MiST

Minimig-MiST

You can find builds of my minimig-mist AGA core here.


Latest beta build

minimig-mist_1_2_3_beta.zip (378.65 Kb)
 


Latest build

minimig_mist-20160224 (2016-02-24)

This is just a bugfix release with fixed turbo mode implementation, no new features are added on top of the 1.2 release.

Download:


minimig-mist-v1.2 (2016-02-21)

  • initial implementation of programmable display modes
  • OSD HRTmon enable / disable switch is working (ON – F11 acts as NMI and enters HRTmon, OFF – F11 is HELP key)
  • proper handling of CPU access to chipRAM & custom regs – CPU waits for free slot when turbo option is disabled
  • fixed playfield 2 color lut offset when playfield 2 has priority for OCS/ECS modes
  • some IRQ changes
  • added support for undocumented Agnus / Denise behaviour when BPL=7 in ECS/OCS mode (fixes demos like SushiBoyz by Ghostown, Sliced&Diced by Dekadence, etc)
  • blitter line mode fixed (fixes demos like SushiBoyz & Sunglasses by Ghostown, Vectorize by RSi, etc)
  • bitfield instructions fixed, barrel shifter implemented by Till Harbaum
  • fixed colortable for sprites (bplxor) – fixes Alien Breed 3D (and probably many others)
  • fixed keyboard rate
  • kickstart ROM is also uploaded to mirror position (E0)
  • fixed reset problems & fastRAM disappearing
  • added CPU CACR cache control, fixed reading CACR reg
  • added scanlines for non-doublescaned config
  • fixed video dithering – both spatial & random dithering weren’t working properly

Download:

Source:
https://github.com/rkrajnc/minimig-mist/releases/tag/minimig_mist-1_2


Previous builds

minimig-mist-v1.1 (2015-09-10)

  • fixed mouse issues (fixes games Like Ishar 1, 2, 3, Robinson’s Requiem, and many cracktros)
  • fixed keyboard issues (fixes game Walker and probably many others)
  • changes to FPGA clock handling, hopefully this will make a more stable minimig core
  • entering the OSD menu using UP+DOWN buttons on a DB-9 connected joystick has been disabled
  • 1MB kickstart ROM support added (enables you to run AROS ROM or your custom kickstart ROM)
  • firmware now again supports using 256kB kickstart ROMs
  • firmware now again supports using Cloanto AmigaForever encrypted kickstart ROMs

Download:

Source:
https://github.com/rkrajnc/minimig-mist/releases/tag/minimig-mist-1_1

 

minimig-mist-v1.0 (2015-06-22)

  • fixed AGA color table issues
  • fixed erroneous detection of HAM, HAM8 & EHB modes in AGA
  • fixed AGA BPLXOR implementation
  • implemented AGA bitplane scandoubling
  • implemented AGA sprite scandoubling & SSCAN2 SH10 coincidence detection
  • implemented proper AGA bitplane scroller with quarter pixel scrolling precision
  • fixed AGA BPLCON4 values delay
  • playfield CLUT offsets fixed
  • ECS sprite attach enabled for both odd and even attach bit
  • turbo options for chipRAM & kickstart
  • new 8kB two-way, write-through, look-through CPU cache with separate instruction & data caches
  • CPU PACK & UNPK instruction fixes by Till Harbaum
  • updated very fast CPU by Alastair M. Robinson (in the newcpu build)
  • CIA TOD bug fixed
  • HRTmon with custom registers mirror
  • chipset config applied only on reset
  • config display added on boot screen

Download:

Source:
https://github.com/rkrajnc/minimig-mist/releases/tag/minimig-mist-1_0

 

minimig-mist-beta3 (2014-11-24)

  • added ini config parser
  • added option of changing scandoubler config through the mist.ini file
  • joystick, mouse keyboard signals coming from the ARM uC over SPI now have proper clock domain crossing
  • minimig bank mapping updated so that chipRAM is always grouped at the beginning of memory, fixed position for kickstart
  • minimig design converted to a single 28MHz clock
  • Implemented AGA features:
    • color table extended to 256×24 bits, changed to synchronous memory
    • HAM table extended, HAM8 implemented
    • fixed EHB
    • border sprite feature implemented
    • added ability for 32-bit and 64-bit AGA fetches
    • implemented bitplane & sprite 32-bit & 64-bit data fetches support
    • implemented new AGA registers, like FMODE, BPLCON4, …
    • added sprite resolution logic
    • updated bitplane DMA sequencer with new ‘programs’ for AGA modes
    • updated sprite DMA engine
    • bitplane modulos for new AGA modes implemented
    • Amber video output extended to support 24-bit data
    • added dithering for video from 24 bits to 18 bits in Amber
    • Denise ID is now configurable according to chipset selected
    • fixed playfields & collision detection
  • + lots of other small changes

Download:

Source:
https://github.com/rkrajnc/minimig-mist/releases/tag/minimig_aga_rel_b1.3


Usage

Hardware

To use this minimig core on the MiST board, you will at the minimum need an SD/SDHC card, formatted with the FAT32 filesystem, an USB keyboard and a compatible monitor / TV. Joysticks & mouse can be emulated on the keyboard. You will probably want to attach a set of speakers or headphones, a real Amiga or USB mouse and a real Amiga joystick or an USB gamepad. The MiST board is needed, too, of course 😉

Software

The zip file above contains a minimig-mist-xxx.rbf file, which is the FPGA core, and a firmware.upg file, which can be used to upgrade the firmware on the ARM microcontroller (usually, there is no need to upgrade the firmware, unless it is specifically mentioned to do so). Both files should be placed on the root of your SD card. If you want this core to be the default, you need to rename it to core.rbf.

To use the core, you will also need a Kickstart ROM image file, which you can obtain by copying Kickstart ROM IC from your actual Amiga, or by buying an Amiga Forever software pack. The Kickstart image should be placed on the root of the SD card with the name kick.rom.

The minimig can read any ADF floppy images you place on the SD card. I recommend at least Workbench 1.3 or 3.1 (AmigaOS), some of the Amigas great games (I recommend Ruff’n’Tumble) or some of the amazing demos from the vast Amiga demoscene (like State of the Art from Spaceballs).

The minimig can also use HDF harddisk images, which can be created with WinUAE.

Recommended minimig config

  • for ECS : CPU = 68000, Turbo=NONE, Chipset=ECS, chipRAM=0.5MB, slowRAM=0.5MB, Kickstart 1.3
  • for AGA : CPU = 68020, Turbo=NONE, Chipset=AGA, chipRAM=2MB, slowRAM=0MB, fastRAM=24MB, Kickstart 3.1

Controlling minimig

Keyboard special keys:

  • F12 – OSD menu
  • F11 – start monitor (if HRTmon is enabled, HELP key otherwise)
  • ScrollLock – toggle keyoard only / mouse / joystick 1 / joystick 2 emulation on the keyboard (direction keys + LCTRL)

Features supported

  • chipset variants : OCS, ECS, AGA
  • chipRAM : 0.5MB – 2.0MB
  • slowRAM : 0.0MB – 1.5MB
  • fastRAM : 0.0MB – 24MB
  • CPU core : 68000, 68010, 68020
  • kickstart : 1.2 – 3.1 (256kB and 512kB kickstart ROMs currently supported)
  • HRTmon with custom registers mirror
  • floppy disks : 1-4 floppies (supports ADF floppy image format), with normal & turbo speeds
  • hard disks : 1-2 hard disk images (supports whole disk images, partition images, using whole SD card and using SD card partition)
  • video standard : PAL / NTSC + preliminary support for programmable display modes (640x480x60Hz)
  • supports normal & scandoubled video output (15kHz / 30kHz) – can be used with a monitor or a TV with a SCART cable
  • peripherals : real Amiga mice, real Amiga joysticks, USB keyboards, USB mice, USB gamepads, MIDI in / out
  • could potentially support anything that can be connected to USB (ethernet, RTC, USB Flash, …)

Issues & Bug reports

All issues for this project are tracked on my repository’s Issues page.

If you are a Github user, you can report any issues or bugs directly here.

In case you don’t have an account, you can use this link.


Development notes

All development on this repository is done on the dev branch, or a branch forked from dev. Master branch contains only release-ready, stable changes. All stable releases are tagged with a tag minimig-mist-release_version.

See Changelog here.

See TODO list here.


Building minimig-mist from sources

  • checkout the source using this link
  • download / install / build an ARM GCC toolchain (install script here, or alternatively, download an already build arm-none-eabi-gcc package for you operating system – requires support for ARM7TDMI)
  • download / install Altera Quartus II (latest supported version for Cyclone III FPGA device used on the MiST board is 13.1; I’m still using version 10.1SP1)
  • if you are using linux and have the $PATH variable properly set up, you can use the Makefile in the root of the project, otherwise build the ARM firmware using your favourite tool / GUI (firmware is in fw/mist), and build the core using Quartus GUI (project file in fpga/mist)
  • place the firmware.upg & minimig-mist.rbf files on the root of your SD card (optionally, rename minimig-mist.rbf to core.rbf to make it the default core)
  • don’t forget to place kickstart ROM of your choosing on the root of the SD card (these are still copyrighted, so either copy the ROM from your real Amiga, or buy AmigaForever)
  • place some ADF (floppy disk images) of your favourite games / demos / programs on your SD card
  • optionally place minimig.bal, minimig.art & minimig.cop files on the root of your SD card for a nice bootup animation
  • enjoy minimig! 🙂

Sources

This sourcecode is based on my previous project (minimig-de1), and it continues from there. It was split into a new project to allow changes that would never fit in the FPGA on the DE1 board.

Original minimig sources from Dennis van Weeren with updates by Jakub Bednarski are published on Google Code.

Some minimig updates are published on the Minimig Discussion Forum, done by Sascha Boing.

ARM firmware updates and minimig-tc64 port changes by Christian Vogelsang (minimig-tc64) and A.M. Robinson (minimig-tc64).

MiST board & firmware by Till Harbaum (MiST).

TG68K.C core by Tobias Gubener.


Links & more info

Further info about minimig can be found on the Minimig Discussion Forum.

MiST board support & other cores on the MiST Project Page.


License

Copyright © 2011 – 2016 Rok Krajnc (rok.krajnc@gmail.com)

Copyright © 2005 – 2015 Dennis van Weeren, Jakub Bednarski, Sascha Boing, A.M. Robinson, Tobias Gubener, Till Harbaum

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

222 thoughts on “Minimig-MiST

  1. Dj.ECHO says:

    HI could you put a list of what i need and where it needs to go as i am having trouble geting it to work i am using a 8gig could that be my prob

    thanks for your time

    • chaos says:

      Hi!

      The prerequisites are of course a MiST board and an SD card, either of SD or SDHC type. The SD card should be formatted with FAT32 filesystem.

      1. You will need to place the minimig FPGA core file (minimig-mist-XXX.rbf) on the root directory of the SD card. You can optionally rename this file to core.rbf to make it the default core.
      2. You will need to place an Amiga kickstart ROM file on the root directory of the SD card. This file must be named kick.rom (once you have minimig running, you can save a config with a differently named kickstart ROM file). Suggested ROM is either version 1.3 or 3.1.

      It seems I messed up the support for the Cloanto (AmigaForever) kickstart ROMs, so these ROMs are currently *not* supported. I will fix it ASAP.

      Those are the basics. Besides that, you might need to upgrade the ARM firmware (download the latest firmware.upg version from https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/source/browse/#svn%2Ftrunk%2Fbin%2Ffirmware, or use the one included in the minimig release zip file).

      If you want to change video output options (SCART / VGA), you will need to create a mist.ini file on the root of the SD card (see here: https://code.google.com/p/mist-board/wiki/DocIni). By default, the core will output a VGA signal, appropriate for a modern computer monitor (but unfortunately, not all monitors will work due to the specifics of the Amiga video signal).

      There are some additional files for minimig boot-up screen in the release zip file (minimig.art, minimig.cop, and minimig.bal).

      You can place ADF floppy images of games, demos, Workbench on the SD card in any directory.

      To recap: you only need the minimig FPGA core file (minimigXXXX.rbf) and the kick.rom kickstart image.

      Also, please explain what kind of problems are you having in more detail. Is the minimig the only core that doesn’t work? Do you see anything on your monitor? Do you see the minimig boot screen?

      Oh, and your SD card shouldn’t be a problem – I’m using a 16GB one. But there are some rare SD cards that seem to behave strangely adn don’t work on the MiST board or any other minimig board in general. I only know this from people reporting it, I never came across one myself, and I have tested at least 15 SD cards.

      Cheers!

  2. First of all, thanks for creating this core! It already brought me a lot of fun to work with. Awesome job!!

    I have a little problem where the screen is cut off at the right side, as seen in this picture:

    http://postimg.org/image/saotqt9dx/ (pic is taken upside down, sry)..

    I also see this during the loading screen of the core (when reset button is pressed) during the boing ball intro screen. The text to the right is slightly cut off. Can you tell me how this can be prevented? The other (non-aga) cores are not having this issue.

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      yes, I’m aware of this problem. The AGA bitplane scroller is not implemented completely correct, so sometimes one pixel on the right or on the left is hidden. I’m still looking into how to fix this – it’s just a pixel output delay problem, but currently I don’t see what the correct delay should be in each case.

      I’ll let you know once I figure this out.

  3. uwi_u says:

    Hi there! I encountered Problems when starting iGame (based on MUI, requires 020). When starting in WinUAE/fs-uae with similar Config, everything’s working fine, but on MiST with AGA-Core 1.1, I get a Guru.
    Kris said, that maybe some used 020-OPs aren’t implemented in the Core right now. How can I troubleshoot this?

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      it’s been a while since I used iGame, but I’m sure it used to work, at least some time before AGA updates. I’ll try it out and let you know what I find.

    • I just wanted to say that I’m very happy with this update! This really comes close to the real deal, and I must say I also prefer stability over speed. This core is a major improvement for many games. Thank you!

    • chaos says:

      I tested iGame and it seems to work just fine – it starts, I can add games and start them. I have version 1.6 alpha installed.

      iGame

        • chaos says:

          It’s probably from ClassicWB, I don’t think I installed any other version, since I don’t use it. ClassicWB is probably v28 (full).

          • UWI_u says:

            I can confirm that it works. When I rename the iGame Executable to something other tahn iGame, I get the Guru again. Renaming back to iGame fixes the Error 🙂

  4. uwi_u says:

    Hi there!

    me again 😉
    I’ve got some questions regarding hdf-Integration. As long, as only FAT16/FAT32 is supported, larger Filesystems than 4GB can only be implemented by using whole Partitions on the SD-Card itself.
    I’ve done that with a 8GB SD-Card, having a 100MB-Fat32-Partition for Core and Kickrom, and having the rest of the SD-Card used as MMC Card Partition 2 as Master in the OSD. This Partition on the SD Card is parted in two Partitions with PFS3.

    So far, so good.

    I tried to port that scenario to an 16GB SD-Card using a patched Kickrom with scsi.device 43.47, but having trouble to with parting that in OS3.1 with HDToolbox. Reading out the Drive Specifications always returns crap.
    I already tried to set the params manually but still no effort.

    I then tried to use two Partitions on the SD, each smaller than 8GiB. I noticed, that it seems to be impossible to configure Master and Slave in parallel. Each time I configure a Slave and reset the MiniMig-Core, the Slave is “disabled” afterwards.
    Is there a guide available with the actual Limitations?

    Regards,
    Uwe

    • uwi_u says:

      It seems like the physical Limitation for hdf’s written as Partition on the MiST-SD seem to be 8GiB. I tried a 14GB-Partition yesterday and only got a red screen. Next try will be to place 100MiB FAT32 as primary Partition for core, config and kick on an 16GB-SD and placing a second Partition with 8GiB (i will configure 8191MB) to repartition within the MiST. If that works, I’ll try to take the rest of the SD-Card for an additional hdf:

      Partition 1: FAT32, 100MiB: Core, kick.rom, mist.ini
      Partition 2: non-formatted, 8192MB: Master in MiniMig AGA Core
      Partition 2: non-formatted, ~7000MB: Slave in MiniMig AGA Core

      Stay tuned!

      • chaos says:

        Hi,

        using more than 8GB partitions was never tested, at least by me. I’m not even sure if the problem is on the software side (AmigaOS scsi.device & filesystem) or on the hardware side. I’ll look into this & see if it can be fixed.

          • uwi_u says:

            My recent setup now includes 100MB FAT32 for Core & Co and two Partitions slightly smaller than 8GiB, which I then mounted in the MiniMig-Core as MMC-Partitions and parted into two ~3,8GiB PFS3aio, now having 4*3,8GiB Partitions (working!).

  5. Juri says:

    hello uwi_u

    how can you access the two 8gb partitions with Winuae? (for file transfers) and is it possible to format both partition with only one 8gb pfs3?
    thanks
    Juri

    • chaos says:

      Hi!

      I’m working on the new version, but I have big CPU stability problems that I’ll have to solve before something can be published.

      • Robert says:

        I think 1.1 i working quite good actually. At the moment im running ClassicWB3.9.

        The only thing that i had to remove was something called CyberBugFix which made it crash.

        The only “bug” i have discovered is when i load my saved settings it always starts without my 24mb fast ram. Even if it says so in the on screen menu.

        Keep up the good work =)

        • chaos says:

          There are still some 020 instructions that are not implemented correctly in the CPU core – the bitfield instructions especially have problems, so you can’t use fblit for example.

          I have already fixed the fastRAM ‘disappearing’ problem – the fix will be included in the 1.2 release.

          • Robert says:

            Awesome to hear that you are developing 1.2.

            Any chance that you could tell me some of the news and fixes it will include?

            If you need anything tested i can help you.

          • chaos says:

            Planned major updates are ethernet support & fixing the IDE implementation so AROS could be booted. There’s a bunch of smaller fixes also. Till is working on fixing CPU bugs. Stay tuned 😉

  6. Juri says:

    Hello Chaos,
    Happy to hear you’re working to next update, good luck on sorting out bugs 😀
    Is the “help key” mapped in next update? i think there are some other key missing,
    i noticed the firs tow of key (not the function keys, but where the normal numbers are) contain 15 keys in amiga keyboard, but 14 keys in PC keyboard.
    One idea would be to include a txt file containing all amiga key codes and all pc key codes, so people can create their own remappings 🙂
    keep the good work and happy 2016
    thanks
    Juri

    • chaos says:

      I haven’t fixed the HELP key map, but I’m sure I’ll fix it for the 1.2 release.
      User keyboard mapping sounds good, but this won’t be in the next release, I’ll think about it later. It’s not hard to do, but it would eat a large chunk of ARM controller’s RAM.

      • Robert says:

        You will fix it =)

        Will 1.2 have an 020 “AGA” fixes?

        I was looking at Fairlights Love demo and the first part is pretty screwed up.

        Again, please tell me if you need any help with testing.

        • chaos says:

          I will fix it … hopefully 😉

          Till is working on CPU fixes, especially the bitfield instructions, so those will definitely be included in the next release.

          Thanks for offering to help with testing! Right now, there’s not much point in testing, as the builds are pretty rough. But once I get closer to a stable build with most if not all the features, I’d love it if you could test it a bit.

  7. Robert says:

    Holly crap! .. The beta has fixed so many graphics bugs! I have some small one left, but i can live with the.

    Now the i get my memory at first boot also =)

    Thanks Till and Chaos!!!

  8. Rainer says:

    Any chance of getting some kind of Picasso RTG implemented? It would be nice to have a usable Workbench running at a more decent resolution.

    • chaos says:

      Maybe, I haven’t really looked into that. I’m working on other stuff at the moment, but I’ll look into support for RTG in the next release.

        • chaos says:

          Yes, I heard, but the FPGA Arcade guys have yet to publish any code to the public.

          The RTG hardware is not too problematic, I can probably write something working in a day or two, as long as there’s enough memory bandwidth. The RTG software driver might be a problem, though.

          • chaos says:

            Maybe.

            There seem to be some new developments in the Picasso96 software / DDK – apparently the Apollo team is negotiating buying the software from its authors.

            I guess we’ll see if this is a good or a bad thing.

  9. Juri says:

    V1.1 is a nice good state, lot of games work, some dont but if you try some “workbench” usage you’ll end up in breaking the core..
    try to move lot of files from a partition to another with Directory Opus.. if you’re l’lucky you’ll end up with a guru meditation and unvalidated partition… but if you’re NOT lucky you’ll end up with various colour screen (most times yellow , red and black), you have to reset minimig and you lose the partition you was writing on (you have to recreate and format the partition!!)
    RTG would be really a nice addon, but i would concentrate to have a bugfree 020 simulation first.. what’s the use of an RTG graphic if the amiga is unusable?

    • Rainer says:

      I merely asked if RTG was doable since to me this is important. Otherwise I don’t think I have much use for the MIST since I don’t just want to play games on it. I even reported a GM I get with ClassicWB.

  10. Juri says:

    hello Chaos,
    i’m a little bit confused, ever thinked the official minimig-aga core for mist was this, and ever followed this page (i own mist device from sept, 2015)
    however i randomly check this other page to verify if there are some other cores updates: https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-binaries/tree/master/cores
    yesterday i checked again and with my surprise i found a minimig-aga core update!!!
    “History
    core_160129.rbf
    68020 bitfield fixes and barrel shifter”
    but in your page ( https://github.com/rkrajnc/minimig-mist ) there aren’t any updates..
    so what’s going on? actually.. what’s the official minimig-aga core page?
    however, thank you for your incredible work 🙂
    Juri

    • chaos says:

      Minimig is an opensource project, anyone can make changes to it and publish the core (as long as the source changes are published also).

      There is no Minimig Inc., or minimig-team to publish official releases, every developer can publish his changes wherever and whenever he wants.

      Till fixed the bitfield instructions in the CPU, and decided to publish the updated core. It’s not like he has to ask me for permission 😉

      I’ll publish my updates here, once I’m more or less satisfied with the stability and features of stuff I’m working on. I don’t see much point pushing out updated cores if I know they will most certainly not work, or will crash often.

        • chaos says:

          Yes, of course. Till has sent me the updated CPU core a while ago over email. I’m more lazy with pushing my updates to github 😉 (actually, most of the stuff I’m working on doesn’t work completely OK yet, so it’s a work-in-progress).

  11. ArKay says:

    Any idea who is running this minimig forum? Because the admin is doing a lousy job at activating people. I signed up more than a week ago and still can’t log in. That’s why I post here.

    • chaos says:

      Yeah, the CPU core we’re using is somewhat finicky – sometimes it works OK, and sometimes, not so much 😉 I’m trying to setup the timings so it will work in more / all cases.

      The minimig.net forum is very low-traffic, I guess it’s understandable the admins are not very responsive. Just wait a little longer, and try to ping user boing4000 if you won’t get a response. Did you write anything in the ‘NEW MEMBER – acknowledgement’ topic?

  12. ArKay says:

    1.1 also seems to have an odd memory timing issue. Sometimes it boots up with only chipmem enabled. That’s not really a big problem though.

    I haven’t written anywhere, how are we supposed to find that thread? o_O I have sent emails to the admin supplied in the registration mail without success. The first time I went to sign up there that didn’t even work because of forum errors. But it’s no big deal, I really only wanted to ask about RTG support and you also answer here so this is probably the best place for minimig MIST questions anyway. 😀

    • ArKay says:

      I can’t write in that thread without being activated. It would have surprised me haha… No worries though, it’s not that important anymore 🙂

  13. Robert says:

    Hi.

    Tanks for the new release 🙂

    Question: do you have any place where you would like me/us to report bugs?

    I am getting some graphic bugs in a Demo celler Love from Fairlight. Maybe you could take a look?

    Otherwise the release works really well.

  14. Pedro says:

    Just saw the newest core V1.2. I have one question, because i own an Minimig-V1, but no MIST.

    It`s clear that MIST has AGA, which Minimig not has, but which of the two has a better compatibility to OCS/ECS Amiga software?

    The Minimig is longer on the market and when i look at the Minimig.net, then it`s firmware and core gets alot of updates and fixes over the years. How was this solved in the MIST, when it was new on the market?

    I mean, was the Minimig core with all his fixes/updates that he already had at that time, transformed to the MIST? Or was a comletely new core written for it?

    I ask, because i simply wanted to know, if the OCS/ECS compatibility of the MIST, now is at the same level like the normal Minimig.

    And i have another question to the MIST. How good, from your experiences, are the other cores (Atari-ST / C-64), which are available for the MIST? How high is their software compatibility, are they at the same level like the Amiga-core or not?

    Regards

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      both the original minimig and the MiST have the same OCS/ECS codebase, so they should have similar compatibility. It is possible some bugs were introduced by upgrading the core with AGA capabilities, those will be fixed in time (some already have been!). The original minimig also has a real 68000 CPU on it, which the MiST board doesn’t, so the MiST core could have some incompatibilities because of that.

      Minimig for the MiST board is based on my previous minimig core for the DE1 board, which in turn is based on the original minimig core. So no, it’s not a completely new core.

      The MiST has some nice cores for other computers, but I can’t really say how good they are – to me, they seem pretty good, but I only ever had a C64 and an Amiga, and I’m only interested in those two. I did try the ST and the PCEngine cores, they seem to work just fine. My time with the MiST board is mostly spent debugging the minimig core, so I don’t have time to actually ‘use’ it 😉

  15. Robert says:

    Theoretically, what would be the maximum speed of the Mist board with a AGA-core?

    How far beyond 7-mips is possible?

    • chaos says:

      With the current CPU core, around 14 MIPS should be possible. With a theoretical new CPU core, around 10x current performance.

    • chaos says:

      I’m working on other projects right now, so no new features for now 😉

      But the stereo mixing / mono and volume controls will definitely be in the next release!

    • chaos says:

      I didn’t have enough time to include the ‘newcpu’ version, so it is indeed missing. I forgot to remove that from the readme file …

  16. xavier says:

    Hi,

    I am an happy user of your core so thank you for your so amazing work.

    I made a couple of tests especially on audio.
    I notice that audio is not really separate as original amiga is.

    Could you tell me more about that?

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      The original Amiga did indeed have completely separate audio channels, but in my opinion that was somewhat annoying to listen to, especially with headphones.

      The MiST board (and minimig before it) has a physical 1k resistor connecting left and right audio channels, thereby mixing the two together somewhat. Unfortunately, this can’t be fixed from within the FPGA core, the only option is to remove the 1k resistor from the board.

      If it’s any help, here’s the schematics of the MiST board:

      https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-board/wiki/Board13

      (the resistor is R21, 1k).

      • ArKay says:

        A switch would be nice. Removing an SMD resistor is going to be a pain in the ass, but I’d rather have the choice.

        • chaos says:

          Yeah, unfortunately, both the original minimig and the mist boards have this hardware audio channel mixing feature. Too bad, as this could fairly easily be done inside the FPGA, if needed.

  17. xavier says:

    I agree with you for headphones use case.

    In fact, I was just surprised by this different behavior.
    Thank you for all these details.
    Happy to read it’s not a core issue and it’s just due to hardware design with easy way to fix it.

  18. AmigaIstMiST says:

    Hi,

    I try to use the minimigAga 1.2 core with a SCART cable. I created a MIST.INI file and added

    scandoubler_disable=1

    To the file. However it looks the settings are not applied. What am I doing wrong?

    • chaos says:

      Of course, but I don’t have a timeline yet. Most of the easy stuff was already fixed / implemented, only the hard stuff remains, and it is going to take some experimentation to get it right.

  19. Robert says:

    Glad to hear that you are working on a new release. What will be fixed and implemented in the next release?

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      planned for now are the ethernet controller, fixed programmable display modes, fixed AGA/ECS display shifter, so the screen will be centered properly, audio sigma-delta fixes, AROS harddisk support, volume and stereo/mono controls, and general AGA chipset fixes.

  20. Knutbert Schlonz says:

    Superb for future releases would be ipf- and extended-adf compatibility. But i think this would be hard and lots of work to integrate, right?

    But especially extended-adf support would be great, because savedisks of some good games use these special-format.

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      the extended ADF support should be doable, but I haven’t looked into it yet. I’ll let you know when I come up with something working.

  21. Juri says:

    Hello Chaos,
    do you know if could be possible to add a faster boot mode option to the mist.ini?
    The displayed text when first starting the Mist is very disturbed in 15khz mode, could be possible to get rid of it? Simply turn on Mist, black screen, core load, amiga start… quick n’ simple, without display any text on screen (maybe bypassing pauses if any)
    thanks

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      theoretically, it could be done. But theoretically, the selected 15kHz/30kHz mode in mist.ini *should* already work even for the boot screen, but for some strange reason it does not. I’ll look into it, and when I have a fix for it, I’ll try to implement the fast boot option too.

  22. SKuRGe911 says:

    Do you have a twitter for this project? I would really like to know what you’re working on so i can get my hopes up for it’s next release(cd32 controllers 🙂

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      sorry, no twitter for this project, although I usually tweet on my personal account when a release is ready.

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      I plan to work on a new version, but at the moment I can’t talk about any dates yet. I will probably do some beta / intermediate releases this time though.

  23. AmigaIstMiST says:

    Hi Chaos,

    I have read what you planned for next release, and I am very excited about the possibility to do FTP to Aminet using MiST (I will definitely buy a USB to Ethernet adapter for the MiST 🙂 ) and the all the other features you planed.

    But could you please give us some more information or status reports what is going on from time to time? Not knowing what is going on is a little bit nerve wrecking 😉

    Beside this I really want to say how cool this is. It’s good to know, that the Amiga universe will stay and is preserved with it’s original ‘feeling’, and will not go away with the last Amigas becoming defect. I really think, this is a cultural important thing, too.

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      I was on vacation, so not much was happening. I’ll try to be more up-to-date with minimig changes in the future 😉

  24. Peter says:

    And thank you for your constant no-cost work on Minimig and MiST cores. This is great and thousands people use this cores now.

  25. Hairy Popper says:

    What? On vacation again? How can you go on vacation without making an arrangement with the people here, that wait for next core-releases??? Next time, you must first ask here if its okay and then go on vacation, because “first the work (new release) and then the enjoyment”. 🙂

    • chaos says:

      Sorry, looks like I have a lot less time for minimig than I anticipated. But I did just get an interesting bug report concerning SDRAM that is drawing me back in to minimig hacking 🙂 I’ll try to release intermediate ‘beta’ versions as I work toward the next release.

      • Thanks, Chaos, for all what you’ve done. I just got my MiST two months ago (from Amedia) since I wanted to be able to enjoy AGA games and demos again !

        There are still some games not working (Pinball Illusions for instance or Super Stardust and XP8 that give some nasty glitches) but it’s anyway a lot of enjoyment.

        Can’t wait for the new core to come 🙂

        • chaos says:

          Hi,

          sorry for the late response – seems I missed a bunch of new replies on the page. :S

          Super Stardust should work just fine. Can you tell me what settings you were using (core version, OCS/AGA, kickstart, any special software, …).

          • Thanks, a more version of WHDLoad has solved the trouble 🙂

            BTW, do you know when a new version will be released !

    • chaos says:

      Again – sorry for the late response. Looks like updates have fallen to year 2017 (the year of linux minimig on the desktop? ;))

  26. I’d rather call it ‘finished’ instead of dead 🙂
    Love the Mist and use it every few days to play an oldschool game. I’m also looking forward to the retro arcade which probably is going to support 060. Awesome stuff to look forward to. 🙂

    • AmigaIstMiST says:

      It is not finished! There are still some bugs, that need to be fixed. Especially the graphic bug with the shifted image is very annoying. It is already very compatible to a real Amiga, yes, but finished? Have a look at the AGA version of simon the sorcerer. It does not look beautyful, the graphic bug is always visible 🙁

      • Robert says:

        Graphic bugs are really annoying. Many demos with bugs. I do have a FPGA Arcade that is a little bit better.. but not much.

        • chaos says:

          It’s not dead yet! 😉 I’m definitely planning to work on this some more, but …

          rant_mode=on
          I hope you can appreciate that I am a single person working on this in whatever free time I can find.

          There is little to no cooperation with the FPGAArcade guys, unfortunately. If they would at least agree to share their sources, we could easily cross-check and fix any bugs that were present in one or the other version of the code (I guess they still can look at my code, just not the other way around …)

          The minimig project is in dire need of more developers, especially some good software guy(s) would help tremendously.

          And the users – if you really want to help, start testing and reporting any game and demo you can get your hands on, try different settings, compare to real hardware and/or WinUAE, make screenshots of buggy parts, nag any software guys or demo authors that might help narrow down the problem, or anything else you might think of to help me fix the bugs that are present. You can’t expect me to waste countless hours tracking down bugs, thinking about possible solutions, implementing them, compiling, testing, and doing this in endless circles, while all I get from you is ‘Many demos with bugs’.
          rant_mode=off

          Anyway, I started testing some bugfixes, and I’ll provide beta versions on this page (more info will be available in a new post shortly), and I’ll provide some sort of a Google spreadsheet were working/non-working games and demos can be reported. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot of entries there! 😉

          • Robert says:

            Nice to see that you are still here 😉

            Problem is that almost everything on the Amiga is old and ppl coding the demos or games are not around anymore and even less the source code.

            New software for the amiga is super rare so i thought that making the core stable and “glitch free” was some sort of goal, but if i have misunderstand the goal im sorry.

          • Mahen says:

            Be assured the vast majority of people (especially the silent mass) appreciate your hard work a lot and is aware it’s essentially (unfortunately) a one man effort !

            I hope the situation will eventually change with the fpgaarcade team ! Reminds me of the MorphOS vs OS4 war in the beginning of the millennium 😉 (actually not, but that was a terrible period for me !)

            I’ll definitely contribute to the compatibility list and double check with UAE. (is FS-UAE enough ? Only have a Linux box here)

            BTW, I’m sure I annoyed you with this before : what about a Patreon account (like some Amiga games devs use at the moment ?) Or at least recurring paypal option ?

  27. arty says:

    Dear chaos! Thank you for your effort in Amiga crossengineering and reimplementation this legendary platform via FPGA. You gave a lot for Minimig & MiST community.
    Don’t hurry up, live and enjoy your own life in your own way!
    I wish you Marry Christmas and Happy New Year!

    For impatient people:
    Good things come to those who wait. Don’t be average and passive consumers, do something useful for this project if you can. Anyway, you don’t have the right to extinguish the flame of enthusiasm of this great developer and engineer.

  28. Mahen says:

    Nice to see quite a few people are like me looking forward to new releases 🙂

    Let us be patient & grateful ! This is extremely complicated development and we’re in no hurry. The A1200 was released 25 years ago after all 🙂

    Rok, what about a Patreon campaign for your supporters to fund the development ? 🙂

    As for me, I’m really close to being perfectly happy with it. Just need a little more compatiblity in AGA (especially not having to swith TURBO mode on and off). And I’d LOVE more video filters (like porting HQ2X from the NES core or even stuff like XBR which would make our old 320×240 games look next-gen !! :).

    Anyway, take your time and let us know one in a while to arouse us 🙂

    • chaos says:

      I’ll look into the hq2x filter, although, like I said, this would need a few lines worth of framebuffer memory inside the FPGA, and I’m not sure if enough memory is available.

    • AmigaIstMiST says:

      The A1200 was released 25 years ago, and it is unbelievable, how expensive they are today! 300-600 € on eBay. For 25 years old, nearly broken hardware! I was thinking about buying one, but not for this price. Compare this with 200€ for a brandnew, solid MiST. FPGA is the way to go, it is not the future, it is already the present for AGA Amigas!

  29. Xavier says:

    Hi,

    I cannot use my MiST with my TV because VGA signals coming from MiST have too low frequencies.

    Is there a workaround for that without using VGA SCART cable?

    • Mahen says:

      Many years ago, in the Minimig era, there was once a hack called “60 Hz PAL” which consisted in running everything 20% faster and fixed the need for a 50 Hz display (which is one of the issues you may encounter). It was not a great solution though 🙂

      Another solution would be to display at 60 Hz with tearing. Dunno if that could be achieved. Wouldn’t be that satisfying either 🙂

      Meanwhile you should definitely get the SCART cable !

        • chaos says:

          If you a have a PAL TV (probably yes, since it has SCART), the TV *should* be able to show 15kHz output from minimig, so buying a minimig-to-SCART cable will help.

          Otherwise, follow mahen’s advice. Running in NTSC 60Hz mode should work just fine.

          If you want to see PAL 50Hz output on an incompatible (60Hz only or VGA only) TV, sorry, bad luck. Minimig will not in any of its current forms support re-timing from 50Hz to 60Hz or vice versa by itself (since this requires saving a few frames of video), an external device is required for this.

  30. Sparky D. says:

    I have a Minimig original board and no MiST and i always thought the compatibility of both machines is on a similar level.

    But now i read here alot about graphic-problems in some games/demos and that “Pinball Illusions” should not work correctly.

    Is this really true on the MiST, because on my real Minimig “Pinball Illusions” runs perfect and it`s also very hard to find some graphic-bugs. Also on “minimig.net” only a handful of programes (demos/games) are listed, which still have any kind of problems, the rest runs perfect in the meantime.

    So it seems, that the compatibility of the original Minimig-board is better than on the MiSt. Is this true?

  31. chaos says:

    The compatibility of the two minimig variants is more or less on the same level, but there are some important differences:
    – the original minimig has a real Motorola 68000 CPU on it, so you could say it has 100% compatibility, while other minimig variants use the TG68 softcore, which, of course, is not perfect.
    – the original minimig only supports OCS/ECS chipsets, unlike minimig-mist, which also supports AGA. Obviously, the larger pool of AGA-only demos and games will necessarily bring more non-working software.

    Pinball Illusions ECS works fine on both original minimig and minimig-mist, AFAIK. The problematic one is the AGA version (which doesn’t work on either ;))

    So, all in all, for ECS software, the two minimig variants are more or less the same compatibility-wise, except for some rare cases where the CPU on minimig-mist is either incompatible or doesn’t have the proper timings.
    Plus, the possibility I introduced some bugs while upgrading minimig with AGA chipset support 😉

    • Mahen says:

      Hehe, actually Pinball Illusions ECS doesn’t exist 🙂

      You’re confusing with “Fantasies” (both ECS & AGA versions work perfectly on the MiST. CD32 version is actually the best because it has the menus that were removed from the AGA floppy version due to the lack of disk space 🙂

  32. Sparky D. says:

    Oohh, its true what MAHEN said. “Pinball Illusions” is a AGA-only game.

    I confound “Pinball Illusions” with “Pinball Fantasies”, which worked perfect on normal Minimig Board. “Pinball Illusions” can not be loaded on normal Minimig because the hardware don`t support AGA. Sorry for the confusion. 🙂

    Nevertheless, its very very hard to find a game which has some kind of graphic-problem on real Minimig. But here some MIST-users speak about those things. This must be a MIST-only problem. Thanks CHAOS for clarifying the differences between MIST and real Minimig. Now its clear to me, why normal Minimig is more compatible, at least currently.

  33. Robert says:

    Loading saved config will only load 1mb chip first start. Next reset you will get total of 24mb fast and 2mb chip.

    Using Firmware 20170207 and core 1.2.2 beta

      • cosmiq says:

        It’s good to hear that Amiga MiST is still being improved! Its the next best thing to a real amiga (which cannot be bought new anymore), so actually this is the best thing on the market ATM. Good work and thanks for all the effort!– Happily waiting for the next upgrade… Just a question , what about the sound? It was working fine, wasnt it? Is this upgrade going to improve compatibility?

        • chaos says:

          Hi,

          the sound was OK in my opinion, but there were some complaints … 😉 It is true that the current sigma-delta DAC was written without being tested and I know that at least the linear interpolator in front of the DAC wasn’t working properly, so this is a chance to do it right. But, like I said, this is just a fairly straight-forward side project, something simple before I get on with the CPU work (which is a major PITA 😉 ).

          There are some good things to come out of this though – channel mixer and volume control, plus preparations for AHI sound card.

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      yeah, I hate to write this so often, but I’ve been pretty busy with ‘real-life’ stuff. I’m sloooowly working on minimig code, though – I took a break from the CPU stuff, as I didn’t get anywhere far with it. As a distraction, I’m working on fixing the audio DAC, plus some other audio features. I’m doing it ‘properly’ this time – with a bit-accurate C model, which can be tested on PC, and then writing an analogous Verilog model. C model is done, testing done, currently finishing the Verilog code, there are just some corner-cases with the math not exactly matching the C model. Should be done soon. But I don’t really want to say when 😉

      • Robert says:

        Nice to hear i might say!

        You did mention some ideas about internet support before. Any progress on that?

        • chaos says:

          Do you mean ethernet? That will have to wait for the rewritten CPU interface, as adding it now produces an unstable core unfortunately.

      • arty says:

        Wow, more authentic voice of Paula is always welcomed!
        Great to hear that this aspect of Amiga architecture in your focus too.

  34. ObiWanKen says:

    Hi. First thank you for your job. I am using my MiST as my primary Amiga 🙂 and its awesome HW and SW. I would like to know if it is possible to add 3rd joystick button support ? DB9 or USB.
    In our project we use buttons as: 1st=Fire / 2nd=operate / 3rd=next weapon.
    All the buttons works perfect on real amiga, 3rd not on MiST.

    Thanks

  35. chaos says:

    Hi,

    for the DB9 ports, unfortunately only two buttons are connected, so 3 buttons can’t be supported.

    For the USB, I think three buttons could be supported, I’ll look into it.

  36. Xavier says:

    Hi

    I recently heard about Vampire 500 V2+.
    As Vampire cards are FPGA based (EP3C40), is there any possibility to exchange technical informations to take benefits of 68080 CPU developed by Vampire team under Mist hardware?

    Vampire cards are very nice for people who own a real Amiga but for one having a Mist it would be interesting to migrate features from Vampire FPGA to Mist one…

    • AmigaIstMiST says:

      The 68080 CPU is closed source, so it is not possible to port it to the MiST.
      Gunnar von Boehn mentioned on the apollo forum that there are chances that an investor might be interested in this CPU, so it will not become open source.

      But they want to open source their new SAGA chipset, when it’s done.
      We have to convince Rok to do an MinimigSAGA with TG68 CPU 😉

      • Xavier says:

        Thank you for reply.

        FPGA purpose is to evolve and to be reprogrammed.
        I hope Mist community will benefits from kind technology shares with Vampire team.

        As a remainder (taken from Vampire web site), http://www.majsta.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=69
        “As promised all work regarding Vampire 600 project will be open sourced and I think that from this materials complete Amiga community can benefit.”

        • AmigaIstMiST says:

          This is from 2013, Majsta is talking about the old Vampire 1 with the TG68 CPU here. This post is not about the Vampire 2 with 68080 CPU.

          • Xavier says:

            ok, my bad 🙁
            I misunderstood this: thank you for your clarification.

            Open source period is over: time for closed source, competition, biz, and more great values and philosophies… Sorry, I spent too much time in Linux world.

  37. AmigaIstMiST says:

    I don’t think anybody is making big money with retro commodore hardware. But if you google for “tekmos 68020” you will find a company, that started to sell new 68020 compatible cpus recently, and I don’t think these cpus are meant for new Amigas. There must be a small market for 68k cpus outside the retro community (industry? military?), and I think this is the reason for not open sourcing the 68080 cpu.

    And I think nobody should be blamed for not open sourcing. The Apollo team must have spent years in developing the fastest 68k cpu on earth. The rest of us can live with the TG68 for now, it’s fast enough to play Doom on the MiST 🙂

  38. Sheldon says:

    Because there were no news since months, i watched all these movies here in the meantime:

    – Boschwanza
    – Die Schamspalt-Klinik
    – Spiel mir am Glied mit Kot
    – Vier Fäuste in Julia
    – Ein Fisch namens Vagina
    – Der Club der roten Fister
    – Lawrence von Analien
    – Jean D’arm
    – Der Name der Rosette
    – Fister Act
    – Junges Gemöse
    – Dildo hat euch lieb
    – Der Greis ist heiß
    – James Bondage – Lizenz zum Flöten
    – GladHeAteHer
    – Ich bin ein Star und hol ihn jetzt raus
    – Pippi Fotzberg
    – Die Analritter der Schwafelrunde
    – Analdin und die wunde Schlampe
    – Hairy Popper und die Kammer des Schleckens
    – Räuber Fotzenglotz
    – Schwänzel und Gretel
    – In Diana Jones
    – Arielle die nicht-mehr-Jungfrau
    – Dornmöschen & Schneeflittchen
    – Meister Leder und sein Po-Muckel

  39. Vick van Hinten says:

    Maybe the same thing will happen, that happened to the Minimig V1 board back in time? When Acube stopped selling them, other companies came and sell the parts or the complete board. And if not, then similar boards will come. There are more and more FPGA products on the market.

  40. Michciu says:

    True, but I don’t agree that MiST is a history. Amiga has never died, Minimig is still alive and MiST will also never die. It has been bought by so many users so that it will never go down. The SW development will continue I suppose – of course within its closed architecture, so I don’t know how much is still to reach since many high-quality cores are already available. Besides I am having fun with my MiST with Amiga core further on no matter if it stops getting produced or not. It is open-source so any time you can have it build “on demand” by many electronics firms anywhere or do it yourself (of course as long as parts are available…). Besides it is clear they couldn’t produce it till doomsday. Maybe Till will propose a good successor? I love this device! So let’s hope for the best! 🙂

    • xavier says:

      not until now 😉

      Many thanks for people who made this release possible. Nice to take benefits from Mister works to keep our Mist alive…

    • xavier says:

      No until now 😉

      Happy to see work from Mister is backported on Mist.
      Thanks to people involved for this release: Mist is still alive 🙂

  41. Kasreyn says:

    Hello! I picked up the MiST @ amigastore.eu and really like it so far. Thank you for this amazing machine! Only AMiGA makes it possible!

    I have noticed a few odd things I’d like to share in case it can improve the code, I have used version 1.2 exclusively:

    1. First boot I saw a GURU screen that somehow magically fixed itself and I’ve never seen it since
    2. Installing OS 3.1: All went fine up to rebooting after making partitions, when booting from the “Install” floppy I’d get checksum errors, I could successfully install after pressing “Cancel” a few times though, this error also magically fixed itself after I re-copied the ADFs to the SD card’s first partition
    3. Some times the left mouse button would get “stuck” / not registering a click, this could be fixed by pressing the left button on the USB keyboard mousepad though
    4. HDFs created in WinUAE (mounted as “Disk file” on the MiST) where “Surfaces” > 1 : Are they supported? I got “not a DOS disk” trying to boot (it seems number of surfaces must be set higher in WinUAE to have HDFs larger than 1GB)
    5. Regarding mist.ini’s “scandoubler_disable”, is it true that if something is connected to the 3.5mm audio jack the MiST will disregard this setting? (I’d get picture with VGA but not SCART until I pulled out the plug)
    6. Slam Tilt Pinball (AGA) HDD version will boot but is stuck after selecting the table

    Again, thanks for this amazing machine, I look forward to trying out more software on it 🙂

  42. Rino says:

    Hi
    i want to load amiga hdf more thatn 4gb from USB this is possible? if not you can implement this? so ehe pass the 4gb limit of fat32..

    Tnx

    • chaos says:

      Hi,

      since MiST currently only supports FAT32 filesystem, creating files bigger than 4GB is not possible. But you can always use a bigger separate partition for the Minimig core.

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