Analogue Pocket

Kidchameleon · 16-10-2019 4:21pm #1

This looks crazy,

Handheld FPGA system that runs Lynx, Game Gear, Gameboy, GBA, NEo Geo Pocket.

https://www.analogue.co/pocket/

K.O.Kiki · 16-10-2019 4:55pm

I only wish they had made it in GBA-style - much comfier for adult hands.

Kidchameleon · 16-10-2019 5:11pm

Hmm maybe they will, I dont think Analogue have ever done a hardware revision though? For me, classic Gameboy style wins, although I'm not sure how that would feel when playing Game Gear / Lynx etc.

Retr0gamer · 16-10-2019 5:18pm

I much prefer this style. Been using the old GBC lately and my hands don't go numb using it.

Think this machine looks absolutely gorgeous.

Andrew76 · 17-10-2019 8:01am

sugarman wrote: »

Looks the business, I just hope the prices aren't crazy.

EDIT: $199 ... probably €250ish all in. Pricey enough.

And that’s before shipping too. Wonder how much the optional dock will also cost. It does looking gorgeous though.

Retr0gamer · 17-10-2019 8:58am

Optional Dock has no release date so don't expect it at launch.

Really would love one of these myself.

o1s1n · 17-10-2019 9:14am

Have to say, I'm usually fairly meh about their products, but this is a really gorgeous bit of design. Would be lovely to have a handheld that takes all of the Gameboy carts in one.

Price doesn't seem too mental either.

Retr0gamer · 17-10-2019 9:53am

They usually charge very high shipping so you'll have to take that into account.

Just read the mini NT is no longer produced and going for insane prices on ebay so going to jump on this as I love handheld gaming and this will be a nice replacement to my dying Game Gear.

o1s1n · 17-10-2019 10:56am

Thought I'd look that up, you're right;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Analogue-NT-Mini-Silver-New-/303262355248?hash=item469bd84f30%3Ag%3AhCAAAOSwm4tdX%7EcL&nma=true&si=UPo3T5tjNx5QoeREx38YMZwtouI%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Lunacy.

Retr0gamer · 17-10-2019 11:52am

I just read Jeremy Parish saying the prices were crazy.... didn't realise how crazy!!

Inviere · 17-10-2019 3:41pm

Looks like a quality bit of kit to be fair. I wasn't aware there were FPGA solutions for the 32bit GBA, very nice. The dock is a lovely touch too. I'd be of the ilk though that prefers the original GBA styling over the DMG styling, but sure, what ya gonna do

Relikk · 17-10-2019 4:46pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

They usually charge very high shipping so you'll have to take that into account.

All of their gear ships from the States, as well. You'll have customs on top of that.

o1s1n · 17-10-2019 4:57pm

Relikk wrote: »

All of their gear ships from the States, as well. You'll have customs on top of that.

Might get away without it. I've only ever been hit by customs once in years and years of importing stuff from the US.

megaten · 17-10-2019 5:22pm

Tempted but I don't think I actually have many carts at this stage, and chunk of the one Is have are probably counterfeit. Emulations good enough for me really.

Inviere · 17-10-2019 6:03pm

megaten wrote: »

Emulations good enough for me really.

Take byuu's (Higan author, cycle accurate Snes emulator) word for it. Here's a Reddit post he made speaking about Kevin Horton, lead developer of the Super NT

I [byuu] consider its lead developer, Kevin Horton, a friend. We work together and share information. I'm in the credits on the Super Nt device for a reason: emulation is built on the shoulders of giants. The Super Nt is possible in part by higan, which was possible in part by Snes9X, etc. And indeed, the relationship is mutually beneficial: findings from Kevin have already made their way into higan.

I think it's great to have these newer dedicated FPGA devices, making retrogaming more accessible than ever, in very accurate and pleasing ways too. Personally, what keeps me away from them is, not wanting to go back to having several different devices sitting under the tv. If I was that way inclined, I'd just go the whole hog and have original hardware being fed into an OSSC instead.

The day somebody comes out with a 'one for all' design, that will play roms from Atari 2600 up to maybe PS1/N64 with a monster FPGA at its core, then I'll probably bite. PS1 and N64 are a LONG way away in FPGA terms though. I know you can load on modded firmware to some of these consoles, to enable different platforms etc, but it's all a bit finnicky with different addon adapters for different carts, cd addons for cd's etc. Just get rid of all that, let it play roms, and away we go (ps, yar!) ALL Retro carts are sold second hand these days, so the days of supporting developers/publishers by buying carts are long gone. I won't lose much sleep over some NES roms moving around the interwebs. I imagine companies don't want to attract the wrong attention by making a 'rom only' device, as it could be seen to eat into the upsurge in digital sales these old games might enjoy. I don't really accept though that a downloaded rom is a lost sale.

CiDeRmAn · 17-10-2019 10:31pm

I would challenge your suggestion that these devices make retrogaming more accessible.
At the prices they are retailing at they are surely the epitome of a console of the privileged.
I mean, why go buying a Super Nintendo for €50 when you can spend four times as much instead?
I get that it is all sorts of accurate but it is the most expensive solution for playing the odd game of Mario Kart

Relikk · 17-10-2019 10:37pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Might get away without it. I've only ever been hit by customs once in years and years of importing stuff from the US.

From sellers on eBay or businesses? As far as I'm aware, Analogue always declare the retail price of the item and you'll get charged customs for it. I've heard of it happening to a few people in Europe over the years when they've bought NT Mini's, Super NT's and Mega SG's.

If anyone is planning on buying anything from Analogue, be prepared.

McDermotX · 18-10-2019 3:25am

Aye.......got stung with the Super NT, but avoided the duty with the Mega SG. But everything was above board declaration-wise, just a fortunate hap instance the second time.

Ultimately, you should factor the extra expense if prepared to buy from them.

Might sit out the Pocket for a while though just to see how it shapes up as the possibility of imported cores does interest me somewhat.

Retr0gamer · 18-10-2019 8:41am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I would challenge your suggestion that these devices make retrogaming more accessible.
At the prices they are retailing at they are surely the epitome of a console of the privileged.
I mean, why go buying a Super Nintendo for €50 when you can spend four times as much instead?
I get that it is all sorts of accurate but it is the most expensive solution for playing the odd game of Mario Kart

It's more that the work on these FPGA cores means there will be an accurate way to play these machines well into the future when the last SNES has committed Hari Kari due to leaky capacitors. There will also always be a way to hook them up to a modern display.

It's also handy to have an all in one device to play all your handheld games on.

o1s1n · 18-10-2019 9:15am

Relikk wrote: »

From sellers on eBay or businesses? As far as I'm aware, Analogue always declare the retail price of the item and you'll get charged customs for it. I've heard of it happening to a few people in Europe over the years when they've bought NT Mini's, Super NT's and Mega SG's.

If anyone is planning on buying anything from Analogue, be prepared.

Combo of both. Had something come in last week from a retailer with a $130 value declared on the front of it and didn't have to pay anything.

Actually funnily enough, the time I was hit with VAT charges (probably about 10 years ago now, maybe a little longer) was for something I bought from a private seller on ebay.

I sent on a screenshot of the ebay auction with my bid to customs as they didn't believe the value noted on the front of the box. Think I may have included one of my earlier, sub €30 euro bids in the screenshot though...

Final charge? big fat Zero. :pac:

Inviere · 18-10-2019 4:08pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I would challenge your suggestion that these devices make retrogaming more accessible.
At the prices they are retailing at they are surely the epitome of a console of the privileged.
I mean, why go buying a Super Nintendo for €50 when you can spend four times as much instead?
I get that it is all sorts of accurate but it is the most expensive solution for playing the odd game of Mario Kart

You could buy a Snes for €50, and throw an old rf lead into a 49" 4K display....not really a pleasant thing to see or look at. So if you're comparing a proper experience, pound for pound, you'd need to factor in the cost of a Snes, good quality interconnects, properly working controllers, and a high quality external scaler...that's what's fighting against a Super NT. I've excluded a CRT as the for the majority, it just isn't practical to have one these days (unfortunately).

I guess what I meant was, for anyone serious about enjoying retrogaming in as close-to-original a manner as you can get, with some modern compromises, the FPGA consoles are a nice pick up and play solution. If someone wants a pixelated mess, as quickly and cheaply as possible, they're not going to be interested in these products.

o1s1n · 18-10-2019 4:21pm

I think the difference of opinions here comes down to the interpretation of the word 'accessible'.

Inviere seems to mean ease of use and upscaling whereas Cidey is interpreting it as a cost of entry.

Both would be right imo. Analogue consoles, as much as I cannot stand their artisan wankery marketing are definitely great when it comes to simplicity of plugging a console into a TV and away you go. They are being marketed as high end though and not exactly accessible to those other then hardcore committed fans.

As an item, IMO their importance hasn't really kicked into effect yet given that most Super Nintendos/Megadrives etc are still ticking away nicely. They'll definitely make a bit impact in the future.

Inviere · 18-10-2019 4:41pm

Oh they're pricey for sure, but yeah your right - that's what I mean. For anyone serious about getting into retro gaming, they've two options:

1) Original hardware, quality interconnects, working/original controllers, and an external scaler. There's probably a bit of a learning curve here in terms of what display outputs work with scalers, rgb, svideo, hdmi, av, ettc. There's also learning how to interconnect everything, and cable it all correctly.

2) An FPGA console, buy it, plug it in, use it.

Pound for pound, there's probably not a huge gulf between both price wise, with everything factored in. I myself feel though that everything that can be handled by an FPGA, is emulated perfectly* anyway, so these consoles don't really do it for me. I do value their existence though, and they definitely have a place as a valid option.

*ok perfectly might not be truly perfect in the sense of binary accuracy, but for everyday 99.99% of times, when playing 16bit and below, there's very very little outside of specific tech demos that catches modern emulators out.

Inviere · 18-10-2019 5:47pm

Just to add, in terms of accessibility in the sense of affordability, obviously the 'Mini' consoles are there. FPGA consoles are very different beasts though, and can't be compared. Those Mini consoles are very limited in terms of power, and are absolutely monstered by more powerful devices.

Retr0gamer · 18-10-2019 9:11pm

Does binary accuracy even mean anything when we are talking about consoles that can't even do floating point calculations?

McFly85 · 31-07-2020 6:46pm

https://twitter.com/analogue/status/1289218239373795329?s=21

Pre orders start next Monday at 4pm Irish time. Definitely looking forward to this!

McDermotX · 03-08-2020 5:08pm

Sold out in less than 10mins apparently, though they will be reopening down the line you'd expect given the lead ahead.

Of course, there are always chancers

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CiDeRmAn · 03-08-2020 6:07pm

Missed it... damn time with family...

Retr0gamer · 03-08-2020 8:24pm

Set my alarm and ordered mine. No issues with the site surprisingly. Can't wait to get screwed by customs.

McDermotX · 03-08-2020 8:48pm

Massive issues being reported all over their twitter ever since alright.

Set a reminder for myself as I was travelling down to Kerry. Took a minute, ordered a black and a white with a couple of accessories...........convincing myself it was money set aside to justify it........with no issues.

Will be a while, but expect fine things.

Dr Bob · 04-08-2020 9:36am

McDermotX wrote: »

Massive issues being reported all over their twitter ever since alright.

Set a reminder for myself as I was travelling down to Kerry. Took a minute, ordered a black and a white with a couple of accessories...........convincing myself it was money set aside to justify it........with no issues.

Will be a while, but expect fine things.

You got lucky , from what I'm seeing online it was mainly scalpers that managed to get in and get them.

o1s1n · 04-08-2020 9:59am

Absolute scum

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Analogue-Pocket-System/254676360755?hash=item3b4be4de33:g:ACkAAOSwz7dfKO84

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2020 10:12am

I think allowing 2 per order was a bit ridiculous. Glad I got mine though. Absolutely adore handheld gaming and I've wanted this console way more than a new next gen system that I can't get excited for.

McDermotX · 04-08-2020 10:53am

Dr Bob wrote: »

You got lucky , from what I'm seeing online it was mainly scalpers that managed to get in and get them.

Aye.....very fortunate, and I initially had that 'shipping calculation' that hung up a lot of people, but it immediately corrected itself on refresh.
Plus I think some people got hung up on just adding the device to the cart and spending a few minutes going through the accessories, without realising there was no hold on item.

Agree on the scalping though, but at least two per order limited it somewhat compared to other high pressure sales like the NT Noir where preorders jumped to 1000 dollars +, but hopefully the likes of eBay will be forcing them down as there's definitely people out there who no doubt wanted the handheld but figured they could sell another preorder to pay for it.

In my case, the second one is actually a 50th birthday present for a family member (for which he better be bloody grateful for). But i do think we're just seeing the inital production run sell out here and subsequent waves with pushed out dates will eventually reappear - how far out the newly constrained supply chains determine that remains to be seen.

McDermotX · 04-08-2020 11:01am

Not to defend Analogue, as I think their comms and public relations in general needs lots of work, but I think the prevalent assumption of 'why don't they just take all the preorders they can and make that many' is far too simplistic.
They are a small company competing with bigger players in not just the supply chain, but also in production facility bandwidth to build a niche item and all in the middle of a pandemic. They more than likely know how many screens they can secure, how long a run they have in production, shipping timeframe etc
Like I say though, I can understand the frustration purely down to how they promote, besides, you never know even the May 21 date could slip just like the Noir.

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2020 11:13am

I had the shipping calculating hang up but I let it run, took about 2 or 3 minutes and a little bit of panicking but I knew from booking tickets for concerts online the worst thing you can do is refresh and it eventually came up. I say a lot of people were refreshing when they saw it taking a little bit to calculate it and assumed to hung and missed out.

I only got the single one for myself. Probably naive of me but think it's better to go to someone that wants it and also kind of broke this month!

I didn't get the dock with mine, it's not something I see myself using.

o1s1n · 04-08-2020 11:24am

Multiple devices and browsers is the way to go.

If I'm trying to get tickets to an event that's going to sell out fast, I'll have a firefox and chrome browser open on my laptop. One will be logged/ready to go and if it's taking a while I'll let it sit there and do it's thing, while the other browser will be refreshed constantly to see if that gets through first.

Just in case they both crap out I'll have it logged in on my phone too as a final ditch attempt!

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2020 11:26am

I like to live dangerously.

McDermotX · 10-08-2020 4:40pm

At it again they are........limited amount of NT Mini Noirs going up for preorder tomorrow, Nov shipping.

Cynic in me suggests this is the preorders that were cancelled when the July date slipped.

CosmicSmash · 10-08-2020 7:47pm

McDermotX wrote: »

At it again they are........limited amount of NT Mini Noirs going up for preorder tomorrow, Nov shipping.

Cynic in me suggests this is the preorders that were cancelled when the July date slipped.

$500 plus shipping and import duty. Definitely a console for the hipsters at that price point.

CiDeRmAn · 10-08-2020 11:21pm

CosmicSmash wrote: »

$500 plus shipping and import duty. Definitely a console for the hipsters at that price point.

As it stands I've a NES, a Famicom, a Famicom Twin, a Retron N and a Retron 5, all of which will play my collection of carts.
There is simply no way I'll spend that sort of dough on yet another.
That said, if a NES/Famicom top loader came my way, I might have to modify my strongly held beliefs

super_furry · 11-08-2020 7:43am

CosmicSmash wrote: »

$500 plus shipping and import duty. Definitely a console for the hipsters at that price point.

Half-thought about it for five seconds, but you're looking at €700 here.

Would have liked to pre-order a Pocket but missed the 7 minute window and the whole thing has left a bad taste in the mouth now.

o1s1n · 11-08-2020 9:46am

Who is the market for these? I can't really work it out.

Anyone who is mad enough to spend that much money on a clone NES is probably also mad enough to keep a big CRT about the place to continue to play an actual NES.

I can understand maybe somehow future proofing or something, but at this rate I think Nintendo hardware is going to outlive all of us.

Retr0gamer · 11-08-2020 10:10am

It's the best way to get quality HDMI from a NES console while still being cycle accurate. So streamers are very interested and Jeremy Parish has one so he can capture quality footage from it for his video series.

Colonel Panic · 11-08-2020 11:57am

If they had a cheaper model that left out all the analogue video such that it was HDMI only in a nice plastic case, I’d probably buy one.

McDermotX · 11-08-2020 6:17pm

Re:Mini
Apparently gone inside a couple of minutes.

Wouldn't imagine there was that many to shift in any case.

https://twitter.com/TVsBen/status/1293201866579476484

McDermotX · 10-09-2021 11:47pm

Traditional Analogue delay.......Next year probably the most realistic

Pocket pre-orders will be shipping at the latest in December. Unfortunately, due to new Covid restrictions with our assembly partners, their capacity to deliver within our agreed timeframe has been affected. This has created a domino effect of delays beyond our control in what would otherwise be a seamless process.

Pocket will have some hands-on features and reviews coming before it ships. After the holiday season, Pocket and all accessories will be restocked and shipping immediately.

McDermotX · 16-10-2021 4:20pm

Analogue gone on a charm offensive on Twitter and updated their homepage with information around Analogue OS which is powering the Pocket.

https://www.analogue.co/os

Seems very comprehensive with some very useful features (save states, library etc) but not the kind of hands-on that many people were hoping for (not to mention any sign of a reopening of preorders). That said, I think people would just be happy to have a physical unit to pop their carts into at this point and probably see the features as more nice to have etc

I guess one of the big questions that would be asked is if the likes of a library database would be extended to their other products?

Retr0gamer · 17-10-2021 12:20am

I had to laugh at how pretentious their promotion was.

October 16th. Not just a date.

Fucking notions or what.

Also doubling down on the fact you can't play rom files. I'll see how the everdrive deals with that lads.

Inviere · 17-10-2021 7:17am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118031050#Comment_118031050

NOT EMULATION!

NO ROMS!

Groan. Though that no roms thing is potentially an issue for flash carts...

CiDeRmAn · 18-10-2021 12:10pm

Krikzz will probably just find a way to preload the games into a buffer, which will be read by the fancy shmancy Analogue console as the original game.

It's the self same issue the much maligned Retron5 had, the poor relation of the Analogue, just had a dodgy, stolen and barely updated OS...

Analogue Pocket

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