Newbie questions

[THaase]

Hi have humor - belive me ....
But we are now do competition between FPGA and Emulator ....

I've not seen before, but Polymega site now shows up some HW Spec:

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Processor: Intel® CM8068403377713
Memory: 4GB DDR4 RAM
Connectivity: HDMI, 802.11G WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, Polymega™ Expansion Bus
On-board Storage: 16GB eMMC Flash Memory
Expansion Storage: Up to 512GB MicroSD via SD Card expansion slot
Optical Drive: 8X CD/DVD Slot-in Optical Disc Drive


I would not wonder some kind of standard ITX board .... and the Polymega™ Expansion Bus will use USB (hopefully 3.0)

So just a stupid PC ..... (with Linux)

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OS: Proprietary Linux-based.


Let's see if they respect GPL

[bendo]

Hello All,

I just started to dive into Mister and I have to say: WOW!
Amazing work went into this project and as far as I can see is Sorgelig the main coordinator. So Thank You Very Much! As well to him as to anyone else who made this possible.

The reason I went the Mister path is couriosity regarding FPGAs, the iCE40 was too "small" for me, and all the other FPGAs were too "professional", and to be honest too expensive, so I thought Mister is the way to go.
And the main reason is: You can do something "useful" with it. I grew up with the VIC20 and later Atari 1040 STF, so I deem it "useful" to go a little back in time. Soon I found out that the Atari ST port is a little underdeveloped, but there are plenty of other cores to play with.
A bit ironic seeing the main forum for Mister being the Atari-Forum.

I know it sounds a little bit ambitious to learn FPGA by reading the core sources, but I've learnt C by reading the Linux kernel sources back in the early 1990s.

I started programming with Commodore Basic, later UCSD-Pascal on Apple II, GFA-Basic on Atari, Turbo-Pascal on 386er as well as C, today I still program in LUA for World of Warcraft and Delphi/Lazarus for work.

I've setup already the Quartus 18.1 lite suite and was in fact able to program my first "Blink" application, so far so good. But when I tried to compile some cores, it tells me it can't output *.rbf files since the sources seems to use some time limited components, that cannot be compiles by the free version.
Am I doing something wrong, since I'm a newb, or is it working as intended? Do I have to use the $3000 version of Quartus to compile the cores?

My second question is the ability to remote use the board: I'm able to connect by ssh to the board. Can I install a window-manager to use VNC on the board and use the cores remotely? Or is it imperative to use HDMI and USB keyboard?

And my third question is: How do I restart the board? F12 can restart the core but not the board, ssh can use "reboot", but is there any keycode like Ctrl-Alt-Del (what doesn't work) to reboot the board?

And again: Thank you very much for the cool work that went into this project!

[Sorgelig]

Do I have to use the $3000 version of Quartus to compile the cores?

no. New versions of cores don't use licensed components (may be except couple cores).

My second question is the ability to remote use the board: I'm able to connect by ssh to the board. Can I install a window-manager to use VNC on the board and use the cores remotely?

no, you can't. It's the same as trying to install VNC to real SNES or ZX Spectrum.

but is there any keycode like Ctrl-Alt-Del (what doesn't work) to reboot the board?

lshift+lctrl+lalt+ralt by default.

[onaryc29]

Hi,

from my understanding, all the cores and data must be put on a sdcard. It is possible to put the data on an external drive?

Edit :

The wiki for the diy concerning the io board has still the list components for 5.5 boards. The list is the same for the 5.6 version? Otherwise what are the missing items?

Thanks

[nathanhardie]

I have a newbie question. Where or what or how do I find and setup the BIOS file for the FDS games on the NES core?

[laserdisc]

I have a newbie question. Where or what or how do I find and setup the BIOS file for the FDS games on the NES core?

The almighty Google or your favourite web search service. You may find a few dead ends but you'll find it.

Happy Hunting

[nathanhardie]

I have a newbie question. Where or what or how do I find and setup the BIOS file for the FDS games on the NES core?

The almighty Google or your favourite web search service. You may find a few dead ends but you'll find it.

Happy Hunting

So it's just a normal BIOS? Do I rename it? I keep on seeing stuff about needing a powerpak version?

[laserdisc]

I have a newbie question. Where or what or how do I find and setup the BIOS file for the FDS games on the NES core?

The almighty Google or your favourite web search service. You may find a few dead ends but you'll find it.

Happy Hunting

So it's just a normal BIOS? Do I rename it? I keep on seeing stuff about needing a powerpak version?

I don't know of any powerpak version, standard BIOS (providing its a correctly dumped version otherwise keep searching) will work and rename it to boot0.rom

You can refer to the NES_Mister Wiki here https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/NES_MiSTer to get NDS going.
The main Wiki is here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/wiki

[nathanhardie]

Thanks laserdisc!

[JamesF]

Where is the "KBD TOGGLE" button on the keyboard,, Num Lock?
I can't enable Auto Fire using a keyboard.

[Sorgelig]

Where is the "KBD TOGGLE" button on the keyboard,, Num Lock?
I can't enable Auto Fire using a keyboard.

you have to define it in Menu core.

[Xkenx]

Hi,

Maybe a stupid question!?
How do I activate fonts?

[Sorgelig]

Hi,

Maybe a stupid question!?
How do I activate fonts?

check the sample ini:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... MiSTer.ini

[Xkenx]

Thanks Sorgelig

[Glaurung]

Another newbie question:

-Why no complex arcade games like in MAME? Its more dificult to "fpga it"?, or just mister can't do that?

[Sorgelig]

Another newbie question:

-Why no complex arcade games like in MAME? Its more dificult to "fpga it"?, or just mister can't do that?

Make the complex one - everyone will be happy.
Cores don't grow on trees. Some one has to develop them.

[Newsdee]

Why no complex arcade games like in MAME? Its more dificult to "fpga it"?, or just mister can't do that?

MAME has benefited from hundreds of developers and contributors for over 20 years. Get that manpower behind MiSTer and it can maybe get to the same stage.

FPGA tech is different, it can do a lot but it needs a rewrite. One can't just port software emulators. It also allows more accuracy/less lag but that needs careful testing versus original hardware to be done well. It all takes time.

That being said, the Neogeo core is doing great progress. So we will soon have a lot more arcade stuff.

[djmartins]

Another newbie question:

-Why no complex arcade games like in MAME? Its more dificult to "fpga it"?, or just mister can't do that?

MiSTer's FPGA is pretty beefy and capable of more than MiST but as is said here it takes
developers to write the cores and people who can write for FPGAs are scarcer than programmers.
I can't.
That being said MiSTer has a lot of cores out of all the FPGA retro machines I have seen out there
and most of them run pretty good.

[z00pster]

Hi

I've been having problems getting the Minimig core to work well with a wired mouse connected via a USB hub (tried two mice and two hubs). The pointer movement and single click works well but I'm having real trouble getting double click to work. This is on the latest mister and Minimig releases. Any thoughts on what might be the issue?

Thanks
John

[Sorgelig]

Hi

I've been having problems getting the Minimig core to work well with a wired mouse connected via a USB hub (tried two mice and two hubs). The pointer movement and single click works well but I'm having real trouble getting double click to work. This is on the latest mister and Minimig releases. Any thoughts on what might be the issue?

Thanks
John

it's unclear if you had problem in previous releases.

[z00pster]

Hi

I've been having problems getting the Minimig core to work well with a wired mouse connected via a USB hub (tried two mice and two hubs). The pointer movement and single click works well but I'm having real trouble getting double click to work. This is on the latest mister and Minimig releases. Any thoughts on what might be the issue?

Thanks
John

it's unclear if you had problem in previous releases.

Understood and thanks for taking the time to respond. I've has the Mister for a week so really hard to say. Pretty everything else keyboard, USB controller and most of the mouse functions appear to work well. I've tried two different Amiga hdf set ups (a 3.1.4 WB and a 3.1 Classic WB set up). Like I say its very odd.

[Sorgelig]

Leave on USB only mouse and try again.
May be you need to try other USB hub or just try mouse on other USB port.

[z00pster]

Leave on USB only mouse and try again.
May be you need to try other USB hub or just try mouse on other USB port.

Tried that and another borrowed USB 3 powered hub but no joy. I'm going to order the MiSTer USB hub add-on either way. Someone else reported the same issue on the Discore mister-help channel. Thanks.

[z00pster]

Leave on USB only mouse and try again.
May be you need to try other USB hub or just try mouse on other USB port.

Tried that and another borrowed USB 3 powered hub but no joy. I'm going to order the MiSTer USB hub add-on either way. Someone else reported the same issue on the Discore mister-help channel. Thanks.

Just had a FB message from another MiSTer user who spotted the same problem since the new update.

[Sorgelig]

Ok, it seems i have the same issue.