Arcade game "1943 : the battle of midway" running on an FPGA!

[FrenchShark]

jensl wrote:
Haha, nice trick with the flat-iron.
I use every day the hot air from Leister.
http://www.klappenbach.de/html/hot_jet_s.html

I will order some 10ns sram from digikey.

I will report the results next week.

You won't notice any speed improvement with Minimig.
The DMA scheduler has to be rewritten for that.
That would be a nice project : 57 MHz bus speed, 4 times the AGA speed...

Regards,

Frederic

[FrenchShark]

whiteb wrote:
Would the Minimig (in Amiga mode) benefit from faster ram over the Ram used already ?  And pin to pin compatibility ? compatibility ?

Yes, if the DMA scheduler is rewritten.

How is it going to affect the game, with the 68000 Hardwired on the board ?

The 68000 will be disabled.

[FrenchShark]

jensl wrote:

Do you think games with 68k and z80
are possible on the minimig ? Maybe the cps1 and cps2 games.

Jens

I though about these games too.
I do not know if the Spartan is big enough.
I am working only with Altera parts. In my case, the EP3C16 is only 24% full and the fmax is >50 MHz so I have plenty of room for the audio Z80 or a 68000 (for a CPS1/2 or also a system 16).
I am thinking about the NeoGeo or the PC Engine.
The only issue with the NeoGeo is the size of the game, I might need to buy a DE2-70 and upgrade it to 128MB of SDRAM and 8MB of SSRAM.

Regards,

Frederic

[FrenchShark]

UPDATE:
I have implemented a first version of Scale2X.
Now, the design takes 4900 LEs.
It is because I have a Scale2X algorithm for each layers (there are five layers on this game), it may be a little bit overkill.
I have to tell you : the Scale2X results are quite amazing !

I will post a new video soon.

Regards,

Frederic

[whiteb]

FrenchShark wrote:

jensl wrote:
Haha, nice trick with the flat-iron.
I use every day the hot air from Leister.
http://www.klappenbach.de/html/hot_jet_s.html

I will order some 10ns sram from digikey.

I will report the results next week.

You won't notice any speed improvement with Minimig.
The DMA scheduler has to be rewritten for that.
That would be a nice project : 57 MHz bus speed, 4 times the AGA speed...

Regards,

Frederic

Well, add that to your list of tasks then

From what I am aware, AGA on Minimig is not going to happen,  due to space, and due to the lack of documentation on the hardware.  Additionally, the future production of NatAmi.

I do not feel confident about desoldering the 55ns ram from my Minimig, but making a new one at 10ns is not out of the question.

But to justify the cost, are we talking about more games than just 1943 being able to be run ?

But the one thing, the more complex the game, the more LE's needed, and at some point the Spartan 3 will fill up. is there a new board on the books with new FPGA ?

[Illuwatar]

The largest Spartan 3 in QFP208 (that package used for MiniMig) is the 3E with 500k gates. Going bigger means BGA that is impossible to solder for most DIY freaks here...

If the BGA issue could be solved in some way, then there are not a big deal to create a larger MiniMig that could be code compatible (almost) with the original design - and in the same moment, add more RAM and a better video-DAC for 24bit graphics. The PCB itself needs to be at least 4-layer when using BGAs, but that is more a cost issue than a design problem.

[whiteb]

Illuwatar wrote:
The largest Spartan 3 in QFP208 (that package used for MiniMig) is the 3E with 500k gates. Going bigger means BGA that is impossible to solder for most DIY freaks here...

If the BGA issue could be solved in some way, then there are not a big deal to create a larger MiniMig that could be code compatible (almost) with the original design - and in the same moment, add more RAM and a better video-DAC for 24bit graphics. The PCB itself needs to be at least 4-layer when using BGAs, but that is more a cost issue than a design problem.

The Minimig FPGA has 400k gates from memory, and yes, BGA is a {bleep}, its not a simple soldering Iron job (at any pitch), Reflow toaster ovens are needed.

I think I will stick with my current minimig the way it is

[FrenchShark]

whiteb wrote:

But to justify the cost, are we talking about more games than just 1943 being able to be run ?

Currently, I can easily run the 3 versions of 1943 and Gunsmoke.
With few modification, I can run 1942 and Commando.

Then, the next step will be one of these : CPS1, CPS2, System16, (S)NES, MegaDrive, NeoGeo, PC Engine.

Regards,

Frederic

[FrenchShark]

Hello,

I have posted a new video on youtube with Scale2X algorithm. Unfortunately, the quality of youtube video sucks, so you cannot really see the difference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c39E5lhOPTM
Now, I need to take care of the sound chip : the YM2203. It won't be so easy.
I have checked which game shares the same 1943 hardware, there are four :
- 1943 Kai
- Commando
- Gunsmoke
- Black Tiger

Regards,

Frederic

[jensl]

Iluwater , maybe you can tell me,
is the 500k xilinx pin compatible to the 400k ?

Thanks
Jens

[wolfchild]

Unfortunately the 500k and 400k FPGAs are not pin compatible.  

The come from different product families (Spartan 3 vs Spartan 3E) and pins have been moved all over the place.

Edwin

[Illuwatar]

That's true - the 3E series and the 3 series are not direct replaceable. You need a new PCB design for that 100k gates extra. I have been working on a design like this - I have a partial drawing of a MiniMig with 8 MB SRAM using this Spartan 3E. But the difference in hardware requires a recompiled MiniMig core too. For these arcade classics, changing the FPGA seems to be a non-issue. But is it worth the work in creating a new PCB that uses the Spartan 3E for just 100 000 gates more? At least the memory could be counted for (replace the 512k x 16 with 1M x 16, 10ns)...

[jensl]

Side Arms should also share the Commando Board.
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=788

Jens

[FrenchShark]

jensl wrote:
Side Arms should also share the Commando Board.
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=788

Jens

Right, I forgot this one.

Anyway, every game are different enough to be obliged to have a different FPGA configuration for each.
It is true even for 1943 and 1943kai, because of a slightly different color palette.

Moreover, the DMA engine also changes if the game is in "portrait" or "landscape" mode.

Regards,

Frederic

[jensl]

And here are the results.

I have tried my own Minimig board and also on a complete new Minimig board that I have build.

The Minimig starts without problem, but the Kickstart Logo
does not appear. After that, I get a Guru Meditation.

Any Ideas ?

MfG
Jens.L

[FrenchShark]

Hello Jens,

can you give us the Guru number ?
Is it with KickStart 1.3 ?

Regards,

Frederic