Development on the Philips CD-i core for the MiSTer FPGA has seen significant progress recently, specifically regarding the accuracy of the Digital Video Cartridge (DVC). These updates, led by developer Andre Zeps (Slamy), focus on refining Full Motion Video (FMV) playback and system timing to more closely mirror original hardware.
Latest Core Improvements by Slamy
Slamy has implemented several low-level fixes to improve the stability and accuracy of the DVC and CD Interface Controller (CDIC):
- FMV Enhancements:
- Added a third MPEG macroblock worker core to increase computing power for pixel operations. This specifically resolves a known freeze in Star Trek VI during the shock wave scene.
- Improved the parsing of single-frame videos and added support for the VCD pixel clock, ensuring Video CDs (VCDs) display at their correct width according to the “White Book” standard.
- Corrected the NIS event logic, which prevents “soft locks” (freezing) in titles like Brain Dead 13 after the company logo.
- Hardware Timing & Accuracy:
- Updated VCUP and DCL IRQ (Interrupt Request) timing to match real hardware, resulting in expected behavior in the FMV Moving Test.
- Fixed metadata in the
MV_Statusregister (temporal references and frame rates) and ensured that missing DTS (Decoding Time Stamps) are replaced by PTS (Presentation Time Stamps) to match original unit behavior.
- CDIC Optimization:
- The core now stops reading from the HPS (Hard Processor System) when the driver is not requesting data. This reduces unnecessary IO load while maintaining support for resuming reads without a seek, a feature present on real hardware.
The Philips CD-i: A Multimedia Pioneer
Launched in 1991, the Philips CD-i (Compact Disc-Interactive) was envisioned not just as a game console, but as a complete home entertainment hub. It was one of the first systems to lean heavily into the “edutainment” and multimedia sectors, offering interactive encyclopedias and museum tours alongside traditional software.
Because of a unique licensing deal with Nintendo, the CD-i is famously home to several exclusive titles from the Zelda and Mario universes that never appeared on Nintendo’s own hardware:
- Hotel Mario
- Link: The Faces of Evil
- Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon
- Zelda’s Adventure
Other popular and technically impressive titles for the system include the cyberpunk adventure Burn:Cycle, the horror-puzzle classic The 7th Guest, and the platformer The Apprentice. Many of these titles require the DVC to handle MPEG-1 video decoding, which is the primary focus of the latest MiSTer updates.
You can grab the latest compile of the unstable version of the core from the MiSTer FPGA discord server.