FPGA Replay Board

[ShapeShifter]

What we need now is decent cores which is usable for every retro-fan out there, so that the question of what board to use is not important, but what fpga board has the MOST cores out there which are maintained and fully working.

We need to get an Atari Core at least to get the Atari guys to jump on this board. Hoperfully, the fpga-replay board won't be promoted as a "Amiga Board". We need ANY user out there, no matter what core they like to run. And we need people to make and maintain good cores.

I couldn't agree more! For a very long time now, going back to the late 90's, I have hoped that it would be possible for Acorn, Atari, Amiga, and Apple (hey, all A's!) to come together in some fashion and work together for our common good.  

In the FPGA Replay, we've actually got a device where the success of one particular core is good for everyone else who's using the system, whichever core(s) they happen to prefer.    Random example: the likelihood of 68060/Coldfire/PPC accelerators and other expansions which are useable by Amiga fans is increased if there should be a large number of Atari users which these expansions would sell to.  And not just hardware expansions, but software/core projects useable by one community could be of benefit to another.  

The larger the market for the Replay, the better for everyone using it, no matter our core.

I truly hope the Replay achieves some big success, and my intuition is telling me that it should infact do very well

[ShapeShifter]

PAL LCD TVs handle both 50 and 60hz signals.

NTSC LCD TVs probably only do 60hz.

Unfortunately, it's not as straightforward as knowing which country you're based in and what the predominant TV standard is in that country.  I know it should be, but sadly it's not.  You have to check the TV's supported modes to see what will work.

With the present core and Replay hardware, the horizontal refresh rate is being scan-doubled from 15khz to 31khz to enable PAL/NTSC modes via a VGA-compatible monitor or flat screen TV.  But not all TV's will accept  PAL 50Hz input modes, even if you DO live in a country with a PAL 50Hz standard.  They often require 60Hz or more when being fed a signal via a VGA socket. This is particularly crazy when the TVs in question WILL quite happily display 50Hz refresh rates when the input in question is coming in via composite or component input sockets.

Of course, we have the option to display video via component or composite or other analogue output modes, but here we may have a new problem.  TVs might well be happy with 50Hz vertical rates from those particular input sources, but they will choke when fed the 31KHz scan-doubled horizontal rate - even though the TV supports that rate via the VGA socket!

In short, know what modes your TV is capable of supporting, and you will then have a better idea of how you should hook up your Replay unit to your TV.

Of course, I should add that none of this will be an issue in future! MikeJ is working on a new core which I'm advised will allow us to configure output modes by means of altering a config file stored on the SD Card.  This will allow us to select whether the Replay enables or disables scan-doubling, and presumably whether it is outputting a PAL or NTSC signal.  This should make future setup and configuration of the Replay much easier.

[ShapeShifter]

I'm really not sure about HDMI as I don't connect that way, but I know a lot depends on what method of connection you're using, and what your TV is capable of supporting via that method.  It's not just the VGA socket on TVs which have limitations, sadly; each socket will support different vertical and horizontal refresh rates, and each TV/monitor will differ in what modes they support with each socket.  

The new core will offer more choice (including disabling scan-doubling), and easer configuration, so you'll be able to get the Replay working in any case.  But it's still helpful to know which modes your TV supports and in which sockets, and configure your Replay based upon that.  But then, the Replay is just acting like a real Amiga would in these situations.  On a Commodore Amiga, we can't connect it to a VGA monitor without scan-doubling, and we couldn't get a scan-doubled output to work on a standard TV.

[ShapeShifter]

OSD Menu for image adjustments are perfect when you get not readable image.. :p

I had this exact problem when my Replay arrived.  All I got was a psychedelic wobbly whirly output which made me dizzy.   I got it sorted though - and don't worry, MikeJ's got this covered - the new core will allow us to reconfigure output modes via a config file on the SD Card. Simples!

[ShapeShifter]

I did not know FPGA Replay has psychedelic wobbly whirly.

Now I really want one.

To : MikeJ
Subject: The Plan - it's working!

See, Mike, I told ya the reference to psychedelic imagery would get people interested!

People love the idea of getting a free trip. In these times of austerity people are looking for any cheap alternatives to the real thing!

BTW, Mike: Has Amiga.org changed the layout of the PM system? It looks an awfully lot like that screen you post public replies to topics on!

[ShapeShifter]

I started testing software on the base FPGA Arcade along with the Minimig v1.1 and Chameleon64 (obviously I was testing AGA versions on the FPGA Arcade and OCS/ECS versions on the others).  I was launching them from WHDload first and if that failed then I would try from ADF files.  Most software worked, but as Mike was about to release a new core I shelved the testing because I didn't want to have to retest stuff all over again.

any chance of the core update Mike?

I'm in much the same situation.  I'm immensely impressed by the Replay project, as I can see the potential of this.  To my mind, it exceeds the potential of the Natami project.  There's nothing the NatAmi guys are doing which couldn't be done by coders working with the Replay Board.

What's holding me back right now is the partial 68020 compatibility, and the lack of a way of using graphics card modes, essentially limiting me to 68000 only and native Amiga modes.  I don't want to spend a huge amount of time setting up a system stripped-down to meet these requirements (e.g. WB3.1+ClassicWB) only to then have to start again from scratch with something like OS3.9 + AmiKit or AmigaSys, etc. once I have faster CPU and gfx card support.

So for the time being, and with some sadness, I am not using my treasured Replay Board.  This will change the very instant I have the daughterboard and the new core, as I will then be able to do so much more with it.  I'll feel a lot better about investing a lot of time and energy into setting up a highly customised system once I know I won't have to restart all over again.

I remain very, very impressed by what MikeJ has been able to achieve, and the Replay Board itself is an incredibly professional, solid, reliable unit with a lot of potential.  It's amazing what one man with a dream can achieve.  It amazes me (and I've told Mike this) that Amiga, Inc. can't produce an Amiga board of their own, or even an OS of their own, with apparently millions of dollars of investment funding, yet Mike's being able to do this working completely on his own and without angel investors (I'm talking of the hardware unit itself - I'm not overlooking the considerable amount of software development done by core developers such as Jakub, of course, who've also done considerably impressive work too.)

Just can't wait to really get going with it.  If only we could clone MikeJ so that he could take care of the mundane stuff like attending the day-job and paying the mortgage, so that our Mike could dedicate himself 24/7 to developing the Replay Board (minus maybe a few hours a day for sleep and pizza!)

[ShapeShifter]

@ Shapeshifter:

I agree.  If Amiga Inc had half a brain they would have offered to fund or at least sell Mike's project and given themselves a chance to sell SD cards containing official HDF files, Kickstart files, ADF files etc.  Plus they could use their shop to sell more ADFs of games or other custom HDF files.  At least they would have been selling something "Amiga" for minimim effort on their part.

I fully agree with you, my friend.  I can think of a good dozen ways Amiga could've made some easy money with their brand, but for some reason they don't even bother to try.  So much waffle, yet no action.  I honestly am of the suspicion that a certain individual just wanted to live the high-life; put lots of money into his bank account, drive fast cars, etc. and his shady friends were just along for the ride.  I honestly don't think they ever had any real interest in the Amiga or it's community - or even particularly cared about producing new products.  I think the community, the people - we were just considered useful assets.   Until we weren't relevant to their plans.

If I was running Amiga these days, I would be licensing the technology to anyone who expressed an interest in Amiga, and would be approaching hobbyist projects to see what we could do to help; people who are designing things like MikeJ's Replay Board, the Pi Foundation's board, and so on.  I would also use my connections with venture capital firms to help these projects secure any kind of funding and connections they need to really take off, and designing networks of people which could help support various projects.

It's not hard to get out there and create something, if you've got the money for it.  Goodness knows Amiga, Inc. must've had the money for it, if they had $5 million to buy the rights to Amiga.  But you know, when I think of it today, it seems very hard to believe that someone put so much money into Amiga when they did absolutely *nothing* with it.  Did they ever produce one line of original code, or one piece of hardware? AA was Elate, written by Tao Group.  What else did Amiga do other than rebadge Elate?

Did Amiga even really pay $5 million for the assets? I know this is what they've claimed, but given everything else they've said is a lie, I wonder if the $5mil claim itself was even true.  For all we know, Gateway just *gave* the Amiga name to Fleecy & Bill and said "get these annoying people off our backs, and 20% profit of whatever profit you make." I'd like to see the paperwork, at least.

Anyway, this is going off-track somewhat.  I just wonder where we could've been today with an Amiga which had someone like MikeJ as Head of Engineering.  I certainly suspect Mike could do a heck of a lot better with a budget of a few million to create products!