Razieluigi

I'm somewhere between the first two response. I'll still buy an original copy now and then if it's a game I love and the price isn't crazy. There's still something that feels special about playing off a real cartridge, even if it's a purely psychological trick.

But flash carts have opened up so many other possibilities in recent years. Sure, things like translations and mods. But also just easy access to games that are either too expensive or otherwise not worth buying (maybe I just want to see how bad Super Pitfall is for myself?).

All that said, I think the proliferation of MiSTer and high-quality FPGA consoles and cores will make them less important. It's getting easier to just fire up the Analogue Pocket, plop in in the Dock, and play whatever the hell I want.

@SonOfDracula I believe there's skepticism that the Pocket FPGA could handle PS1 or newer, so probably not.

But I'm not an expert on any of this stuff. People much smarter than me are busy porting cores to the device and have a better understanding of what it might be capable of.

@SonOfDracula Emulation is pretty extensive already via FPGA cores. Most classic consoles up through the NeoGeo are working really well, and there's a reasonable selection of arcade games that I hope keeps expanding.

It's the least user-friendly of Analogue's consoles so far, and I think they overcomplicated things with their half-baked "Analogue OS", but now that it's been opened up to external developers, it's a really nice device.

@SonOfDracula They're still available. New Pocket orders are supposed to ship "sometime this year", but Analogue isn't great about keeping to any schedules (or informing their customers about it) so take their estimates with a grain of salt.

I wouldn't call their consoles "super-limited" but they do eventually stop manufacturing them. The Mega SG and Super NT are still available, although this is the final run of Super NTs.

Speculating about whether or not EWJ4 is ever coming to the Amico is like speculating about whether a leprechaun would ever ride a unicorn.

Nice. I still have my original GCN Hori pads and love them.

Plus it's nice to have them around in case I ever need a kidney transplant or something.

Why is everybody fixating on how strange it is to own 26 copies of Wario Land 4 but just casually accepting a supply of 19 GBAs?

Had to go with SNES. While controllers have made obvious advancements since then and the SNES pad would be useless for most modern games, it's also the last time a first-party controller had a legitimately great d-pad, and that breaks my heart. It's such an afterthought on modern controllers, even when Nintendo makes them.

The N64 votes are baffling. That controller was the weirdest combination of forward-thinking and hopelessly backwards. They correctly recognized the need for an analog stick and a d-pad, but just couldn't imagine why the player could ever want to reach both at the same time. What a mess.

Don't fight it, Amico. Just let go. Ouya is waiting for you on the other side.

@KingMike Yeah, I just don't think it matters for most games.

In vertical mode, the Analogue's d-pad and face buttons correspond 1:1 with the WSC, and the A & B buttons are inaccessible and not really used. In some odd case where they were, they could easily be mapped to L/R.

And in horizontal mode, same thing. The "extra" d-pad is either not used at all, or is used for ancillary functions that can likewise be mapped elsewhere.

Regardless, the core is coming, so I'm sure these things have been considered. His other cores on the Pocket are excellent.

Maybe they should let the corpse of the VCS cool off before anyone tries to get us excited about more concept renders of Atari-branded hardware.

@KingMike Shouldn't be a huge challenge to include a screen rotation feature that remaps the controls accordingly.

I refurbed and modded a Dreamcast with a MODE last year, and it's a crown jewel in my collection.

The Dreamcast is fascinating because while it was very forward thinking with things like a built-in modem, it was also the last console that primarily looked back to the arcades for inspiration. Once the PS2 came out, "bringing the arcade home" was no longer a guiding principle for home consoles.

And that really makes the Dreamcast special. It's the most advanced console that really embodies that old-school spirit, and that makes it an absolute pleasure to experience even today.

This is a great list. If I could add one more game, it would be Cannon Spike — an absolutely daffy arcade shmup just bursting at the seams with Capcom fanservice.

Nice. Always down for more Aleste.

But where are all the horizontal shooters at? I don't understand how vertical shooters managed to become all the rage after all the TVs went widescreen.

That's what happens when your entire plan is to hire one really good industrial designer and hope the device will be so gorgeous that nobody notices it doesn't do anything.

Dishonored would be such an easy pick seeing as it's one of the best games ever made, but I just don't associate it with Christmas at all.

Christmas is cozy, cuddled up under a bit fleece blanket with a portable console.

And for that, Awakening is too good to ignore.

While it definitely has a few issues, it's remarkable how much they got right on the first outing. Extraordinary game.

@LillianC14 Yeah, the Dreamcast arrived right at the tail end of the era when consumers expected the "bits" to climb every generation despite not knowing what they meant or whether they were accurate.

Funny that this article ran the day after the one on numbering console generations.

Doesn't bother me. It's a loose categorization, but so are human generations (what are the precise boundaries for Gen X?).

I just use the NES and SNES as my guide. Each one has the same number of letters as their numerical generation, and then I can count up or down from there.

@AstraeaV Clearly not. New units need to be manufactured to replace the stolen ones. Can't just will them into existence.

Can't say I have strong feelings on the matter, but I probably have the fondest memories of component cables. It was a perfect storm at the time — TV size and quality were improving rapidly, I was just getting out of school and had disposable income, and the HD era was just dawning. After that, things became so standardized with HDMI that retro gaming enthusiasts must be the only people left on the planet who even think about any of this anymore.

Plus I had the foresight to order component cables for my GameCube back in the day. Never would have predicted that 20 years later they'd be one of the most expensive gaming artifacts I own.

Fantastic article!

You guys are really setting yourselves apart from the herd with stories like this. Thank you.

TLDR; Great collection, but everyone is bafflingly disappointed that [short list of licensed games that clearly had absolutely no chance of being included] weren't included.

@Piyo Good call. I always forget that MiSTer doesn't do save states.

Pretty cool, but also kind of pointless?

It's hard to imagine a lot of scenarios in which you'd be playing a patched ROM but also don't have access to save states.

Can't wait for that Zeddemore patch, though!

Tested this out last night and it works great!

Can't wait to see CD support added down the line. I could really use a better way to get my Rondo of Blood fix.

Fantastic interview!

I love this game so much. It's easily my personal favorite "golden era" arcade game, and the timing of this article is uncanny. I just ordered the mini-cab from New Wave a few days ago, and Warren Davis's book to go with it!

Aaaaaand I just impulse-bought the Q*Bert one.

Very cool. I might have to look into this for my Genesis games. I have so many of them, and unfortunately ditched all the boxes years ago (a huge mistake that I've regretted since).

For me it would definitely be the Saturn since it's a hole in my hardware lineup.

A Dreamcast would be great but I already have two, one of which has a MODE installed.

Some wacky game about a witch with guns strapped to her feet.

That's fine with me, and it's not like people who really want to play the original version don't have plenty of avenues to do so.

Although I think a better solution might have been to reskin the sprite to preserve the gameplay.

Yeah, Tempest alone makes this an insta-buy as long as they didn't botch the emulation.

@d0c No, unfortunately. You can run software off it, and it can be used for firmware updates. So it's nice for new homebrew games or titles you just forgot to put on the HDD.

I keep hoping an update will add that functionality, but I haven't seen much evidence that Terraonion is actively updating the MODE anymore. I think it's been over a year since the last firmware release.

It's a solid device. But I wouldn't hold my breath on it learning any new tricks.

But can they play Crysis?

@belmont Yeah, I've fussed around with a lot of output options. I have an Akura from BeharBros which is nice, but I'm honestly not sure the image is appreciably better than the one I get from a simpler and cheaper Pound HD cable.

I have a MODE and it's really fantastic. It's pretty easy to install and works perfectly, although I highly recommend getting a 3D printed mount from LaserBear Industries. It makes it much easier and safer to use, and the external SD slot gives you the ability to run software you may not have put on the HDD without disassembling everything again.

Thank goodness. This is especially nice for all those old Gameboy games that make frequent use of start and select.

Yeah, I'm looking at you Link's Awakening.

Now if they'd just give FPGA developers access to all those sweet display settings and get the Dock outputting video correctly, I'll almost be ready to forgive the embarrassing rollout of Analogue OS so far.

That is awesome.

I'd love to own an original Q*Bert cab someday, but it's not likely to happen.

@Luigi05 Not only was there Slalom on the NES, it was Rare's first game on the platform!

Prior to that, they had done a few games on the ZX Spectrum under a different company name.

I mean... people aren't actually upset about the voice acting, right?

People just don't like Pratt. And for valid reason — he's repeatedly said problematic things and affiliated himself with problematic groups. But they're clearly taking that distaste and redirecting it toward his work, whether or not that work really deserves it on merit.

We've heard like three understated lines so far. And from that very limited evidence, it sounds like he's going for a low-key Brooklyn Italian affect, wisely steering clear of getting too hammy with it. Two hours of WOOHOO ITSAMEE would be ear poison.

The trailer looked great.

@Hordak This is a can of worms, but it depends on how you define emulation. I'd argue that yes it is emulation, but not in the traditional sense of emulation using software to try to emulate a hardware environment.

These are cores that program the console's FPGA to directly mimic the hardware in question. If the core is accurate, then the Pocket essentially becomes an NES without a layer of software emulation between the player and the game.

Because if there's one thing that history has taught us, it's that supporting pie-in-the-sky hardware projects with improbably ambitious design goals is always worth it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be inside playing my ZX Spetrum Vega+ while waiting for my Atari VCS to show up.

Very excited about this. I have a huge Genesis library, and no great way of playing them until now.

I feel like SNES games have been so well represented on Nintendo hardware over the years that I don't have as big a need for the Super NT. But the Genesis has kind of been forgotten outside of a few VC releases, and official compilations have been emulated like trash except for M2's work on the Ages line.

I'd love it if Analogue revisited the NES some day with the lessons they've learned working on these FPGA alternatives.

@Jokerwolf My Amazon order says Feb 28, but not sure if that's a placeholder date or not.