MiSTer FPGA: Recreate classic computers using modern hardware

For anyone else wondering about the name: it's actually "MiSTer", from "MiST on Terasic [FPGA board]", with "MiST" being a previous "aMIga/ST" FPGA reimplementation effort.

There&#x27;s one thing you don&#x27;t get, which I see many people find they miss: savestates. It&#x27;s technically possible and I know a few cores try to support them, but it&#x27;s just a million times easier (and more reliable) if you do everything in software anyway.<p>Hardware emulation has a pretty small niche between software emulation and real hardware. If you care about accuracy at all costs, real hardware is usually still available and not too expensive, and if you care about convenience, software emulation is better.

I was lucky enough to get in on this when the boards were ~$130. It’s one of my favorite pieces of tech. It “just works” and the UI is very good. Updating is super easy and it even goes and grabs the MAME Roms for you. CPS2 games feel much different than my MAME box running Arch. I can 100% pick up the controller and I’m a few seconds know which one I’m playing. The video processing presets have some that make the games look amazing. Psx I mainly play rpgs so latency isn’t a huge deal there. If anyone has any specific questions let me know. I think they are twice the price now but even at that I would probably rebuy. I use it probably 8-10 hours a week so worth a good investment.

FPGAs are fun, for sure, but I still have never felt the flair of “authenticity” from the use of FPGA as opposed to software emulation on a microcontroller or the PC. In fact, software emulation is so much more practical, and you can simulate pretty much any aspect of it that you wish, not just the CPU and some peripherals. A modern flight simulator is another example of using software to bring the user’s experience close to what it would be in reality (especially with the VR gear).

I&#x27;m curious, is there any advantage to this over software emulation, besides &quot;I did it because I could&quot;? (which is of course cool in itself).

Related:<p><i>Mister FPGA: The Future of Game and Computer Emulation</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=29439279" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=29439279</a> - Dec 2021 (64 comments)<p><i>MiSTer FPGA GBA Splitscreen Multiplayer</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27547848" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27547848</a> - June 2021 (9 comments)

I&#x27;ve wanted to give Mister FPGA a go for the longest time, but the boards are never in stock any time I look. How are people getting their hands on them?

For those more generally interested in learning FPGAs and computer architecture, MiSTer is a nice platform to explore. I recently found a good series of videos looking at it from this perspective [1].<p><pre><code> 1: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qxgM9NPrhqw</code></pre>

It seems like there really needs to be an alternative that uses more available hardware.

I applaud the MiSTer Project for their brilliant work. I&#x27;d even be interested in buying something like it. But the most complex console it can emulate is a ps1 and that can be emulated perfectly fine in software. I wish most 5th gen&#x2F;6th gen consoles were in reach to emulated with it. But alas that&#x27;s out of the question and even software emulation is still far from great for most of these consoles and require beefy hardware...

Can you actually buy a DE-10 Nano FPGA board today? The links say &quot;pre-order&quot;

It&#x27;s a shame it&#x27;s not on a Xilinx FPGA. I am out.