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MiSTer is cool in February; PS1/Saturn/Arcade and more cool stuff that's happened

VGEsoterica

Member
Dunno how many people on GAF own a MiSTer or are keeping up with the project but damn has Feb been a full month. I love my OG hardware (40 consoles and counting...not even mentioning the arcade boards...I have a problem lolol) but damn is this fun too.

PS1 core has full support for all the base hardware. SPU/CDDA/CDXA audio are all in the core and working. Basically now its at the bug fix / analog video fix / add a few extra features stage of development. So its ALMOST a "real" PS1 now.

Saturn has more progress too. Granted it's not as far along as PS1 but Saturn is clearly possible on MISTer and its coming. Hoping this gets a lot more people playing Saturn that never did back in the day.

Lots of fun arcade stuff too. Couple Toaplan cores and other things.

But damn did MiSTer have a fun month. Curious who on Gaf owns one?

 

shoplifter

Member
I've been meaning to pick one up. Hard to justify to the wife why I need it (which I do) compared to just running Retroarch though. It'd be an easier sell if the components were cheaper, but alas.
 

Max_Po

Banned
the best move is to download the current nightly core on Discord and manually add it

I am LAZY


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VGEsoterica

Member
I've been meaning to pick one up. Hard to justify to the wife why I need it (which I do) compared to just running Retroarch though. It'd be an easier sell if the components were cheaper, but alas.
"because it looks cool' is all the justification I have ever needed to play with new tech lol
 
How do you get games "on" there? Do you rip your CDs and play them off of the iso/bin files? Sorry for asking. Looks like a really cool product.
 
Where would one start if they were interested in buying a MiSTER? I've seen a retro gaming channel (Retro Game Cave IIRC) talking about a MiSTER product they were making, but you can also build a MiSTER yourself with a starter board right?

Might be worth it for hardware-accurate emulation, but I hope these also allow for QoL features like network play, too (if that's possible).
 

Tarin02543

Member
Where would one start if they were interested in buying a MiSTER? I've seen a retro gaming channel (Retro Game Cave IIRC) talking about a MiSTER product they were making, but you can also build a MiSTER yourself with a starter board right?

Might be worth it for hardware-accurate emulation, but I hope these also allow for QoL features like network play, too (if that's possible).

Yes, some cores are playable with just the barebones DE10 Nano (starter board) so you can start experimenting straight away.

This is how I started:

oQvm5B3l.jpg


This is me now:

LoklhDpl.jpg
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
I have about 5 hours (I hope) set aside this weekend to get all the new cores loaded, migrate some images, and kick back and enjoy some Kings Field (Elden what?!?)…just kidding I wouldn’t play Kings Field again.

Excited to check out their progress. Thanks for the post VGEsoterica VGEsoterica (great YT channel too btw).
 

Digfox

Member
Another MiSTer fan here! Thank you VGEsoterica VGEsoterica for the link and heads up. My humble setup below.

Thought I would try the latest PSX core based on the above, but no having much luck. I tried the Akuma-GIT update unstable script and also manually placing the latest rbf file on my MiSTer and neither worked (both the 20220224 file). The Core will boot to the memory card/CD player screen and try to load a game but never gets further than this screen. Tried different versions of the recommended 1001 bios, different images of the games; CUE/BIN and CHD. And loading the games from my CIFS storage or the mSD card. Even tried an Update_all and this now results in an E2 error upon trying to load the core. So obviously something it doesn't like about my setup.

I suppose I could try again with a newer nightly build in a few days.

6yaINCol.jpg
 
Another MiSTer fan here! Thank you VGEsoterica VGEsoterica for the link and heads up. My humble setup below.

Thought I would try the latest PSX core based on the above, but no having much luck. I tried the Akuma-GIT update unstable script and also manually placing the latest rbf file on my MiSTer and neither worked (both the 20220224 file). The Core will boot to the memory card/CD player screen and try to load a game but never gets further than this screen. Tried different versions of the recommended 1001 bios, different images of the games; CUE/BIN and CHD. And loading the games from my CIFS storage or the mSD card. Even tried an Update_all and this now results in an E2 error upon trying to load the core. So obviously something it doesn't like about my setup.

I suppose I could try again with a newer nightly build in a few days.

6yaINCol.jpg

Have you tried this video?:

 

Digfox

Member
Have you tried this video?:

Yes, thank you . I'd seen this video and another on how to setup the unstable PSX core.

In this video he just places the latest rbf into his console folder. I've tried that, and the script above which does a little bit more i.e. creates an unstable folder, gets the required bios etc. I don't think where you store the games matters, so my CIFS storage is unlikely to be the issue which means it's either the latest nightly rbf, my build, the bios or game files (or combination thereof). I will try playing with it some more tonight. Thought it was going to be easy when that magical PS1 bootup sound started playing first time!
 

Digfox

Member
All working now!

Honestly don't know why now it is working. But deleted both the games folders and recreated them tonight with a couple of games in both CUD/BIN & CHD formats. Copied the BIOS over again and after a full power-cycle MiSTer can see my server and plays the games just fine.
 

GamingArena

Member
When it arrives, 1:1 Saturn playback outside of an actual Saturn is going to be a big effing deal.

Seriously, the Saturn is such an amazing console and hopefully this leads to people being able to play it on a wide-scale basis.

Unfortunately the Saturn Dev Sergey is based in Ukraine so future of the core as it stands now might be delayed indefinitely.

 
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Tarin02543

Member
Another MiSTer fan here! Thank you VGEsoterica VGEsoterica for the link and heads up. My humble setup below.

Thought I would try the latest PSX core based on the above, but no having much luck. I tried the Akuma-GIT update unstable script and also manually placing the latest rbf file on my MiSTer and neither worked (both the 20220224 file). The Core will boot to the memory card/CD player screen and try to load a game but never gets further than this screen. Tried different versions of the recommended 1001 bios, different images of the games; CUE/BIN and CHD. And loading the games from my CIFS storage or the mSD card. Even tried an Update_all and this now results in an E2 error upon trying to load the core. So obviously something it doesn't like about my setup.

I suppose I could try again with a newer nightly build in a few days.

6yaINCol.jpg

If you don't mind me asking, what is this accessory?
 
Where would one start if they were interested in buying a MiSTER? I've seen a retro gaming channel (Retro Game Cave IIRC) talking about a MiSTER product they were making, but you can also build a MiSTER yourself with a starter board right?

Might be worth it for hardware-accurate emulation, but I hope these also allow for QoL features like network play, too (if that's possible).
You can pretty much run everything but a few NeoGeo games with the basic board. Not sure about PS1 and Saturn though.
 
You can pretty much run everything but a few NeoGeo games with the basic board. Not sure about PS1 and Saturn though.
Well PS1 and Saturn would be the main reasons I'd be interested, so hopefully the basic board is good enough for those.

Though I'm still also holding out hope Analogue eventually do a PS1 and/or Saturn system with the Analogue OS support the GameBoy device uses. Sounds like a perfect combination to me.
 

Digfox

Member
If you don't mind me asking, what is this accessory?

No problem at all - happy to answer.

It's an MT32-Pi; baremetal MIDI emulation which can be used with MiSTer for cores that support MT-32/MIDI playback. The project extends far beyond MiSTer but really helps replicate MT-32/MIDI playback with the PC, ST, Amiga and X68000 cores. I first found out about the project from this Youtube video.

Being from the UK I bought the MT32-Pi hat from misterfpga.co.uk; which needs a Raspberry Pi 3 or above, so I added a Pi 3 Model A, which fits perfectly with the MT32-Pi Hat in this Geekworm Raspberry Pi 3 A+ Aluminum Case. Then someone 3D printed these stands for the Geeekworn case which I got from Ko-fi.

The MT32-Pi hat isn't essential for a MiSTer but I could listen to the MT32 intro of Monkey Island 2 on PC all day long! Also recently used it with Castlevania on the Sharp X68000 core which really improves the soundtrack for the intro and game.

fHxle63l.jpg
 
Once Saturn support is at "most of the games you remember are completely playable", that may be when I jump in on getting a MiSTer. When that time comes, anyone who'd be willing to guide me through obtaining one and setting it up would be appreciated. I'll be watching this thread meanwhile.
 

Ladioss

Member
Thanks VGEsoterica VGEsoterica for the thread !
Bought my mister last summer - not exactly the game changer I expected for console emulation (even if a Saturn core will probably change that), but I've rediscovered my love for old arcade games with it lol.

Anybody here gave a try to funkycochise's Coin-Op script ? Is it recommended ? I usually only use update_all.sh for my system.
 
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Tarin02543

Member
No problem at all - happy to answer.

It's an MT32-Pi; baremetal MIDI emulation which can be used with MiSTer for cores that support MT-32/MIDI playback. The project extends far beyond MiSTer but really helps replicate MT-32/MIDI playback with the PC, ST, Amiga and X68000 cores. I first found out about the project from this Youtube video.

Being from the UK I bought the MT32-Pi hat from misterfpga.co.uk; which needs a Raspberry Pi 3 or above, so I added a Pi 3 Model A, which fits perfectly with the MT32-Pi Hat in this Geekworm Raspberry Pi 3 A+ Aluminum Case. Then someone 3D printed these stands for the Geeekworn case which I got from Ko-fi.

The MT32-Pi hat isn't essential for a MiSTer but I could listen to the MT32 intro of Monkey Island 2 on PC all day long! Also recently used it with Castlevania on the Sharp X68000 core which really improves the soundtrack for the intro and game.

fHxle63l.jpg

That is great, might look into it. Do not have a Pi though.

I bought all my stuff from misterfpga.co.uk too, great service from Natan.
 

GamingArena

Member
That is great, might look into it. Do not have a Pi though.

I bought all my stuff from misterfpga.co.uk too, great service from Natan.
Also there is new MT32-Pi Lite all in one solution for cheap that piggy backs on Mister directly.

 

Tarin02543

Member
Also there is new MT32-Pi Lite all in one solution for cheap that piggy backs on Mister directly.


Thanks, and I thought I was a Mister connaisseur. Very interested in its compatibility with X68000.
 

Digfox

Member
That MT32-Pi Lite is cool, the full-sized one can contribute to the spaghetti junction when used with the normal case.

Thanks, and I thought I was a Mister connaisseur. Very interested in its compatibility with X68000.

I'm not an expert by any means, however when I tried the X68000 core recently the MIDI available on games was hit and miss. Castlevania & Spanner X sounded great but those games have specific MT32 options. On some games FluidSynth sounded better than Munt on one game; Cyberblock Metal Orange EX but not quite right. Other games just didn't work with the MT32-Pi due to lacking an MT32 option.

I haven't updated the MT32-Pi since I got it and have limited knowledge of the X68000 or MIDI. So I may be missing something but it wasn't as seamless as using the AO486 core where there seemed to be more compatibility.
 
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