[etaioinshrdlu]

It looks like you're using an ice40 FPGA?

If you can make your project work with 38 I/O pins you could probably get it fabricated in ASIC by Efabless free. You just need to meet their repository requirements and make your verilog module conform to this interface: https://github.com/efabless/caravel/blob/master/verilog/rtl/...

The openlane tool converts your verilog all the way down to final ASIC design...

You'd need to license everything Apache 2.0 though. And it would have to be done soon, the deadline is Nov 30th.

[nickmqb]

In terms of I/O pins that should actually be fine (current pinout: VGA (14x), SPI (4x), CLK (1x), N64_controller (1x)), though I'm still working on the project and I don't think it'll be done by the deadline. It looks like they might do future batches though -- it's a cool idea!

[primis]

If you're using an n64 controller, you might want to consider using a gamecube one instead (it uses the same control logic, it just adds a 5v line for rumble features)

Unless you're particularly fond of the N64's controller design that is

[nickmqb]

That's a good idea. The two analog sticks on the GC controller would be an improvement over the single stick on the N64 controller for movement in 3D. I think that the main benefit of the N64 controller (besides a nostalgia factor, though that may just be me ;)) is how easy it is to connect. I actually just got some wire from the local hardware store, plugged pieces of it into the controller connector, and then attached some IC clips. For the GC controller, things are a bit trickier due to its connector layout, though I just found [1] which might be a nice solution; alternatively, buying a GC controller extension cord and wire stripping could be an option. I'll consider it!

[1] https://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/gc_controller_connecto...

[retro_guy]

Talking about the N64 and FPGA, do you know that someone is working on an FPGA implementation? Link: https://twitter.com/ufp64

Hmm… Hardware Minecraft… I do also wonder what would it take to create a PICO-8 (popular fantasy console) implementation in hardware with a Lua CPU…

[MaxBarraclough]

Impressive. Any chance that project will get a Cease and Desist from Nintendo? I don't know much about the history of hardware projects like that.

[asddubs]

a less clean solution is also to buy controller extension cords (which are usually cheap even for older systems) and chopping off the end.

[etaioinshrdlu]

It's just as well :) None of the code for the submission process they have you use actually works. It's rather insane what they are asking developers to do.

[mysterydip]

Don't you only need 5 pins for VGA: R,G,B,HSync,and VSync?

[nickmqb]

VGA is an analog protocol, but the FPGA can only output a 0 (GND) or 1 (3.3v) on its I/O pins. I'm using a Digilent VGA Pmod [1] which uses a set of resistor ladders to map each color component from a 4-bit value to an analog voltage that goes to the monitor. This means that we have 14 pins: R (4x), G (4x), B (4x), HS (1x) and VS (1x).

[1] https://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-vga-video-graphics-array/

[mysterydip]

Oh duh, I should've remembered that. So 12 bit VGA then. From the demo that seems sufficient. Have you tried getting rid of the LSB to see if there's a noticeable difference? I'm curious how few colors you actually need

[nickmqb]

Most textures look fine despite the 4-bit quantization, but color artifacts/hue change do become more apparent when multiplying with a light factor (to darken the textures on the bottom and sides of blocks), so I'd say 4-bit is definitely pushing the limit. 6 bits or even 8 bits per color component would be ideal, though unfortunately on a small FPGA like this we cannot afford such luxuries ;). It is probably the first thing I'd change if I were to port this to a larger FPGA, since it would be pretty straightforward to do and the increase in visual quality would likely be worth it.