Since its inception in 2017, the MiSTer FPGA project has grown to become one of retro gaming's most popular platforms. Harnessing Field-Programmable Gate Array technology, the system is capable of emulating a host of consoles, handhelds, computers, and arcade machines at a hardware level, offering incredible accuracy and low latency.
While the MiSTer project has repeatedly defied expectations over the years—many assumed it would never be able to run PS1, Saturn or N64, but it can—there's a limit to its powers, and with that in mind, we've seen prospective rivals mooted, such as the Replay2, the much-delayed MARS FPGA and the vaporware SuperSega.
It seems that the most viable entry point to the next generation of FPGA gaming hardware may come from Taki Udon, the man who made MiSTer FPGA more affordable via his MiSTer Pi system.
Taki Udon has revealed that he has spoken to Altera, the company that makes the Cyclone V FPGA chip found in the MiSTer FPGA and many other FPGA gaming platforms and is in talks about creating boards which will house the company's powerful Agilex 5 FPGA chip.
"Today, I had a good meeting with our Altera partner," said Taki Udon on social media. "I’ve decided that we will create Agilex 5 engineering boards in a modified MiSTER Pi form factor to seed to developers. I am considering adding a condition that the hardware becomes open hardware after a set time... IE, one year or as a guarantee if we can no longer produce the boards."
The post has triggered some justifiably excited responses, as this new chip will be capable of replicating the performance of more advanced consoles, such as the Dreamcast. Taki Udon says pricing will be dependent on which Agilex 5 chip is selected for production, but he says we should expect the price to be "1.5-3x the cost of MiSTER Pi," which currently retails for around $99.