FPGA Replay Board

[Darrin]

Wow, what a thread I stumbled upon.  Had my share of Amigas - heck, the A1000 is still in the basement, but the A500, A600, A2000, A3000, CDTV and CD32 are all long gone.  This project looks fascinating.  From the layman's POV, can "just anybody" order up and assemble one of these boards into a working Amiga?  What's involved?  Who do I talk to, and is there a ballpark cost estimate for what's needed?  Thanks in advance.

Email/PM "MikeJ" above and he'll add you to the list to receive an assembled board once each batch is completed.

[Everblue]

Just to kill some time until Arcade FPGA is out, I decided to prepare an HDF image using WinUAE. Once the FPGA is in my hands, how would I 'boot' from the HDF image? Would it be just a matter of copying the HDF image to the SDCard? Can I have more than 1 HDF image (one for DH0, other for DH1, etc) and use them with Arcade FPGA?

Thanks!

[_ThEcRoW]

Would in the future be possible to use usb ports in the replay?. I'm really interested in that feature because i could use an amiga1200 keyboard i have here, and would fit perfectly along his desktop case . Anyway, i have a ps2 keyboard waiting while it gets done .

[bbond007]

For anyone interested, I found something that looks like it would do the trick but it's very expensive for what it is.

In reality, it's probably just a PIC micro-controller with USB support, bit-banging the PS/2 protocol.

I suspect there are plenty of USB and PS/2 PIC code examples floating about on the net so building a similar contraption should be pretty much a case of cut'n'pate with the existing examples.
http://www.kvm.com.au/store/product.aspx?ProductID=5524&CategoryID=311

This is my first post, but I've been watching this thread from the beginning, but now that things are getting closer I must say....

.... I wan't one.


I'll send a PM & email for you to add me to your list shortly.

I too want the new Minimig. I currently have the soon to be obsolete Minimig 1.1 (with all the options) and its an amazing little machine with a 68000 that runs like an 030

Anyway, the device you linked too looks a lot like this device I purchased to put my Minimig on my 4-port KVM which is USB only. I'm coding an application where I need to switch between my PC and Minimig frequently to test.

Anyway, I got this product that looks a lot like  the one in your link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200976&Tpk=ps22usb

It does work with the keyboard, however the mouse only seems to move up and to the right while randomly pressing the right mouse button. The converter is a partial success because two mice is way better than two keyboards and it does cause my KVM to see a computer on that port. Otherwise the KVM would just bypass that port.

The converter works (with the mouse) on my Amiga 1200 with the COCOLINO PS2 mouse adapter.

Oh, also, I originally intended the converter to let me use the more modern 2.4 GHZ wireless mice with my 1200. It does not seem to work with any wireless USB mice. I ended up tracking down a NOS Logitech 2.4 GHZ mouse with backwards compatibility with PS2.

good luck
nate

[Everblue]

Just to kill some time until Arcade FPGA is out, I decided to prepare an HDF image using WinUAE. Once the FPGA is in my hands, how would I 'boot' from the HDF image? Would it be just a matter of copying the HDF image to the SDCard? Can I have more than 1 HDF image (one for DH0, other for DH1, etc) and use them with Arcade FPGA?

Thanks!

Anyone? Thanks =)

[gaula92]

I'm also waiting for my FPGA ARCADE to arrive, but I've been using a Minimig from 2008.
So I suppose it will work like the original Minimig core: you'll be able to select one or two HDF files in your SD card and the core will boot from the master one if you provide a KICKSTART ROM wich has the IDE driver (3.1 from A600 or A1200).
You can create the empty HDF files however you like (I simply dd them in Linux) , but you should partition and format them in the FPGA Arcade with the OS 3.x install disk (not sure if it's mandatory but I believe it is).

[Everblue]

So I cannot create a ready-to-go HDF file with WinUAE and then just boot it in Arcade FPGA?

[wizard66]

Anyone? Thanks =)

You can USE 2 HDF files on the Replay at the same time.
I have 2 HDF Files from 4 GB on my replay (fat32 sdcarts handle 4gb max per files)

My HDF Files:
1. dh0: 500MB WB and dh1: 3.5GB Work.
2.dh2: 4GB whdload all hdf's use PFS3.

Creating HDF files on WinUAE:
Use 4000MB for a partition and use ide0 and/or ide1 for HD controller.
Enable RDB mode otherwise it will not work on the Replayboard.
With partitioning the drives don't forget to set the maxtransfer to 0x1FE00 because otherwise you will  have read/write errors after some time.

I hope this info will be of any use Happy holidays.

P.S I just created a HDF file from 4050MB with UAE looks like this is also working on the replay but not tested in full yet (4094 or 4095MB is not working)..

[Everblue]

Thanks a lot wizard66 =)

Just a question... how "different" is the feel when you are playing on Arcade FPGA, say to a real Amiga? Can you sense "something is not quite right" - or it is as perfect as it can be =)

Thanks and happy holidays to you too =)

[wizard66]

What can I say Nostromo ;-)

This is a real Amiga, feel and gameplay is the real thing for me.
After Using WINUAE and other amigalike systems I have build some minimig's (see sig).
And that also feels like a real amiga (500).

The FPGA Replay is the next gen classic AGA Amiga (A1200) lots of memory (64MB) lots off speed faster as a blizzard 1230 MKIV (68030@50 Mhz) RTG (after core update).
So I Can really comment the FPGA Replay to all....

I have installed workbench 3.1 and betterWB on it and other stuff this is working great.
OS 3.9 is not running out off the box yet but I hope with the new core update it will.

Thanks a lot wizard66 =)

Just a question... how "different" is the feel when you are playing on Arcade FPGA, say to a real Amiga? Can you sense "something is not quite right" - or it is as perfect as it can be =)

Thanks and happy holidays to you too =)

[Everblue]

Thanks for your feedback... I was asking because you know, A1200 + Accelerator + Indivision costs I believe twice the price of an arcade FPGA, if not more.

[wizard66]

Thanks for your feedback... I was asking because you know, A1200 + Accelerator + Indivision costs I believe twice the price of an arcade FPGA, if not more.

Yes That's true and now you have all this in new hardware on a smaller footprint and is working with LCD DVI/VGA  (so don't forget there is also a 24bit scandoubler inside ;-) )

[Everblue]

Yeah, space is very important for me, I barely have any here =)

BTW I am trying to setup a 4GB HDF in UAE as you said... but HDToolBox does not detect any hard drive.

I did this in WinUAE:

0. Load WinUAE as administrator
1. Add Hardfile
2. 4000MB
3. Selected OFS/FFS/RDB
4. Enabled RDB mode
5. IDE0 as HD Controller
6. Boot from floppy (WB3.1 install)
7. Launch HDTOOLBOX -> nothing detected

What's broken? Thanks!

[Everblue]

Nevermind, I managed =)

[Darrin]

Thanks for your feedback... I was asking because you know, A1200 + Accelerator + Indivision costs I believe twice the price of an arcade FPGA, if not more.

Just to add to Wizzard's comments, I've been using a Minimig since the aCube boards were available and I've been using the FPGA Arcade for a long time.  I've been using a 68000 version of ClassicWB with no issues (the OS3.9 version of ClassicWB has some problems at the moment which I hope will vanish with the next core update).

Both FPGA solutions run and feel like "real" Amigas.  The only differences are the second or two the core takes to load when you first switch it on and using ADF files instead of floppies, which actually comes as a relief considering the number of floppy disks I now have errors on them.

If you have some spare time on your hands then I also recommend making ADFs of your floppy collection while you wait.  "TSGUI" on Aminet is an excellent program to use for this purpose.

Right now I'm using a 4GB card on each machine.  I have a 2GB Hard File which included WHDLoad and a selection of my favourite games.  The rest of the card is for the core files, ADF images and ROM images.

[wizard66]

Thanks Darrin for your input m8ty ;-)