Because it was fun I also compiled the invaders pace core for the MiST.
Source files: https://github.com/wsoltys/pacedev/commit/1a1f2e66f354403c23666614bf8c8e72c0f3c647
Core file: https://github.com/wsoltys/mist-board/tree/master/bin/cores/arcade/invaders
Finally I found some time to do something with the MiST. Since I need something for starters I had a look at the PACE framework. It has build files for a lot of arcade cores and several targets like the MiST or the de1/2 boards. I just tried using an existing MiST Quartus II project file (pacman) and adapt it for frogger. The same goes for the project_pkg.vhd file. To generate the right clocks for the MiST I’ve used the existing pllclk_ez.* files.
After successful compilation of the core I was surprised that the core worked without problems on the MiST. Okay the gameplay was horizontal and it had no sound but from what I understand this is the current status for all frogger cores and nothing I did wrong 🙂
Later on I found the interesting web log of retroramblings.net and there an article about building a core from the pace archive. It gave me a little bit more insight about what I have done 😉
With the help of the article I’ve created new pllclk_ez.* files and adapted the project_pkg.vhd file accordingly. Voila …
Source files: https://github.com/wsoltys/pacedev/commit/d1d7df38f9aaa3bc46ba148c46e8962a6e3fa889
Core file: https://github.com/wsoltys/mist-board/tree/master/bin/cores/arcade/frogger
Update:
Does anyone have the pace framework documentation? I really would like to learn more about it but you can only download it from their forums as registered member. I’ve tried to contact them via the forum but no contact yet.
Compiling the Atari ST core for the MIST is pretty straight forward like described here. For the minimig core some prerequisites are needed which I’ll describe below.
The amiga_boot.v file is missing and needs to be compiled before using the Altera Web Edition to compile the core.
I was lazy and took the mingw build environment used for XBMC (https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/tree/master/project/BuildDependencies). I used it to compile vasm which is needed to compile amiga_boot.
I copied the binary vasm68k_mot.exe to a bin directory in the mingw env. Since the xxd binary was missing as well I download the msys-vim package from sourceforge and installed it in the mingw env as well.
When I got some time I’ll create a stripped down mingw/msys env with the binaries needed to compile the firmware and amiga_boot.
Once done we need python for windows in path. With some smaller changes to the python scripts and the makefile I was able to compile the amiga_boot files. Once finished I’ll submit the changes to the MIST main repo.
Meanwhile you can use the files from here: https://github.com/wsoltys/mist-board/tree/master/cores/minimig/fw/amiga_boot/bin
Copy those files to the same directory structure of the MIST main repo clone and open minimig_mist.qpf with the Altera Web Edition. In the Web Edition you need to enable talkback in order to use the Signaltap which is needed to compile the minimig core.
Now you can start the compilation and after some minutes its done 🙂