MiSTer N64 Core Complete!

 April 12, 2024  Posted in Friday Starter 246 Views

Update on baseball game compatibility with the MiSTer N64 core

When we last checked in on N64 game compatibility with the MiSTer FPGA, development had made huge progress and nearly everything was playable. But almost every game had small but immediately noticeable issues. Famista 64 would only run if you quickly skipped the intro movie. Mike Piazza’s Strike Zone and Power League 64 had unusually dark UI elements. All-Star Baseball games couldn’t boot at all.

Well, the developer Robert Peip of the N64 core announced he’s taken the core as far as it can go on the existing DE10-Nano hardware, and he’s moving on to making his own games. So with the N64 core at a stopping point, how does everything run?

I retested all the issues I found back in September, and… Everything is fixed. I played a few innings of each game and could find no issues to report. This is a great plug-and-play N64 gaming option now.

There are still some known issues with a few games, but only one very minor one is known to affect a baseball game, a slight hitch sometimes on the menu for Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr.

Especially given that an N64 core on the MiSTer hardware was considered impossible for so long, it’s a crazy achievement.

The core is now available through the canonical update_all script, so it’s much easier to get on your device and running now too.

Pawapuro 2024-2025 has a release date

The week started with some awkwardness with an ad behind home plate at an NPB game. The ad asked fans to pre-order the new Pawapuro and Prospi games now, even though that wasn’t possible yet.

Well, Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2024-2025 has finally opened preorders as of Wednesday, with the release date announced for July 18th. Some additional details were announced too: There will now be multiple versions of OB former players for different years of their career, most notably young NPB Ohtani and current MLB Ohtani. The three former NPB teams (Hankyu Braves, Nankai Hawks, Kintetsu Buffaloes) will also be in the game:

Epoch Casette Vision preservation

Another retro preservation/emulation note from a few months back: Gaming Alexandria put together this post summarizing work they’ve done for the Epoch Cassette Vision, an early ’80s Japan-only console. There are both scans and steps for emulating New Baseball, which I’ll have to get a recording of soon (since I don’t think I’m likely to have a real Cassette Vision I can plug in and play anytime soon). More really excellent work.

New Encyclopedia Pages

I’ve added a section to the front page of the encyclopedia for keeping track of 2024 baseball games, and most of the new pages this week are for those:

YouTube Viewing Guide

  • Bases Loaded 4 (NES) CPU vs. CPU Gameplay – Just a really nice-looking series, though I’ve never really enjoyed playing it. Unlike the earliest games in the series, 4 at least does a good job of getting the game completed in a reasonable amount of time.
  • R.B.I. Baseball 2 (NES) CPU vs. CPU Gameplay – I’m generally a fan of R.B.I. over Bases Loaded, but definitely R.B.I. comes off as the worse of the two between these two videos. The computer is so, so bad at fielding and at making smart throwing decisions. I can’t remember other games where the CPU will be so indecisive about throwing, doing things like throwing home to tag a runner out, only for the catcher to throw to first before tagging in vain hopes of getting a forceout. Yech.
  • Fantastic Baseball (iOS) Gameplay – I had higher hopes when I saw screenshots of this game, which has licenses for MLB, KBO, and CPBL. Unfortunately, it mostly keeps the leagues separate in-game, so it’s not as much of a free-for-all as I was expecting.
  • MLB 07 The Show (PS2) CPU vs. CPU Gameplay – The newer The Show games do themselves a disservice by defaulting to the “broadcast” angle for CPU vs. CPU games, I think. A video game can put the camera anywhere, but a real-life broadcast has to put it somewhere out in center field, so it probably won’t make for as nice of an angle.