Wiki discussion

[senkun]

...
1) The section of "Get a core" could be improved by using an example of a core which does not require SDRAM. ...

This note in the guide should have been clear enough. All new users have to do is pick the Genesis core and follow along, substituting all references to NES with Genesis.

Do note that the NES core requires additional SDRAM. If you do not have this add-on, you can still continue following the example by using the Genesis core (which does not require additional SDRAM) instead of NES.

[dshadoff]

Is it reasonable to expect that an intelligent person eventually figure it out for themselves ? Sure.

But the point is that these are new users and may not already be aware of all the hardware variations and why they may or may not need/want those. So why distract them with another variable ?

[senkun]

Well if you're worried that some new users may not be able to comprehend or figure out simple substitutions, then we look forward to you updating the guide with new screenshots replacing the current NES specific ones.

[peepsalot]

I would really like to see some introduction of how the graphics pipeline works in MiSTer for new developers.
Like a high level block diagram showing the path of data from core-native output through scan doubler, composite blending(i guess that's core-dependent), how OSD gets inserted, to ASCAL to HDMI. Is any part going through HPS?

[carrboroman]

Hello, I've been searching through posts here, Reddit, and pretty much everywhere but I can't find anything describing the external USB file structure properly, which looks different from the SD one, making things work through trial and error... is there a reference description of folders and file types somewhere in the wiki? Would make sense to add it?

edit:
slightly related, is there an mra specs doc somewhere? leveraging more space on an external drive, allows to unzip files and faster loading, but the mra must point to the folder instead of the zip (if I understand correctly)... and of course, mra specs would be of course cool in general.

[Threepwood]

The "Commodore Amiga" should be listed as such on the right side in the Wiki and not under just "Amiga".

[superdevx]

Hi

I don't know if it's useful but I'm a technical writer for a living (work on stuff to do with developer tooling), and I'm happy to volunteer help if any documentation might need it. I love my MiSTer though I was setting it up on Linux and I found some of the instructions a bit difficult. Loving playing Hyper Fighting with an arcade stick though: so much better than the SF Anniversary Collection!

Cheers

[kitrinx]

The Wiki could always use some fresh copy, but make sure you can verify that you understand the topics fully if you want to make changes. If you are interested in doing so I would be happy to give you info or proofread any technical details you want to elaborate on. I think the getting started guide could probably be cleaned up a little to include some of the more modern things as well.

[SerErris]

Hi,

I also will put some work into documentation. I start with Arcade cores, that needs updates to all readme's that still refer to the old rom concept. So I made a proposal to Asteroids readme to reflect the new version and more importantly point to the correct wiki page for this part of the existing documentation.

This step should make maintaining the cores more easy as only one page need to be updated vs. all the cores in the future.

Let me know what else needs work on on the documentation front.

I also plan to create a tutorial core based on the "nand2tetris" project https://www.nand2tetris.org/

I started with the nand2tetris project to understand fpga design, and now getting into vhdl. From there I need to understand how to implement the very simple computer on the MiSTer hardware to do the same as the software simulator. I will create that now in my own github account and repo, but evtl. want to merge it here for others to learn from it.

I believe MiSTer is also a fantastic learning platform. It just needs some documented real world tutorial with a very simple use case to understand the concepts.