Double Dribble and Cabal just hit MiSTer and Analogue Pocket

Jose "Jotego" Tejada has released a massive new batch of arcade cores for the MiSTer FPGA and Analogue Pocket, bringing Double Dribble, Cabal, and a suite of Gaelco titles to the platforms. There are simply too many new games to fit in a single headline.

The highlight for many will be Double Dribble, the 1986 Konami basketball arcade game. The NES port sold over two million copies, but the original arcade hardware was much more advanced for its time. It had fast-paced five-on-five action, detailed sprites, and those famous cinematic slam dunk animations.

This new core was contributed by Andrea Bogazzi. Bogazzi worked on the schematics and implementation using an AI tool. Jotego provided reviews to ensure the final product hits the high fidelity expected from the JTCORES project. FPGA emulation is all about reconfiguring a physical chip to behave exactly like the original arcade board, so getting the schematics right is a painstaking process.

Cabal was a trivial addition

The JTTOKI core, originally contributed by Solal, just got a complete redesign. The goal was to make the core architecture closer to the actual physical PCB. Because of this structural overhaul, Jotego was able to easily add support for the 1988 gallery shooter Cabal.

Bogazzi had originally intended to work on the Cabal implementation. However, the core redesign made the addition so straightforward that Jotego just handled it himself. Cabal is a trackball shooter that spawned an entire subgenre, so having a highly accurate hardware-level recreation is a big win for the arcade community.

Four games from Spain

The update also introduces the JTGAE1 core, a multi-game core dedicated to Gaelco hardware. Gaelco was an arcade developer based in Spain, and their games have a distinct art style that stands out from the typical Japanese arcade releases of the era. They often have a slightly gritty, European comic book aesthetic that gives them a unique flavor.

This initial release supports four games: Thunder Hoop, Squash, Biomechanical Toy, and Big Karnak. Big Karnak is a 1991 side-scroller set in ancient Egypt. Biomechanical Toy is exactly as weird as the name implies. It is a 1995 run-and-gun game where you play as a hero fighting evil toys in a magical world.

All of these cores are available now for the MiSTer FPGA and Analogue Pocket, with some also compiling for other supported FPGA platforms.

Source: www.patreon.com