FPGA N64

If anyone is interested in new projects for N64 hardware, Kaze Emanuar has an amazing series about optimizing Super Mario 64 to run incredibly complex romhacks on original hardware.<p>Interestingly, SM64 is usually throttled by memory speed. This means that using &#x27;inline&#x27; is detrimental to performance, since making the program larger can cause another read from memory.<p>Here&#x27;s an overview video, he has many more specific videos about specific topics:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;t_rzYnXEQlE?si=6yNnsTxOr7M5v4ub" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;t_rzYnXEQlE?si=6yNnsTxOr7M5v4ub</a>

For the thousands of people in the MiSTer FPGA ecosystem, some of whom bought the hardware [0] as long ago as 2020, for well under $200 (it&#x27;s more, now [1]), a featureful FPGA N64 core - developed by Robert Peip, who is paid, most would say very deservedly, thousands per month via P_treon) - will be coming soon as a free update, once the already very advanced work is complete. The betas are playable now, and there are near daily updates.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mister-devel.github.io&#x2F;MkDocs_MiSTer&#x2F;setup&#x2F;requirements&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mister-devel.github.io&#x2F;MkDocs_MiSTer&#x2F;setup&#x2F;requireme...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.terasic.com.tw&#x2F;cgi-bin&#x2F;page&#x2F;archive.pl?Language=English&amp;CategoryNo=167&amp;No=1046" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.terasic.com.tw&#x2F;cgi-bin&#x2F;page&#x2F;archive.pl?Language=...</a>

Related: Analogue have a N64 FPGA clone &quot;coming in 2024&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.analogue.co&#x2F;3d" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.analogue.co&#x2F;3d</a><p>Not much info on the page, also I&#x27;m not in any way affiliated. Just think it&#x27;s cool that this is getting commercialized.

See also: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;RobertPeip&#x2F;Mister64">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;RobertPeip&#x2F;Mister64</a>

It doesn&#x27;t mention the FPGA platform used for this so I did a bit of digging. Looks like Digilent&#x27;s &quot;Nexys Video Artix-7 FPGA: Trainer Board for Multimedia Applications&quot;. This goes for $550 and of course doesn&#x27;t count all of the PMOD&#x27;s and other hardware hanging off the board.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;digilent.com&#x2F;shop&#x2F;nexys-video-artix-7-fpga-trainer-board-for-multimedia-applications&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;digilent.com&#x2F;shop&#x2F;nexys-video-artix-7-fpga-trainer-b...</a>

What is this? Besides apparently a hardware compatability... thingy.. for N64?

Looks like the most recent youtube video was 3 years ago, and the most recent twitch stream was 2 years ago. Anyone know the actual current status of this?

Related, any recommendations on low-cost ways to start playing around with FPGAs? Boards, chips, projects?

I wonder if we&#x27;re going to hit a wall on cycle-accurate software emulation; Higan is pretty cool, but even that requires a fairly beefy CPU considering it&#x27;s emulating something reasonably primitive like the SNES.<p>I know nothing about electronics, but the recent uptick in FPGA game systems like the MiSTer getting Playstation and N64 support, I am hoping that FPGAs can pick up where Higan left off; it would be great to get cycle-accurate emulation of the Xbox 360 some day since I never fixed mine after getting a red ring.

That&#x27;s some plumbing even Mario and Luigi would be impressed by.

That is quite an achievement! It extends the range of fully realizable game consoles that are realizable in inexpensive FPGAs. At one time I saw a web article on FPGA versions of arcade game architectures (looking it up it seems that became the &#x27;mistercade&#x27; project for JAMMA compliant cabinets). I&#x27;m always amazed at the creativity here, both in the original designer&#x27;s part and in recreator&#x27;s part of reproducing that same vision.

Looks like great work! I feel it’s worth mentioning that there is also an N64 core for MisterFPGA now - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;misterfpga.org&#x2F;viewtopic.php?t=6947" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;misterfpga.org&#x2F;viewtopic.php?t=6947</a>

The project UltraFP64 will be released as Analogue 3D only.

It looks incredible, great amount of work invested into it.

Is there any wrapper for mister cores that allows them to work on a PCIe FPGA card? It would be cool to have an N64 inside my PC.

I see a donation button, but not a link to the source code.<p>Not sure this thing is open source hardware, or available to anyone in any form, or even real.

HN has hugged it too hard. archive mirror link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;*&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ultrafp64.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;*&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ultrafp64.com</a>

Wow, just wow! For me, these guys are god&#x27;s!

mirror: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;7KXgz" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;7KXgz</a>

&gt; Cache memory with duel clocks<p>:) Just a nitpick, don&#x27;t mind me. This is a neat project<p>Dual = There are two clocks<p>Dueling = The clocks are swinging swords at each other

(Obligatory “is this website hosted on the N64?” joke)

Take that Sony!<p>(The PS2 is also implemented on a FPGA. Idk whether the PS1 is or isn&#x27;t though)