[hardware-emulated jazz tunes] [computer buzzes, beeps]
Greetings, and welcome to another LGRcade thing!
And once again, I find myself spending a remarkable amount of time messing with the MiSTer.
The open source FPGA project that reproduces the functionality of classic game consoles,
computers, and – most importantly for today’s topic – arcade machines.
Specifically, we’ll be looking at the MiSTercade version 1.1 from MiSTer Addons, a kit that
provides all the appropriate connections for turning the MiSTer
into a drop-in JAMMA arcade solution.
Quite the appealing prospect indeed, especially if you don’t own that many cabinets and
wanna try more games without physically swapping out original PCBs.
Something that I often do with my Raiden II machine here, which I bought largely to play
my Raiden series PCBs and other vertical shooters.
I made a video about this already and the cabinet restoration is still a work in progress,
but it’s functioning well enough to install a MiSTercade and see what it’s all about.
[glorious Finalizer gameplay sounds]
Now, this is by no means the only solution for something like this, nor is it the cheapest.
But owing to its innately reprogrammable hardware, MiSTer currently delivers one of the most
appealing methods for accurately replicating older systems using modern components.
And the most common MiSTer setup is optimized for outputting to a TV or computer monitor
through HDMI or VGA, and uses gamepads, keyboards, mice, and other traditional input devices.
This makes for a fantastic under-the-TV or desktop experience, and really that’s what
the project was tailored to provide from its inception.
And I love this kind of setup!
You may recall I’ve covered the MiSTer Multisystem already, which is one of many available options
for putting together a nice practical all-in-one system.
Check out that video if you’d like a more general overview
of what the MiSTer project provides.
But the MiSTercade here takes things in a different direction, being geared strictly
towards installation inside an arcade machine. Something with an arcade power supply,
monitor, control panel, and coin slots.
So long as you have a typical JAMMA setup, all you need to do is unplug whatever PCB
you had before and plug in the MiSTercade.
That’s it!
Beyond some configuration for your individual cabinet, which we’ll cover in a bit, the
MiSTercade really is a straightforward option for converting an old school arcade machine
into an emulation beast.
Of course, the concept of a modern drop-in arcade solution is nothing new, from prebuilt
multi-game boards and Pandora’s boxes, to the Phoenix ArcadeSD,
and the various Raspberry Pi-powered options.
All of which have their own positives and negatives,
each one I can appreciate for their unique attributes.
But the MiSTercade has the distinction of providing the uncanny accuracy of low latency
FPGA-powered hardware emulation, an experience as close as I’ve ever felt to real hardware.
So it’s a top notch choice for those seeking accuracy and longer term preservation.
[top notch gameplay]
That being said, let’s take a closer look at version 1.1 of the MiSTercade!
Which in the interest of disclosure, I did purchase myself from Mister Addons, but the
person who runs the shop gave me a 25% discount, no strings attached.
Typically though, the Lite kit on its own costs 250 US dollars, coming with everything
required to augment your RAM-expanded DE10-Nano.
Or you can grab the full kit for $560, which includes the DE10-Nano and RAM module together
with the MiSTercade stuff.
Granted, these are only the prices at the time of recording in August of 2022.
Supplies of FPGA boards and other components are in constant flux, so pricing and availability
may be different whenever you’re watching.
Hello to viewers in 2027, I really hope the chip shortage is less of a thing by now.
Anyway, there are also some extras available, like the control breakout board for breaking
out the controls onto a board using screw terminals and headers.
As well as this Remote, which MiSTer Addons kindly included here for me to look at.
The remote supplies a handy way to access the most frequently-used controls: like coins,
reset and menu buttons, volume, and headphones.
And even a tasty SNAC port for plugging in controllers
using Serial Native Accessory Converters.
Quite a convenient thing to have all broken out here so you don’t have to reach inside
the cabinet to do that stuff.
And you can even hook things up simultaneously to have a sweet multi-display setup, an awesome
option for capturing and streaming video footage directly from your machine.
The MiSTercade itself packs all the same functions too of course, it’s just that you won’t
be seeing it very often since it’ll be tucked away inside the machine.
While it’s out though, let’s take a closer look at this shiny silicon sandwich!
Starting with the JAMMA edge connector itself, a defining feature here since it’s the primary
way it connects to an arcade machine.
The majority of cabinets from the mid-80s onward used this JAMMA standard, including
my Dynamo HS-5 configured as a Raiden II machine.
Display, sound, inputs, power and so on all connect through this one connector.
So in cases like mine, as long as you have a pretty standard JAMMA cabinet
then this is likely all you need.
There are always exceptions though, like a kick harness if you have
more than 3 action buttons for each player.
And this comes with the popular CPS1 and CPS2 style headers.
There’s also 3-volt 15-pin RGB output, intended specifically for multisync arcade monitors.
Not something used in my case since my standard res 25-inch monitor simply goes through JAMMA.
And it’s distinct from the other 15-pin port, which is for consumer VGA or component
cables, with an associated header for changing sync options.
This jumper here is also useful.
Normally MiSTercade manages power by grabbing the required 5-volts from the 12-volt rail
on your power supply.
But moving that jumper makes it take 5 volts directly, which can be useful if your 12-volt
isn’t up to snuff and 5-volts is measurably within spec.
There’s also this handy selection of DIP switches, which mutes the audio amp, merges
1 and 2 player coin inputs into one, and a freeplay option that makes it so coins are
virtually inserted and start is pressed at the same time.
A nice feature if you don’t want to enable freeplay within every single core, though
it’s not always advised since it can cause issues on a few arcade inputs and conflicts
with console cores.
And yes, you can indeed play console games on here, which is just neat!
I mean, it’s extra silly here since I have a vertically-oriented machine, but still.
Seeing an arcade cab boot up as a PlayStation at all is surreal.
[PS1 startup sounds]
Then right below the JAMMA connector are two external controller ports, HDMI out,
and a secondary MicroSD card slot.
Note that the system itself doesn’t boot from this one, it’s meant for convenient
access to additional storage.
The main MicroSD that contains the OS is kind of hidden away inside, since that slot is
part of the DE10 and that’s just how it is.
Finally, on this side you’ve got the connector for the remote, a User I/O port for connecting
SNAC adapters or projects like the MT32-Pi.
And line level stereo output jacks, both RCA and 3.5 mil,
right below the volume knob up top.
Nice to have since audio output through JAMMA alone is in mono.
And yeah, the rest of this is pretty much what you’d expect
with your typical MiSTer stack!
Lots of USB ports, ethernet, power, video, and other things that chances are you won’t
be using inside an arcade cabinet.
I mean, maybe ethernet, but I’ve instead opted for a USB Wi-Fi adapter as it’s easier
than routing a cable inside my machine.
I’ve also got a wireless keyboard going too, since even though you can interact through
the arcade controls, there are still times where a keyboard simply makes more sense.
Especially during the initial setup process, which for the most part is the same routine
as any other MiSTer configuration.
You copy a Mister Fusion image to your SD card, run that from the system itself, and
let the “update_all” script update all the things.
And I gotta say, it’s enjoyably bizarre to see a Linux command line interface grabbing
things online through a mid-90s arcade cabinet.
Feels wrong, but I like it.
Once that’s done you’re pretty much good to go!
However, there are still a few considerations beyond the usual setup process.
The first is choosing your main input mapping configuration – that is, how your arcade
control panel will interact with the MiSTer.
Multiple configuration files are available on the project’s GitHub, so just choose
whatever makes the most sense for your setup.
Next is Fast USB Polling, which enables the 1 millisecond/1000 hertz polling rate supported
by the MiSTercade, maximally minimizing latency.
And then there are display options to get things looking proper
on various 15kHz and 31kHz displays.
Which, that’s easy enough normally, MiSTer supports native
arcade resolutions and refresh rates by default.
But in my case there’s an extra step, since I’ve got a vertically-oriented “tate”
arcade setup here.
And the tube is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, whereas clockwise seems to be the more common
setup that many games default to.
Thankfully, MiSTer Addons provides a pile of files for customizing your system so you
don’t have to edit INI data yourself.
And in my case, that meant using the “15kHz-TATE-CCW” settings file.
I also needed to adjust the overscan a bit to make sure things weren’t cut off, and
then manually tweaked the geometry adjustment pots on the monitor itself.
But after that – yeah, it’s looking as it should!
More or less!
Like I said, clockwise rotation seems to be the norm, meaning lots of arcade cores are
upside-down on first boot.
Just gotta look through the menu for each core and see if there’s a “display flip”
option or DIP switch setting to make things right.
And again multiple configuration files are also provided online,
for us counterclockwise users.
There are a handful of titles that are upside-down for me no matter what due to their lack of
settings, and that sucks.
So I could physically rotate the tube at some point, but eh y’know.
For now, I can play the majority of vertical game cores as intended, and it is excellent.
Especially all those awesome Cave shooters that are now available on MiSTer, which are
rare and expensive boards that I’ll likely never get the chance to own.
[Guwange gameplay plays awesomely]
So, here’s the thing though.
As fun as it is to be able to have all that the MiSTer provides inside of an arcade machine?
It’s also just downright costly for what you get.
Fact is that at the moment, you don’t get near the customization or versatility offered
by something like a Raspberry Pi or a PC,
each of which have JAMMA interfaces available as well.
While you can customize things like the background wallpaper and fonts on the MiSTer, that’s
about the extent of it currently.
Nothing close to what can be done with all the feature-rich frontends and flashy game
libraries available on Pi and PC setups.
And the quantity of games available is comparatively small on the MiSTer, at this point, with cores
numbering in the hundreds compared to the thousands of titles emulated through MAME.
It is still early days for MiSTer and more is being added constantly,
but right now there’s just a huge disparity.
So, the value proposition may not totally make sense,
depending on what you yourself are most looking for.
Like for me, the primary reason I have this cabinet is to play the Raiden series, and
not a single one of those games is available on MiSTer yet.
Maybe one day, sure, it’s possible!
But as I record this it’s not even an option since they simply don’t have cores yet,
whereas they’re already emulated on other, more affordable platforms.
They’re not 100% accurate, nor are they as low latency as what you could get on MiSTer.
But at least they’re there, right?
So yeah, disregarding the relative lack of games and customization though, holy crap.
The future potential is bright as balls.
I love the MiSTer project and all it stands for regarding accuracy
and near lag-free hardware emulation.
And to have that packed into a well built, high quality product like the MiSTercade is
wonderful, and I gotta give huge props to the folks behind it.
But you need to adjust expectations according to its strengths and drawbacks alike.
The price can be an unpleasant pill to swallow right now, though I’m hopeful that could
someday drop as the DE10-Nano and other components become readily available again.
We’ll see.
For the time being, I’d still recommend the MiSTercade as a product overall due to
how nicely put together it is and how effective it is in what it offers,
since it will only get better from here.
[outroduction jazz tunes play]
And if you enjoyed this bit of arcade coverage then do check out my previous videos, both
on arcade things and other retro things and things.
I’m always doing things on LGR so stick around for more things.
And of course, thing you for watching!