Analogue 3D Is An FPGA-Based N64 With 4K Output

Well, they could get me to actually pull the trigger for this.

How much are we talking about for this? I might be interested in this for the right price.

I'm curious to know how n64 fpga gameplay looks. Does it look closer to emulation or real hardware? Surely it doesn't have the blur filter of real hardware so it looks closer to emulation?

Ah, so roms are NOT supported on this system? I see

wink wink

My old tv is dying (I am replacing parts but that really lets me know that I am running out of time) so I’m looking at replacing my old hardware. Will start buying some of these next year I think. I do have the Nintendo, SEGA and Sony mini systems so I will start with this N64 replacement.

@Friendly What they mean is that there won't be onboard storage that can play roms. Flashcarts will obviously still work.

Fantastic. Now if they could focus on keeping their other stuff in stock that'd be be a miracle.

I still feel a bit burned from the Pocket. Firmware promises still not fulfilled. Shipping delays for years. The experience of dealing with them is so negative that I’m slow to give them business again.

ah! I was right (see earlier article) , now I win an Analogue 3D , won't I?

And 3D means the fpga is probably strong enough for lots of 32 bit systems...

Man I want powerful openfpga console from analogue so I can play other cores on it, like psone, saturn, and maybe dreamcast.

I have n64 back then, some of the games are the best games ever but man the games are expensive compared to psone so I don't have many games for it. I remember having mario 64 (of course), mario kart 64, starfox 64, golden eye, and that's it I think

It may be controversial opinion and I am not that of a fan of Nintendo if you exclude Game Boy and DS but I don't think the N64 has aged that well. Even back in the day some 3d games looked like a pixelated mess.

Still, I never got why Nintendo did not update Mario 64 with a full camera control which is too bad since the game is not outdated from a gameplay point of view. Even back in the day the idea felt limited to me.

N64 fans with money to spend will likely already have a Pixel FX HDMI modded N64. I think Analogue are late to the party with this product. Analogue should stick to making handhelds. Pixel FX have taken their home console business away.

While this is nice I believe it would be years from now that we see any shipping from them if pre-orders are taken. Also I would had expected them to attempt PlayStation FPGA first since that hardware is simplest to implement before N64 but I guess the N64 library is much smaller and easier to support so I could see their point. Still if this works out and I could play Ocarina of Time, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie, and Ogre Battle 64 in native HD (over upscale HD via NSO) then that's good enough to me.

Ooh, some people are going to be very excited about this.

But, it looks like they have made it basically impossible to play games like GoldenEye with two controllers at once with their gamepad design, which is a unnecessary loss imo. It doesn't even look particularly well laid out for playing Doom classic style either with the award position of the d-pad near the bottom center-left of the controller.

Very pleasantly surprised by this announcement as Kevtris (the guy who engineered the Super NT etc.) said a few years back that an N64 FPGA system was pretty much impossible.

I've got an American copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day that i've never been able to play yet.

Also hoping that the Switch N64 controllers might be compatible with it via bluetooth.

This makes me so happy- it’s crazy that I’m subscribed to Analogue’s newsletter and I saw no word of this. This is huge news to me so thanks for posting!
Im 100% getting this as I have no way to play my N64 because of the lack of inputs on my TV. Because Nintendo and Konami refuses to release Castlevania 64 and most of that other stellar N64 library I need to get this.
I also refuse to buy a good quality $300 converter box to play N64 games on HDMI— that’s insane. I tried a cheaper alternative off Amazon and the picture was flickering so bad and was also extremely dark. I’d kind of rather get this new piece of tech from Analogue for that large price.

I had a feeling that Analogue would be announcing an N64 console.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the N64 is not capable of RGB output. When I try using my Gamecube RGB SCART cable with my N64, it doesn't work. As far as I can remember, my RGB SCART cable does work with my Super NES.

So, I have to use a non-RGB SCART cable with my N64, and the picture quality on a modern LCD TV is pretty bad. Whereas the Gamecube with RGB SCART on an LCD TV doesn't look anywhere near as bad as the N64 does.

I am therefore certainly planning to buy one of these new consoles. It will be great to be able to play my N64 cartridges without the appalling picture quality.

@UK_Kev I’ve never been able to find someone to install it. If memory serves me well you can’t buy PixelFX as a consumer and you have to buy from an installer service or something. Or am I thinking of another N64 mod kit?

I can no doubt solder myself and have worked in electronics for years but I can’t find a way to get my hands on one… issues with stock/supply and even locating one in the first place is very difficult. Plus you have to ship your N64 off to some rando’s address for installation. If Analogue hits a good price point for this and it’s available easily, they’ve got me won over.

@ChromaticDracula
It's the Ultra HDMI N64 mod that needs to be ordered via a specialist. I've just had a quick look on the Pixel FM website. You can order the parts yourself.

Coming in 2024 my arse.

Analogue Duo was announced in October 2020, didn't even start taking pre-orders until more than 2 years later, and still hasn't been released.

This thing will be out in 2026 if you're lucky.

Those 8BitDo controllers will probably be pretty sweet, though.

@UK_Kev Ultra HDMI, you’re right, that’s the one …
I’m going to go check that out now, thank you! I think I’ve been there a few times over the years when I’ve felt “spendy” and it was never in stock.

not a fan of the n64, but i am intrigued as to how powerful the hardware is and the possibilities that may bring. once analogue makes an fpga that can run all games (including sideloading) from the 5th gen and down, i may jump at the opportunity to own one. seeing as a mister will cost you hundreds of dollars nowadays and will top out at the ps1, getting a slightly more powerful fpga that can also get saturn running would be the icing on the cake. such a device would kill 3 birds with one stone as you would not require: 1. the original hardware any longer 2. an external upscaler of any kind seeing as it will render up to 4k and 3. hdmi modifications of any kind on original hardware. exciting times ahead!

that analogue 3d logo looks awful. garbage.

i dont have the resources to even think about trying to get this company's stuff. a young, rich man's game.

PS - just skip the console and sell me that controller! i want it badly.

Yeah, I would love to buy it if, 1. price is good, 2. I don't have to wait 300 years to be able to find one without a pre-order.

So are the games themselves rendered in 4K, or is this just displaying the original resolution blown up to 4K?

Hope this doesn't become a Polymega situation....

I bet this thing will cost $300 and have no stock like normal.

My transparent green pocket just got delivered today and it’s incredible. Will buy one of these for my 64 collection for sure. I’ll just wait it out for a cool special edition, hopefully jungle green to match my pocket

This product is definitely not for me. The N64 is not among my favorite systems, to put it mildly. And while FPGA gaming is cool, I lost interest in the concept years before the Mister was a thing because software emulation is quite good and covers my needs well. I think some people get caught up in the idea of FPGA a bit.

But, the N64 is probably a good call as it is a system that is a bit more limited in its output and can benefit more from this treatment. Plus, they don't have to deal with optical drives for it, which could add complexity. I suspect they'll eventually go that route. It seems some of the N64 fans are excited about it. Hopefully it ends up living up to expectations and availability isn't an issue.

While I am a big fan of the N64 I can imagine this will be really expensive and in all honesty even though I have a large collection I can't say I go back too often to playing the games since I have played through all of the ones I wanted to years back and the library is so small it's not like I missed any hidden gems.

@HexagonSun And now they had to make 4K versions of the Analogue Nt and Super Nt as HD consoles looks horrible in 4K TV. This is similar to how SD consoles look horrible in HDTV. The better evolve TV gets, the more horrible the older devices look. If you still had an HDTV then you don't have anything to worry about but I think the world is not ready for 4K just yet especially when most are still getting use to HD. Older games themselves will also had to be remastered to 4K if they are already in HD.

I will keep an eye on this.

Colour me surprised! I genuinely thought with that preview image that this anouncement would be a Neo Geo. I didn't consider that gold on black on the image could be a Zelda hint... An N64 is a much, much more interesting proposal as emulation for N64 is nowhere near 100% perfect. However, I'm really hoping they add some kind of option to remove the blurring on pixel edges like some of the more expensive mods for actual consoles can. I'll wait for a review but I might be tempted to pull the trigger, as a properly modded N64 is expensive.

@KayFiOS I would guess it will be native N64 resolution upscaled to 4K. Analogue are usually quite good with accuracy and trying to add options to render games at 4K would likely cause problems with things like frame buffer effects.

I think the 4K output will be used to make the aperture grille on their CRT filters look as accurate as possible.

Hm maybe they should make an Analogue Station or Analogue Cast instead. N64 is so dated and you can play it (via emulation) on Switch so dunno

I have a feeling that there is even more to the Analogue 3D than even Analogue are letting on. I believe the choice of 3D rather than 64 or Ultra Nt is down to more than copyright concerns. What if the 3D contains a Trojan horse in the form of an extension port at the bottom that does more than connect to a 64DD. What if said extension port also allows the 3D to connect to a later-to-be release Analogue CD unit that plays PlayStation, Saturn and even Jaguar CD, 3DO and Amiga CD32 discs? What if Analogue also releases an top cartridge slot adaptor for Jaguar cartridges. All of this could be an FPGA f you to the Polymega.

Not really feeling it; they mention no openFPGA support. The N64 isn't really that nostalgic for me. I rather have a PS1 FPGA console instead 🤔 (RIP Discs tho)

But i know that N64 games are hard to emulate properly so using this with an everdrive might be cool.

@HexagonSun @Serpenterror This is why many retro devices (and retro-inspired games) go for 720p (which used to be called "HD compaitble" on tvs), and not 1080p ("Full HD"). Nintendo was wise to chose 720 for their Switch screens, though it initially may have seemed like they were cheaping out.

Ironically its the "full HD" 1080p that looks bad when upscaled to 4k, and also makes 240/480/720 content look bad when upscaled to it - non of them fit properly. Though its a common standard, it really is an ugly interim that was highly inadvisable.

The problems you described for only affect 1080p tvs/monitors, not 720p or 1440p. You wouldn't believe how much of a problem 1080p has caused me in both my day jobs producing movie content and videogames. Its the one common resolution that looks bad, everything else common works beautifully.

240p retro content is 3x scale for 720p... but 4.5x scale for 1080 tvs, either making the image soft, or requiring a border. Similarly, 720p content scales perfectly to 4K, but 1080 doesn't.