This howto assumes that you have the Quartus II software + USB-Blaster drivers (located in the Quartus program folder) installed. I’ve used version 12.1 sp1.
The provided USB-Blaster driver workes on Windows 8 x64
Download the POF & SOF file from Caro’s Website
Put your Altera DE1 in Programmode
Connect the power adapter to yout Altera DE1
Connect your Altera DE1 with the USB cable to your PC
First startup Quartus II
Select Tools -> Programmer
Click on ‘Hardware Setup’
From the pulldown menu select ‘USB Blaster [USB-*]’
* = the USB port your Altera is connected on.
Click Close
On the programmer screen click set mode on ‘Active Serial Programming’
Click on ‘Add File’ and select the downloaded POF file.
Tick the checkboxes Program/Configure & Verify
Then click on Start.
If everything is going Ok the right top corners statusbar will show 100% succesful
Now set the mode on : JTAG
Click Yes on the Device Warning
Click on ‘Add File’ and select the downloaded SOF file.
Click the Program/Verify checkbox & Click om Start.
If you see the green 100% succesful, your Altera DE1 is a MSX 😀
7 replies on “Howto : Flashing the Altera DE1 as a MSX”
Thank you for this very nice how to.
I’m thinking buy an Altera DE1.
The sound works on the DE1 sound out or will I need additional hardware?
Thank you!!
Hi Marcelo,
For the audio out, you’ll need additional hardware.
As you can read on my blog I’m working on a prototype expansion board that also has audio out.
On Caro’s website you can find the schematic on how to connect an oudio out to the GPIO pins.
Hi Erik,
Thank you for the answer!
[…] Por otro lado también encontré otro artículo donde también está bastante bien explicado ( http://www.msxinfo.net/2013/03/19/howto-flashing-the-altera-de1-as-a-msx/ ). […]
Anyone have luck loading cas files?
I’m having problems loading cas files (converted to wav) to DE1.
Typing bload”cas:”,r then I play the wav file and I see that it’s loading then all of a sudden part way through the load the screen clears and I get OK on the screen. game won’t start and never finishes loading.
Got it working. Is anyone making and selling the add on board to add Joystick, sound, and maybe cart slots for the DE1?
I’ve just followed your directions, and after I turned on the board it only works after pressing the reset button, is it normal? And I can’t make msx boot in msxdos… I’ve formatted a sd card and copied msx2bios.rom as the very first file (according to msx resource forum instructed to some buddies), then i added msxdos2 files, but no success…it only goes to basic, like no disk is inserted…. Have you got it working?