Games On Mars
As more and more people discover emulation the offerings available to everyone continues to expand. One of the newest and most exciting projects on the horizon is MARS FPGA, a high-end machine that’s in the works, and uses FPGA based emulation—as the name suggests.
MARS has just had a few new images of the machine release on the project’s official X account, and things are looking even more interesting.
First and foremost, the MARS is supposed to be a more powerful alternative to the MiSTer, the multi-system FPGA emulation machine of choice today. Although the people at Analogue have their own rage of FPGA systems out there, the MiSTer offerers emulation of a massive collection of different systems in one machine. Unfortunately there is a ceiling to just how much power you can squeeze out of the current crop of the MiSTer with it’s current hardware. That’s where MARS is promising to improve things. Not only is MARS promising more power, but the new images and information from the team behind it has revealed that the new emulation machine has undergone a redesign: now it can accept cartridges from your old consoles via add-ons. That might sound familiar to another emulation machine we’ve finally been able to get our hands on recently; the Polymega. Not only is MARS aiming to integrate official games into the system, but original pads are in line for the same treatment, with one image showing N64 ports hooked up and ready for some 4-player split-screen.
This is all still for the future of course – MARS hasn’t even released yet – but if the aspirations of the people behind this ambitious project come to fruition we could be seeing some big developments in the emulation scene.
Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Returning to the black hole that is Football Manager.
