Speaker 1 • 0:00
Well, um, we move on to the second talk of the day. Uh, we present the company Jotego, who are in charge of developing open-source hardware. Open parenthesis, FPGA core for MiSTer for classic games, okay? Classic games from the machines of the eighties and nineties, so that they can be played again today with the same original experience, okay? Um, the company Jotego has more than four thousand members on its sponsorship page, okay? The Patreon page. And right now, well, we have José Tejada here, who is going to talk to us about arcades without borders: history, technology, and culture between Japan and Spain. Good morning, José.
Speaker 2 • 0:41
Thank you, Jorge. Good morning. I am José Tejada, the founder of Jotego. We've already been working on this for a little over six years. We are... Now. We are a, a sm-sm-small little company that wasn't born with the intention of being a company, but there was so much sponsorship on, on the internet through Patreon, well, that in the end we became a small company and we dedicate ourselves to making conversions to, to FPGA cores of, mostly, arcade machines. The beauty of these conversions is that if you have enough information about the original system and you do the job well, you can have a truly one-to-one replica of everything that happens, uh, inside the system. It gives you the best experience possible, because it's basically like connecting the original equipment, except that you are using modern electronics that don't break on you right away and, in short, give you more, more conveniences. Today's presentation is not going to be so focused on, in itself, on, on the, on the development of, of the cores, the technical part, but rather we have put together some slightly more varied topics this time. We are going to start with a bit of culture about how this was experienced in Japan at the time and in comparison with how it was experienced here. That talk will be, will be given by Miki Saito. The second part is going to be about the reverse engineering work we do, especially with, with the boards. We always take the original boards and extract the schematics from the boards to be able to make an accurate conversion. And those schematics are then published openly so that everyone can use them for repairs, maintenance. That part will be given by Francisco Rodríguez. Then we will talk a little bit about video systems, a, uh, historical review of how they evolved. And that part maybe, well, for those who are more into game programming, might find it, find it simpler because they will know it, but even so, you're sure to find new things there. That part will be given by Rafael Saiva. And finally, we have had a collaboration for two years now with a secondary education institute that sends us students, and, and there I will present the work of this year's students, who have, have improved the graphics of some arcade games. And without further ado, I leave you with Miki [...].
Speaker 7 • 53:41
Thank you very much to everyone for the presentations. Questions that you would like to ask any of the speakers we have had.
Speaker 8 • 53:57
Hello. Well, I am Pablo, from Actualitas. I already know José from him coming around a couple of times or more than a couple of times to, to work. Here in Esperanza too. And well, since you are around giving some talks, and the truth is that, first of all, I want to thank you, because it is amazing each-- the work of yours that you do, the entire Jotego team, and that we can all enjoy it at home with this, with, with that intensity that we saw today, right? Because having a, a core of Street Fighter Two, for example, a Champion Edition at home, I mean, it's a dream come true for most of us. But anyway, uh, questions. Uh, well, in connection with the latest console that has come out, the NEOGEO AES Plus and such from Plaion and such, and the remake of, of the classic NEOGEO from the nineties, uh, last week, well, all the news came out and then we could read that the Jotego team was, was involved in the development of the chips, uh, ASIC [chips], right? Of, of the, of said console. Uh, nothing, well, simplySimply, well, to know a little bit. I imagine you have some kind of confidentiality so not much information can be given, but doubts arise in the community, like for example if the console, if it's going to be FPGA, if it's... They have already confirmed that no, that it's going to be, that they are going to be ASIC chips. And, but to what extent did you go in the design? Have you been involved? And how do you think the result of, of the console will be? Thank you.
Speaker 2 • 55:28
Thank you, Pablo. Well, it gives me great joy, because this new console is giving, uh, a lot to talk about. It is, it is a very beautiful project. Uh, the company making it is Plaion, I think it's a company from Austria. We usually work with a team they have in England, and, and the idea that already—they have made replicas of consoles before, but they were always in, in emulation. When they do it in emulation, they always have something that doesn't work, because the emulator is never perfect. Although sometimes, since they are dedicated chips, the experience is a bit better than a PC emulator, but in the end there are always compatibility issues and they are sick of that and say: let's do it for real. They considered doing it in FPGA, but once they saw the prices, it's actually cheaper when you have a large enough run, it's cheaper to make the chip directly. An FPGA is a chip that you can change and they are more expensive than the chips you make for a single thing. But what the center does in the end is the same, it is a digital function. So, of course, when it comes to doing it, they, well, they get all the licenses that are needed, starting with the SNK license. SNK reviews the project for them, gives them the okay, and, and then, well, they have to execute it. And as happened back in the day, if you look, all these companies like Sega, Nintendo, and all that, they didn't really have, or, or even now they don't have such powerful hardware development teams. They always, well, well yes, they [get] a, a little bit of what is outside too. And, and, and they contacted us, us because the NEOGEO core guide on, for MiSTer, well, it uses IP, our IP, right? Which, even though the, the IP is published as open source and has restrictive conditions that make it so that if you want to use it commercially you have to publish your code, it is inconvenient and well, they prefer to work, uh, well, well with, with the original developers. So it's a... Really, about the NEOGEO, well, I mean, basically everything is known. I mean, you can make a, an exact replica. It was better. It has been done with two chips instead of, uh, doing it with, with a single one or doing it with, I don't know if it was six or eight that the original had. It was decided to condense it into two chips because it's cheaper, because you have enough, uh, pins to be able to connect all the cartridges, because they are, those cartridges have, they don't have good pins, they are very thick. So it has been restructured like that. But come on, you can have the peace of mind that what is inside is, is what needs to be there. I mean, it doesn't matter if the original had eight chips, or if this one has two chips. It's like from the Mega Drive 1 to the Mega Drive 2. It does a little reorganization, but in the end it's, it's the same. It's going to have some features to, to enjoy it more on a mod-modern system. I mean, you expect to be able to have an HDMI connection. Mind you, for compatibility reasons, the good output will be provided by the RGB mode. You will connect the RGB mode to a CRT monitor and it will be the same as, as the original. The HDMI mode, for reasons of HDMI compatibility, well, I don't remember the exact detail, but there was, well, well you had to, ah, change a frequency a little bit. There was, there was, there was a little trick you had to do there to, to be able to have the HDMI video signal. But if you are a purist, well, you connect via RGB. And if not, in HDMI mode, I think the trick was only necessary to apply to a golf game, because in the others it wasn't necessary. Anyway, the HDMI signal is going to be very good. But of course, if you want to respect the original games, in the end you have to make a small adjustment so that the frequency is matched on the monitor [doesn't get out of sync]. And besides that, what else can I tell? The... Well of course, you have the advantage that all the peripherals are modern. You get to have a modern controller with buttons that work again. Of course, they are not, not, not from forty years ago. The memory cards are going to work, they are compatible with, with the original ones. You can use your old card in the modern system and, and vice versa. And, in short, it is a product that is, is very, very good. And, and they, well, they have, have been careful both to, to respect what SNK wants and to not violate any open-source license, and to really contact, to all the people from, from whom something has been used. And what has been used is because it is, is what is appropriate. No, there are no things that from a standpoint of fidelity shouldn't be there. [laughs] That's more or less it.
Speaker 8 • 60:13
I have more questions, but let the others ask. But I have more, huh, José?
Speaker 2 • 60:19
Ask, ask.
Speaker 7 • 60:20
What else can there be?
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