Beyond The Scanlines Extra

The Spectrum Next is one piece of amazing kit. Whether you're exploring the library of classics released for the original hardware, enjoying modern titles designed to take full advantage of its capabilities, or perhaps taking some to get acquainted with its dialect of BASIC… I'm sure you'll agree it's quite the special piece of hardware.
But there's one feature which isn't discussed all that much: taking advantage of its FPGA to load alternate cores, transforming your Next into a variety of other microcomputers, consoles and even arcade machines. This video helps to clear out some of what it takes to get these up and running (at least at the time of recording in September 2020), showing what you need to do, how to install them… along with showing some of the cores in action as well.
Obtaining Cores:
● Victor Trucco's Gitlab repository is the main hub for them: gitlab.com/victor.trucco/zx-s...
● The BBC Micro/Master core (and the MMB image) can be fetched from Hoglet's Github repository: github.com/hoglet67/BeebFpga
Support Pages & Groups:
● The official multicore docs on Spectrum Next homepage: www.specnext.com/multicore/
● The Spectrum Next "Unofficial" FPGA Cores group on Facebook: / 203350050750409
More about the Spectrum Next
● Issue 2 Kickstarter (which ends Thursday, September 10): www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
● My previous video talking about the Next a few months in: • Beyond The Scanlines E...
Gameplay recorded from a Spectrum Next - BBC Micro and Arcade cores are direct capture from HDMI, with the Intellivision Core captured from the Next's RGB output in an XRGB-Mini. The Colecovision core footage was filmed from the screen from the Next in HDMI mode.
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Thanks for watching!
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[@BeyondTheScanlines]

A heads-up for those receiving Nexts from the KS2 Campaign - as of Dec 2023, multicore support isn't enabled for these machines due to hardware changes, so the steps in this video won't be compatible. As things update - which will require both updates to the main Next core, alongside rebuilding all existing cores, I'll do a follow-up episode. Though it should be noted that things haven't changed much in the window since this video was originally filmed, so the Next's support is limited compared to other FPGA platforms.

[@VictorTrucco]

Thanks for sharing!

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Thanks for all your work in general with them. Can't wait to see some of the stuff you've got in progress when it's ready.

[@geezerdiamond]

Really interesting video. I was only vaguely aware of alternate cores. I’ll have to have a good look at them now 👍

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Glad you found it helpful - after my own experience playing about with them, I wasn't entirely thrilled with the info out there, so I thought putting together a piece like this might be real helpful to other folks as well :)

[@jamesroberts7339]

Victor is starting to add a rotate option to his arcade cores which is great. Press “R” on Galaxian and Pac-Man to rotate screen to match your display.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Gosh, I don't believe I honestly missed that when reading the docs. That certainly does change things - being able to rotate those cores elevates them up in usefulness for sure.

[@milankowww]

Great work, it must have been a challenge with all the different video formats.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

To be honest, not really. But I've been using a pretty consistent setup for quite a number of years now - so getting systems hooked up for capture isn't that much a challenge for the most part. That being said, there are plenty of them where some challenges are still present - and it's always a case of finding out the right solution to be able to handle them properly. Whether it's upgrading capture kit, or finding new upscalers where appropriate :)

[@jamesroberts7339]

I also just wanted to thank you, Rob. These sort of videos are a lot of work as some of the cores could be videos in themselves. (I’m looking at you MSX and BBC).

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

There was only so much I could get done with this, that I had to leave a few by the wayside. I'd certainly like to do an update in a few months maybe, particularly when some of the other cores in development are released. I know I'm *seriously* looking forward to the 2600 one. Especially if it can run the newer homebrew stuff (which I have a lot of issues with running on real hardware right now for various reasons).

[@NobleKale]

Seems like a good bit of kit

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Is Next, is Great basically. Pretty much been incredibly thrilled since it arrived in the old office, and certainly has been getting a lot of use. And a lot of manual reading… 'cause I'm wanting to poke about with writing some games on it :)

[@ttrjw]

This is excellent. I have ordered a Next in KS2 and am looking forward to playing with it using other cores.

[@TheBroz]

Great video dude, comprehensive and well presented. Thank you for putting in the effort.

[@nou9964]

Sir, I want to take a moment to thank you. I've been struggling to get the NES (or any) core working since I received my N-Go, and absolutely nowhere does it say that you have to rename the file of the core to core.bit. Everything works now. Thank you so much!!

[@cthutu]

The BBC core damaged my monitor leaving it with a ghost image of some BBC graphics. Other than that, it is well implemented.

[@woodsmal]

Thanks for the review - nice to have all that detail in one place. I didn't know there was a PS/2 socket. Do you use the PS/2 keyboard to play the arcade cores ? Changing the PS2 value switches from keyboard to mouse ? Do you use a mouse with the Next ? A FAT16 formatted card is a little weird - FAT32 seems to be the standard and finding smaller SD cards can be difficult. The smallest you can walk in and buy is 16GB.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

The PS/2 socket supports both - the original Next development boards were designed to be either standalone (and thus needing an external keyboard to be connected), or cased in a modified 48k Spectrum case. As it's the same OS distribution, the switch has to be provided to be support both systems. Thankfully, outside of the computer cores, you don't need to hook a keyboard up - they only need it as the Next doesn't have enough keys by default. The arcade cores use it like MAME, with a few keys to add coins or start the game, as well as rotate the screen & other stuff. I think those are playable from the keyboard as well, but I didn't try - preferring to use a joystick for maximum fun :) As for the card format, I'm stumped as to why they don't support FAT32 either. The Next itself does (I have a single card which houses all my classic Spectrum software and the Next games which are out right now), and I'm hoping it's a left over from where these cores were originally set up - being ported from other platforms.

[@MattLacey]

I really want to get one of these things but don't have to time available to justify the cost! Maybe if they do a third round...

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

It's a tough choice - 'cause I fully understand that front, but at the same time… it's hard to know if there's gonna be a definitive third run :( As it's all open, there are plans for third parties to produce boards, and those'll fit into modified version of the original 48k Spectrum case… so that might be an option down the line :)

[@SimonEllwood]

Maybe add a link to the next page on the New FPGA wiki?

[@trinodx]

Do you need a full size keyboard with numeric keypad for the extra cores, or can you use one without the numeric keypad?

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

From memory, I don't think any of the cores rely on the keypad, though I'm not sure there are PS/2 keyboards about without them. I guess I can only say to double check in the core documentation before you download and install to be safe.

[@trinodx]

@@BeyondTheScanlines Thanks for getting back to me. Perixx make 'modern' PS2 peripherals and I just happen to have one of their keyboards sans the number pad. Thus my question. Cheers.

[@SimonEllwood]

A lot of the arcade cores have a rotate option so you do not need a portrait screen.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Yup. This was pointed out to me by another viewer - it's a feature which I missed in my review of the docs as I was setting things up. Certainly one I am glad is present.

[@MrMurdock2021]

Have you thought of doing the cpc cores

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Not really. There's not been much activity on the cores since I did this, and the CPC is a machine I don't really have much time for.