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.
• 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.