The Console 138K arrived with a 32001C carrier and a 30354 1 GB SOM. The factory TangCore menu came up from the supplied card, the included controller navigated it, and NESTang and SnesTang switched cores.

Loading my own bitstream over JTAG took a detour: passing the packaged .bin files straight to openFPGALoader left HDMI black, and only the original .fs record boundaries load. The first NextTang image, colour bars and a moving logo at 720p, worked once the PLL matched the values a known-good Console design uses.

A lesson that would repeat: a timing-clean build that programs cleanly and shows nothing is the normal failure mode on this board.

Episode 2: We Got Our First Video Output from the Tang Console