MiSTer: FPGA Amiga + loads more

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Radertified

Is this actively being worked on? A quick GitHub search doesn't show much activity related to 68020 emulation.

I'm not involved with core development but hopefully someone is looking into it.

[ransom1122]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

I'm not involved with core development but hopefully someone is looking into it.

Originally Posted by Radertified

Is this actively being worked on? A quick GitHub search doesn't show much activity related to 68020 emulation.

I have had input in both github and mister forums both have zero results from any minimig developer

Very sad.. For such a superior board and core, only a little amount of work is needed for 60820 core to have it 100%

But without communication its pathetic.

[rsn8887]

Programming an FPGA is much harder than programming a CPU, there are timing slacks etc. a lot of stuff has to be considered.

I got my MiSTer 1 year ago, and a lot has been improved with the Minimig core just in that time. For example Overkill AGA now works and many other improvements.

Since it is all open source, you can just look at GitHub commit history if you want to know the exact fixes over time.

Demanding developers to fix stuff asap will get you nowhere. This is true with any open source/community/hobby project. Patience is always required.

The best way to get developers to respond in any open source project is to make pull requests and actually put work in helping to fix things. Or to make well-written and well-explained issues on Github. But don't make comments every two weeks asking why nothing is happening. Most devs will eventually fix issues and respond, but it doesn't help demanding quick response.

I also wonder: Does anyone have code for a cycle exact 68020 anywhere? Is WinUAE 68020 even cycle exact yet? Maybe it is just not something that is known yet or just not fully figured out yet.

[ransom1122]

Ask Toni in his winaue thread...

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

I have had input in both github and mister forums both have zero results from any minimig developer

Very sad.. For such a superior board and core, only a little amount of work is needed for 60820 core to have it 100%.

The problem with the Graftgold games and the TG68k in 020 mode is well known - it's not limited to MiSTer. They even work on the TG68 in '000 mode so it's not an issue with cycle-exactness.


The other thing to bear in mind is that just because a developer is capable of working on one part of the core, doesn't mean they can understand and tweak any part of it - there are very few people with enough understanding of what's going on inside the TG68k to make fixes to the CPU.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by rsn8887

Demanding developers to fix stuff asap will get you nowhere. This is true with any open source/community/hobby project. Patience is always required.

The best way to get developers to respond in any open source project is to make pull requests and actually put work in helping to fix things. Or to make well-written and well-explained issues on Github. But don't make comments every two weeks asking why nothing is happening. Most devs will eventually fix issues and respond, but it doesn't help demanding quick response.

Nobody's "demanding" anything. We're simply talking about issues that exist and need fixing. If you don't do that it might never happen (Minimig's been around for years). Devs are humans, not some omnipresent gods. They might've other priorities, lost interest, consider cores good enough, etc... Also, there might be people listening who are not involved atm, but who who have skills necessary to improve things.

"Putting in work" for somebody who hasn't got a clue about coding might be rather tricky. And if you make comments/reports on git you have a fair a chance of getting "sorged" - an euphemism for the maintainer dismissing your query with some cryptic explanation or even a rant. It's really not very encouraging.

Unfortunately, like ransom says, communication is not a strong suit of this community. I'm quite active on MiSTer forums (as akeley) and instances when actual devs say something are very rare. And many normal users display this extremely unhelpful "it's all great, MiSTer is awesome!" attitude whenever some problem with cores is mentioned or just handwave it away, like in this A1200 thread.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

"Putting in work" for somebody who hasn't got a clue about coding might be rather tricky.

If you're really interested, you "find a way". There have been some great bug reports where the reporter had no experience but managed to report:

"Provide the exact version of Minimig AGA core"
"Provide Aa full MiSTer setup including SDRAM speed/capacity"
"Does it crash on real hardware?"
"Does it crash in WinUAE with a similar config?"
"Does it crash when using the same revision core but with fx68k (68000)?"
"Does it always the same crash in the same place? 100% reproducible?"
"Provide a 100% accurate description of AmigaOS/WHDload/Slave setup"
"Provide the CRC/HASH of the game files (zip) so Dev can reproduce setup 100%"
"Provide screenshots of the crash (if appropriate)"

You can then go one step further and try to learn how to use the WinUAE interactive debugger. Just fire it up and look at it as you run to and step past the point at which it crashes in MiSTer.

And if you're super interested you go even further:

Read the M680x0 user manual so you get an idea for what all the registers are etc. The instructions, try to work out their binary/hex codes so you can see them passing though the debugger.

I think getting to this point is possible to anyone who is interested enough.

[Knight Rider]

This default NTSC mode in the AGS collection is quite annoying.
I tried to find a way to start permanently in PAL mode, but didn't succeed.
Even if I set PAL into the tooltypes of a game, AGS changes to NTSC.
The PAL switch in the AGS menu works, but only temporarily until the first reset.
The main problem is, that PAL games are forced to run in NTSC mode by default, which causes various problems, eg. scroll tearing, incorrect screen position etc.
Are there any solutions for permanently switching between the PAL/ NTSC in this package?

[ransom1122]

Originally Posted by Knight Rider

This default NTSC mode in the AGS collection is quite annoying.
I tried to find a way to start permanently in PAL mode, but didn't succeed.
Even if I set PAL into the tooltypes of a game, AGS changes to NTSC.
The PAL switch in the AGS menu works, but only temporarily until the first reset.
The main problem is, that PAL games are forced to run in NTSC mode by default, which causes various problems, eg. scroll tearing, incorrect screen position etc.
Are there any solutions for permanently switching between the PAL/ NTSC in this package?

Don't use the AGS pre packed hdf.. it forces ntsc and 99%.of games are pal.. you can change ntsc to pal in settings, but you have to do this everything you use the hdf..

Use your own os hdf.. or other ones... my 8gb hdf, with igame, xbench and tiny launcher works a treat...

[Knight Rider]

Well, I like this AGS2 frontend, with quality screenshots and various search lists.
I am also curious to learn, how the author forced NTSC and whether I could change it to PAL by default.
This setting doesn't appear to be in the startup sequence, nor in the AGS conf file.
Since I am not an Amiga guru, I have asked a question here and I hope that someone will be able to help me.
btw, I have my own little hdf collection, but it's not nearly advanced as this one.

[ransom1122]

Originally Posted by Knight Rider

Well, I like this AGS2 frontend, with quality screenshots and various search lists.
I am also curious to learn, how the author forced NTSC and whether I could change it to PAL by default.
This setting doesn't appear to be in the startup sequence, nor in the AGS conf file.
Since I am not an Amiga guru, I have asked a question here and I hope that someone will be able to help me.
btw, I have my own little hdf collection, but it's not nearly advanced as this one.

I've had a look and could not find it in any settings.. I dare say when AGS was installed into the HDF itself The person would of chosen NTSC as default..

[Knight Rider]

Wow, it seems that the author forced in the run script each individual game to start in NTSC, unless PAL mode is set in the menu.
Still don't understand why he did that, if we know that the vast majority of games are in PAL mode.
Anyway, problem solved, i think.

[ransom1122]

Originally Posted by Knight Rider

Wow, it seems that the author forced in the run script each individual game to start in NTSC, unless PAL mode is set in the menu.
Still don't understand why he did that, if we know that the vast majority of games are in PAL mode.
Anyway, problem solved, i think.

I'm going to try and install this ags fronted on my own person hdf and see for myself. Ill get back to you if I see pal/ntsc toggle

[petarku]

as far i can see in mega AGS , in run files that you have per per game , there is a PAL or NTSC setting that is passed as whdload parameter . it gets overwritten with whatever you choose in settings to force. so if you want most of the games to be PAL by default that run files should be searched and replaced from what i understand

[Knight Rider]

Yes, that's right.
Or we can make our personal collection based on AGS2 from scratch, which is perhaps the best solution.

[ransom1122]

To do
Make it OCS/ECS compatible, ability to choose a different screenmode, arbitrary placement and size of screen elements, config file. Oh, and get a real screenshot instead of that old mockup up there

Not sure if this "to do" list is part of the forced ntsc mode this front end has...

https://paradroid.automac.se/ags/

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Knight Rider

Or we can make our personal collection based on AGS2 from scratch, which is perhaps the best solution.

I had a brief check once and I'm pretty sure AGS is just WHDload collection. There are no adfs, so you also miss out on a huge number of games.

The forced NTSC is extremely silly and it makes me scratch my head as to why they did so. It's not as they are unaware of it, because they talk about the need for PAL settings in the readme.

What I like about it is that they included NTSC versions whenever possible, so I just made directory out of these and use my own system hdf.

[ransom1122]

You can change settings to PAL from the frontend. But that's annoying doing it every single time. Question remains if you install it in your own hdf will it force ntsc as well?

[Anubis]

I am thinking to get into this... what is recommended for startup configuration??

What memory size (and kind) cards works best for Amiga/Atari/consoles of the time emulation?

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Anubis

I am thinking to get into this... what is recommended for startup configuration??

What memory size (and kind) cards works best for Amiga/Atari/consoles of the time emulation?

32MB SDRAM is enough for everything but some big NeoGeo games.

So, you'll need
-DE10 board
-32SDRAM
-OTG USB hub (powered is best).
-heatsink & fan

Overall~ 150E

You can also buy I/O board and USB board but these are expensive and not really needed.