I was first going to arcades around 1992 at age 14. In the UK, the age for admittance was 18 but I was already 6 feet tall so I was allowed in. It was amazing to live through the Golden Age of arcades. The excitement of not knowing what new games would be there each week. My city had one of the best arcades in Europe. I'm very thankful to have these masterpieces on MISTer.
Fun story. I thought I was in love with playing my retro consoles. I don't want a CRT so I bought really expensive SCART cables for all my systems. Had my NES modded for RGB output. Bought the OSSC. Bought flash carts to play games I don't own. Loaded 'em up with ROMs and enjoyed my probably $2000 investment for about 2 months before I learned about the MiSTer. About $500 more later, I have a bunch of retro consoles that collect dust while my MiSTer gets all my retro love. If you don't own cartridges (I have quite a lot of games from Atari through 360) or CDs, there is almost no reason NOT to go for a MiSTer (or I guess RetroPi) instead. System, SCART, and OSSC costs are pretty small, compared to buying games, sadly.
I think your story is like so many others I’ve heard of people who went the FPGA route… if you’re not looking to be a collector and just want to play those classic games with a good experience, it makes a ton of sense. Thanks for sharing!
I purchased my MiSTer during lockdown and it’s hands down the best purchase I’ve ever made. I have other emulation boxes but I love the smoothness and accuracy of MiSTer. I used to own a Double Dragon cabinet and this was one of the first cores I fired up. I love how active the project is and more cores keep coming out all the time. Robert did an awesome job on the PSX core and it’s great to be able to play all of my old games again - much nicer than trying to use my real PlayStation via a composite converter to HDMI. I grabbed one of the aluminium cases from Mr Addons and it’s awesome - it makes the MiSTer FPGA look super premium. Thanks for a great video. Cheers 😊
Very cool! I love that old Double Dragon cabinet - wish I had room for a few different classic cabinets in my house! Totally agree about the great work of the MiSTer community - some really smart folks out there!
Been gaming since I was 3 in the late ‘70s when my dad programmed a Space Invaders clone on his TRS-80. MiSTer is my best purchase ever in the hobby. Along with an Analogue Pocket for on the go. Selling off a lot of original hardware, except my favourites of course. 😎. Also one of the best illustrated explanations of software vs FPGA emulation explanations I’ve seen for newbies.
Great video, you’re now in my top tier list for FPGA info with Video Game Esoterica. Your presentation is relaxing, kind of reminds me of 8 bit guy without the guns ha ha. What monitor do you use?
Early emulation in the 90s was like voodoo magic to me at the time. I remember getting NeoRage working on my PowerPC mac and I was blown away that this computer was behaving like my NeoGeo cartridge console(I owned the home console and a bunch of really expensive games). I've been hooked ever since. It's come a really long way.
Excellent video Ken. Easily the clearest explanation of the hardware, installation and options. If you can do something on the software installation, ROM installation and the like I would love it. I recognize it probably gets close to a line but would be welcome. Regardless well done!
@@whatskenmaking I’ve been messing with the MiSTer for quite a while. I think how you configure each console and the file locations and folders can be confusing. I had put mine down for a few months and was back at it this last week and struggled a bit to configure certain consoles correctly (also whether to have the rims zipped or not for example). Again your video was crystal clear and I thank you for it
💯 For me, lots of memories nagging my grandmother to give me quarters for the Ms. Pac-Man machine in Safeway... it kept me out of her hair while she did the grocery shopping!
3:15 very good addition about "if FPGA is programmed well", because more complex MiSTer cores aren't programmed on the gate array level and are, basically, "normal" emulators with more or less usual compatibility issues (take a look at PSX and Saturn cores, for example).
Can you please provide some more info on where you saw that? I looked at the code for both the PSX and Saturn cores and they’re both written in Verilog, which is the language used for configuring the Cyclone’s FPGA logic elements. The only way those cores could conceivably be using software emulation is if (a) the FPGA is configured to be a more generic processor such as an x86 CPU and it’s running an emulation layer on top of it or (b) the emulation is running on the HPS instead. Neither of those seem to be happening with the PSX or Saturn cores. Of course, I could be mistaken, but if you can point me to your source then I can take a more educated look into it. Thanks!
Yeah, it's not for everybody. I'm a big proponent of using whatever is the right option for you... I personally still prefer original hardware in most cases, and if FPGA-based emulators didn't exist, I'd still be perfectly happy sitting at my 486 and playing Nesticle 😆
I thought that the rear USB port was to supply power only (not for data transfer). Am I wrong? I use one of the side USB ports and short cable with right angled plug and a Crucial SSD for Playstation games and other systems that use optical disc images. That SSD undercarriage you made is rather neat👍
Ah, yes - I think you’re correct. I do remember switching it around and using the front USB port at some point. The drive fits into the caddy either way, so you can turn it around and still use the short USB cable. After I got the MultiSystem, I stopped using the stack config, so it’s been a while since I fired it up. Thanks for catching that!
I've posted a video about this awhile back. I purchased a Mister Multisystem last year. Within four months of use my USB ports stopped working. When trying to reach out to RMC Retro for support instead of getting an RMA option they looked for reasons to blame the defect on me to justify not paying for return shipping on any replacement or refunds. While I absolutely love the idea of a consolized version of Mister I cannot recommend RMC Retro as a place to do business. It too expensive to take the risk that you will end up with a brick and no support. But hey I've seen it on my comments before that I am being negative and this is only my anecdotal experience. That's fine if you want to ignore my warning. I am not trying to force anyone into making a decision they do or do not want to do. But I think it's only fair to see the other side of the coin to make an informed decision on an expensive product. As for me I will be holding off on consolized products for now. Until I see a more modular consolized solution where I can swap out parts should they go bad I will be sticking with the more traditional Mister setup for now.
I haven’t had any technical issues needing support on my MultiSystem, so I can’t comment on RMC Retro in that regard. I assume you’ve tried using a fresh SD card and Mr. Fusion build? The easy thing to rule out would be any sort of USB driver issue by doing that. But if you think it’s a hardware issue, then I’d take a look at the USB host controller chip on the board. Since you’re stuck with a dead board anyway, it might be interesting to swap it out yourself if you have the skill and equipment to do so. At any rate, sorry to hear about your troubles!
Great video! I'm curious, did you consider the RetroCastle Mister IO board? I really liked the slim design, passive cooling option, single power port and the integrated YC filter for hooking up to CRT's. I'm still waiting delivery of mine, hope it works good. I like you SSD case adapter, I want to make something like that for the SNAC adapter.
I haven't checked it out yet, but it's an interesting board! I'll add it to the list ... I may need to do a video comparing the various I/O boards out there. Thanks!
Very informative video, thanks! Just curious: what is the most recent console the MiSTer can run? Is it a case of (a) it either runs something 100% accurate and 100% as fast or not at all, or (b) like software emulation, it can run a system slowly depending on the host.
The most recent is PlayStation 1, which is incredibly accurate. There is a Nintendo 64 core and a Sega Saturn core in the works, and they are both looking to be quite impressive.
Yeah, I believe the PSX is the only 5th generation console core that's released. I heard that the Saturn is in the works, but I wasn't aware of the N64. I thought the complexity of the N64 was pushing the Cyclone V5 limits, but it sounds like someone's been working on it. Would be great to see it come out!
@@whatskenmaking to be sure it is, the N64 is being made by the same developer who made the PSX. It's running several games already. Quite impressive stuff.
Assuming your monitor is using outputting via VGA, what settings are you using? I have an analog I/O board and can't for the life of me get my Dell LCD monitor to work with mister. What are your ini settings and did you have to flip any jumpers? Thanks!
Hi Marcos! I talk about this a little bit in the video and touched on it a bit in this article I wrote - whatskenmaking.com/2022/11/02/retro-gaming-on-the-mister/. At the end of the day, every emulator strives to simulate the original hardware in some form or fashion. With a soft emulator on your computer, your CPU is performing the emulation of every chip in the system. With FPGA-based emulation, however, the FPGA is simulating multiple chips simultaneously through internal hardware configurations. You can almost think of an FPGA like a shapeshifter... it sort of becomes the chips that it's emulating. This enables all those facets of the system to function in parallel just like the original hardware. Because of this, you'll rarely see well-written FPGA cores encounter CPU lag. It's not perfect, though, because the FPGA will only function as well the developer programs it to function. It's still subject to error, and there are limitations around speed and features that may prevent a given FPGA from fully simulating a real chip. Modern PC hardware does a fantastic job at soft emulation, though ... so if you're just looking to pop in a childhood game from the 80s or 90s and relive some memories, then you're just fine playing with a software emulator, such as RetroArch. IMHO, the most important thing is to use whichever option you enjoy most within your available time and budget! Hope this helps!
With CPUs now coming with well over 24 threads or higher with 16 cores 32 threads, it's more than powerful to emulate like an FPGA but in software code, which brings all emulation back full circle where the quality will be limited by it's programmer.
@@whatskenmaking sorry the analogue board the switch on the side that says power is for supplying power over the usb user port, I use an mt-32 in the user port and if you turn power on the mister will try and power the mt-32 and you run into issues as requires more power than the mister can supply even with a 4amp psu. It could be different with the digital but I do t think it’s a power switch for the mister.
The MiSTer can play up to 5th generation console cores, such as the Sega Saturn or Sony PlayStation. There's a complete list of supported console cores here - mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/cores/console.
I was first going to arcades around 1992 at age 14. In the UK, the age for admittance was 18 but I was already 6 feet tall so I was allowed in. It was amazing to live through the Golden Age of arcades. The excitement of not knowing what new games would be there each week. My city had one of the best arcades in Europe. I'm very thankful to have these masterpieces on MISTer.
MiSTer is excellent, the development community is awesome, so many great cores out and in the works.
Fun story.
I thought I was in love with playing my retro consoles. I don't want a CRT so I bought really expensive SCART cables for all my systems. Had my NES modded for RGB output. Bought the OSSC. Bought flash carts to play games I don't own. Loaded 'em up with ROMs and enjoyed my probably $2000 investment for about 2 months before I learned about the MiSTer.
About $500 more later, I have a bunch of retro consoles that collect dust while my MiSTer gets all my retro love. If you don't own cartridges (I have quite a lot of games from Atari through 360) or CDs, there is almost no reason NOT to go for a MiSTer (or I guess RetroPi) instead. System, SCART, and OSSC costs are pretty small, compared to buying games, sadly.
I think your story is like so many others I’ve heard of people who went the FPGA route… if you’re not looking to be a collector and just want to play those classic games with a good experience, it makes a ton of sense. Thanks for sharing!
I remember getting into emulation in the late 90s.. my mind was BLOWN! I remember sites like Zophar's Domain. I was like a kid in a candy store! :)
I purchased my MiSTer during lockdown and it’s hands down the best purchase I’ve ever made. I have other emulation boxes but I love the smoothness and accuracy of MiSTer. I used to own a Double Dragon cabinet and this was one of the first cores I fired up. I love how active the project is and more cores keep coming out all the time. Robert did an awesome job on the PSX core and it’s great to be able to play all of my old games again - much nicer than trying to use my real PlayStation via a composite converter to HDMI. I grabbed one of the aluminium cases from Mr Addons and it’s awesome - it makes the MiSTer FPGA look super premium. Thanks for a great video. Cheers 😊
Very cool! I love that old Double Dragon cabinet - wish I had room for a few different classic cabinets in my house! Totally agree about the great work of the MiSTer community - some really smart folks out there!
Been gaming since I was 3 in the late ‘70s when my dad programmed a Space Invaders clone on his TRS-80. MiSTer is my best purchase ever in the hobby. Along with an Analogue Pocket for on the go. Selling off a lot of original hardware, except my favourites of course. 😎. Also one of the best illustrated explanations of software vs FPGA emulation explanations I’ve seen for newbies.
Thank you! I ordered an Analogue Pocket last September but am still waiting for it… hopefully soon!
Great video, you’re now in my top tier list for FPGA info with Video Game Esoterica. Your presentation is relaxing, kind of reminds me of 8 bit guy without the guns ha ha. What monitor do you use?
Nice video, very well produced! And the MiSTer community rocks! :)
Early emulation in the 90s was like voodoo magic to me at the time. I remember getting NeoRage working on my PowerPC mac and I was blown away that this computer was behaving like my NeoGeo cartridge console(I owned the home console and a bunch of really expensive games). I've been hooked ever since. It's come a really long way.
It certainly has! Firing up Nesticle for this video really brought back so many awesome memories!
Excellent work,
MiSTer is fantastic,
Hopefully you will make more MiSTer videos.
Subscribed.😊
Excellent video Ken. Easily the clearest explanation of the hardware, installation and options. If you can do something on the software installation, ROM installation and the like I would love it. I recognize it probably gets close to a line but would be welcome. Regardless well done!
Thank you! I was hesitant to cover the software side because I’ve seen a few great videos on that already, but I’ll take that suggestion to heart -
@@whatskenmaking
I’ve been messing with the MiSTer for quite a while. I think how you configure each console and the file locations and folders can be confusing. I had put mine down for a few months and was back at it this last week and struggled a bit to configure certain consoles correctly (also whether to have the rims zipped or not for example). Again your video was crystal clear and I thank you for it
Those Pac Man and Double Dragon arcade ports...I NEED THEM! So many memories and good times were had with those games.
💯 For me, lots of memories nagging my grandmother to give me quarters for the Ms. Pac-Man machine in Safeway... it kept me out of her hair while she did the grocery shopping!
Great data Ken, and a very friendly way to present it to noobs like me! thanks a lot!
Ohh I remember Nesticle with his weird icon and the coder lol. Fantastic work Ken! Greetings from Chile :)
Firing up Nesticle and taking that screen recording brought back SO many memories 😆 Thank you!
Later Genecyst came out from the same progammer
3:15 very good addition about "if FPGA is programmed well", because more complex MiSTer cores aren't programmed on the gate array level and are, basically, "normal" emulators with more or less usual compatibility issues (take a look at PSX and Saturn cores, for example).
Can you please provide some more info on where you saw that? I looked at the code for both the PSX and Saturn cores and they’re both written in Verilog, which is the language used for configuring the Cyclone’s FPGA logic elements. The only way those cores could conceivably be using software emulation is if (a) the FPGA is configured to be a more generic processor such as an x86 CPU and it’s running an emulation layer on top of it or (b) the emulation is running on the HPS instead. Neither of those seem to be happening with the PSX or Saturn cores. Of course, I could be mistaken, but if you can point me to your source then I can take a more educated look into it. Thanks!
Fantastic video . Learned a lot S thank you!!!😊
Sounds and looks great...not sure if i could justify it.
Yeah, it's not for everybody. I'm a big proponent of using whatever is the right option for you... I personally still prefer original hardware in most cases, and if FPGA-based emulators didn't exist, I'd still be perfectly happy sitting at my 486 and playing Nesticle 😆
I thought that the rear USB port was to supply power only (not for data transfer). Am I wrong? I use one of the side USB ports and short cable with right angled plug and a Crucial SSD for Playstation games and other systems that use optical disc images. That SSD undercarriage you made is rather neat👍
Ah, yes - I think you’re correct. I do remember switching it around and using the front USB port at some point. The drive fits into the caddy either way, so you can turn it around and still use the short USB cable. After I got the MultiSystem, I stopped using the stack config, so it’s been a while since I fired it up. Thanks for catching that!
I've posted a video about this awhile back. I purchased a Mister Multisystem last year. Within four months of use my USB ports stopped working. When trying to reach out to RMC Retro for support instead of getting an RMA option they looked for reasons to blame the defect on me to justify not paying for return shipping on any replacement or refunds. While I absolutely love the idea of a consolized version of Mister I cannot recommend RMC Retro as a place to do business. It too expensive to take the risk that you will end up with a brick and no support. But hey I've seen it on my comments before that I am being negative and this is only my anecdotal experience. That's fine if you want to ignore my warning. I am not trying to force anyone into making a decision they do or do not want to do. But I think it's only fair to see the other side of the coin to make an informed decision on an expensive product. As for me I will be holding off on consolized products for now. Until I see a more modular consolized solution where I can swap out parts should they go bad I will be sticking with the more traditional Mister setup for now.
I haven’t had any technical issues needing support on my MultiSystem, so I can’t comment on RMC Retro in that regard. I assume you’ve tried using a fresh SD card and Mr. Fusion build? The easy thing to rule out would be any sort of USB driver issue by doing that. But if you think it’s a hardware issue, then I’d take a look at the USB host controller chip on the board. Since you’re stuck with a dead board anyway, it might be interesting to swap it out yourself if you have the skill and equipment to do so. At any rate, sorry to hear about your troubles!
I spent so longsetting up mame years ago I don't want to change it
I hear ya... I still have nightmares from trying to configure it back in the day! 😨
Great video! I'm curious, did you consider the RetroCastle Mister IO board? I really liked the slim design, passive cooling option, single power port and the integrated YC filter for hooking up to CRT's. I'm still waiting delivery of mine, hope it works good. I like you SSD case adapter, I want to make something like that for the SNAC adapter.
I haven't checked it out yet, but it's an interesting board! I'll add it to the list ... I may need to do a video comparing the various I/O boards out there. Thanks!
Very informative video, thanks! Just curious: what is the most recent console the MiSTer can run? Is it a case of (a) it either runs something 100% accurate and 100% as fast or not at all, or (b) like software emulation, it can run a system slowly depending on the host.
The most recent is PlayStation 1, which is incredibly accurate.
There is a Nintendo 64 core and a Sega Saturn core in the works, and they are both looking to be quite impressive.
Yeah, I believe the PSX is the only 5th generation console core that's released. I heard that the Saturn is in the works, but I wasn't aware of the N64. I thought the complexity of the N64 was pushing the Cyclone V5 limits, but it sounds like someone's been working on it. Would be great to see it come out!
@@whatskenmaking to be sure it is, the N64 is being made by the same developer who made the PSX. It's running several games already. Quite impressive stuff.
@@onicx4603 Sounds great; can't wait to try it out! Do you know if we're going to get SNAC support?
Assuming your monitor is using outputting via VGA, what settings are you using? I have an analog I/O board and can't for the life of me get my Dell LCD monitor to work with mister. What are your ini settings and did you have to flip any jumpers? Thanks!
Thank you!
Hello friend, I'm Marcos from Brazil.
I would like to know if there is any difference between Soft Emulator vs Mister FPGA.
Hi Marcos! I talk about this a little bit in the video and touched on it a bit in this article I wrote - whatskenmaking.com/2022/11/02/retro-gaming-on-the-mister/. At the end of the day, every emulator strives to simulate the original hardware in some form or fashion. With a soft emulator on your computer, your CPU is performing the emulation of every chip in the system. With FPGA-based emulation, however, the FPGA is simulating multiple chips simultaneously through internal hardware configurations. You can almost think of an FPGA like a shapeshifter... it sort of becomes the chips that it's emulating. This enables all those facets of the system to function in parallel just like the original hardware. Because of this, you'll rarely see well-written FPGA cores encounter CPU lag. It's not perfect, though, because the FPGA will only function as well the developer programs it to function. It's still subject to error, and there are limitations around speed and features that may prevent a given FPGA from fully simulating a real chip. Modern PC hardware does a fantastic job at soft emulation, though ... so if you're just looking to pop in a childhood game from the 80s or 90s and relive some memories, then you're just fine playing with a software emulator, such as RetroArch. IMHO, the most important thing is to use whichever option you enjoy most within your available time and budget! Hope this helps!
With CPUs now coming with well over 24 threads or higher with 16 cores 32 threads, it's more than powerful to emulate like an FPGA but in software code, which brings all emulation back full circle where the quality will be limited by it's programmer.
Love the mister good video mate, and by the way thats not a power switch it's used for supplying power over the user port or not.
Thank you! Can you please clarify what you’re referring to? Are you talking about when I pointed out the switch on the Digital IO board?
@@whatskenmaking sorry the analogue board the switch on the side that says power is for supplying power over the usb user port, I use an mt-32 in the user port and if you turn power on the mister will try and power the mt-32 and you run into issues as requires more power than the mister can supply even with a 4amp psu. It could be different with the digital but I do t think it’s a power switch for the mister.
@RetroTuna Ah, ok. Yes, on the digital IO board it’s a power switch for the MiSTer itself, not the user port.
@@whatskenmaking Ahh right ok didnt know that, handy to have a power switch.
do you have a video for adding an ssd to the multisystem?
I did cover the setup for using an external drive in my video on MiSTer setup tips - th-cam.com/video/M6oojXRnOe4/w-d-xo.html
Does the mister only play up to the NES or are there more powerful FPGA boards
The MiSTer can play up to 5th generation console cores, such as the Sega Saturn or Sony PlayStation. There's a complete list of supported console cores here - mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/cores/console.
why is your screen driving the green so hard?
I didn’t adjust the display before filming, and some of my color adjustments in editing probably didn’t make it any better
Still can't buy one.
Yeah, I think your best bet is to preorder from Terasic directly. Mouser is also reporting that they’re going to get some more stock this month.