FPGAARCADE minimig compatible board, comments?

[TheDaddy]

Hi,

Could you post the latest specs please?

Thanks  :-)

[mikej]

Basic specs:
FPGA Xilinx Spartan3e 1200 (3x MinMig)

Wolfson high quality DAC audio output(192K 24 bit)
DVI output with 30 bit Analogue video.
Video is filtered by a variable frequency cut-off filter for high quality TV / HD
High speed AVR processor with twin SPI connections for high speed read/write to memory card.
32MB of DDR memory (doubles as ROM)
Expansion connector for TV out.
Expansion connector for user IO (IDE etc)
Daughter board brings joystick and serial connectors above the other IO connectors to fit in a standard mini-itx case.
Molex (disk drive type) power connector for use in a case.
Two 30 pin connectors for user IO (wired in parallel with joystick inputs, useful for arcade game rigs)
JAMMA arcade daughter board

Option of onboard 68K processor, although I imagine this will be replaced with a soft core. The pins are wired up to the main expansion connector so on theory you could have a 680xx on an expansion board.

Platform aims (done or near done)
Amiga (Based on MiniMig code branch)
AtariST (my code)
Vic20
C64
BBCB
Spectrum
Bally
+some more in the pipe

Arcade (done or near done)
Pacman/Mrs Pac/Pengo etc
Frogger/Scramble
Defender
StarWars *
SpaceInvaders
Asteroids *

*an IO board to drive vector monitors is planned

170mm x 80mm size (mini-itx width)

EDIT : forgot 8 analogue inputs wired up to the AVR, so an expansion board could have analogue joysticks etc

[mikej]

I need a catchy name for the board, anybody got any ideas?
(Shouldn't be Amiga specific)

"Programmable Gaming Platform" is a bit too long
/Mike

[tonyyeb]

I'm not too good at this but an acronym usually works well when cleverly made into a real word that is also relevant.

General Arcade Machine Emulator (G.A.M.E.)

[mikej]

nice one, top candidate so far

[TheMagicM]

are YOU going to sell this when its made or are you going to take pre-orders?  How is Amiga emulation going to work? (meaning, do you need additional software etc.)

At $250, ready made, I'd take one.  Excellent work, keep us posted.

[Darrin]

mikej wrote:

Defender

OK, I'm happy.  Any chance of Pheonix too?  ;-)

[tonyyeb]

mikej wrote:
nice one, top candidate so far

Number 1 on a list of 1. Not bad going!

[Darrin]

tonyyeb wrote:

General Arcade Machine Emulator (G.A.M.E.)

Amiga Retro System Emulator?  (A.R.S.E.)?

[mikej]

We will see how it goes, if I can get a good price on a small production run I will sell it myself. I am in discussions with some distributors also.

Like any FPGA based board it can be anything, it needs the circuit design to behave like the original hardware - note it is not emulation, it is gate level accurate and (if there are no bugs) functions as well as the original machine.

The AtariST code I have been working on should behave in all cases identically to the original chipset. Obviously it is possible to add new features as well. For the Amiga I have ported the MiniMig core logic from Dennis. I will hopefully be able to move the compatibility forward a bit as well.

(I am an ASIC/FPGA designer by trade)
/MikeJ

[mikej]

"Amiga Retro System Emulator"

mmm, tempting actually

Phoenix is certainly possible, 8085 based and custom audio chip make it a bit more tricky.

I am going for Gauntlet next as I have a 68K processor handy around.

[tonyyeb]

Darrin wrote:

tonyyeb wrote:

General Arcade Machine Emulator (G.A.M.E.)

Amiga Retro System Emulator?  (A.R.S.E.)?

Did make me chuckle!

[mikej]

I think it's going to be G.A.M.E

General Arcade/Amiga/Atari/Anything Machine Emulator



Any other offers ??

[Darrin]

How about Custom Loadable Arcade/Amiga/Atari/Anything Platform (C.L.A.P)?

You could ahve slogans like:

Have you got The CLAP?  Fancy getting The CLAP?  Get The CLAP and play with your friends!  Give a loved one The CLAP for Christmas!

Can anybody think of some more?  ;-)  :-D

[tonyyeb]

Darrin wrote:
How about Custom Loadable Arcade/Amiga/Atari/Anything Platform (C.L.A.P)?

You could ahve slogans like:

Have you got The CLAP?  Fancy getting The CLAP?  Get The CLAP and play with your friends!  Give a loved one The CLAP for Christmas!

Can anybody think of some more?  ;-)  :-D

Oh dear... Things have started to go downhill!

[Darrin]

tonyyeb wrote:

Oh dear... Things have started to go downhill!

I'm available for a job in marketing if anybody wants to hire me.  I'm sure Commodore would have snapped me up!  :-D