MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hi, I have noticed that some cores after the authors have determined they were good enough, have seem to have been abandoned.
Maybe we can roll a small missing features list here, that someone who can do fpga programming might tackle the task.
I would not even mind seeing someone with a patreon here doing the task, he would have my money instantly.
This should definitely not be a list of missing systems, but systems in existence which have had issues which have not been fixed for ages:

Here is what comes to my mind, others might chime in
a) Vectrex
90 degrees screen rotate to reach the original aspect ratio on monitors which can be turned
Better overlays/screen output to get a better simulation of the phosphor tubes in the original vectrex (sort of what mame does with the star wars arcade rom)

b) Framework
A general core which allows to hook script starters in, that way we do not have to trigger the console for running scummvm
(please no this is not fpga discussions here, this is just a convenience idea from me)

c) Arcade
Donkey Kong Sound issues (as documented in several youtube videos)
Allow usb mice and trackballs in old spinner games (which atm only support spinners)

Those are the ones highest on my list, others might continue here

can add amstrad core ;-(

What a strange coincidence: in the last few days I have been thinking of starting such a topic. There is another topic regarding what new core you wish while there is a bunch of abandoned cores which are considered good enough but good enough is not good enough. Periodically there are posts regarding the Apple II which cannot write to disks, some other core which cannot write to tape, ...
I am not a developer, I am just starting to learn FPGA so I understand it is not an easy thing to do and more so if you need to work on a core written by someone else.
My first choice would be the X68000. I know that it will be difficult to port the modification to support XDF instead of D88 but it would be really nice: D88 is painfully slow. Not all games are running but I cannot pinpoint the problem. I think HDF support would be nice but should be done last until after the core is good.
Thanks for starting this topic.

Another one: MacPlus core totally lacks audio FX

Framework/minimig: support dual mice input for multiplayer games like Lemmings and The Settlers/Serf City.
It’s supported on MiST, and Jotego was looking into it last year, so fingers crossed

I only really play the console and arcade cores so here's my two cents on console cores:

-Game & Watch: A great start by Pierco but only 18 games out of the full library are playable. A few more CPUs need to get created to have fully compatibility with these games, and some other dedicated handhelds use the same CPU so you may get a lot of the crappy Tiger handhelds as a byproduct of writing the CPUs for all Game & Watch games.

-Odyssey 2: It's in a decent spot now, but this core would benefit greatly from just a new core being written for the Philips Videopac+ G7400, which is fully backwards compatible, features a few exclusive games, and upgraded versions of Odyssey 2 games. This approach could be like the 7800 core where the old core is deemed redundant and archived and replaced by a better and more compatible core.

-Bally Astrocade: Add casette support for the hundreds of homebrew games available.

-Amiga (Minimig): Add CDTV and CD32 support

-Amstrad CPC: Add GX4000 support

-SNES: Add Sufami Turbo support

Atari 800: Artifacting support

Neo Geo: Requires a weird ROM format

Also there really should be a way to get vector games to run in higher resolutions.

Fixing the bugs in some of the classic arcades would get a monthly Patreon from me.

Some of them are so close, but have significant problems compared to the PCB. Moon Cresta, Mr. Do! Etc.

KremlingKuthroat19 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 7:41 pm

I only really play the console and arcade cores so here's my two cents on console cores:

-Game & Watch: A great start by Pierco but only 18 games out of the full library are playable. A few more CPUs need to get created to have fully compatibility with these games, and some other dedicated handhelds use the same CPU so you may get a lot of the crappy Tiger handhelds as a byproduct of writing the CPUs for all Game & Watch games.

-Odyssey 2: It's in a decent spot now, but this core would benefit greatly from just a new core being written for the Philips Videopac+ G7400, which is fully backwards compatible, features a few exclusive games, and upgraded versions of Odyssey 2 games. This approach could be like the 7800 core where the old core is deemed redundant and archived and replaced by a better and more compatible core.

-Bally Astrocade: Add casette support for the hundreds of homebrew games available.

-Amiga (Minimig): Add CDTV and CD32 support

-Amstrad CPC: Add GX4000 support

-SNES: Add Sufami Turbo support

For Sufami Turbo, the hack roms permits to play them. Kitrinx made a good script for it.

I check in here every now and then to see if the Rygar sprite sync issue (@nullobject) or the Donkey Kong sound issues have been further investigated.
I don't really care that much myself as I have both original PCBs but I'd really love MiSTer and the cores to not stop at 97% done. ( made up value )

80sArcadeKid wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 5:14 am

I'd really love MiSTer and the cores to not stop at 97% done. ( made up value )

Those be dangerous words right there but also very true. But I'm glad people are also starting see this pattern.

A lot of classic arcade games have sound issues like Galaxian, Frogger etc... some of them nearly unplayable. I know analog sound is hard/impossible to FPGA, but why not using samples then, like early mame did for many games. It would make them playable.

It is not impossible but it is very hard. It can be done better than analog using DSP: no component aging, better filters, ...
To do it you have to know a good understanding of analog circuits in order to analyze the circuit you want to implement, you have to know DSP very well and you have to know FPGA in order to implement the DSP.
I guess it would be a big job to do it.

HerrBerzerk wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 2:00 pm

A lot of classic arcade games have sound issues like Galaxian, Frogger etc... some of them nearly unplayable. I know analog sound is hard/impossible to FPGA, but why not using samples then, like early mame did for many games. It would make them playable.

I did that with Donkey Kong. It wasn't good enough.

pgimeno wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 9:07 pm

I did that with Donkey Kong. It wasn't good enough.

In my opinion "good enough" is relative. I for one appreciated what you did. If something is better than before, then it is good enough to be released until it can be improved further. Samples are a "good enough" solution to have something to start with. I really like where jopdorp was heading and then schendel picked it up and made some really great improvements from there. Doing analog sound digitally can be very processor intensive. However, clever tricks can be employed to accomplish the same or nearly the same thing more efficiently. A lot of this was discussed in the Donkey Kong Walking Sound thread. Anyway, jopdorp was setting up a framework of sorts for analog sound and if that could be figured out in the best way and further developed, it could be more easily used with maybe any analog sound situation. A different idea I had is to individually simulate the analog sounds for each game the long/processor intensive way and use the output to create clean samples of the individual sounds. A developer would have to know what signals are being sent to the analog circuits for each sound, and then run those through a spice simulation. The samples could then be mixed if two or more things are happening at once.

thorr wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 11:22 pm

In my opinion "good enough" is relative. I for one appreciated what you did. If something is better than before, then it is good enough to be released until it can be improved further. Samples are a "good enough" solution to have something to start with.

Good enough is relative and everything you say is so right. Unfortunately a lot classic games are nearly unplayable because of sound issues at moment (at least not for someone who is enthusiastic about theses games) on MiSTer. So it's a pity that you have to switch back to mame for these games.

At least unless we have something better, I would be happy about samples.

I can understand wanting to wait for someone to fix the analog sound the right way. The closer you get something to "good enough" the longer it's likely to stay that way as there's less motivation to correct it.

Btw. thank you for trying to fix the sound issue, as others have said, good enough always is relative, if there is an improvement, then there is an improvement!

Btw. given that we already have 17 posts here, it seems that I have opened a can of worms!

Acorn BBC and master support for normal disk and tape images, at the moment it only works with mmc images.

Peter-FPGA wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 3:24 pm

Acorn BBC and master support for normal disk and tape images, at the moment it only works with mmc images.

Disks now work on Master since AlanSW added DFS support - go into the settings and change the default boot and pick a disk to use.

You don't get the option on BBC B (yet!) - have to see how tricky it is to add.

Astrocade - Split X and Y axes among two players for mouse controls. (example, Turbo Twist 2 + Interface with two spinners acts as two axes of the same mouse. Being able to map Y to player one's dial and X to player two' dial would be SO nice!!)

A suggestion, open an issue on the core repo and pledge some funds, everyone who supports could chuck in I gather someone would pick it up.

would happily drop some $ on x68000 development, not sure if its actively being development currently.

Same here. Would love to have the X68000 core get a fully polished release with all the games supported, more video output options, and greater compatibility with the MT32-Pi.
I know jack about making cores but I can help translating from Japanese to English (or the other way around) if anyone needs.

The TRS80 core (not the coco ones) could use an update to their disk handler, to support JV3 & DMK .. currently it only does JV1 format, and the more common formats out there are JV3/DMK .. UART support would be nice too.