MiST - Should a Subsection Be Created for MiSTer’s Older Sibling?

[seastalker]

If MiSTer is about preservation, should we not do more to honor the older sibling? I speak of MiST, the little FPGA engine that could...

Not just of historical/precursor value, the MiST has some two-way core 'cross pollination' with the MiSTer. Shouldn't Lotharek be a part of our FPGA gaming history? Built-in old school MIDI ports and DB9 connectors vs more modern options of mt32-pi and BlisSTer are ripe for discussion, no?

The MiST really only had an awkward makeshift adopted home on Atari forums.

I am revisiting my MiST with all the love and frustrations; from separating game titles into A-Z subfolders [for folder load times] and dealing with some new issue or requirement to make MiST 'see' subfolders:
https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-boar ... DCardSetup

I don't think I ever had to do this stuff before but it is my challenge of today it seems:

Linux terminal: fatattr +s <directory>
Windows: open a command line window (cmd) attrib +s <directory>

The MiST can even do TG16-CD which my current everdrive cannot. If nothing else, can we get this system into the 'Other Computer / System Cores' sub section?

[aberu]

There is already a MiST forum --> https://www.atari-forum.com/viewforum.p ... e8a7783e29

People still use it.

[Longtime4321]

What do you want us to do?????? The MiST is on the brink of death, who cares.

[Koston]

The obvious answer is, MiSTer needs a MiST core.

[seastalker]

Respectfully to you both:
As stated, I am fully aware of a discussion on Atari forums I take part in, which is not recognition nor agreement of needing no discussion here. Also, is six question marks and the idea of the MiST on the brink of death not a little dramatic? I'm somewhat surprised at the immediate...is it, pessimism? (at least as perceived by me)

Subjectively of course, some may say the MiST is alive and well. Mine is... it powers up and plays games as it did 7+ years ago. I revisit it today and may dedicate computer cores on VGA and MiSTer gets the rest if I don't tilt some arcade cores on a Commodore monitor in TATE mode.

Did Lotharek not recently open up current Q4 2022 pre-orders for NEW MiSTs with a new revision number? At the time of writing, is the De-10 Nano not still hard to come by whereas the Mist (or dare I include the Mistica and drama associated with it) perhaps a stopgap option for some wanting to get into FPGA gaming RIGHT NOW? Last I heard, Jotego fans can get a HUGE Sega/Capcom arcade fix on MiST. Are the MiST updater scripts I for years longed for now not worth discussing?

I get it... go talk about it elsewhere. Could the same 'dead' idea be applied to commodore discussion only on Lemon64, and Atari on AtariAge? I love talking about the RDI Halcyon of which I have yet to find a forum to do so except here... isn't nearly all we talk about dedicated to 'dead' systems?

Some voices in those threads in other forums may be years old and never have continued on to the Mister era. If MiSTer cores fit other platforms like MiST, should it not be noteworthy?

So to bluntly (and politely) answer the question presented of "What do you want us to do??????", I'd say "NOTHING" if YOU just want to focus on the future: Mister - and not look back. That is totally fair and you and I have zero argument. I merely ask- could SOME of us regret a lost opportunity of documenting a certain very recent window of time of chip shortages, and alternative options? Is there no place on this forum to consolidate the timeline past and present of the STILL in progress older sibling of the MiST? Maybe some here have been with MiST before MiSTer or go there NOW because MiSTer is not currently an available/financial option. I'd like to know what pushes the MiST FPGA to its limits and or what needs to be stripped down from a Mister core to fit it's platform.

I think it is funny but thought the same about MiSTer with a MiST core as if it was some AO486 platform. I'd doubt any 'need' for it personally, but

[aberu]

Putting a MiST forum here just seems kinda strange to me I guess. If you want to preserve information about it, nothing is stopping you from contributing to their wiki page or to making your own historical documentation of it.

[KremlingKuthroat19]

Isn't there still a lot of MiST cores that haven't been ported to MiST yet? There should be some way of officially tracking this. I think this is the number one priority in terms of keeping tabs on MiST vs. MiSTer.

Maybe w/ the new Github Wiki page that was created for MiSTer this week, there should be a section for FPGA ports, meaning FPGA cores that are either on MiST or other platforms that haven't been ported to MiSTer yet.

[aberu]

Moondandy has been actively tracking those and has never hesitated to let all of us developers know when there is a difference

The new wiki was made because anonymous editing cannot be allowed any longer. It had to be made into a separate repository because of how bad github's permissions structure is.

[Newsdee]

I fired up my MiST today!
I'm very grateful to all developers that keep it updated.

MiST is an example of what you get with a homebrew board. In fact it could be assembled just with SMD soldering (no BGA chip). But it is not open hardware, and the Cyclone III is getting rarer, which limits future supply.

Edit: There is a MiST clone that is cheaper (SiDi) but I don't know how popular it is outside of Spain. It has slightly less LEs (23K versus 25K) but otherwise runs pretty much the same cores as MiST.

[Malor]

It seems to me that most of the information about MiST is already on other sites, so building a forum here probably isn't going to bring that knowledge under this roof. I think it would probably end up being mostly dead, and not particularly useful.

And, as aberu says, it does have a forum on AtariAge, so I'm not sure what a forum here would provide for them? I mean, I don't see any advantage for anyone, either MiST or MiSTer owners or developers. They don't benefit, we don't benefit.

[Newsdee]

Having both, I can understand the convenience of only using one forum.

But if a topic comes up that involves both (e.g.a comparison) it can always be discussed in the section for the core being talked about...

[Newsdee]

New run of MiST coming? It uofrades the RAM to 64MB, but retains fhe Cyclone III at 25K LEs:
https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=45

The FPGA size is a bit disappointing but it does keep binary compatibility with existing rbfs.

[Malor]

As expensive as those appear to be ($240?), you'd think folks would get into a minimal Mister setup at $330ish, and then add stuff over time.

[Newsdee]

As expensive as those appear to be ($240?), you'd think folks would get into a minimal Mister setup at $330ish, and then add stuff over time.

To be comparable we'd have to include RAM and a case to the MiSTer setup. That's closer to $450 nowadays

I wish there was a cheaper MiST variant, but it seems the Cyclone III chips are in limited sipply now (or maybe new old stock) so it would need a redesign. If that's the case, it would be hard to cut any margins over part costs.

[dmckean]

The days of sub-$200 pricing are over. Too much inflation has happened in that market.