Analogue Pocket

o1s1n

Really want to pre order a Playdate, but 180 dollars & postage & whatever VAT customs decide to add when it lands make it a little bit too pricey IMO.

Does look fantastic though, I love the overall design look of it. Be interesting to see how durable the crank is.

CiDeRmAn

I'm locked into a Q2 delivery for the Playdate, so fingers crossed it will get here by the summer.

McDermotX

Finally getting off their holes to get a beta out for the Analogue OS 1.1 update in a few days seeing as how they promised July. Open FPGA post suggests more support for any core developers out there interested in going after that second FPGA , but we shall wait and see. Imagine some of the promised library/memory stuff might be in the beta........though I think most people would much rather they get cart adapters sorted.

Retr0gamer

Yep they've been very slow and all I really want is that Neo Geo Pocket adapter (Lynx and PC Engine as well).

McDermotX

Aye....and of course, they'll get snapped up if they ever show up if youre not on the ball. Remember looking on the Bay recently and seeing chancers wanting close to 300 dollars for in-hand Game Gear adapters.

Ridiculous

Mucashinto

They’re really leaning hard into the “beta” aspect. Seems weird as it’s a dot version firmware anyway?

My Dock has sat unopened since I got it, now that my MiSTer has moved to a CRT I’d really like to be able to set it up with a few cores on the PC monitor. Hoping Analogue are feeling the pressure of MiSTer so will have some real improvements in this. Gonna seem a bit like yesterday’s men if they don’t imo.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119390115#Comment_119390115

I've already seen a MiSTer core dev asking on Patreon if people would like to see their cores being ported to Analogue. I'd worry it would slow dev for the DE10.

The Last Bandit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119392921#Comment_119392921

Its possible alright, depends on how many pateron supports have both devices and are willing to pay for both, it could backfire on the dev though and they could end up losing a lot of support.

I've heard of one dev who has over $10K per month in pateron subscriptions but he seems to be on it full time now given the amount of cores he releases.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119392977#Comment_119392977

€98,056 per month? :) not bad

The Last Bandit

Haha sorry fat finger typo, its 10K a month. Still not bad for a hobby !!

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393034#Comment_119393034

What the **** am I doing with my life?

Mucashinto

Patreon has been the biggest positive development to this area imo, I don't think we'd be seeing things improve at the pace it is otherwise. I don't think you can reasonably expect things to be a certain standard when devs still have to do a 'real job' in order to do mundane things like buy food/exist. As a complete ignoramus to all this stuff there's been a marked difference from the attitude of 'get it working yourself/contribute to the project" of the past to devs really pushing to makes things work so well. Not sure if this goes against the spirit of open source or something but personally I think it's better, no shame in being rewarded for your work surely.

KeRbDoG

Not too shabby for a hobby :) I wonder those are are making a living from Core dev, are they considering what the next DE10 for MiSTer will be.

Mucashinto

Any thoughts on the release? Honestly my pocket has stayed in its case the last while - I should probably take it out and charge it tbh - and I've no rush to update it but this company constantly surprises me. They seem like genuinely good guys, have me totally confused me tbh lol.

Their design and web presence make them seem like Apple and I'd think everything's going to be closed off and dependent on them etc, but they act in a completely different way. They don't even seem that eager to make money - by cleverly never actually having any products in stock to sell!

It looks like it's completely open software? So someone can basically port a NGPC core that plays ROMs and then no-one has any need to actually buy the official Analogue adaptor to use their core? I'm stumped tbh but yeah I have lot of fondness for them. Fair **** play.

Maybe it's some elaborate ploy to get everyone buying Pockets or something but you'd be a long time waiting going by their history.

Retr0gamer

Looks like the pocket has finally gotten jailbroken cores. GB GBC and GBA for now.

McDermotX

Not had a chance to check the update out, so will have a look after the weekend.

But to be fair, there does seem to be a decent bit included in it with expanded controller support etc, nice little touch with the Spacewar core etc. Haven't used it as much since the Steam Deck appeared but firmware will be good reason to get back into it.

I've seen people mentioning they're still having issues with certain Everdrive GBs, with a bit of back and forth over who is at fault, but at least the jailbreak might at least be some form of compromise. Can't say I've ever had a problem with the X7 but variables are obviously at play.

Regarding their business model and practices, they've very much made a rod for their own backs at times, but I also believe some people expect far too much from what is a very small and niche company so it's a bit of grey area for me. Even massive companies have struggled with the component shortage out there not to mention various Kickstarter projects, but certainly Analogue's 'twitter tendencies' rile up a fair amount of people not to mention their quiet periods when dates are involved.

Can't help themselves even now with a fairly heavy dev schedule for the rest of the year, bit we shall wait and see. Be interesting to see who gets involved with the official devkits with the OpenFPGA stuff, but nothing to stop adventurous developers cracking open their own and getting to work. Just a question of how many of those experienced folks overlap as Pocket owners.

Mucashinto

I put the cores/jb on tonight, it's pretty slick. Mad to think there could be SNES/Neo Geo/PCE cores on there at some stage.

I was using flash carts anyway so the only thing I'm gaining is the 'sleep' function, which I really want tbf, and I'm losing a bit - there's no display options in any of the cores (I guess it's using the 'Analogue Enhanced' or whatever it's called, I preferred some of the original filters) and there's no actual GB core, it uses the GBC. You can pick one of the 12 palettes when booting up a GB rom but if you send it to sleep it defaults back to the (garish imo) colour default. Going to stick with it though as I never really liked having carts in this thing, especially GBA making the triggers hard to access.

My main complaint about the Pocket has always been it's design, it looks stunning but I'd prefer comfort. The power/voulme buttons are a pita for me to find/use and I'm not mad about the d-pad.

Yeah not sure how it will all go with the openfpga, no point Analogue trying to push it hard if they can't get the thing into people's hands alright. But then arguably it would be cheaper than a MiSTer, and it would be portable as well... Interesting times in the fpga world.

EDIT: Although I'd forgotten how good the games look, even in terrible photos

McDermotX

Updated grand there the other day, and had a quick look at the GB/GBA cores......seem grand, save states etc seem OK,

I see someone has quickly ported over an existing NeoGeo core, albeit fairly rudimentary, but didn't bother checking it out, as it seems quite limited in its current form.

Retr0gamer

I jailbroke by Pocket last night. It's nice for GBA, much nicer than using the flashcart and the save state open will be very handy for Fire Emblem. Save stating on the flash cart seemed a bit dodge.

Gameboy I'm a little disappointed with as I can't get the gorgeous pea green filter to work, I might try selecting it before I boot as you say.

I was going to try the Neo Geo core but it looks like its in a very early stage and not very accurate but looks to be progressing well.

Mucashinto

Game Gear, Master System & SG1000 cores released now as well!?

I haven't downloaded the Neo Geo core yet either, never really go for early access/beta stuff, but I'm guessing these are actual Kevtris/Analogue cores so we should be looking at 100% performance (minus the usual missing filters/control options)? Didn't expect this so soon tbh, great stuff.

McDermotX

Aye,

Had a quick look at the SMS core last night. One of the real surprises with the Pocket since it came out was how often I've booted up Master System stuff (via Everdrive) so it's nice to see standalone support added.

Looks like there is another update for the NeoGeo core soon as well, so might be worth checking out soon for those interested, though it'll be far from a complete experience.

https://www.twitter.com/UFp64/status/1556530286774878208

KeRbDoG

Thats an interesting NeoGeo BIOS screen, don't think I ever saw Unibios V1

Retr0gamer

Apparently the Master system and Game Gear cores aren't displaying in the correct aspect ratio but a .ini change will sort it out.

Mucashinto

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119449939#Comment_119449939

I saw that alright, pretty cool that you can change a line in json and the core will be different. Probably the same as just selecting an option in an on-screen display I suppose but I feel like some super coder this way.

Had a quick go of Sonic on Game Gear there. Probably is the wrong aspect ratio - Sonic is fairly tall alright - but I've never played any GG and tbh (rightly or wrongly) I expect the games to be fairly shite so not going to change anything for the moment.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119448448#Comment_119448448

Master System seems great to me, think I might try and go down a rabbit hole of this. Only played Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (Jesus the music is fantastic) and then after Retrogamer recommended Ninja Garden had a go of that (again, just brilliant music imo). Have a feeling 2-button/8-bit games will play great handheld for some reason.

McDermotX

Oh definitely, I know the Gameboy screen modes have, rightfully, garnered a lot of praise (yes the OpenFPGA cores haven't implemented it yet, apparently needs an update from Analogue), but I was floored by how well the GG and SMS stuff came across at launch via the cart adapter - they've never looked so well, and found myself revisiting so many classic SMS from when I was younger. Don't actually have the Master System anymore, so any SMS stuff over the years has always been via emulation or via Mega Drive etc, but there's something so fitting running on the Pocket. Might well be down to the simple control and interface aspect as you say Mucashinto.

NES will benefit in much the same way I'd imagine, but the SMS stuff has always been so colourful that it really pops on the small screen.

Retr0gamer

Yeah it's really made me appreciate the Game Gear more. Even more colours in those games than the master system!

McDermotX

Mentioned it the other day, but just casually had a look online at eBay to see what the GG adapters were going for again on the scalpers market now that the core has been released..............some, most actually, still 200-250 dollars !

Gas stuff altogether. I know many people have loads of proper GG carts (no more than a small handful myself), and want to use them as intended, but there is a limit, so I hope none of these are being seriously considered.

Mucashinto

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119453596#Comment_119453596

Were you playing SMS games through a GG Everdrive? How exactly did it work, bit confused on the whole GG as SMS.

I played Ninja Gaiden on the MiSTer there and it seemed much better, turns out it's only available as PAL optimised and the openFPGA core doesn't have a region option so a few games are going to run fast/have glitches. With the official core was there options to select region/speed? Seems like one of the few consoles where you want PAL functionality as well.

McDermotX

Via the Everdrive yeah......the GG is essentially just a portable Master System albeit upgraded, so was perfectly capable of running the software as long as you could get the software onto it. Led to somewhat clunky Master Gear Converter, and the like, that allowed people to jab their SMS carts into the back of the GG. There were some limitations off the top of my head such as FM supported games from Japan (unless you modded the GG if I recall correctly), Card games etc. Plus because the games had to factor into displaying on GG screen, some elements might have been difficult to make out (very small sprites etc) as opposed to native GG games that are properly authored (zoomed in, on screen info etc), but the vast majority of SMS stuff worked fine.

The GG Everdrive just removed the need for the Converter, with the games just as accessible as native ones (though with the same limitations as above). Either way you're running the SMS stuff as a GG. I'd imagine the GG OpenFPGA core probably functions in the same way, but now that I've said it I don't believe I've tried it to see if there's any difference between running SMS on that GG core, as opposed to the SMS core (assuming it is and not just a rejigged GG one).

Don't recall seeing region options on the new cores, but I don't have it in front of me right now so could be mistaken. TBH, regarding any PAL/NTSC stuff, I generally veer towards the NTSC 99.9% of the time, but granted there may be situations, as you say, were region specificities would be a nice inclusion. Obviously these are only the initial attempts so there could be improvements going forward, but I doubt it'll ever have the range of configuration that the MiSTer provides. But then again, the MiSTer cores didn't appear fully featured initially (I even remember the MiST days which which had quite a few bare cores back then).

Mucashinto

Ah okay, thanks. Sega seem to have been really good with backwards compatibility back then (that Converter looks great sticking out of the Game Gear as well :) ).

I had the Ninja Gaiden speed thing so then I loaded up another (Europe) ROM to see - Addams Family - and that had some glitching on the top of the screen but I've no idea how the speed should be on that. Had another game just load to a black screen and I think now that might be an FM sound issue. Not a big deal like you say with some of the edge cases, and they might get ironed out anyway, just I wasn't sure if I had the wrong romset or something.

I don't have my Mega SG anymore so I was trying to remember how it all worked on that jailbreak but can't remember at all now, only really played Mega Drive on it. But yeah I think I'm going to try and go through a good few SMS games as they've all been great so far and I've played none of them. I see some people say SMS Sonic is better than Mega Drive version!? I'm sceptical but if so that's going in the rotation.