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MiSTer FPGA Updates – Saturn compatibility, PSX Sound, Jotego and more

Posted on by Lu



Hello everyone, below are this week’s MiSTer FPGA news.

Saturn Core Updates

The Saturn core has implemented more fixes to the CPU, VDP2 and SCU. The fixes to the SCU, has led to some games that use the DSP to start working. Some of these games are Sonic R, VR Virtua Racing, Croc, and Center Ring Boxing. srg320 has posted a video on his YouTube channel showing off these fixes.

srg320 has also quickly posted an update on the compatibility of his Saturn core in the MiSTer FPGA forums. In that post he mentions that he’s only testing US games for now because it’s helping him progress faster. Also, out of 135 games he has, about 25 of them are fully playable with minor graphical or sound issues.

Playstation Core Updates

More improvements to Playstation sound are being made for the MiSTer FPGA core. This time CDROM XA audio is coming soon to the core. This will give you audio for FMV, background music and dialogs. CDROM XA audio is not the same type of audio that’s used by audio CD’s, that’s CD DA and it’s yet to be implemented on the Playstation core.

Jotego Updates

Jotego, has been very busy. He returned to some System 16 development and started to do some debugging for Bay Route. He fixed a bug in the game that would cause it to hang. This probably also fixed another System 16 game called Bullet.

Jotego then went on to continue working on the Neo Geo Pocket’s CPU which he has a little over 50% complete.

He also reported that twitter user, RetroRusty, found the full schematics for Track & Field. Jotego only had partial scans of the main board, but with these full scans, it has sped up his development for the game by more than a week. This is a great example of the community coming together to help preserve a game.

Zez Retro Interview with MiSTerAddons

YouTube channel Zez Retro has done an interview with Porkchop Express. The owner of MisterAddons which is a website where you can purchase MiSTer related products. In the interview, you learn the history on how Misteraddons started and a little about the way the business operates, what’s going on with the DE10 Nano’s available stock and more. There’s even some talk about what Terasic thinks about how the DE10 nano is being used for the MiSTer project.

MiSTerAddons – New Hardware (Digital IO Board +)

MiSTerAddons posted on his twitter account a picture of a new IO Board that he’s working on. It’s going to be a drop in replacement Board that will allow you to use Dual SDRAM and analog video out. Yes, you can do that with current Digital IO Boards, but some unique features he’s adding to this board is:

  • Support for composite video.
  • Option to choose between analog or digital video output (No simultaneous output)

This should be of interests for users of the Saturn and Playstation cores, which will use two RAM sticks.

Accessory for Antonio Villena Setups

Antonio Villena, a vendor and builder of custom MiSTer setups, is creating a second user IO expansion for his MINI and PLUS builds.

The idea is to be able to have a more consolidated MT32 pi setup where you can attach a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W directly to the top of his MiSTer setups instead of having an external MT32pi connected via a wire.
The expansion will not be limited to just the MT32pi but also be compatible with other serial devices.
It’s still in the prototype phase and no release date is set yet.

Fully Assembled MT32-Pi with Pi Zero 2 W

A fully assembled MT32-pi kit, using the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, is available by Twitter user Yavimaya. It has everything you need to listen to upgraded music on the core’s that support it. The kit is pre assembled and all you have to do is install the MT32Pi software on to an SD card and plug in the kit to your MiSTer’s USER IO port. The kit costs $77 and is available on Yavimayas Tindie store.

Product page: https://www.tindie.com/products/taviens/pizw2mt32-complete-kit-with-raspberry-pi-zero-2-w/

Other MiSTer Updates

The Coco 3 core has been getting a lot of updates lately. A notable update is that it now supports memory sizes all the way up to 16MB.

Einstein TC01 core has been updated to support its successor, the Einstein 256.