FPGA Replay Board

[ChaosLord]

@Darrin

:rofl:

[ChaosLord]

I want one with at least 256 MB

I want one with 2GB.  But we only get what they give us.

[ChaosLord]

Oh Fiddlestix!

How can I play Stunt Car Racer datalinked between 2 machines with an FPGA Arcade?  It needs a compatible serial port.

How can I play any of the great 4 player games?  4 player games require the 4 player adapter which plugs into the Parallel port.



Is FPGA Arcade more of a "Business Machine Amiga" that has lost a lot of its gaming abilities?

[ChaosLord]

Could someone please please run bustest on FCGA Replay and post the results?

This is the single best testing proggy for Amiga:
http://aminet.net/package/util/moni/bustest

It produces results in plain text format.

You must state the screenmode that you were displaying when running the test.

I would like to see the results when running bustest in 640x512x256 color mode.  This will clearly show me how much faster a Replay is over a real Amiga.

Move.l FTW!

Thanx!

[ChaosLord]

The old core does not have cache/pre-fetch running as is not using the dedicated memory channel for RTG. It will be slow ....

Could you cook up a version of the core that had more bandwidth for the chipram?

Lots of games use the CPU for blitting since 1990 and they need faster chipram speed.

For example if all the orginal 64MB was used as chipram and ALL the 28MB/sec of bandwidth went for that then it would be really kewl!  Plenty of ppl would like that.  Maybe this would only work when using the Daughterboard.

It could be the "AGA Optimized" core that ppl could use when playing AGA games.

The "RTG Core" (with the dedicated RTG memory channel)  could be the normal core that ppl use as default.

[ChaosLord]

I have made some tests using bustest and my A4000 and both of my Replay boards (Rev.A with daughterboard and standard Rev.B). What do you think?

Code: [Select]


BusSpeedTest 0.19 (mlelstv)   Buffer:     262144 Bytes, Alignment: 32768
memtype op A4K PAL A4K VGA A4K RTG RP PAL RP VGA 060 PAL 060 VGA 060 RTG
fast readl 39.6 39.2 39.5 28.4 28.2 60.2 60.5 60.3
fast writel 27.5 27.6 27.6 7.7 6.2 48.6 49.1 48.6
chip writel 4.8 2.2 7.0 7.7 6.2 23.1 17.7 27.9


A4K - A4000 w/ CS MKII 060 60MHz + 128MB 60ns DRAM + Picasso IV
RP - Replay w/ Minimig AGA core + TG68K 28MHz dcache/icache + 8MB FAST RAM
060 - Replay w/ Minimig AGA/RTG core + Rev.6 68060 106MHz + 128MB 53MHz SDRAM
PAL - 640x512x256 (PAL High Res Laced)
VGA - 640x480x256 (Productivity)
RTG - 1024x768x256

Woohoo!  I can easily attain triple speed AGA blitting on a Replay+Daughtercard!  

Copy MyBankAccount:#? ALL FORCE QUICK  to Yaqube:BankAccount/


I noticed you listed VGA mode times.  Is that the way to get flickerfree AGA gfx on a replay?  To use DoublePAL, DoubleNTSC or VGA modes?

Luckily my gamecode already supports both PAL and DoublePAL even though DoublePAL is mostly useless on a real A1200.

[ChaosLord]

Yes, all programmable modes like DoublePal, DoubleNTSC, Multiscan etc are supported.

I meant is that the only way to get a flickerfree interlaced AGA display?

Like does Replay have a hardware flickerfixer built-in that can deinterlace the Amiga's interlace modes?  And if so, is it free?  Or does it use the same amount of bandwidth as the corresponding Double#? mode?

My real Amiga has a hardware flickerfixer so all my PAL and NTSC interlace software displays to my VGA monitor without costing me any extra bandwidth.

I'm just trying to figure out what to tell ppl when they play my games on Replay.

[ChaosLord]

How do I get on the list for a PS/2 capable version of replay + 060 daughterboard?

No way in hell do I want a version that requires a USB keyboard or USB mouse.  All my equipment is PS/2.  All my KVM switches are PS/2.  All my mice are PS/2.  All my keyboards are PS/2.  PS/2 works on everything in the universe.  USB does not.  No way in hell am I downgrading to USB keyboards or mice.  USB is for cameras and mp3 players and things that get disconnected and reconnected all the time.   For things that plug in and sit there, PS/2 is superior and is interrupt driven and doesn't waste any cpu power.

[ChaosLord]

Do you have a particular game in mind?  Remember, you have a scan doubler, just not a flicker fixer.

Off the top of my head, the only games I remember playing that made use of a flicker fixer were Sim Ant and SimCity2000.  I think Sim City could use other screen modes, not sure about Sim Ant.

Wow, u have forgotten more about the Amiga than I have.

OTTOMH some other games that need/benefit from a flickerfixer are:
Total Chaos ECS 2
Total Chaos ECS 3
Total Chaos AGA 4
Total Chaos AGA 5
Total Chaos AGA 6
Total Chaos AGA 7
Robo(warrior?) whatever that robot programming battling game was called.
That German hires interlace Risk game
MechForce
A-Train (and/or some other train games)

If I was to dig thru my software collection I am sure I could find a lot more.

Most games that run in Interlace desperately need more bandwidth which Replay conveniently provides.

Some games have an easy way to select screenmode of DoublePAL or whatever but a lot of games do not.  Those other games need some sort of forced promotion util.  ModePro from Aminet might work for this purpose.

[ChaosLord]

Total Chaos and Mechforce are freely available on Aminet for countless years and are highly regarded examples of 32-bit Multitasking Interlaced Mouse-Controlled TBS Gaming.

"That German Risk Game" has no name that I am aware of.  Its just some random PD Risk game that I downloaded off a BBS waaaaaaaaay back in the olden days.  There were many different PD Risk games for Amiga so I might be mixing them all up inside my head.   One of them was better than all the others because it had many different personalities for the cpu players.

[ChaosLord]

Well. its getting harder and harder to find PS/2 compatible stuff...

No.

Its dead easy.  PS/2 compatible stuff is sold all day long every day continuously forever and ever on NewEgg and a zillion other places.  Not only available but cheap too.

Just try and find a wireless mouse that operates on the 2.4ghz range vs the old less reliable 27mhz stuff... Logitech for example, made only one model of such mouse that i'm aware of.

I will be getting USB

Wireless mice and keyboards sux.  They weigh triple the weight (or more) of a wired mouse because of  the big heavy battery.  They cause tendonits, RSI, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, RSD, CRPS, nerve damage and other horrible problems.

A mouse is something you put force into many millions of times per year.  Due to the way hand anatomy is constructed, a mouse should weigh as little as possible and otherwise be user-friendly.

I have tried lots of wired and wireless mice and keyboards.  I will be sticking with the wired versions which are cheaper, more ergonomical, cost less, are healthier, don't have to be recharged, have a lower price, and don't force you to downgrade to obsolete USB1.1

My PS/2 mice come with a 1M to 2M cable, which I plug into a 2M to 3M extension cable in the movie room.  So the mouse and keyboard can reach anywhere.


I have 2 wireless PS3 joysticks which are only 1.5 years old and have undergone very light use and they are already having trouble keeping a charge.  The other 2 PS3 joysticks are still 100% ok but I have trouble imagining them to still be working 5 years from now.  The controllers were not cheap or anything.  They were like $50.00 a piece.  I am judgemental.  When I pay $50.00 for a controller I expect it to last 10 years.

[ChaosLord]

I want a Replay with 060 Daughtercard and since I am a software developer I need an 060 with an MMU.  Even if I have to sacrifice Mhz, that is just the way it is.  I love Yaqube's 106Mhz 060 but I really have to have my debugging.  Sad but true.

Am I allowed to buy one like that?

How much Mhz can I get with a full MMU?  Is it possible to achieve 80Mhz with MMU?  I need speed.  My poor creaky old C compiler needs all the speed it can get.  My gamecode does really hardcore cpu blitting animation so it needs all the cpu speed it can get.

As to FPU, I have mixed feelings on that one.  I Like FPUs but I don't like sacrificing integer Mhz to get one.  So whatever u give me is ok.

Do I need to pay a bribe to someone to get a Replay+060+MMU?  Who do I pay and how much?

I am not trying to rush you or anything.  I have waited patiently to buy a Replay from you for all these years.

I want a fully loaded, all the bells and whistles, Replay.  All the addons and doohickeys and thingamajigs.  A quality complete product.  If that means I have to wait 6 months to buy one from AmigaKit then that's ok.  I will just have to wait.   I will supply my own mouse and keyboard.  Other than that I would prefer to buy a complete functioning computer with case and power supply and so forth.  I am not planning to use composite video output, but since you have gone to the trouble to offer it as an option I will pay the extra $$$ to have it, just in case.   Anything u put the work into to do, I will happily buy from you.   I don't mind to pay extra $ for extra quality.

[ChaosLord]

Once you have used a bluetooth touchpad, any mouse, wired or not, seems just a little silly.

I have not used the specific touchpad you are speaking of... how is it different than the touchpad in any random laptop?

I have used the touchpads in laptops so I have a point of reference.

[ChaosLord]

New thread please... there are enough spam/OT posts in this thread titled FPGA REPLAY BOARD

I thought the purpose of this thread was to build the longest thread in the Amigaverse?  A thread so long that it could reach all the way from one end of the Amigaverse to the other, in order to unite all the camps around a single campfire, singing songs and eating marshmallows in peace and tranquility?

How can we achieve such a goal if we go round disallowing offtopic posts?  Yer jus not thinkin it threw.  Get a grip, man!  :biglaugh:  :roflmao:

[ChaosLord]

It depends. Mike is trying to get some from China but so far all of them have turned out to be fakes.

Which Chinese government official did u bribe to get your unfake one? :biglaugh:

Yes, there are plans to create another daughterboard with a bigger FPGA which could act as high-performance CPU. The question remains: who will make the CPU core?

There are several ppl who would have made, or assisted in making such a core if only they had the hardware to experiment with.

I for one, do not trust the speed assessments given by the simulation software.

[ChaosLord]

Why?

Because its a simulation and simulations are not real.  You can make up 1000 different simulations of something and get 1000 different answers.  

If they actually knew the answer for a fact then it would be called a Calculation, not a simulation.  Right?