Analogue just announced its latest console, the Analogue Duo. The company says that the system is region-free and "compatible with nearly every NEC system and game format ever made", including the TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine, SuperGrafx, TurboGrafx CD, PC Engine CD-ROM and Super Arcade CD-ROM. Like the company's other hardware, the Duo plays games from the original hardware rather than ROMs and is using a specialty hardware chip called an FPGA, which operates on a transistor level implementation of its functionality.

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The system features a cartridge slot and CD-ROM drive which supports Hucards, TurboChips, CD-ROM, SUPER CD-ROM and ARCADE CD-ROM. It also supports both wired and wireless controllers via Bluetooth or 2.4g.

More details on the console is available in the source link below. The Analogue Duo will release in 2020 in limited quantities and is priced at $199.

SOURCE

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

$200 is like an insane price for what you get, the TG16 alone usually comes around that much, and adding CD is way hella expensive.

This is definitely a must-buy for anyone who liked the TG16 for sure.

 

[duwen]

Yep - it's for sure a bargain compared to the prices of a comparative OG hardware setup... just a shame that the library of games is so goddamn expensive, although I presume it will run cd-r's.

 

[Panzerfaust]

Wow...I like it. Nice price too

 

[Silent_Gunner]

This almost looks like one of the designs for the CD-i.

Aren't all of these analogue devices basically just a MiSTeR made to run "official" games on "official" discs/cards/cartridges/whatever? I don't know much about the former, but I do know emulators are made for it, including some arcade stuff to some degree.

 

[Foxi4]

I really hope this is FPGA-based since getting NEC hardware in good condition is already an expensive endeavour. In fact, it must be, considering the fact that it's actually cheaper for what you get. Nicely done!

 

[spotanjo3]

I would buy it if it was in 1990's but 199 dollars in 2020's ? You are better off buying 2000's consoles instead. Insane and a rip off price.

 

[Prans]

I really hope this is FPGA-based since getting NEC hardware in good condition is already an expensive endeavour. In fact, it must be, considering the fact that it's actually cheaper for what you get. Nicely done!

they did mention that it's FPGA-based

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I really hope this is FPGA-based since getting NEC hardware in good condition is already an expensive endeavour. In fact, it must be, considering the fact that it's actually cheaper for what you get. Nicely done!

All of Analogue's products use FPGA's AFAIK, that's basically their "design philosophy", to "preserve" retro consoles using modern hardware techniques vs emulation, which is real neat.

 

[Rahkeesh]

This is decent but I can't help but wonder "where is PC-FX?" I mean you're 90% of the way there.

The real news is that all these games are coming to the Pocket as well, via a $30 adapter for hucards. Makes me wonder about the hardware supporting SNES and Genesis even if they don't want to release cart adapters.

I guess we can also see 8bitdo getting double duty from their PCE controllers.

 

[Bladexdsl]

yeah fuck off with this overpriced emulator in a box i'll stick to FREE emulators on my shield tv pro!

 

[deSSy2724]

When will be the SuperNT and Pocket be in stock again?

 

[skydancer93]

Never cares too much for their products and MiSTer usually does everything, but for $199? Yeah I’m buying this damn thing....

 

[Kioku]

yeah fuck off with this overpriced emulator in a box i'll stick to FREE emulators on my shield tv pro!

At some point, you'll look back at this and ask yourself "Am I really this fucking stupid?" Short answer? Yeah... Hopefully by now you know that Analogue products are much more than your run of the mill emulator. Then again, you're a pirate.. So any excuse to indulge yourself I guess?

 

[djpannda]

$199.00 imm so happy

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

PC-FX? Also just get a mister lololol

 

[J-Machine]

PC-FX? Also just get a mister lololol

this is for people who want to use their original media.

 

[godreborn]

this is a must buy for me. I have my grandfather's original turbo grafx 16 with cd attachment. the cd rom is very finicky at times. it still works after 30 years, but you have to play with it for a bit for it to work well.

I think the cd rom of the turbo grafx could play Japanese games and burns by default. cd burners were around at the time, but extremely expensive ($500+ iirc). hucards, however, were region locked. I saw a video of making a turbo grafx completely region free. I think it had you doing something to the teeth of the cartridge slot. I don't remember if it was snapping certain ones off or soldering, but I'm thinking it was soldering.

 

[Deleted member 397813]

YES. YES. AND YES.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

At some point, you'll look back at this and ask yourself "Am I really this fucking stupid?" Short answer? Yeah... Hopefully by now you know that Analogue products are much more than your run of the mill emulator. Then again, you're a pirate.. So any excuse to indulge yourself I guess?

Here's my thing about the MiSTeR (is that how you're supposed to spell it?):

Outside of the price to get everything for it (which, thanks to some financial backing from Intel, isn't as much as it should be to buy), how much can the device cover, and what's the ceiling with the hardware for it? AFAIK, the RAM expansion for goes up to 128MB, which is impressive that it tries to do so much with so little, but they only recently have started emulating the Neo-Geo (and I have to ask, is it the AES or the MVS? Is Neo-Geo CD support planned for the future? How about arcade emulation in general?)

Not to mention, but it seems like the MiSTeR is really good for gaming, and that's about it. Needless to say, it's neat that it's got a focus towards a topic this forum's concerned with, but compared to something like a RPi4 or any of ODroid's SBC offerings, what makes the MiSTeR really that much better outside of providing better support for CRTs, less input lag (something I noticed that can be pretty yikes-worthy on both the XU4 and the RPi4, even with a wired controller like the Fighting Commanders from HORI), and something more "authentic?"

And last, but most certainly not least, how does any FPGA stack up against the best emulator on a PC, with no concern for someone's hardware, regardless if the emulator has a core in RetroArch or is better being used standalone from a performance/accuracy perspective, and could software emulation eventually outpace even the best efforts at accuracy by an FPGA?

I remember, around the time the Super Analogue NT came around, and you had that one facepalm inducer known as Mike Matei and Ryan (y'know, James Rolfe could go solo and no one would bat an eye) saying that emulation has to do with electrons, and a certain author of a certain SNES emulator said that, while the Super Analogue NT is a good option for those looking for the "legit" experience, it can't quite achieve the same accuracy as what can be replicated in software, hence my inquiries injury into these kinds of devices and how "accurate" they can be if given the maximum effort?