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MiSTer FPGA News & Updates – Apple IIgs, Track & Field, Next186 & More

Posted on by Lu

Apple IIgs core

Twitter user pierco, is working on an FPGA recreation of the Apple IIgs. He hopes to have a MiSTer core come out of this project. At the moment he just has the CPU boot sequence complete.

GunCon 2 and 3 Drivers Officially Added

Guncon 2 and 3 drivers have officially been added. Previously you had to download a separate driver from the developers github in order to get them working. That had the side effect of disabling some of the wireless features of MiSTer. Now owners of GunCon 2 and 3 light guns can just update their MiSTer and be able to configure and use the peripherals.

PSX Core updates

The Playstation core is getting close to an official release and the developer is pretty much just fixing bugs to get it ready for an official release. You can still try out the unstable nightly build of the core if you don’t want to wait until it officially arrives on MiSTer.

Track & Field Beta Core

A Track & Field beta core has been released by Jotego for his Patreon subscribers. As with all his cores, he first releases them in beta form privately to his Patreon subscribers. As soon as they are stable enough, they are released to the public. So if you want early access to this core, consider supporting his Patreon.

MiSTer BGM Player

User wizzo on the MiSTerFPGA forums has released a script that runs a background music player for MiSTer. It will play music while you navigate the main menu but stop once you load a core. If you return back to the main menu then music will resume. The script also gives you the option to play an audio file upon bootup.

Next 186 PC Core Progress

JasonA has given a quick update to his Next186 core. The conversion from the MiST project is done and the core is currently compiling. There’s no video output yet, but the core is running. The next step is to debug the startup of the core.

The Next 186 is an FPGA core for older PC hardware based on the 8086. 186 and 286 PC. It’s also possible to get some 386 software running.

Open Source JAMMA Board

An Open Source JAMMA board has been announced by raph_friend on Twitter. Called the JAMMA HIMITSU, it offers features like

  • OC Inputs at 1000Hz (gives you less than 1ms of input lag)
  • An additional header for Player 1 and 2 based on the Brook harness
  • GPIO free
  • 100% DIY

The board isn’t public yet but you can follow the project on the developers twitter account or their discord.

MiSTer Addons Consolized Board & Case

MiSTer Addons has given an update on his MiSTer Express consolized IO Board and case for the MiSTer FPGA. It’s another option for you to choose how your MiSTer looks like. Notable features are:

It’s powered by USB-C.
RGB lighting.
IR Reciever
And lot’s more.

Wireframe MiSTer FPGA Article.

Wireframe magazine has an article dedicated to the MiSTer project. It explains what the MiSTer project is, a little about its history, what it’s capable of and more. You even get some insight in the effort that’s put towards developing cores. They talk about all the extra hours Jotego puts into core development during his free time. You can read the article on the website or download a PDF. You can also support the magazine by purchasing a subscription. They produce a lot of great tech related content and also frequently cover retrogaming.

Other Miscellaneous Updates

And other miscellaneous MiSTer fixes and updates are:

  • A driver to allow WiFi region change has been added to Main.
  • Xbox wireless dongle support with preliminary chatpad support.
  • Tweaks to controller rumble support
  • MIDI passthrough for USER I/O to usean MT32 Pi from Linux
  • Switch update to downloader script.
  • And other various fixes and tweaks.