This definitely speaks to my interests. Thank you, Lon! Funny anecdote: I cut off the cord to my original Zapper because my son wanted to use it as a toy. That play session lasted about half an hour and he never touched it again.
Great overview Lon. I've been following the MiSTer for a few years now, it's really come a long way in a short time. Outside of original hardware it's my favorite way play all the games I grew up with. I really only use SNAC now with lightguns, there are some great usb controllers and converters such as Daemonbite that offer latency as low as 1ms.
Really good breakdown. You alluded to it in the video, but a big appeal of the SNAC adapter is using original controllers; nothing better from a nostalgia perspective than using original controllers.
That way of using SNAC is archaic, better using one of the new io boards with the db9 user port, they also support 2 players and control the menus with snac controllers
I think you might be able to use multitaps with SNAC for more than 1 player... although for NES there is only one rare Hori Japanese Famicom one, which means you would have to convert the NES controllers to Famicom ports. The official NES multitap uses both controller ports, which you obviously cant do on SNAC. I am not aware of anyone that tried multitaps with SNAC, but I was told they work. Would try myself but my SNAC doesnt work.... I think its a dipswitch inside I have to take out of the case and try maybe.
Seems like Lon's MISTer can just support 1 SNAC controller? - I wonder if the Multi can do 2? The main draw of MISTer for me would be SF2 Champ Ed. We need SNAC support for the big arcade games & a MISTer console with 2 SNAC ports built in -- Add in an original Astro City 2 player and it becomes a must-own. - I think someone should develop a 2 player arcade stick with a MISTer built-in. - just plug power and display and you are done. Like a Pandoras Box but MISTer.
@@dividion8102 well, true, the thing with hdmi is that has lots of lines, so you can rewire easily and those connectors are very reliable and cheap but, if you want to go from serial to a gun or a gamepad, why do all that? the board has some pins, make your own serial to nes using those pins, avoid serial to usb to hdmi to nes connector after all you need the new pcb, so, why do all this?
I know he has one as he did one in the past but so much has changed! The BlisSter has a lot more to offer so I second this but please dig in to it as we already have enough poor reviews on it.
I think you gotta find the options and configure it. In the menu's somewhere. To make it work in the menu's. IDK i don't have that particular adapter. They should really make it split into 2 outputs at least for multiplayer. I use the Blister. It's a USB hub like yours but uses 2 ports, uses the same HDMI style ports those controllers use. The snac feature also works. So you get 2 controller ports with the snac feature. I use the same adapters from the blissbox i bought for the computer. Same company actually. I am surprised they took the effort in making it just for the MiSTer. Let's face it the retro consoles consoles are ageing. The games are there. They need to be backed up. I haven't used the snak for light guns. I read that you can also use a wii remote. Good for lcd users. I haven't tried that one ether yet.. These retro consoles should really be made to order. Maybe they should design hdmi connectors as well. Those mini console are not really the answer. Still nice. A hack is available to add more games. Id probably end up doing that if I didn't have this. As for the games they also should be, made to order. Meh we got everdrives. This is are answer for now. Accuracy and perfection we need to keep these old games alive. Nice to have a bit of game history in your home. Lot's of console cores. NES, SNES, sms and Neogeo are my favorite so far. It does even retro computers as well. Kinda cool actually.
SNAC can only support one controller because of the limited amount of pins available to the FPGA. Maybe on the successor board/project to MiSTer we will have N64 running cycle accurate with 4 serial controller ports available. The future is bright for FPGA, but costs must be in line to make it viable to work on and purchase for the masses. For more advanced FPGA boards this would drive the cost too far up currently, but we are still blessed with a very capable board today (DE-10nano) that covers a tremendous amount of retro gaming so it's not so difficult to find some patience with its few limitations. ^-^
@@WalrusFPGA There are enough SNAC pins available for NES & SNES to support both controller ports, including the pins for special controllers and the multitap. Two of the five data lines (clock & latch) are shared between the two controller ports and are physically connected inside the console itself. That leaves Data1, Data2 and IOBit for each controller plus the two shared pins which would be eight total pins, not including +5V and GND. Other cores are a different story. The Genesis & Master System cores, for example, have no shared data lines and use all seven pins per port.
snac confuses me. i got a genesis snac adapter on ebay and it looks nothing like what is in this video. it has usb3 on one end and genesis port on the other end. how do i use this adapter? why does the adapter in the video use hdmi? any help would be appreciated.
Snac is open source so anyone can make their own versions, this one just happens to use hdmi. It sounds like you have the controller port but still need an actual snac adapter. Just make it’s usb and not hdmi like this one. Then just plug your port into the adapter and you’re good to go!
