Lu

MiSTer FPGA News & Updates – Game & Watch, Pang, Cave updates & More

Posted on by Lu

Super Attract Mode

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about a script that will setup an attract mode on your MiSTer that will cycle through some games. It’s like a screen saver for you MiSTer. One thing I did not know was that there is another script that does the same and looks to support more features. Developed by Christoph Helms on github, it’s called Super Attract Mode and it describes itself as

“Like a screen saver, Super Attract Mode comes on when your MiSTer is idle. It will launch a random game from your library every few minutes. If you like a game that’s currently playing, just pick up your controller and push a button, press a key, or move the mouse. Super Attract Mode will start another game once you return to the main menu. Then the gaming tour begins again!”

 

Mike Simone’s Native S-Video Cores

Mike Simone has completed his goal of adding native s-video support to a list of specific cores he had in mind. This list includes well over 100 cores covering the majority of console, computer and arcade cores. This feature can’t be added to some cores because they output a resolution that is incompatible with consumer CRT’s. You can download the cores from Mike’s github.

 

Cave Core Updates

The cave core has received some fixes and improvements. The developer has:

-Added NVRAM support
-Added support for flipping analog video or inverting the screen
-Support for the 32MB memory module was added
-And the CPU cache was re-written for a slight performance bump.

You can download the core with the new updates just by updating your MiSTerFPGA.

Possible MB-6885 core

Core developer Pierco, who is the developer of the Game & Watch core and also kick started the Apple IIgs core, has a basic verliog simulation of a little known Japanese computer called the MB-6885. He’s gauging the interest of porting it to MiSTer and asked what people thought. I’ve never personally heard of the computer, but I feel that any device no matter how popular, or not popular, should be preserved in both software and hardware emulation. Check out his twitter post and give your thoughts on the situation.

PSX Core

There aren’t going to be any Playstation core updates for a while. Unfortunately, Robert Peip, the developer, suffered an injury to his arm and will be out of commission. With all the work he’s done on the core, and others cores too, he does deserve a long break anyway. If you want to wish him well, you can respond to his twitter post.

But, due to the nature of open source, other developers are still contributing to the Playstation core. Developer paulbnl made some direct video fixes to the core and an unstable build is available for download in the MiSTer FPGA discord.

Game & Watch Core Released

The Game & Watch core has officially been released. You can obtain it by just updating your MiSTer. The Game & Watch brand was a series of handheld gaming devices developed by Nintendo and released throughout the 80’s and early 90’s.

Pang Beta

Jotego has released a beta for his Pang core to his Pateon subscribers. If you use the update all script you can configure it with your Patreon account to automatically download the beta core.