The Analogue 3D, an FPGA-based Nintendo 64 , is set to open for pre-orders on October 21st, priced at $249.99. This console aims to provide a highly accurate emulation of the original N64 hardware using a powerful Altera Cyclone 10GX FPGA chip, which is the most advanced FPGA used by Analogue to date.https://Twitter.com/analogue/status/1846567706910142548Key FeaturesCompatibility: The Analogue 3D supports all official N64 cartridges from any region, promising no slowdown or inaccuracies. It features four controller ports for original N64 controllers and also supports wireless controllers via Bluetooth.Resolution and Display: It includes a bespoke 4K upscaler designed to faithfully recreate the look
Sure, but you’re not factoring in all of the price factors that come associated with playing that on a new TV or complicated AV system. This comes with HDMI output built in, and will have scalers and other amenities for QoL usage in 2024. The sad truth is that it’s actually pretty expensive to have an AV setup that is designed to handle old consoles, especially with how TVs have not properly supported lower-res content for a long time.
Fact of the matter is some of the best scalers with low latency that you can buy are nearly $2k US, and even the cheaper or more budget options are more expensive than the $250 price tag that this targets (the OSSC, for example). I wish this wasn’t the case, but the Analogue 3D and equivalent reimplementations are actually super important for people who are still interested on playing the closest to “real hardware” in 2024.
Again, the comparison or value to the specific group isn’t what’s factoring in to my question. To HOW MANY people they can sell this to and make it worth it in the end for the company is whay I’m curious about. Even globally, I don’t imagine there are THAT many people with a physical collection of N64 games that don’t already have the console and are otherwise looking to replace it. Thats why I’m saying the crowd to market to must be incredibly specific.
This Analogue group is very specialized in high-end, non-emulated resurrections of old consoles. They’re known for their passion & product quality, and also a shitty website UI. In my opinion. It sucks. Can’t be good at everything, I guess, and you struggling on their website isn’t their problem.
So as you noted, they’re charging enough for their product…and quite often when they do a limited run release (especially on a brand new console), they sell out within minutes. Sometimes they’ll do a restock, much later, if they feel like it.
I also don’t want to get anyone in trouble, buuuuuut it is heavily implied that while their hardware doesn’t involve emulation of any kind, there may or may not be physical cartridge emulators that can run ROMs of all kinds of games. Legal & not so legal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯