Progress November I - A small blue board shows up (Patreon)

I finally yielded to pressure from the many e-mails and tweets asking if a MiSTer core was going to be made for the NeoGeo :(

Just joking, it was a decision :)
A decision which was rather easy to take in the end, since it doesn't change anything to the original project's goals.
I was initially reluctant about taking this road because of my unfamiliarity with SDRAM and the fear of having to change the core logic to compensate for latency.

What really made me take the first step is Smokemonster's recent video about the project, and the flood of new patrons that ensued. So whatever it takes, I'm doing it.

I haven't touched the core code since a while because all the test cases are providing the expected results. To go further into testing I needed to move from simulation to real hardware, that's why I tried to fit as much elements as possible in my "old" DE1 dev board. The result was shown in the last post, with a very minimal "cartridge" running fine off the SRAM and block RAM.

Taking advantage of a few train trips, I managed to collect enough courage to write a working SDRAM controller. It felt like something I should have tried to do a long time ago, in retrospect it really wasn't that bad.
Having gained a few confidence points about dealing with that kind of memory, I bought a DE10-Nano and the required components to build the SDRAM extension board.

The NeoGeo core will most certainly require 2 separate SDRAM chips if the onboard DDR3 can't be split easily. I'm still not familiar with the new tools and the SoC architecture right now (and even the existing MiSTer cores) so I haven't done any testing regarding ROM loading times.

The audio part of the core is still where it was months ago: apart from SSG channels, it generates great silence. Jose Tejada (Jotego) already wrote a YM2612 core which could be used as a very solid base for this part. Since that would be a fast-forward on a big part of the project, I'm planning on sharing the money I collect from your pledges with him if that works out.

Speaking of pledges, I'll certainly make the next post a paid one to pay for the DE10-Nano kit, the SDRAM and the dual-SDRAM boards I'll have to prototype soon.
I'd just like to get at least some video out of the DE10-Nano before anything, just to show something new and exciting. Maybe a small game without sound like Puzzle de Pon and such :)

Huge thanks to Smokemonster and all the new patrons, you all refilled my energy bar to 200% :)