[Lain]

Calling you a mad scientist is an understatement, but this is actually a genius idea. Literally just use one relatively powerful FPGA to manage video output, but use a different FPGA expansion card to simulate a type of console, since that's been proven to work incredibly well so far.

Visual concept: image found online of expansion boards:



The back two sets of pins are connected together BTW, top board is a cheap Altera CycloneII board, and AFAICT the bottom one is powered by a Spartan 6 from xilinx.

But you see the idea, the bottom one has the audio and VGA output, but is fully connected to the top one.
You could solder the proper connector for the console emulated to the (front) pins visible in the top board to actually power/get data from the cartridge.

The only limitations I see as of now:
--Although good for CPU tasks, any sort of GPU/graphics manipulation on an FPGA is mediocre, so it's not scalable past the PSX at best.
--Power supply is probably an issue because separate power needed for each card.

But definitely worthwhile to try out.
I wish FPGA's weren't so goddamn expensive. Not to mention Xilinx and Altera are both known to scour GitHub and the rest of the open-source internet and send takedown requests for any code sample that is used on one of their boards (not even the source of the board, just source that can be compiled onto their boards.) So learning to use FPGA's is quite a bit harder for anyone who self-teaches :/