Lu

MiSTer FPGA News – FPGA Gameboy Color, DIY NFC, N64 and more!

Posted on by Lu

Megadrive

The following updates have been made to the Megadrive core.
– Fix SVP DMA.
– Tweaks and fixes in 4-way and Teamplayer multitaps.
– Rework reset (fixes X-Men final boss fight).
– fix for VGA interlaced video (Cray Elliott).

 

Linux

The Linux distro for MiSTer has added support for more gamepads thanks to James McCarthy and Shig.

 

Wizzo extensions

Wizzo’s MiSTer FPGA extensions has been updated to support Sega Saturn CHD’s and a new game search integration was added to the NFC UI script.

 

PSX Boot Rom

Uberyoji posted several development updates of the Playstation boot ISO. The 3D model of the MiSTer Kun cat has improved geometry and is now lit and colored. When this ISO is released, it is meant to be an alternate boot screen for the playstation core.

 

Jotego Core consolidation

Jotego has decided to consolidate some cores. This will not affect the way the games run, but will help Jotego maintain these cores better. The games being consolidated are Vulgus, 1942 and Higemaru. Jotego felt there were enough similarities between the hardware for these games to combine them into the new JT1942 core. If you are interested in what the differences are then check out the thread Jotego posted about it.

 

Nintendo 64

A missing CPU function that increases the throughput of the CPU has been implemented to the Nintendo 64 core. This change can improve the performance in some games, for example, in some scenes, the Starcraft frame rate increased from 30fps to 39fps.

Nintendo 64 microphone is now supported thanks to testing done by MiSTerDolch.

 

MiSTer Laggy

Martin Donlin posted a notice that MISTer Laggy’s are back in stock. This is a $12 lag testing device for any display that is plugged into the MISTer FPGA.
I created a video demonstrating it, so if you are interested, check it out.

 

FPGA Game Boy Color

An FPGA based gameboy color is coming soon. Being developed by Funny Playing it is meant to be an alternative to a gameboy color and will feature all of its functionality along with enhancements like an IPS screen, USB-C port and rechargeable battery. Since it does not an SD card slot, it will most likely not support cores for other systems.

I hope that if this device is using code from open source cores that it abides by the license and the proper credit is given. Unfortunately it’s firmware is currently encrypted and the company went out of its way to hide what FPGA chip it is using, but users in the FPGAGaming discord were able to identify it.

YouTubers Mahko and Taki Udon have videos of the device you can check out.

 

Saturn & N64 Game Tracking

There are some game compatibility spreadsheets for the Saturn and N64 core that will help you identify if your favorite games are working.

You get info, like if a game is playable, completable and other important info that will help with the core.

 

Wizzo NFC Scanner Guide

Wizzo now has a guide on creating your very own NFC scanner, that can be used to launch games directly from an NFC card. This scanner is also much smaller than the ones you can get on Amazon and therefore can be implemented easier in projects like arcade cabinets or into small cases.