Preorders open next week for the Analogue’s FPGA powered N64 recreation

Analogue has announced that their FPGA N64 console, the Analogue 3D, will be up for preorder starting October 21, 2024.

The N64 is one of my favorite consoles, and yes, I’m absolutely aware of all its shortcomings. It may not have the impressive library of the PS1, and all its games have a blurriness to them, like your eyeballs were just hosed down with chlorine, but… uh, listen, I don’t need to explain my affections to you, I just love the console.

Unfortunately, it looks horrid on modern displays, even if you’ve gone to the lengths I have to boost it RGB output and put it through a fancy upscaler. So, if you want the best possible picture, the Analogue 3D might be for you. It outputs through HDMI with support for up to 4K resolution. That’s upscaled resolution, mind you, so the picture is just stretched from its original 240-480i resolution. It’ll still look ugly on modern displays, which is why Analogue has built CRT filters into the OS. That way, you can hide the blurriness behind grill lines and simulated phosphor glow.

It’s also region-free. Technically, so was the N64, but regional cartridges wouldn’t fit in other regions, so it was region-locked by form factor, but there was an easy workaround to this. It supports both the original N64 controllers as well as bluetooth controllers like 8BitDo’s wireless N64 gamepad. It has built-in wi-fi for some reason, but I assume it’s for updates and general tinkering.

Perhaps the most important feature is the fact that it’s FPGA hardware emulation rather than typical software emulation. The N64 is notoriously difficult to emulate, so even the best emulators typically have compatibility issues. FPGA means that all software should be compatible and work exactly as it originally did. It boasts absolutely no graphical or audio glitches and no input lag. It also says there are no frame rate problems, but I’m assuming that means no additional frame rate problems since your typical N64 game struggles in terms of FPS. Just try Perfect Dark as it was originally released.

The price is set at $249.99. I don’t think that’s too terrible. It’s maybe more than you’d want to spend if you just want to dabble in the N64 library, but if you’re any sort of enthusiast and the idea of an FPGA-enabled reproduction interests you, you could do a lot worse.

For me, I’m not sure. As I said, I have my N64 modified for RGB output, and I put it through a Retrotink 4K upscaler, which has CRT filters already. However, if you want to do the same, it’s much more expensive than an Analogue 3D. If you just want to replace your composite N64, this is a much better prospect. I still see value in the Analogue 3D, even in my setup, but not enough to justify the cost.

Preorders for the Analogue 3D open on October 21, 2024. I don’t see an estimated shipping time, but I will update this article if it gets clarified soon.