Questions about AO486 and beyond - special arcade project
Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:44 pm
Hi all, I’ve been hearing about the MiSTer for a while, and I had a really wild idea last night just before I fell asleep.
So, I’ve been wanting to do homebrew arcade development for years, but the best/easiest solution I’ve come across is the UzeBox JAMMA. The problem with that is the hardware is far too limiting for anything I want to build (and I’ve built two projects on it already), and the community is small and dying. Using Raspberry Pi’s basic tools always leaves me with dealing with the issues of Linux (including difficulty with Vsync) and the general wacky hacks needed to do games at 240p. RetroPie and the like are good for what they are, but Pi isn’t working out, and I’ve never been a fan of the platform anyway. And the more I’ve kept hearing about the MiSTer, the more I wished I could build a game for it.
Last night, I had a thought. I know there are a few JAMMA connectors for the MiSTer. What if I could build a game in DOS, have the MiSTer run a DOS core and boot to my software in autoexec.bat, and have IO done through JAMMA at 240p/15KHz? I know original DOS PCs using Mode 13h only do 31KHz VGA, but it’s sounding like you’re able to get these on RGB monitors at 15KHz, which would be exactly what I would need for a true arcade/JAMMA setup. Building a game to use ModeX at either 320x240 or 256x240 seems like an optimal solution to build homebrew arcade games on that core, since that ensures 60Hz refresh rate.
So, I guess my questions are:
1. Is what I’m saying doable/possible, or am I way off the mark?
2. If this is doable, what would be the recommended components I would need to get?
3. Also if this is doable, what settings would you recommend me running the system on?
4. Finally, if anyone has experience with any of the JAMMA adapters out there, do you know if this would interface with the ao486 core through keyboard?
So, I’ve been wanting to do homebrew arcade development for years, but the best/easiest solution I’ve come across is the UzeBox JAMMA. The problem with that is the hardware is far too limiting for anything I want to build (and I’ve built two projects on it already), and the community is small and dying. Using Raspberry Pi’s basic tools always leaves me with dealing with the issues of Linux (including difficulty with Vsync) and the general wacky hacks needed to do games at 240p. RetroPie and the like are good for what they are, but Pi isn’t working out, and I’ve never been a fan of the platform anyway. And the more I’ve kept hearing about the MiSTer, the more I wished I could build a game for it.
Last night, I had a thought. I know there are a few JAMMA connectors for the MiSTer. What if I could build a game in DOS, have the MiSTer run a DOS core and boot to my software in autoexec.bat, and have IO done through JAMMA at 240p/15KHz? I know original DOS PCs using Mode 13h only do 31KHz VGA, but it’s sounding like you’re able to get these on RGB monitors at 15KHz, which would be exactly what I would need for a true arcade/JAMMA setup. Building a game to use ModeX at either 320x240 or 256x240 seems like an optimal solution to build homebrew arcade games on that core, since that ensures 60Hz refresh rate.
So, I guess my questions are:
1. Is what I’m saying doable/possible, or am I way off the mark?
2. If this is doable, what would be the recommended components I would need to get?
3. Also if this is doable, what settings would you recommend me running the system on?
4. Finally, if anyone has experience with any of the JAMMA adapters out there, do you know if this would interface with the ao486 core through keyboard?