MiSTer FPGA Forum

Why use the SNES core when you can just use one of the many SNES emulators on a PC? An i486 core is of course useful for all the same reasons the other cores are useful. There are multiple benefits to using a MiSTer core, such as consistent performance (no random stuttering or performance spikes), low lag, not having to deal with driver issues, bugs in SDL, etc. FPGA doesn't mean cycle accurate.

The main difference however is that every modern pc is basically an i86 platform which still can fallback to the original mode. The only thing which prevents it to basically run the games natively is just the hardware used back then like soundblaster adlib etc..
Heck you even can run the real mode emulated straight on the processor itself without relying on emulators.
(windows 95 used that to run multiple dos windows back then but was bad in virtualizing the rest of the hardware)
so in this regard the pc is quite special given that any emulator does not emulate the processor itself just can pass it through. But anyway... i am not against doing it on mister.
Just my 2c....

werpu wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2020 8:29 pmso in this regard the pc is quite special given that any emulator does not emulate the processor itself just can pass it through.

Well, this isn't actually true. DOSBox and PCem use interpreters and recompilers for everything, including the CPU emulation. Nothing is executed directly. The fact that the host also happens to be an x86 platform changes nothing, it's the same as using an SNES emulator.

Virtualizers, like VirtualBox and Qemu with KVM, can pass through the CPU, but they aren't exactly known for working well with games or any kind of multimedia.

But of course if you enjoy using software emulation or virtualization, more power to you. But personally I find the FPGA experience to be much better.

I would like to see a Roland MPU-401 implementation for the UART...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPU-401

Hi ! I'd love to figure out a way to apply the scanlines properly. ATM they don't work properly with 240p games...

I'd add scaler options in the core menu.

Idea: maybe add another button combo to open the OSD? I have a wireless Logitech wii keyboard without a Windows button and plan to do a Mister build in an Amiga 1200 keyboard/case. Maybe there is already a way to change or remap the windows key? I'm not sure what key combo would be best. Maybe when I get a new IO board I would just hit the physical button.

seastalker wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:34 pm Idea: maybe add another button combo to open the OSD? I have a wireless Logitech wii keyboard without a Windows button and plan to do a Mister build in an Amiga 1200 keyboard/case. Maybe there is already a way to change or remap the windows key? I'm not sure what key combo would be best. Maybe when I get a new IO board I would just hit the physical button.

Might be possible using the keyboard rebinding options? Not sure if that only works in core or in the menus as well.

Creative Music System / Game Blaster (CMS/GB)

I would really love to have CMS/GB support in the AO486 core.

Admittedly, the Sound Blaster with FM sounds better than CMS/GB in most cases(Mostly because of badly programmed music IMO), but the CMS/GB has an interessting chiptune sound, quite unique to the PC.
In my opinion, games like The Secret of Monkey Island (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF6YpwQ8YEk) and Times of Lore (https://youtu.be/TAAx2jIx_xA) sounds really great with CMS/GB sound.
Other examples: https://youtu.be/ZwgZzuFXzLc


So what was the Creative Music System / Game Blaster?

The Creative Music System was Creatives first sound card released in 1987, and were later rebranded as Game Blaster.
It had a Programmable Sound Generator (PSG) made up by two Philips SAA1099 chips, which provided 12 channels of square-wave and 4 channels of noise for that chiptune sound in stereo (SB1 FM had mono).
The CMS/GB card was later replaced by Sound Blaster 1.0, but the new series of card still had CMS/GB support up til Sound Blaster 2.0 (Even though later relases only had empty sockets for those CMS/GB "upgrade" kits).
The CMS/GB sound were deemed inferior to the FM sound of the Sound Blaster series, and lost developer support. CMS/GB support were therefore discontinued after Sound Blaster 2.0.

For more info, goto:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Bla ... me_Blaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_SAA1099
https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/20 ... grade.html
https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/20 ... about.html


There were close to 100 games that supported the CMS/GB, some of the most famous examples being:
*The Secret of Monkey Island
*Prince of Persia
*Ultima VI
*Wing Commander II
*Early Sierra Titles in the Larry, Kings Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and A Quest for Glory series.
(A list of compatible games can be found at: https://www.mobygames.com/attribute/she ... Id,42/p,2/ )


The CMS/GB is fully emulated in DOSBox (https://github.com/dosbox-staging/dosbo ... laster.cpp)
Settings:
[sblaster]
sbtype=gb
oplmode=auto

or

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb1 (or) sb2
oplmode=cms

or(!)

[sblaster]
sbtype=none
oplmode=cms

Some games like one or another config better, the first (sbtype=gb) seems to work for most of the games. Other games used CMS as music and SB för digitized effects.


The MiSTer cores ZX Spectrum (https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ZX-Spectrum_MISTer) and the SAM Coupé (https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/SAM-Coupe_MiSTer) cores both has the same Philips SAA1099 chips.


There are also clone cards available for the PC:
https://github.com/gemedetpaps/MUS-1099
https://texelec.com/product/saaym/



Since the Sound Blaster series were CMS/GB compatible, it would make sense to include it (if possible) to be able to hear it in all FPGA glory.
If not together, then atleast as seperate choices (like CMS/OPL2/OPL3).

Most CMS/GB compatible games hardcode the I/O to 220h, but on physical it was changeable via a jumper on the card, default being 220h.
If it would be implemented in the core, it would be good to be able to change I/O port so the PSG and FM could coexist since some games used a combination of the two.
A problem though is that alot of the CMS/GB compatible games expects 220h, but there is a patching project (https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=58927) to patch games to I/O 210 instead.


I am guessing though that it is too large to include in the core, but I can always suggest

zoopster wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 10:11 am I'd add scaler options in the core menu.

Ooohhhh most definitely yes.

I came across something I would like to add as a wish. support for partitions larger than 8gb... or support for more than 2 VHD. The largest partitions you can use with AO486 seems to be 8064 MB or maybe 8040MB, somewhere in that area at least. Partitions larger than that will get errors. I tried making a 32gb VHD and I can use it, even with more than 16gb data on it, but much of the data it will be unable to read, so many folders will give errors when you try to go into them or show their contents.

I suspect it has to do with the bios. The boot0.rom bios. But might be a mix of that and the core.

Caldor wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm I came across something I would like to add as a wish. support for partitions larger than 8gb... or support for more than 2 VHD. The largest partitions you can use with AO486 seems to be 8064 MB or maybe 8040MB, somewhere in that area at least. Partitions larger than that will get errors. I tried making a 32gb VHD and I can use it, even with more than 16gb data on it, but much of the data it will be unable to read, so many folders will give errors when you try to go into them or show their contents.

I suspect it has to do with the bios. The boot0.rom bios. But might be a mix of that and the core.

Use the shared folder this should sole your problem.

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:06 pm

Caldor wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm I came across something I would like to add as a wish. support for partitions larger than 8gb... or support for more than 2 VHD. The largest partitions you can use with AO486 seems to be 8064 MB or maybe 8040MB, somewhere in that area at least. Partitions larger than that will get errors. I tried making a 32gb VHD and I can use it, even with more than 16gb data on it, but much of the data it will be unable to read, so many folders will give errors when you try to go into them or show their contents.

I suspect it has to do with the bios. The boot0.rom bios. But might be a mix of that and the core.

Use the shared folder this should sole your problem.

It does not. You cannot write to the shared folder, and using it for ISO files is also a problem because MiSTerFS takes up quite a bit of memory, so it creates an overflow error and causes crashes when trying to use CD mounting tools and running installations from those CDs. MiSTerFS also does not work with FreeDOS, or at least I have not been able to get it working.

It is a nice way to get some files transferred to VHDs though, if they are less than 100mb. Larger than that, and I might as well put the USB in my computer to copy it directly.

this is not a request, it would be nice to use a cheap external usb dvd player.
it would be so much easier to instal games

bertnorg wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:00 pm this is not a request, it would be nice to use a cheap external usb dvd player.
it would be so much easier to instal games

THIS!
...alongside with USB Floppy support.

My guess is it would be most efficient way to build a rig that is 100% compatible with original media.

NightShadowPT wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:39 pm

bertnorg wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:00 pm this is not a request, it would be nice to use a cheap external usb dvd player.
it would be so much easier to instal games

THIS!
...alongside with USB Floppy support.

My guess is it would be most efficient way to build a rig that is 100% compatible with original media.

That should in theory already be possible, by making a Linux script that makes a... I think they are called linked folders, that will link a folder in the shared folder to a certain USB folder that is the connected USB DVD drive.

That will not get around the problem with audio support and such though, as AO486 would not see it as a CD drive. It will also have the other limitations we have with MiSTerFS and its shared folder. Making it use that USB DVD drive or even USB stuff in general, would be awesome, but it requires making that type of MiSTer hardware supported by the core, and from what I have read it is not very simple to do this. If it happened it would be course be awesome, but its probably not something to expect to happen.

How likely are the chances of mounting an iso / having mscdexc working under DOS?

Some games like Wing Commander 3 are depending on that.

Beeble wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 6:58 pm How likely are the chances of mounting an iso / having mscdexc working under DOS?

Some games like Wing Commander 3 are depending on that.

Mounting an ISO is no problem, you can use SHSUCDX, it installs an alternative CD Driver. Wing Commander works, but is much to slow to be playable.

If I can add something to the wish-list, for me it will be the MDA/Hercules (720*348 in monochrome) display as option (with a dedicated boot1.rom for instance, like in a real system when you plug one or another card) As I told in another thread, I'm more interested by applications than games. For me, the amazing AO486 is going to be used for running pure dos stuffs and/or windows till the 3.11 version. I'm not interested to run Win95 or 98, it is too close to recent OS, moreover I do not really like the 3D games (My own point of view of course). And for that reason, I'd love to have the MDA/Hercules option. Back in the day, I spent hours days months during my studies on a PC having a green TTL monochrome monitor for the use of Visicalc, Dbase, Lotus 1.2.3, autocad etc They all run well with VGA of course but the feeling is different. I also always admire what can be done in terms of picture by using only 2 colors when it is displayed on a green or amber monitor. So, I hope that one day this option becomes a reality. Thanks for reading.

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:11 pm

Beeble wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 6:58 pm How likely are the chances of mounting an iso / having mscdexc working under DOS?

Some games like Wing Commander 3 are depending on that.

Mounting an ISO is no problem, you can use SHSUCDX, it installs an alternative CD Driver. Wing Commander works, but is much to slow to be playable.

SUSUCDX doenst mount the Image right, how did you get it to start with SHSUCDX? Speed looked fine during Installation, Carrier was spinning like crazy. If the Video is to slow, I dont mind, but Graphics looked nice in the CPU Test during installation.

When starting, it crashes complaining about a bad CD

Didn't had problems, video was slow, but my guess is that the CPU was to slow. Didn't had a problem getting the game run, but once I was ingame everything was so slow.

What Version of Wing Commander 3 did you use? Any special switches while mounting the iso?

The CD version from ExoDOS and no special switches.

Caldor wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm I came across something I would like to add as a wish. support for partitions larger than 8gb... or support for more than 2 VHD.

Yeah having support for 4 VHD's would probably make things easier to play with. And since IDE systems of that era generally had support for 4 drives (usually but not necessarily one or two optical drives and two hard disk drives) it would be most accurate to the aesthetic.

softtest9 wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 7:38 pm Support for CD-Rom images would be very useful in my opinion. There are some DOS games that stream audio tracks from disc. Installing operating systems would also be easier.

+1 on CD Image native support by the core

bootsector wrote: ↑Tue Aug 18, 2020 4:33 pm

softtest9 wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 7:38 pm Support for CD-Rom images would be very useful in my opinion. There are some DOS games that stream audio tracks from disc. Installing operating systems would also be easier.

+1 on CD Image native support by the core

Even if it would only be able to use ISO images that would be pretty awesome to be able to hotswap ISO files and not have to use CD emulation.

Reed_Solomon wrote: ↑Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:34 pm

Caldor wrote: ↑Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00 pm I came across something I would like to add as a wish. support for partitions larger than 8gb... or support for more than 2 VHD.

Yeah having support for 4 VHD's would probably make things easier to play with. And since IDE systems of that era generally had support for 4 drives (usually but not necessarily one or two optical drives and two hard disk drives) it would be most accurate to the aesthetic.

I was looking at the AO486 code, since its all open source and wanted to see if I could make some sense of it, and right now the two drives uses one controller each and acts as the primary drive on each IDE controller. So if someone could figure out how to add support for a slave HDD for one of the controllers, it would probably be possible to also use it for the second controller.

If CD drive support is to be added, it would probably end up also using one of these controllers.

I guess it might also be possible that a SCSI controller could be added. Not sure if they had DOS support? But that might add support for even more drives. I am guessing it would be more complicated to add SCSI support since there already is some... I assume IDE support.

I have been told that there is some problems with the IDE controllers as it is now, which is the reason why reading and writing to HDDs on AO486 is so incredibly slow.

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 18, 2020 1:20 pm The CD version from ExoDOS and no special switches.

Thank you very much!

My BIGGEST dream would be native analog VGA output out of the D-Sub connection on the analog I/O.

What would be cool for this core is an Adaptec 1542 SCSI controller..

Jegriva wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 11:13 pm My BIGGEST dream would be native analog VGA output out of the D-Sub connection on the analog I/O.

Second that!