Our Retro FPGA future powered by Jose Tejada (JOTEGO)
Feb 8, 2024
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Scott Hanselman interviews Jose Tejada, a retro gaming enthusiast and FPGA developer. They discuss creating FPGA cores for classic arcade games, the benefits and challenges of FPGA development, and the future of retro gaming preservation through FPGA.
FPGA cores replicate custom hardware in retro gaming consoles, ensuring accurate preservation and emulation.
FPGAs offer superior speed and accuracy compared to software emulation, making them the preferred choice for retro gaming preservation.
Deep dives
FPGAs: The Future of Emulation
FPGA cores are revolutionizing the world of emulation by allowing old hardware to be run on new devices. FPGAs are programmable arrays of gates that can replicate digital logic with incredible accuracy and speed. Unlike software emulators, FPGAs can reproduce critical signals down to a single clock cycle, making them the perfect solution for clock-accurate emulation. The flexibility of FPGAs allows for the preservation and replication of arcade boards, which often used custom hardware specific to each game. FPGAs also offer the advantage of being able to change configurations and add new cores, making them incredibly versatile for retro gaming enthusiasts. Despite legal complexities, the open-source nature of FPGA cores and their availability on platforms like Patreon ensure continued preservation and accessibility for retro gaming and computing.
Inside FPGA Fabric
FPGA fabric is essentially an array of switches that can be programmed to create digital logic circuits. FPGAs contain registers and lookup tables, which are the building blocks of digital circuits. While FPGAs can be transformed into CPUs or other specialized processors, their true power lies in their ability to accurately replicate custom hardware found in arcade boards and other retro gaming consoles. The FPGA fabric itself is empty, waiting to be configured with the desired logic and switches. FPGAs offer the advantage of being highly accurate and significantly faster than software emulation, making them the preferred choice for preserving and emulating retro gaming systems.
The Challenges and Rewards of FPGA Emulation
FPGA emulation presents unique challenges and rewards. The intricate design of CPUs from older systems, such as the Neo Geo Pocket, requires painstaking attention to detail to ensure accurate emulation. CPUs with complex instruction sets and convoluted architectures can make the emulation process difficult. However, the ability to recreate these systems with FPGAs opens up new possibilities for preserving and enjoying retro games. FPGA emulators like MiSTer leverage open-source projects and community collaboration to bring a wide range of retro gaming consoles, arcade boards, and even individual games to life. Early access releases, through platforms like Patreon, provide an essential source of support and feedback for developers, fostering a strong and engaged community of retro gaming enthusiasts.
In this episode of Hanselminutes, Scott Hanselman talks to Jose Tejada (JOTEGO), a passionate retro gaming enthusiast and FPGA developer. Jose shares his journey of creating FPGA cores for classic arcade games such as Pac-Man, Galaga, and Out Run, and how he distributes them through the MiSTer and Analogue Pocket platforms. Jose also explains the benefits and challenges of FPGA development, and why he thinks FPGA is the future of retro gaming preservation and emulation.
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