FPGA Replay Board

[espskog]

It would be cool if some major company picked up the rights to use teh FPGA Replay board for other purposes aswell. Even if they did change the design a little, I bet the core could be adapter (or maybe even did not need adaption at all) so the world could get a nice FPGA Replay board for whatever-use whilst use Amigans could load our beloved minimig-core on it and use it for our own purpose. That way the production could be streamlind by someone else, while the retro-user gets a niftly board to use and Mike would not have to do so much production-stuff.

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.

I think the key factor to succeed in the fpga-board fight is simply how many cores we get and how well they work. More cores = more users = more money = more development =

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.

Personally, I want a C64 core aswell. The ones out there is not quite there yet.
It would be nice if FPGA board developers could concentrate on the cores instead. I would love to pay for a nice C64 core -- but I would not like to pay to have a proprietary fpga board to run it on when I already have my Replay board :-D

Then you have the fpga board which are proprietary like the Chameleon. It's a great product, but it will have to compete with minimig, replay and any other design out there. And frankly, there is NOT enough money out there to make all FPGA board happy. Just scrap the crap and focus on the best board and make cores for that. If you can sell a Core for a $10/30 fee to be a registered user (and gets updates etc), then that would be a great idea. I think all FPGA board users should contribute with a little cash to the developer of the core so that they can continue to develop it and make it better.

After all, they do it on their spare time....

Maybe someone could setup a FPGA CORE wiki and have links to all the cores and keep track of them and have links to download etc ? That would have been nice. A CORE LIBRARY ... not just for machines, but also for ARCADE CORES or any other core for that sake.

Keep up the great work!!!!!

[Haranguer]

Please send me an email.

Where do I send the email Mike?

[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

[CrazyApe]

Where do I send the email Mike?

Check out MikeJ's website, his email address is all over it, though it is     obfuscated to avoid the spam bots. Just remove whatever you see between fpga and arcade in the email address.

MikeJ's page, well worth a look around while you're at it.
http://www.fpgaarcade.com

[kedawa]

I've got a few potentially silly questions about NTSC capability.  Is there a way to get full PAL resolution at 60Hz with NTSC colour space?  I live in Canada so PAL video signals are no good for me and my equipment.  I don't mind if I have to run the entire machine at 120% speed to accomplish this, I just want to get the full image in a format my displays can handle.


I certainly hope it will be a very successful niche product.
The reason I don't see it as a truly mainstream product is that FPGA hardware is unavoidably expensive, and the average Joe would rather get something cheaper, even if that means using emulation that isn't cycle exact.  And that's to say nothing of the legal nightmare that would unfold if it draws the attention of the companies whose hardware is being recreated.  Even a baseless lawsuit or C&D order could be disastrous considering how every legal system is weighted in favour of the party with the biggest legal budget.

It doesn't have to be mass market to be very, very successful, though.  I see the Replay potentially succeeding in the same way the Amiga succeeded: it may not saturate the entire market, but it will find itself achieving some real success and popularity within certain niches.  It's already exciting the Amiga world; there's also the Atari world, the C= 64 fans, arcade and console fans, etc.

The nature of the Replay itself also means it has more potential than simply being whatever retro system you want it to be; it can become any system you wish it to be; retro with modern elements, a convenient development platform bridging two different technologies, etc.

We won't know exactly where and how the Replay will distinguish itself until it has started to ship in real numbers, however, and people get their hands on it and start to mess around with it.  That's when we'll see the real excitement and ipotential take off, IMO.

[amigadave]

Partnerships involves entanglements. Better that mikej keeps 100% controll without the company politics.
Better wait for next good batch, than get 1000s of units with corporate BS.

Mike could get a partner to help pay the cost of producing a large number of boards, but still retain complete control of the product.  It would just raise the price of the board a little bit if he decides to sell it through a third party distributor who needs to make a profit on the sales.

I want Mike to stay in control too.  He is doing a good job so far, but I thought the only thing that he might take advantage of it some help in getting it assembled and packaged, so he could concentrate on the important stuff like completing work on the core and finalizing the design work on the daughterboard.

Keep up the great work Mike.  The Replay has our attention and is a great product that will only continue to get better with age.

[freqmax]

Yeah, low profile might be a good idea.

[espskog]

Regarding PAL and NTSC. Isn't that history now ? The FPGA replay board runs on DC, so any 50Hz/60Hz issues with the power outlet from your wall is really not a topic anymore. Then it is the TV set. If you use a LCD TV, it should cope with games that runs on 50Hz aswell as the ones that syncs at 60Hz. Shouldn't it ?

Correct me if I am wrong here...

[Everblue]

PAL LCD TVs handle both 50 and 60hz signals.

NTSC LCD TVs probably only do 60hz.

[tribz]

PAL LCD TVs handle both 50 and 60hz signals.

NTSC LCD TVs probably only do 60hz.

I think with modern flat panel TV's, you wouldnt have a problem with either.

[psxphill]

I think with modern flat panel TV's, you wouldnt have a problem with either.

Possibly, possibly not. Depends on the TV, although the spec sheet might not be of any help. You just have to try it.

[Everblue]

I think with modern flat panel TV's, you wouldnt have a problem with either.

Modern flat panel TV = LCD TV

If it is a European TV, it will work no problems. With a US TV, well you have to try it out and hope for the best.

In other news, is MikeJ still in China?

[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.

[Everblue]

I was planning to use the HDMI socket via a DVI -> HDMI cable, not the VGA. VGA is intended for PC usage, so most probably that will only work with a 60hz signal.

[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.

[freqmax]

DVI/HDMI has some "must support" modes to be allowed to use the logo. They also have a crappy license for the HDMI part.