Get N or Get Out.
Most probably know Analogue as “that company what releases the Pocket constantly as limited releases meaning nobody can ever get their hands on it”. Well, this time they’ve set their sights on something worthy of the challenge.
The N64.
While N64 emulation has come a long way in the past 3-5 years, the value of an FPGA solution for the system is still quite high. And that’s mostly due to how many little things were packed under the hood that are still hard to emulate. And it still takes more processing power to emulate the N64 than its major competitor at the time, the PS1, though with modern architecture, that’s an issue that’s mostly moot for the bulk of the system’s library.
Dubbed the Analogue 3D, Analogue’s new box will offer some excellent quality of life upgrades to the experience. Native HDMI output, 4K resolution, original display modes, and “Reference quality recreations of specific model CRT’s and PVM’s”. It supports Bluetooth controllers, which they’ve partnered with 8bitdo to create specifically for the Analogue 3D (though I imagine more conventional controllers will also pair with it). It also supports 2.4g, in addition to having 4 original N64 controller ports.
Unlike the Pocket, however, the Analogue 3D will not feature OpenFPGA. That software was meant to “preserve video game history”. The Analogue 3D will not be able to run ROMs, but it will be 100% compatible with the full N64 library. So if you’ve got the carts, they’ve got the means to run them.
While that is a shame, as I doubt you’ve got, say, the roughly $1100-$8499 genuine copies of Clay Fighter Sculptor’s Cut commands on the secondary market, it does mean that your old carts will run, as long as they’re in good nick. It also means that particularly fiddly games, like Goldeneye 007, will run exactly as well as they did back in the day. Most importantly of all, however, is that it will give you a means of playing these games on modern displays that doesn’t require you to modify the limited, aging stock of original hardware for modern output.
There aren’t any hard dates, yet, but the Analogue 3D launches sometime next year.
Source: IGN
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