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Author Topic: FPGA Replay Board  (Read 833532 times)

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Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« on: March 11, 2011, 10:26:08 AM »
Does the hardware provide direct access to the digital audio within the audio logic?
Real Amigas have integrated DACs, so there's no way to get digital audio output, but it should be possible to bypass the DACs in FPGA implementations of the platform.

Having digital audio to go along with the digital video signal would be really nice.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2011, 02:04:48 AM »
What sort of arcade platforms could this board conceivably recreate?
Would something like CPS1 or System-16 be out of the question?
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2011, 04:05:01 AM »
Has anyone tried to implement CPS1 or CPS2 in an FPGA?
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2011, 11:36:36 PM »
I don't see what use a computer expansion bus would be for a device primarily made for reproducing arcade games.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2011, 02:25:30 AM »
I just don't want this thing to cost twice as much as it needs to just so half a dozen people can connect some specialized hardware.
The Natami project seems more suited to that type of expansion.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2011, 05:46:49 AM »
Is there anything you can plug into a zorro slot that couldn't just be emulated by the FPGA directly?
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2011, 06:10:08 AM »
Ah, okay.  So it's useful for stuff that can't be handled by the I/O ports on the FPGA itself.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #7 on: May 17, 2011, 05:26:42 AM »
USB is expansion enough as far as I'm concerned.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #8 on: May 27, 2011, 07:27:39 AM »
Could the replay output at 100Hz instead, with each frame plopped out twice?
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #9 on: June 18, 2011, 04:12:19 AM »
The more RAM the better, I say.  It would be useful for caching data for multimedia work, or making a big RAM Disk to speed up the system as a whole.
Once it's there, someone will find a way of making it useful.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #10 on: January 10, 2012, 09:19:14 AM »
This is never going to be a mass market item.  I don't see that as a negative, though.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2012, 09:54:34 AM »
I've got a few potentially silly questions about NTSC capability.  Is there a way to get full PAL resolution at 60Hz with NTSC colour space?  I live in Canada so PAL video signals are no good for me and my equipment.  I don't mind if I have to run the entire machine at 120% speed to accomplish this, I just want to get the full image in a format my displays can handle.


I certainly hope it will be a very successful niche product.
The reason I don't see it as a truly mainstream product is that FPGA hardware is unavoidably expensive, and the average Joe would rather get something cheaper, even if that means using emulation that isn't cycle exact.  And that's to say nothing of the legal nightmare that would unfold if it draws the attention of the companies whose hardware is being recreated.  Even a baseless lawsuit or C&D order could be disastrous considering how every legal system is weighted in favour of the party with the biggest legal budget.
Quote from: ShapeShifter;675165
It doesn't have to be mass market to be very, very successful, though.  I see the Replay potentially succeeding in the same way the Amiga succeeded: it may not saturate the entire market, but it will find itself achieving some real success and popularity within certain niches.  It's already exciting the Amiga world; there's also the Atari world, the C= 64 fans, arcade and console fans, etc.

The nature of the Replay itself also means it has more potential than simply being whatever retro system you want it to be; it can become any system you wish it to be; retro with modern elements, a convenient development platform bridging two different technologies, etc.

We won't know exactly where and how the Replay will distinguish itself until it has started to ship in real numbers, however, and people get their hands on it and start to mess around with it.  That's when we'll see the real excitement and ipotential take off, IMO.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2012, 09:59:22 AM by kedawa »
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2012, 11:26:44 PM »
Why bother?  There's no need for a middleman in this day and age.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2012, 04:39:14 AM »
It depends on the payment processor, really.
PayPal will side with the buyer in any country, for example.
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: FPGA Replay Board
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2012, 01:27:43 PM »
If they're being mass produced and imported from China in large quantities, then the boards will likely be scrutinized by customs, and I'm pretty sure most countries require electronics to meet certain standards.
For something manufactured in some guy's garage, not so much.