Analogue: The Hardware Emulators

[ShiraNoMai]

The nostalgia gaming market is a booming business, and the "plug-and-play" dedicated console market was just prime for cashing in on that idea. It's worth noting, however, that all of those "dedicated" consoles are merely emulating the software--using basic processing power and video cards to provide enough to do the job.

Meet Analogue--the company to change all that.

Using FPGA circuitry, their hardware-emulating consoles fully allow for a total remake of the existing consoles they replicate, allowing the usage of existing, original carts. It's magic, and a beautiful way to preserve and prolong video-game history.

I own a Pocket (GameBoy) and Super NT (Super Nintendo), the latter of which I got more for the preservation of my SNES library in the event my SNES stops working (probably shouldn't have "blew" inside the cart tray, but ya know, everyone was doing it).

Anyone else hear of this company, or know anything about it?

[Moonface]

I only heard of them through you and Twitch streamers who play a lot of SMW because the NT lets them play the hacks without using their PC, or at least that's the impression I got that they wanted it for.

Of the two I'd say I find the Pocket way more impressive because of how good the screen is for handheld games that never got to be on such a good screen, and they don't look like arse for it either. I wonder if they'll ever make anything for non-Nintendo systems or not.

[ShiraNoMai]

For streaming (and playing) purposes, having a "real console" that can output HD/1080p resolution (without an insane set-up) as well as practically zero lag in inputs is absolutely paramount. Plus, it makes using flashcarts a breeze, which makes accessing romhacks way easier.

So far, they've made consoles for the Super Nintendo, the Sega Genesis/Mastersystem, the NEC console line (Turbografx, PC Engine), and the early Handheld era (GameBoy, GBC, GBA, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, etc). Not sure where they'd go from here tbh. I actually wonder if it'd be worth doing the last cart-based home console, the N64.