@Silent_Gunner I don’t own a MiSTer but I have been keeping an eye on development for a few years (and own a couple of Analogue consoles).
The MiSTer hardware itself is very good, more powerful FPGA than those used in the Analogue consoles for example and capable of emulating a low spec 486pc (someone is currently trying to squeeze a PS1 core into the FPGA). As far as gaming hardware goes that’s around about where the ceiling is theoretically.
The MiSTer DE10 nano hardware is only cheap because it’s subsidised by Intel who want to promote FPGA development to engineers, students etc.
Arcade cores are very interesting/promising, there are early arcade games eg. Arkanoid, Dig Dug, classics like Ghosts n Goblins, CPS1 games, NeoGeo and more. Some excellent stuff.
There are computer cores eg. Amiga, Atari, MSX, PC etc. The Amiga is based on a project (MIST) which has been around for some time, since before the MiSTer project was started.
There are handheld console cores and a lot more.
The strength of the MiSTer imo is in its open source nature and community, talented developers supporting users playing, testing, reporting, etc.
FPGA implementations usually have lower latency than software emulators running on PC or consoles. Hardware is quite often prototyped on FPGA boards (chip design etc) so they’re naturally a good fit for emulation of older consoles, computers etc. It’s not automatically better than software emulation (Analogue’s ‘no emulation’ claims are just marketing bs) but when well designed... There are some very accurate consoles/cores which maybe the best way to play, next to bsnes grade emulation and original hardware.
MiSTer is leading when it comes to FPGA console core accuracy (and value by far)...
PCE core is supposed to be superb, MD/GEN core with cycle accurate 68000 and practically perfect sound emulation designed/tested using mdfourier,
SNES core with excellent compatibility (Super FX, SA-1, etc) and very accurate sound emulation again designed/tested using mdfourier.
byuu’s bsnes is still the benchmark/reference SNES (latency depends on the PC).
Super Nt’s sound was recently tested and (spoiler) wasn’t ‘Reference Quality’. It wasn’t as good as MiSTer, bsnes or even Snes9x
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&time_continue=1243&v=V3yWXVAZgO0
The Mike Matei electrons thing was funny but there’s a lot of misunderstanding plus nonsense being pushed by Analogue and fanboys.
Main issue with Analogue apart from the bs is the support/updates. They knock software emulation in their marketing but release console/core, claim it’s already perfection and move onto the next thing. They should support too because Super Nt has bugs, Mega Sg has bugs.
MiSTer is always being improved and updated.
Analogue’s consoles are beautiful though, I love the design/aesthetics and they’re better than most if not all the other clone consoles.