MiSTer FPGA Forum

What new console, handheld or arcade core do you think will be released in 2021?

PS1 core currently being worked on might be in some kind of playable form late this year.

CPS2 Arcade core is definitely coming this year.

I don't expect any new handheld cores this year.

I just want to know if SRG320 is working on anything new and if its 32x lol.

I'm crossing my fingers on Atari Lynx by Christmas

CPS2 is very close to beta release.
this will be a big deal and bring several FGC enthusiasts to the MiSTer.
CPS2 is the generally accepted golden era of fighting games from capcom and is my most anticipated core of 2021.

PS1 is being worked on (with a different FPGA SBC, but the plan is to port it to MiSTer when its finished)
i dont expect to see PS1 on the MiSTer for quite a while tho. im speculating at least until this time next year, maaaayybe christmas 2021

CAVE 68000 core progress is coming along, and we should see the first set of those games running in the next couple months -
(DonPachi, DoDonPachi, ESP Ra.De., Uo Poko, Dangun Feveron / Fever S.O.S., Guwange)

jotego will continue to work on more arcade cores,
which people are asking about Midway T Unit (mortal kombat, NBA jam) and he has said he plans on working on System 16 next (shinobi, golden axe, altered beast)

CPS2 and PS1 are kind of the end of the lifespan for the MiSTer.
thats not a bad thing, but after CPS2 and PS1, we will not see any major system releases aside from various arcades and some handhelds (neo geo pocket, lynx, wonderswan)

stuff like N64, DS, PS2, sega model 1/2/3/naomi, dreamcast, jaguar, & sega saturn is currently out of the realm of what the MiSTer can run.
but id imagine 5 years down the line, when theres a new/better FPGA for retro systems, those will be made at some point

I would love to see the "MR DO" coin-op core released. It's a coinop I have 99.9% only played at home via C64 etc but is one of my 3 favourite coin-ops. Being able to play a real arcade version with the ability to rotate the screen to its original vertical mode would be sublime.

I'd love to see a Paperboy arcade core.. that game bring back great memories

PikWik wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 5:21 pm CPS2 is very close to beta release.
this will be a big deal and bring several FGC enthusiasts to the MiSTer.
CPS2 is the generally accepted golden era of fighting games from capcom and is my most anticipated core of 2021.

PS1 is being worked on (with a different FPGA SBC, but the plan is to port it to MiSTer when its finished)
i dont expect to see PS1 on the MiSTer for quite a while tho. im speculating at least until this time next year, maaaayybe christmas 2021

CAVE 68000 core progress is coming along, and we should see the first set of those games running in the next couple months -
(DonPachi, DoDonPachi, ESP Ra.De., Uo Poko, Dangun Feveron / Fever S.O.S., Guwange)

jotego will continue to work on more arcade cores,
which people are asking about Midway T Unit (mortal kombat, NBA jam) and he has said he plans on working on System 16 next (shinobi, golden axe, altered beast)

CPS2 and PS1 are kind of the end of the lifespan for the MiSTer.
thats not a bad thing, but after CPS2 and PS1, we will not see any major system releases aside from various arcades and some handhelds (neo geo pocket, lynx, wonderswan)

stuff like N64, DS, PS2, sega model 1/2/3/naomi, dreamcast, jaguar, & sega saturn is currently out of the realm of what the MiSTer can run.
but id imagine 5 years down the line, when theres a new/better FPGA for retro systems, those will be made at some point

I don't see why PS1 is possible but not Saturn, they were more or less on par.

I"d love to see the Atary Lynx and more game & watch

the_importer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 6:40 pm I don't see why PS1 is possible but not Saturn, they were more or less on par.

i was hopeful for the sega saturn as well, until i read some forum posts here - viewtopic.php?t=335 (which i see youve already posted on)
and discussions on reddit/atari forums.

the consensus is that sega saturn is possible, but the amount of work involved in a system with so many custom chips working in tandem would take some very dedicated developers and a lot of time to complete.
again, not impossible, but not likely unless a serious patreon backing "motivates" someone

Another vote for the Atari Lynx, which is sorely missing right now. I've read that work has started on a core for it, so hopefully there will be a first version this year. I second more Game & Watch cores (and other LCD/VFD handhelds and tabletops). And a Neo Geo Pocket would be great as well.

EDIT: Oh wait, arcade cores. I remember reading something about a Q-Bert core being worked on, that would be great. I'd love to see more Atari arcade games, like APB and RoadBlasters. SEGA super scalar games, like Outrun would be fantastic, but I don't think anyone is working on that and it is probably a massive amount of work.

Confirmed; CV68000 (which is already complete):

DonPachi, Dangun Feveron. Next: Toaplan v1,2

All within the next months (nullobject, please don't kill me)

PikWik wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 7:34 pm

the_importer wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 6:40 pm I don't see why PS1 is possible but not Saturn, they were more or less on par.

i was hopeful for the sega saturn as well, until i read some forum posts here - viewtopic.php?t=335 (which i see youve already posted on)
and discussions on reddit/atari forums.

the consensus is that sega saturn is possible, but the amount of work involved in a system with so many custom chips working in tandem would take some very dedicated developers and a lot of time to complete.
again, not impossible, but not likely unless a serious patreon backing "motivates" someone

Yes, I agree, but your wording was "out of the realm of what the MiSTer can run". I'm surprised that no one opened a Patron account to make this a full time job, I'd pay 10$ a month for this.

If you read Alexey's interview from a week ago or so he mentions that Saturn should be worked on. I think it will be coming, I never believed it will before. I also expect more and more arcade cores to come. There are a ton of arcade games that can run on MiSTer but have not been done. As for arcade systems (not stand alone games) there's IGS PGM 1 and 2, Taito F3 and Sega 16 and 18.

Atari 7800 ......just keep hoping...

eewoke wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 10:50 pm Atari 7800 ......just keep hoping...

I find it very odd that there isn't already a 7800 core. And I mean from way back in MiST days, how was there nobody interested in implementing this system? I mean its not exactly the most complex system in the world. It still uses some of the original 2600 hardware like the TIA chip for sound and 6502 for the CPU.

Atari 7800 will happen as soon as the 2600 core is complete, most likely. Lynx will happen eventually too. It's really a process of elimination when you think about it. After all the big platforms are taken care of that are feasible, then the lesser known platforms will get taken care of. When it comes to consoles the last remaining huge ones that are feasible are PS1, Saturn and N64 (if it's technically possible since IDK). Dreamcast seems to be a pipedream on the De10.

The less popular consoles will be taken care of once the bigger platforms are taken care of: 32X, CD32, 3DO, Jaguar, CD-i, Lynx, Virtual Boy, Intellivision etc.

The same concept applies to the arcade boards. The Midway boards like Wolf, Y unit, T unit X unit and so on will probably be worked on by someone like Jotego after the CPS-1 and other Sega boards.

A lot of the cores I mentioned are already in development, but haven't been released yet. Sorgelig mentioned that the Saturn was his favorite platform that hadn't been implemented so I think that even though it'll push the De10 to its limits that there's enough passion there to get it done sometime in the future. The PS1 core is making insane progress thanks to Laxer3A and he now has someone else working with him too. Their productivity has increased substantially and I wouldn't be surprised if they launched a beta in the middle of the year.

Btw I totally agree with the idea of someone doing this full-time and all of us chipping in if we wanted to. I view it like it'd be a Netflix subscription of $10 a month for someone to just work on this full-time and make a living off this. If 500 of us paid $10 a month to 1 developer, then that'd be $50,000/year. It's an interesting concept, and something I'd totally pay for to ensure that someone was working on MiSTer full-time. However, I'd only be willing to pay that for a top-tier developer that has a history of completing robust cores with little or no outside assistance like Sorgelig, srg320, Jotego, FPGAzumSpass, etc. (sorry to any devs I excluded!)

Another question is what are the official cores that still need some work done before they can be deemed "complete", at least for the most part? Btw having save states, turbo modes and so on are bonus features so I'm not going to consider those features.

The ones I know that aren't technically complete yet are:
-Magnavox Odyssey 2 - a great start, but hasn't seen an update since 2018 and has a lot of compatibility issues.
-Super Nintendo - besides not having Sufami Turbo support, this core is complete.
-Atari 2600 - needs Starpath Supercharger support and has a few compatibility issues, also needs keyboard controller support, SNAC paddles, driving controller support, and Star Raiders controller support
-Game Boy - given the recent updates, it's pretty close to complete now I assume

I’ll be happy with whatever new goodies we get, but the top of my wishlist is probably Space Harrier, Simpsons, and TMNT arcade games.

My wish list:
I would love for the Atari 2600 to be completed with sound bugs fixed and SNAC support including Star Raiders keypad.
A completed Apple IIe with disk write support, followed by a complete Apple IIGS core.
A really good and fast Mac 68k core similar to ao486, but Mac, such as Mac LC III.
Better video card compatibility in ao486 so things like one to one scaling and side-scrolling in Second Reality work properly.
480i scaling support for CRT TV owners (instead of just 240p).
Trackball (mouse) support for arcade games like Centipede and Missile Command
Elevator Action arcade core
Star Wars arcade core with analog joystick and mouse/trackball support for controlling it
Playstation 1 core
N64 core if it is even possible
Sega 32x

PS1 core! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

A fully working Apple II core

More classic arcade cores from companies like atari, Taito, Universal, gotlieb, Namco system 1

Odyssey 2 with the voice sound module

Apple 2GS core

Atari 7800 core

All on my wishlist.

Commodore 128.

iigs core pretty please

There are literally hundreds of classic arcade systems waiting to be implemented on Mister. I wish 2021 bring us some of them.

I'd like to see the Virtual Boy personally. I know it hasn't had many games, but it's still a bit of Nintendo History.

I want TMNT: Arcade game and Battletoads arcade. I would be absolutely happy

Crossing my fingers for Shinobi!!

Edit - and Track and Field! (Just don't tell my buttons)

I think its a shame no one has been working on arcade cores for any of the Gradius arcade games, Lifeforce / Salamander, R-Type, or Image Fight.

CPS2 for sure (ssf2x )

Otherwise I would like to have these arcade cores :
Gaelco World Rally , Gaelco World rally 2, Sunset Riders , Snow Bross, Pang, P47 Aces, Mortal Kombat, Golden Axe, Go Go! Mile Smile, R-type , R-Type II , R-type Leo, 64TH. Street - A detective story, Asterix, Darius Gaiden, Raiden, Tennage Mutant Ninja turtle , Tennage Mutant Ninja turtle - turtles in Time, Thunder Heroes, Undercover Cops, Violent Storm

list has become very short after so many awesome release

431Unknown wrote: ↑Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:33 pm I think its a shame no one has been working on arcade cores for any of the Gradius arcade games, Lifeforce / Salamander, R-Type, or Image Fight.

I did a first pass at Gradius a while ago, but sort of burned myself out on it trying to understand how the graphics rendering is actually supposed to work. Also, fully accurate timing/slowdown would probably require reverse-engineering of the original chipset.