Lu

MiSTer FPGA News – Saturn, Aliens, RodLand, N64 & More

Posted on by Lu

Juno First

JiimmyStones created a few initial builds of the Juno First core, based on Konami’s arcade game. The game is running, but it’s glitchy.

 

Saturn Core

srg320 announced some new updates to the Saturn core. There’s been updates to the SH704 microcontroller, the SCU and VDP2.

Some specific games affected by these updates are:
Kyuukyoku Tiger II Plus, Touge King the Spirits 2, Touge King the Spirits 2, Akumajou Dracula X,Panzer Dragoon,Sonic Jam, Tenchi Muyou! Rensa Hitsuyou, Out Run Japan

An unstable build of the core is available for download.

 

MiSTer Extensions

I want to highlight some useful MiSTer tools compiled by wizzomafizzo on github.
They are called MiSTer Extensions and are a list of extensions and utilities to make your MiSTer even better.
The tools include:

BGM
Favorites
GamesMenu
LaunchSync
PlayLog
Random
Search

You can get more details and downloads on GitHub.

 

Nintendo 64

We have another preview of the software emulator that the N64 core is going to be based on. Robert, the developer showed off a video of Ocarina of Time running on the emulator.

Another post shows the actual speed of the software emulator. The video shows that there are slow downs and audio stuttering. This isn’t a big deal because the PSX emulator was also slow and the core still ran full speed.

 

Toaplan 1

The Toaplan 1 core is being revisted. Rally bike is now getting past the post check and a CPU used for sound on Demons World is being worked on.

 

Taito System SJ (Elevator Action)

Anton Gale has been working on the sprites in the Taito System SJ core.

The System SJ is arcade hardware by Taito that runs popular games like Elevator Action and Jungle Hunt, among others. Anton however, looks to be getting Elevator Action working first.

 

Aliens Beta Core

Jotego released a beta for the Aliens arcade game by Konami. That core is also planned to support the games:

Super Contra
Thunder Cross
Gang Busters

 

The New Zealand Story

The JTKIWI core is no longer in beta testing. This core is based on the hardware for The New Zealand Story. Therefore, you no longer need to be a Patreon subscriber to download the core.

The JTKIWI core runs games like:

Extermination
Insector X
The New Zealand Story
Kageki
and Arkanoid 2 Revenge of Doh

 

RodLand

Core developer Darren__O has released a core for Jaleco’s arcade game Rodland.
You can obtain the core by enabling the CoinOp collection database in the update all script.

 

Nintendo 64 DDR3Test

Robert, who’s in the process of developing an N64 core created a DDR3 Test core that measures the bandwitdh and latency of the DE10 Nano’s built-in memory and compares that to the N64’s RDRAM.
Robert posted a detailed article on Patreon about these tests but he gives us the TLDR and said it will be ok.
So at least we know that the memory bandwidth and latency wont be an issue.
If you want to try out the DDR3Test yourself, you can download the source from GitHub build it and install it on your MiSTer.
Or if you are a Patreon subscriber you can download the rbf from Patreon.

 

Williams Y-Unit & Z-Unit

For the Williams Y-Unit & Z-Unit core, Pramod has resolved all timing issues with the CPU and the core is finally booting on MiSTer.
It’s glitchy but it’s important that it boots, because Pramod says that “At least from here he can work out issues in simulation knowing it will work on the MiSTer platform.”

Development of this core will help get NARC, Mortal Kombat, Smash TV and other games running on MiSTer.

 

MiSTerFPGA Discord Game Challenge

The next game in the MISTer FPGA game challenge is Bump n’ Jump or as it’s known in Japan, Burnin’ Rubber.

This is a single credit score challenge goes until May 26th.

 

Other MiSTer FPGA Updates

And other cores getting miscellaneous fixes and updates are:

Linux
Gameboy
PCXT
Irem M92