Analogue Announces N64 FPGA Console For 2024
Looks cool with 4k upscaling support. We'll have to see about price, since we have the Mister and the upcoming Mars to compare it to.
Looks cool with 4k upscaling support. We'll have to see about price, since we have the Mister and the upcoming Mars to compare it to.
Analogues consoles complement a mister, if you want a system that will play your games, and look good on your big flat screen tv then analogue do very very well
if you want more than that, sure a mister works but it's a lot more effort and work, especially if you are not familiar with linux.
different products for different kinds of people.
There’s a decent amount of mister kit sites that sell a complete set up. As far as having to know Linux I’m not sure it’s any more than you would for transferring roms to a sd card. Another thing mister has going for it is you can buy these preassembled “kits” today. Every time I get my eyes set on an Analogue system they sell out immediately and go onto eBay for much higher prices. Misteraddons today I can buy a complete set up (with a sd card pre-flashed) for ~$550.
I would be 100% all about analogue if I could buy a system. That being said maybe it’s just because I am interested in NES/SNES so those are the higher demand systems. I have a Mister but actually play more on my modded NES.
Like you said different products for different folks but I don’t think the barrier to entry for mister is very high anymore.
Ehh it's still very high. What you have to do with an analogue system to take advantage of the open fpga stuff is already too complex tbh.
It's easy to forget how difficult this stuff can be when you are knowledgeable on it. I used to be a developer on a very popular Linux distribution, and we dealt with this a lot. People have enough going on in their lives without having to understand how this stuff works.
That's why the analogue systems are so great, legitimately plug and play all your old games. If you wanna do more, mister is there and so is a 4 hour mlig video about how to do things with it
It’s easy to forget how difficult this stuff can be when you are knowledgeable on it.
This is SO true, when I rediscovered retro emulation a couple years ago Retroarch was an impossible-to-navigate mess. Now I know it very well but I try to remind myself that a lot of non commercial software is not at all obvious to many newcomers.
We'll see how Mars compares when that is released. The UI looks a lot more polished compared to the Mister.
I will argue most people buying these consoles will eventually want to play more than just original carts, which means more setup either via a jailbreak or everdrive. I'd say both of those are not any more difficult to set up than a prebuilt Mister.
I would probably argue the opposite. most people who buy an analogue device will use it s few times to relive some childhood memories than it'll sit on a shelf for a long time
For people that get engaged and want to do more, mister or a pocket with open fpga is a good next step. But most people just want to play the three nintendo games they loved
I'd argue that type of person would see the price of an analogue system, then proceed to go on eBay for an N64 and a cheap composite adapter.
Yup a lot do, or more realisticly just don't. But there are those that have the money for an analogue system (or a mister, they ain't cheap!) Hence why they sell
Dunno about that. Last time I checked it would depend also on the volume. How much would cost this FPGA alone around 1000 units.
Couldn't you just use an everdrive cartridge? Those can hold roms and even the actual N64 can use it.
So in theory an everdrive should (there was an issue with the pocket and some GB X7 due to a signal spike not present on the original Gameboy hardware). The main issue is that it's a pretty large additional expense if you want a seamless experience (the x5 requires pressing the reset button to save). Say when this comes out it's $350 with tax and shipping, which is pretty generous I think. You now have to spend an additional $200 for the cart to play roms. Now the choices in this price range are:
I see this appealing to N64 enthusiasts that don't already have a HDMI mod (current mods aren't cheap and require soldering to install) or people that really want to play their old carts for that nostalgia hit.
That's why I say "suppose it's $350 with tax and shipping". There are no details but if it's cheaper I would be surprised. Extra $200 is an x7
Didn’t know about that. Any way, I don’t think I’m the target audience for this device.
Agreed, even with the eventual "jailbreak" it would have to be priced around that. I think it will be more expensive since the N64 core is pretty large and it is supposed to support 4k.
At the bottom of the page "Analogue 3D does not support openFPGA 2". Unless this comes in at a competitive price Mister or Mars are a much better value proposition unless you're a die hard cart user.
It’s hardly a unique innovation. You have the same buttons and “modern” layouts, you get this.