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This site is about recreating gaming hardware from the past
in modern programmable devices, known as FPGAs. Please see the FAQ page
for a more detailed discussion and commonly asked questions.
The latest varients of the Opencores T65 and T80 cpu cores can be found on the Library page.
On the Parts page, you can buy modules that drop into old arcade
boards and replace Namco / Konami custom ICs. The rest of the site contains code
for a number of classic games / systems that can be run on off the shelf
FPGA boards. A JAMMA board is in development.
(You will need to remove the {no spam} from any email link)
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| Wednesday, June 3rd, 2008 |
FPGAArcade Dev Board
Just an little update of the Dev Board. PCB size is 170mm x 80mm.
The FPGA is a Xilinx Spartan3E 1200.
MikeJ
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| Monday, March 10th, 2008 |
FPGAArcade Dev Board
... is nearing completion (really, honest). Placement is complete and routing is going well. I hope to get some pictures up in a week or so.
It is an ECX size board measuring about 14cm by 10cm and designed to fit in a case.
It has a large Spartan3E Xilinx FPGA, quality audio
and video output (including DVI) and a PIC based boot loader which is compatible with Dennis' Minimig.
Final costings have yet to be completed, a lot depends on the size of the production run, but it will be "reasonable".
The board will run my AtariST code as well as Minimig, and all the other games and platforms will be ported across.
Finally, it has an expansion connector which can take IO cards. A Jamma one is being designed at the moment allowing the board to slot
into real arcade cabinets. I am also considering a vector monitor output card for Asteroids and StarWars games. You really couldn't have more
fun without taking your clothes off....
In other news the FPGAArcade website will be moving to a proper server soon which will
allow a support & discussion forum. Testing is ongoing.
MikeJ
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| Saturday, January 12th, 2008 |
VIC-20 released on Spartan 3E board
I have updated the VIC-20 code to run on the Xilinx Spartan 3E board.
It now supports cartridge images held in the on board flash memory.
I have fixed a timing error in the T65 code and this has been updated also (Library page).
You can also find a flash programmer bitfile which uses the male connector on the Library page.
MikeJ
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| Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 |
Well, it's been a little while since I last posted any news.
I have completed the four Atari ST ASICs and am co-simulating them.
I am in final stages of designing a low cost FPGA platform which will
be ideal for the games, but also for running the Atari and Amiga (MiniMig) FPGA
clones on. It has an expansion connector into which a JAMMA connector will plug for use in
real arcade boxes, or for experimentation. I am also considering an analogue output card
so the vector games can drive real monitors. The card will be available for purchase, but don't
hold your breath as I have been getting around to this for a few years.
In the meantime, happy Christmas to you all.
MikeJ
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| Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 |
Arnim Läuger has reverse engineered some Konami custom ICs. As he has kindly released the firmware
you can use the 28 pin modules available on the Parts page as replacements for these devices.
It has been a busy month for me, I've been in Asia a lot again. I am celebrating completing the reverse engineering
of the Atari ST Glue custom IC. This design "should" be identical to the original. Only three more chips to go ....
MikeJ
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| Sunday, July 1st, 2007 |
I survived the mud at Glastonbury Festival! Had a superb time, met lots of great people.
Right, there is no way round it, I am going to have to write a DDR memory controller for the Spartan3E board.
The ones that are out there are not flexible/high performance enough for my Asteroid needs, and I cannot modify and redistribute
the Xilinx MIG code. Once this is completed, Defender can be finished and StarWars is next ....
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 |
Scramble & Frogger released
At long last (almost two years) I have completed the Scramble / Frogger code - I am easily distracted!
The hardware is very similar, so I have added a compile time switch to allow it to run both games.
Many other games can be run on this hardware, so I am sure a multigame will be produced at some point.
This is the most advanced FPGA game yet featuring two Z80 cores, two 8910 sounds chips and two 8255 PIA chips.
I am heading of to the Glastonbury music festival next week where I will probably forget who I am, so I thought it was
a good idea to get this release out before I went :)
The source code can be found on the games page.
MikeJ
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| Sunday, June 10th, 2007 |
PHILIPS VIDEOPAC
The Philips Videopac G7000 (or Odyssey2 as it was known in America) was released in 1978 to compete with other
cartridge based systems such as the Atari VCS.
Powered by an Intel 8048 CPU and a custom Intel IC known as a Video Display Controller (VDC) generating all sound and video.
The console did relatively well with more than 60 cartridges being made available.
Arnim Läuger has completed an FPGA implementation of the console, and the design can be found on the Platforms page, full source
code provided as always.
MikeJ
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| Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 |
Finally got Frogger sound working !!! There are many small
differences between Scramble and Frogger boards - mainly address pin swaps, but there are
a few hard to find ones. In Scramble one of the AY3-8910 sound chips uses bits 7,6,5 & 4
as inputs, but in Frogger it's bits 7,6, *3* & 4. "5" and "3" look really similar on the old
hand drawn schematic. I should have looked in the MAME driver more carefully, they found it :)
MikeJ
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| Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 |
Oh, I forgot to say I have put up Sean's Multipac on the Pacman page.
You can now dynamically switch between Pacman, Pacplus, Pong, MrTNT,
MsPac, Crush Roller, Eyes and Lizard Wizard. Enjoy.
MikeJ
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| Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 |
I have ordered more of the 28pin Namco custom replacements, so these will be back in stock shortly.
I've also got my hands on the very nice Xilinx Spartan3A board
(thanks Eric) and it is pretty ideal for our gaming needs. I have Frogger and Scramble running but
there are a few glitches that are taking a little longer to sort
out than I imagined.
MikeJ
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| Thursday, Feb 15th, 2007 |
Well, hello again. Is it too late for Happy New Year? Well Happy Chinese new
year at least then. I have been spending quite a bit of time in China lately, which
is one of the reasons for not updating this website so often.
I have been working on Wolfgang Foerster's 68K core, attempting to run it along side a real chip to
test it. This is going well but is quite time consuming. Does anybody have a software test suite for a 68K, perhaps
for testing a software emulator? If so then please drop me a mail.
I have also been working on my arcade FPGA board with is going to be really flexible. It has an optional 68K on it and
a large expansion connector into which you can plug a JAMMA adapter. I really want it as an AtariST development platform, but
it will of course be great for running the games on. No idea yet on timescales and cost.
I realised that all I needed to finish the Scramble game was an AY-3-8910 VHDL implementation.
Then I realised I already had one in the shape of
the YM2149 code I have had knocking around for ages. I did have to write a 8255 core however - which I expected would take about ten minutes but
ended up taking two evenings, it has so many funny modes. The audio board is complete and seems to work however, so I hope to release this platform soon.
(however the pub is calling ....)
Sean has sent me a Pacman Multigame release which I will stick up here shortly.
Right, enough chat - back to work.
p.s. it is damn cold in Stockholm at the moment, when do they turn the heating back on again ??
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 |
Minor update, I have released the Pacman code for the Xilinx Spartan3E Starter Kit board.
Available on the Pacman page.
MikeJ
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| Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 |
Sean Riddle has been working on extending the Space Invaders implementation to support multiple games,
and this is now released on the Space Invaders page. A total of 16 different games are supported running from the Strataflash
on the Spartan3e starter kit.
MikeJ
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| Sunday, October 1st, 2006 |
At long last I have completed the Bally Astrocade Hi-Res additions.
It is available for download on the Platforms\Bally Astrocade page.
Hopefully somebody will write some software to use it :).
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 |
Well, the summer holidays are over, the annual get (very) drunk at IBC
been survived (just) so it is time for some new stuff.
I have released the Spartan3E port of the Bally Astrocade, you can get that
on the Platforms page. Sean Riddle found and fixed a bug in the T80 core, so there
is a update to that on the Library page. Sean has been working on a Space Invaders multigame
on the Spartan3E board, and I will include that here as soon as possible.
MikeJ
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| Sunday, June 25th, 2006 |
I was a bit upset that the Spartan3E starter kit from Xilinx has only single bit RGB on its VGA connector.
This is a real limitation when running the games on the board - so I have modified it. I have documented the
changes required, and have released some VGA test pattern generator code which will allow you to test the modification.
I wasn't really sure where to put it, so it is on the Platforms page under DisplayTest for now.
(at the bottom)
MikeJ
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| Tueday, June 20th, 2006 |
Arnim Läuger has updated some of the projects. Adventure Vision has been updated with a new T400 core.
Colecovision and LadyBug have had the SN76489 audio chip updated.
The SN76489 and VDP19 (TMS9918A, TMS9928A,TMS9929A) cores from the designs have been repackaged and are
available together with some short READMEs on the Librarys page.
Time to watch the Sweden England football game. As I am English and living in Sweden it should be interesting :)
MikeJ
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| Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 |
CPU65xx_EN & AtariST
I came across some work by Peter Wendrich
www.syntiac.com
where he has implemented a Commodore 64 including a rather neat 6502/6510 processor. I have not
tested it, but it looks very good and correctly implements decimal mode arithmetic - something I am
going to merge into the T65 core. It is mirrored here on the Library page.
In other news I am working with a chap know as 'the FROG' on converting the Atari Jaguar
and Jaguar2 ASIC netlists into VHDL. This is a long term project, but we hope to recreate the
unreleased Jaguar2 console in an FPGA.
Finally, I have been talking to a Wolfgang Förster on and off for the last year or so.
www.http://www.experiment-s.de.com
He has done an excellent job and got further than me with the AtariST chipset and has got the thing running. I am hoping to mirror
the site here and produce a build of it. I am continuing with my own low level conversion of the Atari netlists, and am also designing a
board to run it on.
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, June 8th, 2006 |
Space Invaders with Audio released
Blimey, an update within a month of the previous one, that does not happen too often!
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<= Here is the very nice Spartan3E starter kit board from Xilinx.
It is pretty suitable for our gaming needs. One problem is that the VGA
output it limited to 1 bit RGB, but thats ok for this game. The board includes a DAC,
but we will add a simple resistor/capacitor filter and use a PWM output from the Xilinx.
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I had just got my hands on one of these boards, and at about the same time I received
a file from a chap called Paul Walsh who had been working on modelling the Space Invaders analogue audio.
It seemed the right moment to put it all together, so you will find on the Space Invaders page in the Games section
the release for this board. With the addition of the original ROM images, you can build and play the game on the
original hardware, or as close as we can get....
MikeJ
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| Monday, May 15th, 2006 |
V1.0 Adventure Vision released
Arnim Läuger has completed the sound CPU so it is time for a new release.
The new T400 controller from www.opencores.org now
happily substitutes the original COP411L for sound generation.
The design can be found on the Platforms page.
MikeJ
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| Monday, April 3rd, 2006 |
Adventure Vision pre-release
Arnim Läuger has been at it again, and his latest release is a re-implementation of the 1982 Adventure Vision console,
complete with emulation of it's rather odd display method.
The design can be found on the Platforms page.
MikeJ
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| Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 |
Pacman V3 Released
I got a bit of a shock when I realised how long ago it was I released the first
Pacman FPGA code. It was time for a general tidyup, and to target more modern devices.
Release 3 is aimed at Xilinx Virtex2/Spartan3 style devices with bigger block RAMs, supported
by a new release of RomGen. All ROMs are now internal, the code will simulate with the standard
Xilinx Unisim library and the whole design is now clock enabled which simplifies the clock requirements,
especially when running with the scan doubler for VGA style displays. The code can be found on the Games/Pacman page.
MikeJ
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| Monday, March 6th, 2006 |
Colecovision Release 2.0.
Arnim Läuger has updated his Colecovision project. The new release adds some undocumented functionality for
Graphics II mode, and is now accepted by the Xilinx XST tool. A top level design has also been added for the Zefant XS3
board which hosts a Spartan3 FPGA plus audio (AC97) and VGA interfaces.
The design can be found on the Platforms page.
MikeJ
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| Monday, January 16th, 2006 |
Colecovision Release.
Arnim Läuger has completed his implementation of Coleco's third generation video
game console from 1982. This was the first console to feature Donkey Kong and sold over six million units. Arnim has
tested the code with more than 50 games, so head over to the Platforms menu to have a play.
Oh, and Happy new year to all !
I have now got most of the kit over here in Sweden (including a computer) so
hopefully I can finally complete everything I have started - before Arnim does everything :)
MikeJ
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| Monday, December 19th, 2005 |
Arnim Läuger has updated the Lady Bug project during the last few weeks.
Code cleanup, memories are tech independent now, ported to Spartan IIe
and added support for devices with small internal RAM.
MikeJ
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| Monday, November 7th, 2005 |
Arnim Läuger has added LadyBug to the growing number of FPGA game conversions, and he has been
kind enough to allow it to be included here.
Just click on the Games menu over on the right.... go on....
MikeJ
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| Sunday, October 9th, 2005 |
Eric, over at
Fpga-games
has written an article about FPGA arcade game recreation in the Xilinx XCELL publication. He has also got
a number of the games featured here running on his dedicated gaming FPGA board.
MikeJ
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| Saturday, October 8th, 2005 |
Right, at long last an update.
I have relocated to Sweden, so the last few months have been a bit busy. I have a lot
of things underdevelopment.
The major push at the moment is the AtariST Custom ASIC conversion. I now
have the four chips running in the simulator, but some major tidying has to be done before release.
I have a new development card which has more memory on board, which will help with the final debugging of Defender.
Omega race and Star Wars are also nearly complete.
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 |
Updated the T65 cpu core, it's on the Libraries page.
Asteroids has been updated to use it.
MikeJ
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| Thursday, April 29th, 2005 |
Completed the T80 CPU update, which I have added to the library page.
New Bally release with this core. I will be testing the T65 CPU and updating the other games shortly.
Defender almost done .....
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, March 30th, 2005 |
Well, I missed the bus to the pub :(
So, I started to merge all the cpu bug fixes I have received.
I have added the latest cpu cores to the library page. I have not tested these yet, but I
will update all the game zips and test with the new cpus over the next few weeks.
MikeJ
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| Sunday, February 27th, 2005 |
Added the Omega Race vector prom and some Atari ST logic analyser traces for interested parties to the Library page.
The Atari customs are progressing nicely. Managed to persuade my friend Carl to do some work to get Scramble and Frogger going,
so hopefully I will be able to release them soon.
MikeJ
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| Tuesday, February 1st, 2005 |
'3D volume table' YM2149 Released.
Having taken lots of measurements, I have simulated the output DAC to a reasonable accuracy.
On the library page you can find both versions, along with a 10 bit volume table.
I may be tweaking it to improve a possible commercial release, but it's pretty close as is...
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This picture shows the output of the real chip on the top trace, and my output on the bottom.
I have tried a number of demos and sound tracker programs on it, all have sounded fine.
Deserves a drink that I think ....
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MikeJ
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| Monday, January 24th, 2005 |
'Linear' YM2149 Released.
I have been having lots of fun(?) analysing the output level of the YM2149 used in an Atari.
In this application, the three analogue outputs are wired directly together, and the channels
interact so the mixing is far from linear. Lots of Atari software drives the three 4 bit tone volume controls in parallel
to emulate a 8 bit DAC, so I have to get this accurate. I have taken over 1000 measurements so far, and am aiming to model the output
stage and produce a full table.
I have released the 'linear-mix' version on the Library page - which is currently playing some Atari demo chip music quite happily.
Right, only 3096 measurements to go ... If only I had gone to the pub instead on Saturday ...
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, January 12th, 2005 |
Happy New Year.
Right, back in the swing of things again. I have completed the YM2149 (AY-8910 with some extra envelope resolution)
used in the Atari ST and I have it working in a real Atari playing some music - picture on the Platforms\Amiga & Atari page.
I have half finished the MFP 68901 and will be shifting focus to the Atari customs next.
Will finish Scramble soon, honest.
MikeJ
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| Thursday, December 23rd, 2004 |
Happy Christmas.
A little news update before the end of the year. Currently under development
and nearing completion are Xevious and Scramble games. These releases will include a
AY-3-8910 sound chip core, and I will also be releasing details of the Namco Customs used.
I am also working on the StarWars vector game, but that is a little further off. The
vector rasterizer is based on the Asteroids Deluxe code, but enhanced to support the AVG
used in StarWars.
On the Platforms page I have added a page for the Amiga / Atari ST computers that I am
aiming to replicate. A 68000 processor core is also in development, and I have posted a picture
of the rig I am using to test the beast.
So, lots of exciting things for the new year. Have a good Christmas and jolly drunken New Year.
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, November 4th, 2004 |
Bally code first release.
I have had a few problems with XST (Xilinx Synthesis tool), which has
forced a slight rewrite of a small part of the code. The design now builds under
XST as well as the Mentor tools.
This release is complete apart from the light pen interrupt. I will release another version
shortly that uses external SRAM and supports higher screen resolutions.
MikeJ
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| Thursday, October 22nd, 2004 |
Bally is making a good recovery ...
The Bally code now runs the Burn-in Test Cart sucessfully. Thanks very much
to the people who supplied that. Slight video and blanking problem to resolve
and finish the sound off still.
I've added some new pictures to the bally page, and hope to release the code this weekend.
MikeJ
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| Thursday, October 14th, 2004 |
Bally Lives !
I have finally written enough of the Bally Astrocade code for it to run up.
It has a few issues, but the code is now complete, so just a bit of debugging now.
Still not finished Scramble ...
p.s. Blimey, you can tell it's been summer beer drinking season - three months since the last update !
MikeJ
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| Monday, July 19th, 2004 |
New release of Asteroids to fix some minor sound bugs.
Added some links (including a Donkey Kong game) and started the Bally Astrocade page.
If I stopped actually playing Asteroids, I would have finished Scramble by now :)
p.s. Happy Birthday to my sister Susan.
MikeJ
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| Wednesday, May 25th, 2004 |
Asteroids Deluxe finally released
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At last an update - and the release of that spinning rock vector game from 1980.
This version features a vector to raster scan converter which will drive a standard
VGA monitor, and includes full audio with a POKEY chip core.
Go to the Games menu for more information ..
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MikeJ
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| Tuesday, Feb 17th, 2004 |
Happy New Year (belated!)
Updates to the Custom parts page, and some reference material in the Library page.
Almost finished my lastest game which involves vector graphics and spinning rocks ....
MikeJ
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