A few noob Minimig questions :)

[Everblue]

Ok here we go -

1. Is Minimig an emulator on a board, or its really an Amiga (500?) clone?

2. How good is Minimig - would one be able to see the difference between it and a real Amiga 500 when running the same game side by side?

3. How's the scrolling in games on the minimig? Usually from what I see, this seems to be the hardest bit to get right in emulation.

4. What resolution and frequency will the Minimig output (good to know if using an LCD monitor)?

5. Last but not least - I want the minimig to replay all the games I loved when I was a kid (and who does not), will this serve the purpose alright... in other words, should I get a minimig, should it be right time to put all my classic amiga stuff in a box in the attic ?

Thanks folks And be patient with my lame questions!

regards and happy new year



E'Blue

[Ohno]

Happy new year!!  :-D

1. Is Minimig an emulator on a board, or its really an Amiga (500?) clone?

It tries to copy the original Amiga 500 chips, but it does so in a 'reprogrammable chip' which can be updated in the future. So it tries to clone an A500 on a hardware-level, but it probably still is an emulator technically.

2. How good is Minimig - would one be able to see the difference between it and a real Amiga 500 when running the same game side by side?

There's currently still a blitter bug that shows up in a couple of demos and games. The good thing is that it's open source and more people can look at it and try to fix that bug. When the bug is fixed you can install the upgrade to make the minimig better. Apart from that bug I really got the Amiga feeling back using the MiniMig. I haven't compared them side by side though. I like the MiniMig better: It is smaller, supports off-the-shelve keyboards and mice and it can be connected to a standard flatscreen monitor.

3. How's the scrolling in games on the minimig? Usually from what I see, this seems to be the hardest bit to get right in emulation.

Excellent. Usually emulators have an OS underneath that step in once every while causing interrupts in scrolling smoothness (yes I know.. not everyone agrees to this, but in my experience the MiniMig runs far smoother than WinUAE does).

4. What resolution and frequency will the Minimig output (good to know if using an LCD monitor)?

Don't know exactly, but if I'm not mistaken it has an internal scandoubler meaning it'll now run on pretty much any modern TFT monitor. [EDIT]: My monitor does occasionally have troubles auto-adjusting to games in overscan mode.

5. Last but not least - I want the minimig to replay all the games I loved when I was a kid (and who does not), will this serve the purpose alright... in other words, should I get a minimig, should it be right time to put all my classic amiga stuff in a box in the attic ?

The MiniMig doesn't run every game yet and the blitter bug shows up in a couple of other games. It is not yet a full replacement, but it seems from the discussions here that a lot of people are working on improving and extending the MiniMig project.

[Everblue]

Wow - thanks a lot for the very expansive reply!

One more thing, should there be an upgrade to the Minimig, say to fix the blitter bug, wil I have to buy a new minimig, or the chips can be  upgraded by software?

Thanks again


E'Blue

[RedskullDC]

Ohno wrote:
There's currently still a blitter bug that shows up in a couple of demos and games. The good thing is that it's open source and more people can look at it and try to fix that bug. When the bug is fixed you can install the upgrade to make the minimig better.

Hi Ohno,

Can you identify the demos/games which aren't working?
Ideally, post them on the net somewhere?
Would be good to be able to reproduce the errors here.

I am working on ECS functionality for MiniMIG at the moment, and would like to iron out any bugs at the same time.


Cheers,
Red

[alexh]

http://www.opencircuits.com/Minimig_Software_compatibility

[Ohno]

One more thing, should there be an upgrade to the Minimig, say to fix the blitter bug, wil I have to buy a new minimig, or the chips can be  upgraded by software?

It's just a file with a specific name on the MMC card. When the MiniMig starts up the file is read into the FPGA, so it can be easily updated with new software.

[Ohno]

Can you identify the demos/games which aren't working?
Ideally, post them on the net somewhere?

Hi Red, check out the page alexh mentions.
I added the entries with the prefix 'Onno: '.

I haven't had time lately to use the MiniMig much (working on several projects at once all with tight deadlines). If I have some more time I will continue adding new entries to the list.

[mahen]

I wonder if there would be a way to (temporarily) assign joysticks buttons to the PS2 keyboard in order to use an X-Arcade joystick (that behaves as a keyboard)

[HenryCase]

@Mahen
Yes you could. From the X-Arcade website:

"Fully programmable arcade buttons, so you can assign your favorite functions to any style or any game! No software required. When you want to change a move or the layout, do it on the fly with real-time, easy to use button programming."

You can get a PS2 adapter (the PC one) for it. It may require some changes to the FPGA design (differences between keyboard interrupt controllers), but they would be minimal at most.

[Everblue]

Anyone knows what resolution minimig outputs to?

1024 x 768 would be nice on my 15" TFT monitor. Anything else would look blurred

[wizard66]

Everblue wrote:
Anyone knows what resolution minimig outputs to?

1024 x 768 would be nice on my 15" TFT monitor. Anything else would look blurred

Minimig Output: 800*600 31,2Kzh / 50Hz
That's what my TFT is displaying (17" NeoView).
And the screen display is crystal clear I can tell you.. :-D

[freqmax]

What pixelsize does the Amiga think it sends out at that resolution?

[wizard66]

freqmax wrote:
What pixelsize does the Amiga think it sends out at that resolution?

 The native amiga resolution.

[amigadave]

Since I don't remember 800x600 being a native Amiga resolution, are you saying that 320x256 (PAL) through 640x512 are all converted to 800x600 by the Minimig when they are also scandoubled to 31kHz horizontal frequency?

[Hattig]

I imagine that 640x512 overscan is pretty close to 800x600.

Let's see. Overscan of 320x256 was 384x288, so 768x576.

I bet there's a 32 pixel black border on either side, and 24 pixel border on the top and bottom of the display. Not ideal, but otherwise the pixels should be crystal clear (on an 800x600 or 1600x1200 display).

I imagine that the interlace issue is also not a problem now (i.e., no flickering) if the minimig is clever enough to output interlace screens as non-interlace. Can anyone confirm this?

Must get myself one once they're available ready-made...