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Tempest v1.1 — 4K-clean scaling, fills the screen, USB spinner

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@derpyder derpyder released this 02 Jun 01:48
· 2 commits to main since this release

First-ever Tempest core for MiSTer FPGA — v1.1.

What's new since v1.0

  • Fills the screen. The vector image now scales to fill the display (was a smaller centered image).
  • Clean integer scaling up to 4K. The framebuffer is 980×720, so it scales ×1.5 → 1080p, ×2 → 1440p, ×3 → 2160p (exact 4K) with no letterboxing. Optimized aspect auto-picks the best fit; Pixel Perfect is 1:1.
  • Real USB spinner support. The spinner/paddle device is now wired to the knob (MAME-accurate model). ⚠️ The developer doesn't own a physical spinner, so this path is implemented but untested on hardware — if you have one, please try it and report direction/sensitivity in Issues (both are one-line tweaks). The left analog stick and D-pad also rotate and are confirmed working.

Carries forward v1.0's flicker-free vector display (phosphor-persistence present-gate + OSD Persistence knob).

Install

  1. Copy Arcade-Tempest_20260601.rbf to _Arcade/cores/ and rename to Arcade-Tempest.rbf (keep just one).
  2. Copy Tempest.mra to _Arcade/.
  3. Required: put tempest.zip (MAME tempest) in games/mame/. The core will not run without it — ROMs are not included (Tempest © 1981 Atari).

Confirmed playable on real DE10-Nano hardware (1080p). Feedback welcome — especially from anyone with a physical spinner.