Putting Amiga away for a Minimig - Page 3

alexh · 23 February 2009, 23:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoingBall

I also helped porting FPGA64 (C64)

It shouldn't have taken long, it was a nice well presented open source project (Unlike Amstrad which is written entirely in AHDL) and the MiniMig I/O wrappers are reasonably well written and documented. Getting stuff on the screen and I/O control should have only taken a few hours (most of that reading + DCM configuring).

Loading the ROMs from SD card through the PIC to SRAM is the only hard bit. MiniMig uses a special "built in" bootloader ROM written in 68000 to move the Kickstart from the SD card using the floppy disk interface to the PIC over to SRAM before rebooting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoingBall

We have a well working VIC20 core too. Additional some other little things like MiniPong etc.

Porting cores is very very easy once you've learned the interface wrappers (VGA, Keyboard, Sound, Joysticks).

When I first got my MiniMig board several years ago I had a go at porting C64, Amstrad, Spectrum, MSX2, Vic20 and more recently Atari ST.

The bootloader was the hard bit. It required re-writing some/all of the PIC to come up with a new way to program the FPGA and SRAM on power up. I got bored by this point and put it down.... never to pick it up again

I'd be curious to know if anyone wrote a new PIC/bootloader?

Sensi · 23 February 2009, 23:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ironclaw

I would maybe buy a Minimig if it had AGA support and and were a bit cheaper.

PS: This message have a subliminal message, can u spot it?

No

Most of the A500 games are WHDified (it means they work on A1200)
Most of the A500 games that are not WHDified work under WinUAE
Most of the A1200 games work on A1200
Most of the Amiga gamers own A1200
Most of the Amiga gamers without A1200 use WinUAE
Rest of tha Amiga gamers without A1200 (like me) plan spend their money on brand new A1200 from amigakit
Win UAE is free and A1200 is must have if you wanna own AMIGA

This post is stupid, I go to bed, husband is unpatient. Kiss kiss

TCD · 30 September 2009, 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

What is a Minimig ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimig

NewDeli · 30 September 2009, 23:52

I don't like too much reading wikipedia articles, I usually find better (knackier) answers / describing info elsewhere.

May be Kitty can explain what his Minimig means to him

.

Kitty · 01 October 2009, 00:13

Minimig is a recreation of the Amiga computer in an FPGA.
It currently runs an Amiga 500 core and Kickstart from 1.2 up to 3.1, unfortuantly its not AGA but that could be possible with upgrades added at a later date.
Minimig requires a Valid Kickstart Image to boot a mini menu on screen in which you load adf's from SD Card much like you do WinUAE.
When Minimig was first released to the public, it played a good amount of Amiga 500 games, obviously there were some floors in some games (graphics glitches etc, much like the early releases of WinUAE had, but like WinUAE it has progressed over time and firmware updates have made it into pretty much a perfect recreation of an Amiga 500 running pretty much now any Amiga adf game/demo/app. Kickstart Image and ADF files and Firmware are all stored on the SD Card, and the Minimig now supports cards up to 4GB.
A few Arm Controller Boards have been made and released to preorder customers. This addon allows the Minimig 4 floppy drives, hdf support, safe overclocking, multikickstart support and many other interesting extras

Minimig is no bigger in size than a cd case, also please remember that Minimig isnt emulation running on a chip, its not an emulator, everything has been made from scratch without using obviously any Amiga patents to make it a legal open source project.
Minimig supports 2 x Amiga joysticks, pc speaker port for sound, a regualr ps2 keyboard & mouse.
Video output is VGA but you can buy a VGA to Scart adaptor from Amigakit.

Explained simply, its awesome!

Minimig Links
http://www.minimig.net/
http://home.hetnet.nl/~weeren001/

[ Show youtube player ]
[ Show youtube player ]
[ Show youtube player ]
[ Show youtube player ]

NewDeli · 01 October 2009, 00:22

I see. The name reminds me of Mini-me character from The Spy who Shag me.

Yours can run WHDfyed games and demos from the SD, I guess ?

Kitty · 01 October 2009, 00:32

Mini (Small) Mig, Miggy, Amiga = Minimig

Apparantly you can run WHDLoad Demo's from it (I've yet to try this, waiting to buy the WHDLoad Key) also theres an option now to upgrade the memory from 2meg to 4meg (at a price of course!)

alexh · 01 October 2009, 00:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitty

Apparantly you can run WHDLoad Demo's from it

Not without an ARM board to replace the PIC you cannot because there is no HDD support without one. The ARM boards sell for roughly 4x the price of a second hand A600

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitty

I've yet to try this, waiting to buy the WHDLoad Key) also theres an option now to upgrade the memory from 2meg to 4meg (at a price of course!)

At roughly 3x the price of a second hand A600! (And don't forget some of that RAM is used for the Kickstart 0.5meg or 0.25meg)

If you include the purchase price of the MiniMig then add the ARM board & the RAM you could probably have bought an A1200 + RAM card + Indivision A1200 scandoubler.

Oh, and quite a few demos and games on MiniMig have corruption due to incorrect FPGA code.

MiniMig will be great once the price of general purpose media FPGA boards come down. It's legacy is that it is open-source and re-usable.

NewDeli · 01 October 2009, 00:55

Which one is your setup, first pic or second pic ? The translucent box is nice, I don't like too much the idea of having computer parts sitting on the desk without anything to protect 'em.

Cute device anyway. Why some people from this thread say it's an emulator ?

alexh · 01 October 2009, 00:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

Why some people from this thread say it's an emulator ?

It is not really an emulator, it is a re-creation of the Amiga hardware. But as the original hardware designs are either lost or locked away somewhere, and there is no full documentation of the original hardware at the gate-level, MiniMig is a re-interpretation rather than re-creation. As such it is not 100% accurate, just like most emulators.

TCD · 01 October 2009, 01:01

Well, the FPGA 'emulates' Denise, Agnus, Paula and Gary. That's why it's called a 'hardware emulator' I guess.

alexh · 01 October 2009, 01:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

That's why it's called a 'hardware emulator' I guess.

Technically speaking it is not a hardware emulator. They are altogether different beasties.

Kitty · 01 October 2009, 01:04

Quote:

At roughly 3x the price of a second hand A600!

Thats not true I have pre-ordered an Arm Controller for 55 euros, how much is your idea of an Amiga 600???

Quote:

(And don't forget some of that RAM is used for the Kickstart 0.5meg or 0.25meg)

4meg ram upgrade will help a lot

Quote:

Oh, and quite a few demos and games on MiniMig have corruption due to incorrect FPGA code.

New firmware has recently been released and fixed many problems, more firmware releases will only make the minimig better.
Remember Minimig is not competition for the Amiga 500, its an addition to the Amiga Community as a new Amiga sytem/enviroment, gadget, toy or whatever you wish to call it! For me its an Amiga 500 replacement, as my Amiga 500 is yellowed, dead and RIP in the loft.

alexh · 01 October 2009, 01:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitty

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

The ARM boards sell for roughly 4x the price of a second hand A600

Thats not true I have pre-ordered an Arm Controller for 55 euros, how much is your idea of an Amiga 600???

I bought mine for about 18 euro. I've seen them sell for less.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitty

New firmware has recently been released and fixed many problems, more firmware releases will only make the minimig better.

I have the latest firmware, still has issues. And it only has two active developers, one of which has splintered off from the main branch. Because it is open source it has the potential to get better, but all it would take is for Jakub to get bored for it to fester for years in it's current state.

What MiniMig needs is a large company to mass produce FPGA based game consoles (perhaps for some other purpose) which can be re-used for MiniMig. To lower the cost of the hardware. If that happens it could have a great future.

TCD · 01 October 2009, 01:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

Technically speaking it is not a hardware emulator. They are altogether different beasties.

Hence the quotes

alexh · 01 October 2009, 01:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Hence the quotes

Damn, these single quotes, I keep missing them

Kitty · 01 October 2009, 01:25

Yeah I agree it needs to be mass produced and the worlds our oyster, Classic Amiga bought of the shelf again in 2010? We can Dream

Kitty · 01 October 2009, 01:31

Actualy, despite the low key, it can be bought in kit form meaning that people who know how to program with FPGA correctly could improve the core without the help of the originally developers. There are other Minimig owners who have already made there own firmware with improvments.

Retro-Nerd · 01 October 2009, 01:43

At least we have new hardware (improvements) for classic Amigas. Far better than this hardware/emulator hybrid imho.

Kitty · 01 October 2009, 02:34

Quote:

also please remember that Minimig isnt emulation running on a chip, its not an emulator, everything has been made from scratch without using obviously any Amiga patents to make it a legal open source project.

Quote:

Technically speaking it is not a hardware emulator. They are altogether different beasties.

Made from scratch hardware and software, its a step forward in new Classic Amiga technology.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga 500, Amiga 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, 4000, 4000T are all classic Amiga in my eyes, for me though Amiga 500 1.3 is my favorite

(my opinion anyway)

01 October 2009, 00:13	#45
Kitty Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: London UK Posts: 1,532	Minimig is a recreation of the Amiga computer in an FPGA. It currently runs an Amiga 500 core and Kickstart from 1.2 up to 3.1, unfortuantly its not AGA but that could be possible with upgrades added at a later date. Minimig requires a Valid Kickstart Image to boot a mini menu on screen in which you load adf's from SD Card much like you do WinUAE. When Minimig was first released to the public, it played a good amount of Amiga 500 games, obviously there were some floors in some games (graphics glitches etc, much like the early releases of WinUAE had, but like WinUAE it has progressed over time and firmware updates have made it into pretty much a perfect recreation of an Amiga 500 running pretty much now any Amiga adf game/demo/app. Kickstart Image and ADF files and Firmware are all stored on the SD Card, and the Minimig now supports cards up to 4GB. A few Arm Controller Boards have been made and released to preorder customers. This addon allows the Minimig 4 floppy drives, hdf support, safe overclocking, multikickstart support and many other interesting extras Minimig is no bigger in size than a cd case, also please remember that Minimig isnt emulation running on a chip, its not an emulator, everything has been made from scratch without using obviously any Amiga patents to make it a legal open source project. Minimig supports 2 x Amiga joysticks, pc speaker port for sound, a regualr ps2 keyboard & mouse. Video output is VGA but you can buy a VGA to Scart adaptor from Amigakit. Explained simply, its awesome! Minimig Links http://www.minimig.net/ http://home.hetnet.nl/~weeren001/ [ Show youtube player ] [ Show youtube player ] [ Show youtube player ] [ Show youtube player ] Last edited by Kitty; 30 October 2009 at 23:54.

01 October 2009, 00:32	#47
Kitty Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: London UK Posts: 1,532	Mini (Small) Mig, Miggy, Amiga = Minimig Apparantly you can run WHDLoad Demo's from it (I've yet to try this, waiting to buy the WHDLoad Key) also theres an option now to upgrade the memory from 2meg to 4meg (at a price of course!) Last edited by Kitty; 01 October 2009 at 00:38.

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30 September 2009, 23:52	#44
NewDeli Banned Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Paris / FRANCE Age: 50 Posts: 1,248	I don't like too much reading wikipedia articles, I usually find better (knackier) answers / describing info elsewhere. May be Kitty can explain what his Minimig means to him .

01 October 2009, 00:22	#46
NewDeli Banned Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Paris / FRANCE Age: 50 Posts: 1,248	I see. The name reminds me of Mini-me character from The Spy who Shag me. Yours can run WHDfyed games and demos from the SD, I guess ?

01 October 2009, 00:55	#49
NewDeli Banned Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Paris / FRANCE Age: 50 Posts: 1,248	Which one is your setup, first pic or second pic ? The translucent box is nice, I don't like too much the idea of having computer parts sitting on the desk without anything to protect 'em. Cute device anyway. Why some people from this thread say it's an emulator ?

01 October 2009, 01:01	#51
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,522	Well, the FPGA 'emulates' Denise, Agnus, Paula and Gary. That's why it's called a 'hardware emulator' I guess.

01 October 2009, 01:25	#57
Kitty Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: London UK Posts: 1,532	Yeah I agree it needs to be mass produced and the worlds our oyster, Classic Amiga bought of the shelf again in 2010? We can Dream

01 October 2009, 01:31	#58
Kitty Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: London UK Posts: 1,532	Actualy, despite the low key, it can be bought in kit form meaning that people who know how to program with FPGA correctly could improve the core without the help of the originally developers. There are other Minimig owners who have already made there own firmware with improvments.

01 October 2009, 01:43	#59
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,436	At least we have new hardware (improvements) for classic Amigas. Far better than this hardware/emulator hybrid imho.

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