MiST and MiSTer: Two FPGA Boxes, Two Very Different Personalities

Both boards run classic computers as hardware-accurate FPGA cores rather than software emulation, but living with them side by side reveals they're not interchangeable, each one is simply better at certain jobs.

Division of Labour

• MiST for Atari ST, older and more limited in scope than MiSTer, but its ST/STE core is rock solid. It's the default choice for anything Atari, paired with a network-capable configuration for file transfers. I also run the MiSTery Core on it as a full backup for the Mega ST 4 "Low", with the entire SD card cloned from the UltraSatan.
• MiSTer for everything else, Amiga, DOS (via the AO486 core), and a huge library of other systems. Its Atari ST core, oddly, is the less reliable one of the two boards, reason enough to keep MiST around instead of retiring it.
• Native resolution ceiling, both boards only emulate the original Shifter chip on Atari ST: Low-Res (320×200), Medium-Res (640×200), and High-Res (640×400 mono). No ET4000-style graphics card emulation is on the table; a Falcon030 core with higher native resolutions has been rumoured for years without shipping.
• Known rough edges, accessory programs loading but not appearing on the desktop, and disabled XBOOT support, are still open items to chase down on the MiST side.

The takeaway after months of use: don't assume the shinier, newer board wins every category. Sometimes the "older" FPGA implementation is simply the more mature one for a specific chipset.