It appears to have the potential to be a high quality alternative to software emulators (e.g. Retron 5, Ouya, PC, ect), and not try to be a faux console like the Retron 5!
The proto board looks very nice and the whole concept sounds great. Kevtris is obviously focusing on the hardware, but I'm wondering how good the actual FPGA "emulation" of the supported systems really is ? This is not the first FPGA board and if I read up on the ones available (e.g. the MIST board which is primarily used for Amiga and ST), the list of supported systems is long, but many of them seem to be quite buggy and far from 100% compatibility.
I'd love RGB/Component and HDMI out on such a thing.
No small undertaking though, considering the amount of hardware needed to be programmed/emulated without issue hopefully.
Perhaps two systems? One for handheld systems with inputs for various controllers. And another for consoles. Or rather interchangeable units maybe?
Something like this would probably great for say the GB,GBC,GBA with 240p correct AR out in the 100-300$ range that is a much more palatable alternative to building the cloned component cable yourself, or spending the 300$ for a component/D-terminal cable + a lot more money for the right adapters for the GCN, plus the system itself and the GBP + The right mod tools to boot GBI.
I just went the GC/GBI approach on my PVM, and my current costs:
Multi-AV S-Video cable: $0 (already had one for my SNES before I moved to RGB)
GameCube on eBay: $56.69 CAD
GameBoy Player on eBay: $39.54 CAD
Xeno-GC modchip: $26.15 CAD
20-disc spindle of TDK 8cm DVD-R: $30.63 CAD
GameCube controller: $0 (free from friend)
Total: $153.01 CAD ($116.27 USD)
If I had not already had the S-Video cable, that would have been another $18.74 CAD. The GameCube controller that I got is in... questionable condition, so there will be some cost to refurbish it. The cleaning doesn't cost me anything other than hours of my time, but replacing the analog stick (which appears to be an ill-fitting Playstation stick) and possibly the analog sensor itself will cost me a bunch. Of course, you can just go to BestBuy and get a brand new GameCube controller for like $35 CAD or so. I'm also planning to get some sort of SNES to GC controller adapter, which certainly aren't free. RetroUSB discontinued theirs for some reason, and it appears to be the only low-latency one with a professionally molded connector.
Kyle wrote:For ultimate in OCD you need a component cable, SNES adapter, Datel SD Media Launcher, Game Boy Interface homebrew for 240p.
Dunno what the Datel SD Media Launcher would be used for, I just burned Game Boy Interface onto a Mini-DVD, so I can boot directly into GBI without needing to do anything involving SD cards or disc swapping.
Wouldn't you have to burn a different DVD for changes in configuration? For GBI I mean.
But still either way, it's expensive and time consuming to get all this stuff perfectly working these days. A component cable alone is 200+$ (Assholes lol)
If your goal is to turn on the system and have the ULL version start whatever gameboy game is plugged in at 240p resolution, then there's not really any configuration changes to make. I could see potentially wanting to tweak the key bindings once I get a SNES adapter, but beyond that, there's really nothing to configure with the ULL version. I built the whole gamecube setup specifically for GBI, so my remaining mini DVDs will be used for future updates/tweaks if required.
I didn't want to have to boot into some interface and make changes or select things every time I wanted to play. I wanted to hit the power button on the gamecube and have the gameboy game come up.
I have gone through you post and find proto board looks very nice and the whole system is looking too good.
Actually Kevtris is focusing on the hardware, but i want to know that how good the actual FPGA emulation of the supported systems really is ? .
No small undertaking though, considering the amount of hardware needed to be programmed/emulated without issue hopefully.
Perhaps two systems? One for handheld systems with inputs for various controllers. And another for consoles. Or rather interchangeable units maybe?
