Is it worth to redesign the MiSTer?

[ericgus09]

The DE10 is a subsidized project. Microchip, IBM, Intel, and others that have chips on the DE-10 have provided those at their production cost to Terasic, for focusing on the educational industry. This is why Terasic can make money selling a board that costs over $300 (at 1K pcs - I know because I was going to make them at one point) for $99 to students.

I actually mentioned that in one of my previous posts.. it would cost significantly more to do the board on your own because its subsidized ..

[throAU]

Price wise i think there’s a market for a much more expensive box if it is simple to set up (buy board, insert prepped SD card (or even ship with one), plug in controllers).

Retro gaming is getting pretty big now and a lot of the people interested are in their 30s+ with disposable income.

I know I would have been willing to pay 4x de10 nano price or more for a turnkey single board solution if it was well publicised and available to buy.

[dmckean]

Price wise i think there’s a market for a much more expensive box if it is simple to set up (buy board, insert prepped SD card (or even ship with one), plug in controllers).

Retro gaming is getting pretty big now and a lot of the people interested are in their 30s+ with disposable income.

I know I would have been willing to pay 4x de10 nano price or more for a turnkey single board solution if it was well publicized and available to buy.

4x the price of the de10 nano might not even be doable considering the SOC alone costs more than double the DE10 nano price.

[throAU]

Price wise i think there’s a market for a much more expensive box if it is simple to set up (buy board, insert prepped SD card (or even ship with one), plug in controllers).

Retro gaming is getting pretty big now and a lot of the people interested are in their 30s+ with disposable income.

I know I would have been willing to pay 4x de10 nano price or more for a turnkey single board solution if it was well publicized and available to buy.

4x the price of the de10 nano might not even be doable considering the SOC alone costs more than double the DE10 nano price.

Yeah, thinking about it, it could be more.

Either way.. it was plucked from thin air. 6-8x the price would also be marketable I think. People are paying DE10-nano price for shitty commercial ARM based retro-hardware that emulates a single platform pretty badly.

I myself have spent WAY more on real retro-consoles in various states of disrepair for example last year (4x Saturns, 2 of them don't work, 2 of them are dodgy), a couple of Pis to emulate amiga, etc; never mind having an all-in-one system that is as lag free and accurate as most of the mister cores.

It took me a while to commit to mister as though all the info is out there, figuring out where to start as someone totally new to the project was time consuming.

If you're somewhat technical its easy enough, but there are plenty out there who would be interested who aren't.

Just look at the price that old retro computers and consoles fetch on eBay - and most of them are on borrowed time life-wise.


To be clear, I'm not suggesting (or wanting) anyone abandon the DE10-nano, and I'm fully aware its a hobbyist project. Just that as a new user looking in, it is intimidating and an all-in-one unit could sell for significantly more I believe.

[redsteakraw]

What I would say is you could redesign the MiSTer with a custom board Maybe have a Jamma edge built in and other niceties the question is would the redesign be worth the cost of a non subsidized FPGA. You can design a more mobile MiSTer if you redesigned it maybe have something like the switch or you could make the thing bigger but your use case would need to fit the intended design and would that use case be worth it? now you could add cartridge slots 2 snac ports and other cool things if you go larger or you can make it small so it can fit in a mobile enclosure. It really is up to you. Just keep in mind the base price of any redesign would be 300 and your new device might be in the $400 - $500 range.

[dmckean]

How would the base price of any redesign be $300 when the FPGA itself sells for $256?

[FoxbatStargazer]

To be clear, I'm not suggesting (or wanting) anyone abandon the DE10-nano, and I'm fully aware its a hobbyist project. Just that as a new user looking in, it is intimidating and an all-in-one unit could sell for significantly more I believe.

Analogue could easily do this but they think there's more money in getting people to buy multiple consoles rather than a single one that does them all.

Their Pocket is looking pretty close to that for handheld gaming though.

[Newsdee]

How would the base price of any redesign be $300 when the FPGA itself sells for $256?

$256 may be the unit price to dissuade hobbyists. For all we know if you buy in bulk (100s or 1000s) it may go down significantly.

[aberu]

How would the base price of any redesign be $300 when the FPGA itself sells for $256?

$256 may be the unit price to dissuade hobbyists. For all we know if you buy in bulk (100s or 1000s) it may go down significantly.

Right, but... What builder is dropping 150 * 1000 to sell Neue-MiSTers? That's Analogue Inc. volumes for preorders.

[dmckean]

How would the base price of any redesign be $300 when the FPGA itself sells for $256?

$256 may be the unit price to dissuade hobbyists. For all we know if you buy in bulk (100s or 1000s) it may go down significantly.

Maybe? But I don't think they're being bought in that volume since the usual places don't list volume prices. The intended use for these SOCs are in embedded projects, robotics, automation, etc... and those are normally low volume.

Plus, there's no way we're putting together the $300,000 it would take to do a run of 1000.