News

If you have been keeping up with the MiSTer forums, you will know that there are now at least two DE10-Nano clones being produced, with one, the QMTECH version being available now, and another one due soon.

The one pictured is the QMTech version, and this one has the 128Mb SDRAM fitted direct to the rear of the PCB (rather than plugged onto GPIO_0). This has the advantage that it passes ram tests at 160Mhz.

It also comes in at a much cheaper price than the official DE10-Nano board. I purchased this one with delivery and taxes for £133. (Official DE10-Nano + 128Mb SDRAM module would be around £290)

So, the big question is does it work with the Astrocade interface ?

The answer is … Yes, it does. I connected it up to my interface and everything appears to work as intended. The OTG USB socket is a normal type A socket, rather than the mini-USB, so you need a different lead to connect it up.

One of the PCBs I own had a dead SLAPSTIC, Atari’s custom protection chip used in several games of the time, which meant I just got a nice ROM error in test mode and a blank screen instead of the game.

Some old 8 bit hacking and we have hopefully fixed the problem. Check out the repair log page here to see more information about it.

The MiSTer image for Gorf using the Astrocade interface has been updated.

For those of you running them in an arcade environment where customers have to put money in, it will now accept coins from both coin slots (with separate options in the DIP settings)

In addition, the SLAM will now work, so if someone shakes that cab hard enough, then the game will reset.

Finally, the test switch on the sound board should work, as well as the service option in the DIP settings.

Late addition, coins and start buttons should now work immediately and not need the player 1 joystick moved first.

Get it from the usual place (over here)

Since Windows 10 becomes an unsupported OS next year, I re-enabled secure boot on Windows 10 (via the BIOS settings for my motherboard) so that Windows Update would let me perform the update to windows 11.

Once that had all completed, I disabled it again and my machine now boots into Windows 11 and still lets me use my Xeltec 280U programmer.

Because I updated from Windows 10, the system setting for Core Isolation – Memory Integrity was disabled. If you do a clean install then this defaults to enabled – This needs to be disabled for the EZUSB driver to work.

Click here to see full information and download the necessary files.

After some experimenting with layouts / shipping and generally learning to use it, the Store is now live and ready to use.

I’ve only put a few PCBs on there for the moment and until the next delivery there isn’t many of those available yet. More items will appear once I have finished sorting the backlog and tested the newer boards.

If you would like items shipped to anywhere other than UK / USA / Some parts of Europe then you will need to Mail Me so that I can sort out a shipping option for the relevant country.

I’ve updated the bill of materials for the Astrocade interface a little. Two items have been changed to have better descriptions and where people have let me know part numbers from Mouser or Digikey I have added them on.