Collection

atrac17 posted an update regarding the CoinOP Collection. There was some refactoring done to Toaplan V2 games and a different version of Whoopee! was added to the Teki Paki core.

The next game being planned is Ghox, a game that plays like Arkanoid but with a different twist. After that game is implemented the following games will be worked on:

Dogyūn!! / Dogyuun
Knuckle Bash
FixEight
V-V / Grind Stormer
and Batsugun

Brandon Arnold joined the team and finished schematics for the Playstation ZN-1/ZN-2 arcade hardware and the CPS2-B DL-3129 chip.

atrac17 also clarified that the MiSTerFPGA will still be supported, but support will depend on developer workflow and technical limitations. However, source code will still be made available once complete and deemed suitable by the primary developer.

The public Patreon post has the full details.

 

AO486

A new OPL3 implementation by Greg Taylor is now being used on the AO486 core. The OPL3 is a FM sound chip that was used in the Adlib Gold, Sound Blaster 16 and other Sound Cards.

Update your MiSTer now to get this new OPL3 implementation.

 

System 18

Jotego released the first beta for the System 18 core. The first supported games are Shadow Dancer and Bloxeed.

There were also new games added to the JTSHOUSE core. These games are:
Quester, an Arkanoid clone supporting mouse and spinner control.
Bravo Man
and Tank Force, the Japanese version.

 

MiSTex

The Minimig-AGA Amiga core has been ported to Xilinx FPGA’s running the MiSTex project.

MiSTex is a fork of MiSTer whose goal is to be able to run cores on different FPGA chips and Hard Processor Systems.

 

Another DE10-Nano Clone

It looks like another low-cost DE10 Nano alternative is being developed. Being developed by QMTech, not much information is given, but there is a github with several pictures and design documents. The target price is $99 and the X account does ask for suggestions, so head over to the post if you would like to give yours.

 

Replay2 FPGA

FPGA Arcade has posted the latest info for their upcoming Replay 2 board.

This is a MiniITX FPGA board based on the Intel AgileX5 FPGA. Porting from MiSTer FPGA cores is meantioned to be easy.

Two versions are planned. A standard versions that’s roughly four times the size of the DE10-Nano used for MiSTer. And a lite versions that’s somewhat larger than that Cyclone V on the DE10-Nano.

 

TapTo

There is a new TapTo release. It is now at version 1.4 and whats new is:

A huge overhail to AMiibo handling and UI.
You can now match on criteria like game series and character.
TapTo now identifies game launches and commands like credit inserts separately.
And MGL files can be placed directly on a tag.