FPGA Replay Board

[Hattig]

Very true...

I could move just a few hours up north and have a pretty nice house for probably less than this small townhouse near Miami i just bought, but I don't think there are many programming jobs. Hard to imagine that it sold in 2007 for over 2X what I paid for it.

Right now Detroit area is very reasonable with property values around the same price of a new mid to high-end configured Apple computer.

I think in general the UK will cost more.

You could buy 100 Mac Pros for the cost of a small townhouse in London.

Then again, you pay off the house and retire outside London, and you've got yourself a nice pile of money to waste on beer. Assuming we're not at 20% unemployment or recovering from the plague.

[psxphill]

You could buy 100 Mac Pros for the cost of a small townhouse in London.
 
Then again, you pay off the house and retire outside London, and you've got yourself a nice pile of money to waste on beer. Assuming we're not at 20% unemployment or recovering from the plague.

Depends on the spec of the macpro, you might only get a studio flat. If you tick all options on the mac pro then you might stretch to a maisonette.

[freqmax]

The right question to ask is if the sallary in the big city is high enough to offset the higher living cost ..?

[Darrin]

Hmm, well yes ok that was a poorly phrased question on my part. I could have bought a house in Middlesbrough back when I was a student for a out £15,000... wouldn't have been worth it really granted the time since they're still only selling for a out £18,000 whereas my house which is the same size is worth quite a bit more

Difference between Middlesbrough town centre and a nice leafy village in the country I guess

Ok, but question still stands, it's scary how much land in the US costs compared to the UK

Land prices in the UK are scary.  That's one of the reasons I'm a Brit living in the USA.  

I originally bought 10 acres for $5900/acre.  Prices vary depending on zoning and whether it is in a flood zone (it amazes me that people buy land to build a house in a flood zone because it is cheaper... and then wonder why they have trouble getting insurance).

So, I bought the land a couple fo years ago, paid it off and then started clearing it to build the house.  The plan was to clear an area in the center and leave trees surrounding it for privacy.  Well, the land looked flat with the trees on it, but when they cleared the area for the house there was a 5' difference between the rear right-hand corner and the front left hand corner which meant that I would have to truck in tens of thousands of dollars worth of earth to build up the land for the pad.  Also, once the slab was laid I was looking at a 7' ramp just to drive up to my garage!  So, we kept clearing more and more land going backwards until we go it down to a 1' slope which unfortunately put me 420' back from the road and lost most of my back yard.  So, I had to buy another 2 acres behind me.

I bet you could sell your house in Middlesbrough and buy one twice the size over here, furnish it from top to bottom, buy a car each for you and the wife and still have money left over.  

Let me just mention my computer room again which will house my FPGA Arcade just so that we can say we're on topic.  

[Darrin]

Sounds like my room, with what used to be used as a pool table, except I don't have the U shaped desk, only an L shape.

I have not been able to play a game of pool/billiards for many months, as it is covered with computer parts and computers that are partially disassembled.

I am hoping to get things straightened out a little so I can invite a half dozen Amiga users over for a weekend meeting some time before the end of the year.

I was hoping to see some news about the FPGA Replay Board when I saw this thread at the top of the forum list.  Sorry Mike, for contributing to the off topic discussion.

Fortunately my snooker table is going in a dedicated games room, although a retro-games cabinet would make a nice addition.  Defender, Pheonix, Asteroids...  drool.

Right now my current room is so cluttered I can't even put out the mouse and kyboard for some of the machines.  My FPGA Arcade is burried under some paperwork (and still needs a case)... and an updated core (hint, hint Mike )

[freqmax]

Why does it need an update?

[Darrin]

Why does it need an update?

Because the new core supports some bug fixes and RTG screen modes.  Mike just hasn't released it yet because he's been working on it.

[freqmax]

Ie it works but you wish for bugs to go away and new screen modes to appear. But you don't need them

[Darrin]

Ie it works but you wish for bugs to go away and new screen modes to appear. But you don't need them

LOL.  More of less.

I've tested a few games and most work perfectly, but there are a couple that either have some "quirks" or don't work at all.  Some of these issues are probably due to errors in either the Minimig core and/or the CPU core.  Just like with the Minimig and the Chameleon64, the core itself is always being debugged and updated with new features, so it is always nice to have the latest update.

Also, once you're used to RTG screens then you can't have your Workbench any other way.  

[kedawa]

Is not having a basement an American thing?

[Darrin]

Is not having a basement an American thing?

In Louisiana it is more of a "swamp" thing.  Dig  down a couple of feet and you hit fresh water.

[freqmax]

Water proof concrete?

[Darrin]

Water proof concrete?

Low density concrete.  It floats.  

[Daff]

@Freqmax : there is review of the Replay board : http://obligement.free.fr/articles/replay_fpga_arcade.php

It's in french but you can see there are bugs, specially with AGA software.

[freqmax]

Add iron bars at the bottom

[gaula92]

In Louisiana it is more of a "swamp" thing.  Dig  down a couple of feet and you hit fresh water.

That's why H P Lovecraft discov..ehmm... invented the Cthulu creatures, like The Deep Ones
I don't know a thing about the US geography but I hope you won't build your house on some ancient ruins and become crazy dreaming about creatures that inhabited the earth before mankind!
(And avoid classic mithological names like Derceto, etc)