nios II on old dev kit

Thanks for the info

I tried the evaluation version of NIOS II with SP1 together with Quartus 4.1 Sp2 Web Edition. To get NIOS II on the board I followed the description in the reference manual "Restore the Factory Configuration". There seems to be a problem with the LCD. It should display "NIOS II", however it displays nothing, in the upper line all pixels are set and the lower line is blank. I also compiled and run the board diagnosis program and all peripherals except for the lcd work fine.

If I renew my subscription I suppose I won't get the USB blaster which seems to be the only supported communication device for NIOS II. Looking at the cost of the subscription renewal and the usb blaster I think I can buy a complete new NIOS II dev kit.