@JoJoestar I have less than half of the stuff listed there and still have a great time with my mister
@JoJoestar Looks good to me! I only use a single 128mb RAM stick since barely anything uses two (I can’t even think of anything off the top of my head). Only thing you might need is an external HDD for CD based systems since that 512gb SD card would fill up fast with CHD files. Beyond that wifi and bluetooth dongles are up to you. The 4 amp PSU should provide plenty of power.
Use an FTP program (WinSCP, etc.) to connect to your MiSTer so you don’t need to remove the sd card (User name: root Password: 1). Set the Transfer type to Binary, and the main files are in /media/fat (a HDD is /media/usb0)
Plug it in, run the update_all script, add your roms, and mod your .ini files.
You can add some extra stuff in the downloader.ini file as well (bios files, N64 beta, wizzo’s web interface) that will get pulled when you run update_all.
This is in my dowloader.ini:
feel free to ask for any help!
I‘d say hold your horse just a bit longer because Misteraddons is also going to release full rgb888 version of analogue IO board and would also require separate mister builds. I don’t know if it‘s going to be the same as Antonio’s. Since Porkchop is more liked in the community his fork might be better supported.
Also current Saturn build pretty much needs 3.0 version of sdram for best compatibility. There's big issue with Antonio's older sdrams since they're off spec. Sdram version in that kit is not listed so it's a red flag I gotta say.
@KennyL version 2.9 ram should be fine. This was posted a few days ago in the saturn discord:
kit says it comes with 2.9 ram
guessing @JoJoestar is in Europe, so if MiSTer Addons is too far, the only other option is https://misterfpga.co.uk/ which doesn’t sell kits.
(and hopefully the rgb888 cores will have some hardware cross compatibility… or they will eventually get baked in like the YC work)
@KennyL The thing with Antonio is that he ships from Spain (where I live) and the taxes and shipping are significantly lower than most of the alternatives. I had checked ultimatemister, which ships from Portugal and when I got to the payment page shipping + taxes increased the price from 540€ to 660€ which is a lot. Does the RAM problem affect all SDRAM options? You can choose between 4C (which afaik is the Antonio’s custom model) and 2.9 which seems to be the official one, if that the case I’d rather take this route rather than try to import and have trouble with customs.
My other option would be Manuferhi’s, which is a bit cheaper but currently they only sell the digital IO model and I’d have to get a good Direct Video solution on the side. Also their setup seems to have less bells and whistles? Mister FPGA digital 256mb - ManuFerHi
Also thanks to everyone for the responses! @robinhoodie @穴 @copySave
Oh I missed that about ram version that comes with Antonio's kit.
@KennyL Dang. Exactly what I said about a tinker system. I have dual RAM but both are the old model. I definitely feel like by end of life I will have build a second loaner Mister out of parts I cycle out of my main system.
@JoJoestar Ah - nice being close to the seller! More than enough reason to stick with the plan. I’m sure if you have any issues you can reach out to Antonio. I’d say get the official 2.9 ram since that’s what devs are using and to remove any doubt. You should be just fine with it. I have a noctua fan and it is very quiet if you’re interested in that option.
Welp, prompted by yesterday’s discussion I ended up looking more closely into Manuferhi’s digital model and the Mister itself + a Direct Video Adapter + a VGA to RGB SCART cable ended up costing around 160€ less than Antonio Villena’s model, so that’s the one I have ended up going with.
Mister FPGA digital 256mb - ManuFerHi
I think the analog board was a better fit for my preferences, but with the amount of money I’m saving I nothing prevents me from getting a replacement down the road. Another upside is that the SDRAM chips on this one are 3.0 vs the 2.9 one from Antonio’s so that’s good too.
When I first looked at the Mister it was around 350€ already, so paying only 100 more with arguably better tech/components and the cores I was most interested in already working sounds good enough to me!
Don’t expect the package to arrive until at least next week, but here’s to a very good if belated Christmas + Birthday present :P
Ok pretty wild core dropped.
Groovy_MiSTer
Groovy_MiSTer Core - MiSTer FPGA Forum
This basically turns Mister into analogue gpu for your pc to connect to consumer/arcade 15 khz crts. You connect pc to mister via ethernet and use mister’s various analogue outputs to crts. Currently supports GroovyMAME, Retroarch, and Mednafen.
In Mister discord, Ruleset posted a couple of N64 and PSX cores with pulse width modulation (PWM) option that makes 18 bit VGA looking like 24 bit. Pretty amazing.
VGA PWM off
VGA PWM on
Real PS1
Real PS1 is still smoother but PWM actually looks better than direct video with my setup (active y/c composite.) I think I can get rid of all the accursed direct video dongles.
@KennyL yeah it’s been cool to see! Smart move taking advantage of the wiggle room of analog. Should also resolve that annoying screen flash when changing resolutions in direct video for Saturn/PSX/N64 games! Hopefully it gets added to all of the cores, but PSX was the big one.
@copySave I really hope it gets into Saturn and Groovy_mister. I guess computer cores would also benefit?
Hello mister fiends!! I feel like after years of people saying “you should just get a mister” that I will…finally just get a mister. I did some research and just wanted to confirm what I think are all the parts I’d need to get started. Would want to primarily connect it to a CRT using composite.
Mister kit with standard I/O(seems this comes with 3.0 RAM kit people here are saying is required for Saturn? So that’s good?)
YC Encoder Box
VGA to VGA cable
3.5mm to RCA cable
Plus controller adapters if I want to use a real PS1 controller which will be the primary console I wanna play on this thing. Am I on the right track here?
@sabertoothalex Yeah. You always going to have to futz around when it comes to getting a Mister on Composite, so Pork’s premade box will likely save you a bunch of headache.
@sabertoothalex Also get upgraded power supply.
@KennyL does the upgraded power supply make a big difference (I’ve been using the stock one for 2 years)
@sabertoothalex Looks good! Saturn core is still in development, so there will be bugs, but the 3.0 RAM is good regardless. If you want to use real PS1 controllers you need a serial native box (SNAX) and the necessary controller adapters:
SNAC V1 – MiSTer Addons
Controller Adapters (SNAC/SNAX/SNAX64/Reflex Adapt) – MiSTer Addons
But a USB controller (PS4/PS5/Xbox/8bitdo) controller will do fine if you’re looking to save.
Also, a bigger SD card (32gb or 64gb) might be good so you have room for all of the arcade ROMS and bios files it auto-downloads. 16gb might be fine though - just a heads up (it’s easy to flash your own). A USB external hard drive can be used to put a bunch of CD-ROMs on it, and all the other console ROMS. I personally use a 128gb card with all of the smaller console ROMS on it, and a 512gb USB SSD for all of my CD based consoles (in CHD format).
He is putting out a new IO board soon that uses a Saturn style AV connector and will eliminate the need for the external YC adapter:
MiSTer FPGA IO Analog Pro – MiSTer Addons
So might want to wait just a little bit longer…
@穴 Just depends on how much stuff you have plugged in. My 5v 3a one has been fine, but I only have an SSD and one controller plugged into it. No bluetooth or Wifi. If you’re not getting boot failures and your fan is spinning fast you should be fine.
@穴 As copysave said it depends on how much you’re dongled up. I had trouble with bt, controller dongles, and hdd attached with OEM power supply. I still use OEM power supply but just on usb board and running de10 and io board with meanwell power supply just to be safe lol
@copySave Will that new board provide any benefits over the adapter?