VideoGame_Discussion

F5 F5 F5 ...

Still available. Probably not as popular as their other products.

Yea, I almost wanted to get a pocket, but just can’t see myself playing enough tho, looks cool tho

Moving to VG discussion since this isn't really a marketplace topic

I thought about buying two of them to scalp, but I'm not convinced these are going to be as high in demand as other products.

By far the coolest system they’ve done imo. People just don’t know much about it if they weren’t 90s gamers. PCE rivals nes as goat system for me.

Feeb wrote:

I think it's really cool that it's the first system they offered with CD capabilities.

Pre orders still open ... either they finally figured out how to manage demand, or there isn't a huge one ...

Honestly, either one of those would be surprising.

It would be interesting to know if any new NEC gamers picked one up. There were not a ton of TG16 and Duos in the US compared to the more established names. For me, I just wanted a solid back up option to play my games in case something happens to my Duo. Demand just might not be there.

I’m seeing Twitter posts like - “what is this thing” what? These guys are into video games?

Wondering if this was a passion project from some of the mains at Analogue. If they continue to occupy the retro space, would be interesting to see how they go about deciding on new products.

Feeb wrote:

I’m not gona lie, I looked at it and still can’t figure out what games it plays lol.

ChronoLe wrote:

I picked one up and have never owned a NEC console

I have a suspicion that the game prices are a pain point for new adopters. PCE doesn't have the nostalgia factor or the "must play" games that SNES and Genesis have. The well reviewed PCE games have some pretty eye watering prices. I bought the console to make sure I could get one, but I don't have any immediate plans to buy games for it because it'd be so easy to overspend

Super nt and Mega sg released before the major price increases for SNES and Genesis as well. As prices go up, emulation takes more fans I'd imagine

flamingtoastjpn wrote:

I have a lot of nostalgia for turbografx but only ever played one PCE-CD game.

But looking at even HuCard only prices lately has me looking more at the PC Engine Mini than trying to rebuild a physical collection.

A couple of my nostalgia-induced favorites that aren't on the mini are still cheap though: Keith Courage (the sound of your robot's sword hitting enemies will never not be cool) and Final Lap Twin (the only game I know of where your car can be cursed).

benstylus wrote:

Yeah after looking at games in a bit more depth today I'm shocked to see how expensive even just the HuCards are.

I don't have any aversion to emulation so I'm seriously considering reselling or canceling my order for the duo. Maybe I'll wait until I give rondo of blood another run through though

flamingtoastjpn wrote:

Prices on everything suck now tbh. I'd disagree on the must play thing but I don't have nostalgia for any of that gen of consoles. To me the PCE has many more must plays than the Genesis. I'd assume this thing will be jail broken quickly, but if not just get an everdrive for sure. I actually find some of the games listed as must plays are overrated but there are some real gems in the library. The shump library has no equal but that only matters if you like the genre.

As an aside I'm glad they seemed to handle this differently and did open pre-orders. I didn't bother buying since I've been going crazy with proxy buys from Japan recently.

Most of the US tg 16 stuff is way overpriced. Just emulate it. Most of those games are not very great honestly. (Splatter house comes to mind) Many other great games are comparable to current release prices. It’s funny how folks see a 30 year old game priced at 50$ and think “nope” but pay 70$ for switch Zelda released this week🤷🏻‍♂️

Paying for Switch games...definitely not I.

I got my preorder in.

These are very niche. But with Analogue they keep small supplies and don't restock often. Plus you won't find sales or price cuts. So it's either you buy it now or try to get one later when it gets Jailbroken and the masses now want one because of some YT video.

Look at where the Turbografx Mini prices are.

Boss wrote:

PCE mini is still easily available in the $100 range and the only real difference in the games is it's missing Salamander and you get the Japanese version of Splatterhouse instead of the US version.

(PCE mini is also much smaller and less unwieldy to plug in. Why they thought they needed to include that detachable back on the TG16 mini is beyond me. Yes it is like the original but it makes cable management a chore)

*plugs TG16 Mini into wall adapter* POP. There goes the USB ports :D

FinalFantasyForever wrote:

Get one with the right voltage and sufficient amperage and that shouldnt be a problem.

Although that isn't to say Konami shouldn't have built better tolerances into the system... or you know... included an adapter with correct voltages in the system. The official one from Hori is almost as expensive as the PCE Mini now.

What an expensive emulator

Kommie wrote:

I'm not disagreeing with this statement :) Just want to add that I think the typical Analogue consumer is looking for a competent plug and play solution. One price justification is that many won't need to fiddle around with a ton of settings to play their games on a crispy new display. Take the Snes for example, if someone is looking for nice rgb out on their lcd, oled, qled, etc. you are probably looking at one of these solutions:

1. Original snes, scart or component cable, competent scaler
2. Mister + usb controllers and or adapters
3. PC emulation + usb controllers ---> tv

There are a lot of consumers out there that don't want to deal with any of the in between steps. I don't know much about fpga tech to make a comparison between real hardware vs the other emulation options, but I imagine a lot of people buying Analogue products see that as an afterthought. Does it look nice, check. Is it for the most part low latency, check. One cable solution, check. Take my money, check.

All this rambling is just to say that there is a market for this product even if it is just emulation.

One of their big selling points is there is no emulation. These things play original softs with specialized hardware chips based on OG architectures

https://www.analogue.co/duo

1 Analogue Duo does not play copyrighted ROM files, it plays legacy game cartridges and CDs. 2 Analogue Duo is not designed using software emulation. It is designed using a specialty hardware chip called an FPGA, which operates on a transistor level implementation of its functionality. 3 Analogue Duo does not operate utilizing any bios files from any other entities. 4 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Games are showcased to illustrate compatibility with Duo. 5 8BitDo PCE 2.4g controller and 2.4g receiver are not included with Duo and sold separately. Included 2.4g receiver is not required to use with Duo, Duo features built-in wireless 2.4g. 6 8BitDo PCE 2.4g controller is not manufactured or distributed by Analogue, Inc. 7 Duo features Analogue OS, but does not support openFPGA.

Yeah - I used to be all about playing original software on original hardware, but then it just got harder and harder to get good video out signals, especially on TVs that were readily available (i.e. I didnt want to set up a tv just to play a NES game), and their systems are such a nice solution for that (as is the AVS) where you can just drop your games in, and use original controllers and forget about the hassle of setting things up. The fact that they come with a nice suite of options to boot is just a bonus.

The Pocket on the other hand ... that's basically my dream system ... being able to plug in multiple different original carts and play it on the go and plugged into the tv, with all the openfpga options. I can't speak highly enough about it.

Yeah for me these things are worth the price of admission. Collecting them to hand down so my kids get to experience my stuff on their future TVs. (Hopefully)

image

If it doesn't support this, count me out.

Feeb wrote:


I mean. If it's not playing on original hardware.... Isn't that called emulation?

Kommie wrote:

You can stop being me at any time

Kommie wrote:

They have an email I believe.

Trying not to get too much into the weeds, but just a matter of semantics. I think if you ask hardware and/or software developers, FPGAs, as it relates to gaming hardware, is a form of emulation. The FPGA chips are programmed to mimic the original hardware instructions/specs 1:1. Even in the fine print, Analogue states it is not using software emulation (2).

The old emulators that were used in the 90s and aughts, were software based. From what I gather, FPGA based gaming systems are hardware based emulation.

The snobs love the fpga. Mister etc claim it’s better than the real thing. Like heroin.

There is a lot less "is this game going to work" with the FPGAs vs software emulation. While compatibility isn't 100%, most peoples collections are going to play just fine on these devices.