Lu

MiSTer FPGA Updates – GunCon 3, PSX Core, Toaplan Games and more

Posted on by Lu

Playstation Core

Work on SNAC support for the PlayStation core has started. It’s not being implemented by the core’s developer, but someone else. When it will be available is unknown but at least we know support is coming.

Toaplan V1 Beta Core

Darren_O on twitter has released a beta core  for the Toaplan V1 arcade hardware. TThe core is in active development with assistance from 𝕓𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕖 and atrac17. Games already running on this core are:

Zero Wing
Outzone
And Hellfire

Other games being worked on are
Truxton
Vimana
Fire Shark
And Rally Bike.

Demon’s World is another game that runs on the hardware but a core for that game is slated to be implemented by Jotego.

GunCon 3 Beta Driver

A few weeks ago we had beta GunCon 2 support for CRT’s, now there is a beta driver to use Namco’s GunCon 3 for lightgun games in MiSTer. This is significant because it allows you to play lightgun games on a flat screen TV. Older Namco GunCons and other lightguns work on different technology that makes them unusable on modern television displays. The GunCon 3 was made specifically with modern displays in mind. If you want to help out the testing of this beta driver, then you can head over to the MiSTer FPGA discord.

Install Alternate Linux Distributions

If you want more control of Linux for the MiSTer FPGA project, there are two available Arch based distros that you can install. These are not meant to replace the Linux the MiSTer OS runs on. They are alternatives for more advanced Linux users who want the control that Arch Linux affords them.

There’s two different projects available. One called MiSTerArch and another called MonSieurFPGA.
So what exactly can you do with these distro’s?

  • More options with mounting remote filesystems
  • btrfs and btrbk remote snapshot possiblities
  • Much faster unzipping of files.
  • Extend your vintage computer cores by using your favorite open-source tools
  • Turn the MiSTer FPGA into an all in one development kit for your favorite core by installing a console development kit. 

As you can see, most of these are power user features and targeted for those that want to do more tinkering or want to have an all in one development kit. Most users should just stick with the base Linux which does a great job of playing your games.

Miscellaneous MiSTer Updates

And other miscellaneous cores getting fixes and updates are

ao486, Minimig, Vectrex, Arduboy, Ay-3-8500, BK0011M, Specialist, Vector-06C