Addressing MiSTer shortcomings with MiSTeX in the future?

[jan-kleks]

Hello,

This is a great project, and I am quite sure that I am not the only person closely watching it. MiSTer is awesome, but it has some shortcomings:

• you have to take additional actions to make sure your game is saved: https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/basics/saves/ This is the case even with Autosave turned on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0s-lkA9MD8 -- the devices from Analogue do not have this problem.

• only one SNAC port

• USB input could be more in sync with the cores. See: https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=38741

• maybe the framework could be adapted to make it easier to add save states to cores. At least those flashcart-like save states, see the discussion from Discord about them:

• it would be nice if a MiSTeX FPGA board could have more than one "retro use". Have you seen this video about creating a Game-Genie for Atari 2600 with a DE0-Nano FPGA board? -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXTxKD8-ghg

It might be worth looking into turning a MiSTeX board in a similar way into a "multi-flashcart" for developers. With wide-range support of mappers/expansion chips in MiSTer FPGA, I guess it could have been used together with various gaming retro hardware.

One could utilize it, for instance, for homebrew development (see how this scene is evolving! -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AGMEZvU14g) or creating test ROMs to compare FPGA implementations with original devices without buying "tons" of flashcarts.

Though obviously not as portable and nice-looking as standard flashcarts -- for development it should be just fine.

Using MiSTeX as a video scaler for original consoles/computers could be another interesting idea…

Keep up the great work!

[hansfbaier]

Yes, you could use it as a game genie.
The SDRAM port uses the same layout as the Altera DE0 boards, and you
can also plugin in standard MiSTer SDRAM modules.
Of course, you can plug in anything else there.
You just have to be careful what core you load.
The baseboard is actually quite general purpose,
you can also use it as a dev board for educational purposes.

[hansfbaier]

Why shouldn't you be able to use it for homebrew development?
What features would that need?

[jan-kleks]

Why shouldn't you be able to use it for homebrew development? What features would that need?

I mean, it would have been nice to be able to use it like a universal flashcart with a set of additional exchangeable hardware "cartridge-like plugs" that you would put into a given console. In general, it would have been cool if MiSTeX was something more than a universal console/computer.

[hansfbaier]

Of course you can use it like that with the SDRAM port and custom gateware.
No problems with that, but you really would not need the baseboard for that.
You could also use the core board for that.
In any case you would need a suitable adapter for the cartriges.

[tomaszb-dev]

Hello,
Will the board be appropriate for the project.
QMTECH Xilinx FPGA Kintex7 Kintex-7 XC7K325T DDR3

[hansfbaier]

@tomaszb-dev You mean this one?
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005003668804223.html
You can use it even now. I recently built all working core ports for it also.
I just don't recommend it for development work because you need a paid license ($3k).
Also currently it offers no material advantage over a 100T and a 200T because there are no cores that would use its strength.