Megadrive/Genesis core port to V2

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.
  • Just did a quick test... seems to work. I got some weird problems with one SD card, it showed a bunch of empty directory entries and i couldnt select the ROMs i copied to it. with another fresh card it worked. would be great to have a readme in the zip that tells me where the buttons are mapped to on the keyboard =)

  • Just did a quick test... seems to work. I got some weird problems with one SD card, it showed a bunch of empty directory entries and i couldnt select the ROMs i copied to it. with another fresh card it worked. would be great to have a readme in the zip that tells me where the buttons are mapped to on the keyboard =)

    Thanks - I've given the release a page on my blog, here - http://retroramblings.net/?p=1246

    Good point about the controls - I've listed them on the release page, but I'll include a readme next time I make a release.

    Not sure what's causing the SD card issues, but clearly I need to revisit the FAT code at some point.


    (Also, the ported cores thread gives the impression that I'm the author of several cores - I can't claim that much credit, having mostly just ported them and made some improvements here and there.)

  • Hello, I have a question about core development. I am interested in porting an existing core (the Amstrad-alt core which is working on the MIST) to the Chameleon V2 hardware, just, I am quite starting on the subject, and I wonder how in practice a port to the Chameleon is made in general. Is it possible to test a core in some kind of chameleon emulator ? Or do you test everything on the real hardware from the start and use Chaco or a JTAG connector to be able to trace something ?


    There are a lot of FPGA tutorials out there on the net, but I don't know where to start, and I would greatly appreciate a few pointers and or guidelines on how to start such kind of project. I already read and understood the VHDL principles and have a lot of experience in ASM and with the hardware of the core I want to work on.


    Also I already installed Quartus and successfully compiled and deployed on my Chameleon the examples from the examples repo. This was straightforward.

  • Hello, I have a question about core development. I am interested in porting an existing core (the Amstrad-alt core which is working on the MIST) to the Chameleon V2 hardware, just, I am quite starting on the subject, and I wonder how in practice a port to the Chameleon is made in general. Is it possible to test a core in some kind of chameleon emulator ? Or do you test everything on the real hardware from the start and use Chaco or a JTAG connector to be able to trace something ?

    There's no "emulator" as such - nothing where you can run a core on the PC and see the graphics and hear the sound, but there is simulation software which you can use to test an individual subsystem - or even an entire core if you can arrange a complete enough testbench for it. Quartus has integration with ModelSim, but there's also Verilator for verilog and GHDL for VHDL, both of which are open-source and very useful. I've used GHDL to run test programs on my CPU design.


    The other very useful tool in Quartus is SignalTap, which is a real-time logic probe, accessed over JTAG. Using it requires some spare logic and block RAM within the FPGA - so if the core you're working on nearly fills the FPGA, finding room for SignalTap can be a problem, but it's unbelievably useful. (JTAG has other uses, too - you can set up a virtual serial port and read its output using nios2-terminal - you can even write your own software to talk to a core over JTAG. I can connect to my CPU over JTAG and single-step through the program, read and write memory, etc.)


    As it happens, I'm currently working on a framework to make porting MiST cores easier - and I've literally today released a port of the NES core, which makes use of it. The framework's firmware doesn't yet support disk images, so it probably won't be complete enough to help with the Amstrad core yet, but it may be in future.


    As a development platform I use a DE10-lite (which is *not* the same thing as the DE10-nano used on the MiSTer) - the reason I chose it is that the MAX10 FPGA it uses has the same technology level as the Chameleon's FPGA, but it's twice the size, so has plenty of room for extra debugging modules.

  • To use JTAG you have to solder a pin header to the Chameleon, to which you connect a USB-Blaster. Note that once you've done this you can't connect a clock-port peripheral because the pin header physically gets in the way.


    You can upload a .sof file using the Quartus programmer.

    It's straightforward on Chameleon V2 hardware. On V1 hardware there's another device on the JTAG chain (a Xilinx CPLD) which means you have to do auto-detection of the JTAG chain and apply the .sof to the correct device. You have to do this every session because Quartus won't save the chain file, due to it not recognising the other device on the chain.

  • You have to do this every session because Quartus won't save the chain file, due to it not recognising the other device on the chain.

    Actually... you can create a custom device definition for the CPLD in the Quartus programmer software and then you can save it.

    Right click on the CPLD icon, select "Change Device", then add an entry for it in the "User Defined" list by pressing new and filling in a few details.

  • Actually... you can create a custom device definition for the CPLD in the Quartus programmer software and then you can save it.

    Right click on the CPLD icon, select "Change Device", then add an entry for it in the "User Defined" list by pressing new and filling in a few details.

    Yes, I did experiment with that once before - but I couldn't figure out how to save the definition for future reference... (I can export it, but next time I run the software I need to import it manually, otherwise I can't load a .cdf that references it!)


    Maybe it's a Windows / Linux thing?

  • Also, could someone provide a link or name to a specific game controller/gamepad that would work nicely with Megadrive, NES, Turbo Grafx-16 cores and so on? Joystick is not very viable other than for C64, Amiga and VIC20 Cores, or other homecomputers and CDTV remote is not very good for gaming. I have some kind of gamepad here but it doesn't work well with any of the cores. Would be nice if this controller is actually in sale. That I can order it from somewhere.


    Edit: How about this one? :


    '


    Joypad Boomerang B603

    New version B603L. Two buttons Amiga compatible. This multiplatform Joypad is a standar 3 buttons Sega Megadrive/Genesis controller with autofire feature for A button. It is compatible with several computers and consoles like Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Sega Megadrive/Genesis and also with FPGA computers like the MIST or the Chameleon.'


    Compatible with:

    - All Amiga models

    - MIST

    - Chamaleon multiplataform system

    - Minimig multiplataform system

    - Atari

    - MSX

    - Amstrad CPC / Schneider

    - Sega Megadrive / Genesis

    - Sega Master System

  • Basically what you need is Button 2 and Button 3 on the PotX and PotY lines - "compatible with Amiga" is perfect and exactly what you want for the Docking station (it will NOT work with the C64 though)

  • turrican9:

    B603 on MiST and TC64 works only as a 2 button gamepad.


    I don't think Genesis Core on TC64 support sega gamepad (3/6 buttons + Start) from DB9 ports.

    On MiST there are USB ports on which USB gamepads acts as CD32, SNES and MegaDrive pads.

    USB joypads can be redefined through the MIST.INI file.


    On TC64 you must use the Keyboard instead of the joypad.

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