Browse ASCII Files on MiSTer [Feature Request]

[gus0650]

Hi all, not sure if this is the right place to write this...

I would love to browse simple text files on my Mister, for example game manuals.

This functionality could be very simple -- select a file, scroll with joystick, B button to close. Same look & feel as the Mister menu itself.

I think this feature should be very simple to implement, and would upgrade my Mister experience massively!

Thanks

[KremlingKuthroat19]

I'm with you buddy. My most requested feature is manual support for MiSTer. Being able to look at the original manuals in a PDF viewer would be a godsend for those all NES and Atari 2600 era games where you have no idea what to do. I'm still hoping that a PDF viewer is in the cards someday, but I won't hold my breath on that one. Who knows? It could happen. 6 months ago, people said we've never get save states and that's starting to change.

Viewing the original manuals within the MiSTer menu while playing the game is the last thing holding the MiSTer experience back from being better than software emulation. That and a front end which is a hotly debated issue that I don't want to get into now lol

I'd settle for a simple txt file reader though. That would be an amazing improvement. It'd also be amazing if you could scrape txt files from Gamefaqs. I assume you can still copy, paste, and save them into their own txt files and match them with the corresponding name by making the name of the game and the txt file match (similar to how you get the cheats to work with a specific game). However, that would be a pain in the ass.

You have my vote on this! I think it's a brilliant idea. All that would be needed is for MiSTer to have a 'manuals' folder and use the same folder structure for each core as the 'games' and 'cheats' folders to make sure everything matches correctly.

[MrX_Cuci]

Loads of ASCII manuals for Amiga can be found here: http://www.hipooniosamigasite.org/amigadocs/

[KremlingKuthroat19]

Thanks @MrX_Cuci. I found a great resource for console manuals too: https://www.digitpress.com/library/manuals/

This lists both TXT and PDF manuals for most consoles and handhelds.

Is it realistic to expect a PDF reader for MiSTer without being resource intensive? I know that the De-10 Nano has no proper GUI so does that make implementing an open-source and low-level/low-resource PDF reader unfeasible?

[gus0650]

Thanks for backing this idea guys!

PDF is maybe asking a bit much. But plain ASCII really shouldnt be a problem.....

[netbeui]

I guess this feature request never made it in.. Damn it would’ve been nice to be able to browse simple core specific text files. I realize a help system was added but it doesn’t work for me on a CRT or VGA monitor through the analog IO board

[AmintaMister]

I guess this feature request never made it in.. Damn it would’ve been nice to be able to browse simple core specific text files. I realize a help system was added but it doesn’t work for me on a CRT or VGA monitor through the analog IO board

It doesn’t work for me too

[akeley]

This feature is already present on MiSTer - it's the Help section. You can browse and display pdfs and .txt files. At the moment by default it only adds per-core .md readmes from the MiSTer wiki, but it's easy to either add your own Manuals directory to the fat/docs/ where they live or populate the per-core ones.

It works for me on a CRT via Direct Video so I'm pretty sure it's possible via I/O too. If you're certain your setup is up to scratch just make a bug report on github about it.

I've been collecting manuals for years and have a ~100GB dedicated folder. The best all-in-one sources are Gamebase packs and the exoDOS collection.

[AmintaMister]

This feature is already present on MiSTer - it's the Help section. You can browse and display pdfs and .txt files. At the moment by default it only adds per-core .md readmes from the MiSTer wiki, but it's easy to either add your own Manuals directory to the fat/docs/ where they live or populate the per-core ones.

It works for me on a CRT via Direct Video so I'm pretty sure it's possible via I/O too. If you're certain your setup is up to scratch just make a bug report on github about it.

I've been collecting manuals for years and have a ~100GB dedicated folder. The best all-in-one sources are Gamebase packs and the exoDOS collection.

Unfortunately via analog board it doesn't work...

[ARCADEAGES]

Why not just look it up on your phone or tablet? Then you can have that available while you are playing. Makes for much better experience IMHO.

[aberu]

This feature is already present on MiSTer - it's the Help section. You can browse and display pdfs and .txt files. At the moment by default it only adds per-core .md readmes from the MiSTer wiki, but it's easy to either add your own Manuals directory to the fat/docs/ where they live or populate the per-core ones.

It works for me on a CRT via Direct Video so I'm pretty sure it's possible via I/O too. If you're certain your setup is up to scratch just make a bug report on github about it.

I've been collecting manuals for years and have a ~100GB dedicated folder. The best all-in-one sources are Gamebase packs and the exoDOS collection.

Unfortunately via analog board it doesn't work...

Yes, it won't work unless you are viewing the framebuffer on your CRT. Did you regularly read text files on your consumer CRT televisions growing up? I personally didn't. You can make it work by setting custom video_mode's that push super resolutions to the scaler and trick it into doing 15kHz videos, but the results will likely not be great and it's a big hassle.

[akeley]

It actually looks very good in text mode and is perfectly readable. Even pdfs look good, though they require zooming in and navigating with cursors, but it's not a big deal. My setup is near my main PC, which is always on, so I view game manuals on that machine, but often look up some core key shortcuts/info via the Help text files on MiSTerr- it's fast and convenient. If somebody is far from a PC then viewing pdf manuals on a CRT is certainly a viable option.

I don't know why it doesn't work via I/O. If it requires cutsom modelines, perhaps this one for the Menu could be used, though not sure under what [tag]?

Couple examples (they look better live):

IMG-20220429-200806.jpg (6.88 MiB) Viewed 2562 times

IMG-20220429-200943.jpg (4.15 MiB) Viewed 2562 times

[AmintaMister]

I don't know why it doesn't work via I/O. If it requires cutsom modelines, perhaps this one for the Menu could be used, though not sure under what [tag]?

Thanks, I've tried, unfortunately it doesn't work... I will make a try with DirectVideo...

[AmintaMister]

Ok, I've tried with DirectVideo and no luck: when I try to read a text it hangs. Maybe the culprit is the frame buffer of my CRT, a Sony KV21FT1E Trinitron Tv...

[akeley]

@AmintaMister: did you ever get it sorted? I've just tried it from IO board on my KV-21FT1K and it works, same as on all my other consumer sets. Interestingly it doesn't work on a PVM (OEV 203). I get a message to in OSD to either enable the scaler or switch off frame buffer. The latter hangs, as you say. The former (vga_scaler=1) perhaps could work with a modeline, but not sure what [name] in the ini is the help section under (if at all)?