FPGA Replay Board

[gaula92]

...

[gaula92]

Now, I know it's a one man project (with some help from other core developers), but I'm socked to see we're in the same place we were more than a year ago: no way to buy the board (I have mine, but I mean mass production) and outdated core with a lot of compatibility problems.

I'm starting to fear this isn't going anywhere. It seems to be the same with most FPGA implementations, and it's sad because it's the best alternative for Amiga hardware nowadays: no aging hardware and classic amiga compatibility.

So far:

-Natami never got past some prototype boards distributed among the developers. Supposedly cancelled or in an undetermined suspension state. Used TG68 softcore.

-MCC-216: Can be bought, but it's a scam, using outdated Minimig core with it's sources closed. It's compatible with something near 40% of Amiga 500-era software. Materials are awfull and aesthetically it's horrible. Avoidable device at all cost. It's developers have been promising a closed-source 68K implementation to make it more compatible, since...2010. Yeah. It's sure to happen next century.

-Turbo Chameleon64: has a good Minimig port, thanks to the efforts of MMrobinsonb5, but it's still having a lot of compatibility issues due to the TG68 implementation.

-The original Minimig 1.1 board, designed by Dennis van Weeren and mass-produced by Acube Systems, is the best Amiga I ever had, even if it's limited in so many ways as having "only" 4MB of RAM. Real 68K on-board guarantees an almost perfect compatibility rate. Clear winner here, thanks again to the extra work by Yaqube, Boing4000 and MMrobinsonb5 towards a perfect custom chipset implementation.

Now, if we analyze the situation, I'd say the main problem here (and what must have caused the hiatus in development of FPGA Amigas) seems to be the 68K implementation. TG68, even if it seems to be a good open source alternative, seems to prevent further compatibility improvements in the systems that use it. I believe it's not developed any longer because it's creator, Tobiflexx, is currently enjoying more important matters in real life  

So, if I'm right, we're not seeing any new, more compatible core on the FPGA Arcade in a long time. Could developers please confirm this? There's nothing wrong with it: I can't start to imagine how complex a 68K softcore implementation must be!

thanks

[gaula92]

I'm all for an ST core, too. Ahh.. taking my long-waiting FPGA board and have some ST fun while the stable Amiga AGA core is released would be great! Well, if it's Atari 8 bit stuff and it runs Alternate Reality, I won't be complaining either ...

[gaula92]

@mikej: Hum... sorry to keep asking but, wasn't a new core supposed to be released by now?
What's holding it back? I'm not in a hurry or anything, but I thought it was imminent two weeks ago.
Just out of curiosity, I'd like to read about the technical difficulties you may be finding.

[gaula92]

I am hoping the remaining 20 boards I have which have memory issues will be fine with the new firmware.

I am working full time for the next two weeks on this to get it done!
/MikeJ

@Kokos: Oh boy....
@MikeJ: this "two weeks" has become an Amiga joke, don't take my quote seriously!

[gaula92]

And what about the cores, Mikej? Mine has been collecting dust, waiting for cores to use it... The current Amiga core isn't very compatible and I haven't seen any arcade, Atai 8 bit or ST cores to use it

[gaula92]

The problem was that, in GODS, certain sound effects left a high pitch sound playing after they finished. It also happened in other games.
MMrobinsonb5 from http://www.retroramblings.net fixed it. It was supposed to be a temporal fix until a better sigma-delta filter was implemented.
More on it here:

http://minimig.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=516

It's a long thread, but the last pages have very good information on the problem.

[gaula92]

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

Hahaha! Nice to see I'm not the only who loves AmigaDOS (not WB) around here
I always wondered why the Los Gatos team decided to include connectives in commands like "from", "to", etc... it makes AmigaDOS a very fun yet easy DOS to use. My favorite over Linux and Risc OS.

[gaula92]

@MikeJ:
TobiFlex in flesh and bone has fixed some TG68 bugs yesterday and now TG68 is compatible with certain games that crashed before. Maybe you should merge his changes with the new core. Relevant thread:

http://minimig.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=558

[gaula92]

It's a very good question, Ral-clan, and I'd be interesting in hearing a good response, too. Why not a FAST 020 softcore instead of going the physical 060 route? (heat, fake cpu's and hard to find original parts...)
In UAE (FS-UAE in my case) it's the way to go when I want a fast CPU.

[gaula92]

@kesa: I hope not! The FPGA REPLAY board is going to be the best thing that has happened in the Amiga hardware front since the original V1.1 Minimig board!
This thread is about the future!

[gaula92]

@mikej :
Thanks for clarifying the situation between you and me

Yeah, look at Batman and Robin, Bert and Ernie, etc.. They never clarified their situations and people assumed they were gays. Now that's not bad at all, but it's better to have things clear in a relationship.

[gaula92]

Hoho! I can test the new core as soon as it's released! My board is ready for some love!!

[gaula92]

Maybe the core release has been delayed again?

[gaula92]

@MikeJ: The core update beta was announced for release two weeks ago. Is there another delay? Could you briefly explain the problems? (if you have the time)

[gaula92]

I have an FPGA Board from the last batch, and I was wondering... are there any differences between the boards from the last batch and these new ones?