Analogue Update: Duo ($250; Ships 2023) and Pocket ($200; Ships 2023) Available for Preorder

[Tulpa | 3,488]

4 hours ago, cartman said:

Perhaps they ought to have worked on 4K support at this point in time when things are going towards that.

I think that would bump the price up too much. 4k TVs can upscale 1080p just fine anyway.

[ifightdragons | 234]

3 hours ago, Tulpa said:

I think that would bump the price up too much. 4k TVs can upscale 1080p just fine anyway.

Yesh, 4K would definitely hike up the cost.

Some 4K TVs can upscale painlessly, and some will add significant lag in the process. It's a crap shoot in the current market of TVs, unfortunately.

[ifightdragons | 234]

9 hours ago, tbone3969 said:

The DUO will not play SuperGrafx games.  That's why I bought my SuperGrafx.  The SuperGrafx is nice as it is 100% backwards compatible with the entire PC Engine and Turbo library (with a region mod of course).  You can also attach a CD attachment to it.

 

The DUO will also not play the Arcade games without the special Arcade Card.

 

The thing is there are only like 6 SuperGrafx games and around a dozen arcade games for the DUO.

I'm unsure how you came to this conclusion, though you might be correct of course.

The Duo product page clearly states that the Duo will play both SuperGrafx and Super Arcade CD.

It even says that all of these cores are integrated on the chip. No mention of any add-on cards being necessary.

Are you absolutely certain?

[Deadeye | 1,595]

48 minutes ago, ifightdragons said:

I'm unsure how you came to this conclusion, though you might be correct of course.

The Duo product page clearly states that the Duo will play both SuperGrafx and Super Arcade CD.

It even says that all of these cores are integrated on the chip. No mention of any add-on cards being necessary.

Are you absolutely certain?

@tbone3969 is referring to the Turbo / PC Engine Duo, not Analogue Duo.  The shared naming is definitely going to keep causing confusion in the future.

[cartman | 195]

6 hours ago, Tulpa said:

I think that would bump the price up too much. 4k TVs can upscale 1080p just fine anyway.

But do the manufacturers have to make a concerted effort to make it possible to upscale that is the question. If they do it might just be around as a transitioning period until 1080p fades out of favor and they just drop the support for it completely.

 

[Tulpa | 3,488]

41 minutes ago, cartman said:

But do the manufacturers have to make a concerted effort to make it possible to upscale that is the question. If they do it might just be around as a transitioning period until 1080p fades out of favor and they just drop the support for it completely.

Modern TVs will include a scaler for pretty much the foreseeable future, as the manufacturers know that there isn't a wholesale adoption of a new resolution by every consumer all at once. If they don't support legacy resolutions, they're losing a significant portion of their consumer base.

The first HDTVs (720p resolutions) had to upscale a lot of standard definition signals (usually 480i resolutions), including DVDs and broadcast TV signals that weren't HD, because people didn't limit themselves to just HD sources (especially when there were like two HD channels at first, and Blu-ray was still some years away.)

Then when 1080p TVs came out, they had to upscale 720p HD signals in addition to the standard def ones. No reason to think that this won't continue. I mean, people still hook DVD players (480i) to their 4k TVs.

Now whether a TV's scaler does a good job is a whole other discussion. As ifightdragons said, it really depends on the manufacturer.

 

Edited October 17, 2020 by Tulpa

[Sumer | 221]

16 hours ago, tbone3969 said:

 God the Express is so sweet.  

It was before the digital TV switchover.  I watched the 2005 ALDS up in my office in downtown Chicago while at work...the year the White Sox won the World Series.  Everyone in Chicago was hoping that would be the year (even many Cub fans).  We didn't have a television in the office, and the ALDS games were starting in the mid-afternoon while I was at work.  I brought along the TE with the TV Tuner and everyone thought it was awesome we could watch the games!

I really don't think I have touched my Turbo Express since the digital conversion...I mostly just used it as a handheld TV, as I would rather just play TG16 games on the actual system.  I have it (the TE) stored away somewhere in a box...I guess I should pull it one of these days and see if it still works.

As an aside, has anyone "Frankenstein-ed" a TE TV tuner with an adaptor box?  That would be cool (yet inefficient) to see.  

Edited October 17, 2020 by Sumer

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

11 hours ago, cartman said:

What else could possibly have been covered? 

 

LD ROM and PC FX. 

One of which would be impossible and the other extremely impractical (although maybe possible in future update, but that's stretch).

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

12 hours ago, tbone3969 said:

The DUO will not play SuperGrafx games.  That's why I bought my SuperGrafx.  The SuperGrafx is nice as it is 100% backwards compatible with the entire PC Engine and Turbo library (with a region mod of course).  You can also attach a CD attachment to it.

 

The DUO will also not play the Arcade games without the special Arcade Card.

 

The thing is there are only like 6 SuperGrafx games and around a dozen arcade games for the DUO.

Correct. In order to match the Analogue Duo, you have to buy a Super Grafx with region mod, CD attachment, Arcade Card and Everdrive. You aren't doing that for less than $400 (probably $500).

[cartman | 195]

1 hour ago, TDIRunner said:

LD ROM and PC FX. 

One of which would be impossible and the other extremely impractical (although maybe possible in future update, but that's stretch).

Never heard of the 1st but it doesn't seem to play anything unique from what i can gather just the same shit that the regular PCE lineup of consoles can play.

PC FX has 62 games so yeah they left that out.

[Tulpa | 3,488]

PC-FX wasn't backwards compatible, was it? I think that's a separate console.

It's like asking the Super Nt to play N64 games.

[cartman | 195]

48 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

PC-FX wasn't backwards compatible, was it? I think that's a separate console.

It's like asking the Super Nt to play N64 games.

No it says that it wasn't. But the CD could legitimately be viewed as a separate console in it's own right it's a different machine than the Hu cards and they're only connected by how they were merged into eachother.

You can't play Hu cards or CD's from one to the other just the same as the FX not being intercompatible with anything else.

 

[Tulpa | 3,488]

2 hours ago, cartman said:

But the CD could legitimately be viewed as a separate console in it's own right it's a different machine than the Hu cards and they're only connected by how they were merged into eachother.

Maybe, although I don't think there was a standalone Turbo CD, was there?

The other thing about the PC-FX is that it was Japan only.

[DoctorEncore | 3,690]

6 hours ago, TDIRunner said:

Correct. In order to match the Analogue Duo, you have to buy a Super Grafx with region mod, CD attachment, Arcade Card and Everdrive. You aren't doing that for less than $400 (probably $500).

I honestly expected this to cost $400-500, so I think it's an absolute steal at $200. The hard part will be getting a pre-order placed because we know this is going to be extremely limited and probably only get a couple restocks.

[cartman | 195]

14 hours ago, Tulpa said:

Maybe, although I don't think there was a standalone Turbo CD, was there?

The other thing about the PC-FX is that it was Japan only.

You mean the CD player being hooked up by itself? No i don't think that was possible.

It was Jap only yeah. Altough with the whole TG16/PCE world i feel like there's way more regional crossover with players than other consoles people barely even recognize that there's regions at all. Probably wasn't like that back in the day but these days basically everyone is fluid, even referring to it as PCE rather than TG16 without a second thought. Maybe because the games are relatable not much requires Jap language skills.

[ifightdragons | 234]

17 hours ago, cartman said:

No it says that it wasn't. But the CD could legitimately be viewed as a separate console in it's own right it's a different machine than the Hu cards and they're only connected by how they were merged into eachother.

You can't play Hu cards or CD's from one to the other just the same as the FX not being intercompatible with anything else.

 

I think your reasoning is a bit flawed here, respectfully.

First of all, the fact that they were "merged" into eachother as you put it, is a strong enough connection.
That makes them part of the same console ecosystem.

But to put it in more familiar terms;
the TG-16/PCE was the base system. The SuperGrafx, CD-rom, Super CD-rom card, and Arcade CD-rom card are all its add-ons.

Much like the Sega Genesis was the base system, and the Sega CD, and the 32X were its add-ons.
It's all one ecosystem, or platform. It's just being supported by various add-ons to prolong its life.

The same can be said for N64 + 64DD. And the list goes on...

Tulpa made a perfectly apt comparison when saying you wouldn't expect the Super Nt to play N64 games.
It would be just as absurd to expect PC-FX compatibility here. It's their next gen system and has nothing to do with the TG-16/PCE platform.

So, much like the Mega Sg supports the respective add-ons, the Duo will support its.
To be frank, I'm still quite impressed Kevtris managed to include support for all the add-on cards and CD.

Edited October 18, 2020 by ifightdragons

[cartman | 195]

5 minutes ago, ifightdragons said:

I think your reasoning is a bit flawed here, respectfully.

First of all, the fact that they were "merged" into eachother as you put it, is a strong enough connection.
That makes them part of the same console ecosystem.

But to put it in more familiar terms;
the TG-16/PCE was the base system. The SuperGrafx, CD-rom, Super CD-rom, and Arcade CD-rom are all its add-ons.

Much like the Sega Genesis was the base system, and the Sega CD, and the 32X were its add-ons.
It's all one ecosystem, or platform. It's just being supported by various add-ons to prolong its life.

The same can be said for N64 + 64DD. And the list goes on...

Tulpa made a perfectly apt comparison when saying you wouldn't expect the Super Nt to play N64 games.
It would be just as absurd to expect PC-FX compatibility here. It's their next gen system and has nothing to do with the TG-16/PCE platform.

So, much like the Mega Sg supports the respective add-ons, the Duo will support its.
To be frank, I'm still quite impressed Kevtris managed to include support for all the add-on cards and CD.

Yes i get that. Technically they are the same platform but in terms of structure they might aswell have been separate consoles. The CD could've been the next gen and it still would've made perfect sense.

But yeah due to how they were released those 2 belong while the FX doesn't so it's alright.

[tbone3969 | 304]

On 10/17/2020 at 7:04 AM, Deadeye said:

@tbone3969 is referring to the Turbo / PC Engine Duo, not Analogue Duo.  The shared naming is definitely going to keep causing confusion in the future.

Correct.  The only real Turbo DUO IMO is the original one.

[tbone3969 | 304]

19 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

I honestly expected this to cost $400-500, so I think it's an absolute steal at $200. The hard part will be getting a pre-order placed because we know this is going to be extremely limited and probably only get a couple restocks.

In todays market you would be hard pressed to find a Supergrafx with an Everdrive for $400 - $500.  And the CD attachment is gonna cost you $200+, especially if you want a working one.  In my experiences, every single CD attachment I have had, and I have had multiple, I have had to send out for repairs.  They never work without some kind of refurbishment.  And even then you couldn't play the Arcade games.  You would need to buy a separate Arcade ram card on top of everything else mentioned.  So your talking $750+ in my estimation.

 

The Analogue DUO is a steal.

Edited October 18, 2020 by tbone3969

[CMR | 517]

I already have s Super SD System 3 so I'll pass on this one, otherwise it looks like a good buy to me especially with the analogue output port included on it.

[Deadeye | 1,595]

Kevtris (FPGA core and board designer of the NT mini, Super NT, Mega Sg, and HiDef NES) revealed he is not the one writing the core for the Analogue Duo.

I wish he was, but it not a bad thing, there are other talented FPGA programers and even ones that made PC Engines cores. 

That's all the info currently.  No word on if Analogue is writing their own core or licensing an existing.  Kevtris may be involved in the project, for the board or project management, he would not answer that.

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

4 hours ago, CMR said:

I already have s Super SD System 3 so I'll pass on this one, otherwise it looks like a good buy to me especially with the analogue output port included on it.

HDMI output only, but the DAC they sell should work fine with it.  

[Tulpa | 3,488]

6 minutes ago, Deadeye said:

Kevtris (FPGA core and board designer of the NT mini, Super NT, Mega Sg, and HiDef NES) revealed he is not the one writing the core for the Analogue Duo.

I was wondering about that. People were tossing his name around with this (and I understand why), but I was thinking "has he or Analogue actually confirmed that he was involved?"

[Californication | 1,477]

"But what the hell is a turbo grafx," - Boo this man.

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3vbv3/the-turbografx-16-is-being-lovingly-recreated-but-what-the-hell-is-a-turbografx-16?utm_content=1602876606&utm_medium=social&utm_source=MOTHERBOARD_facebook&fbclid=IwAR1KQ-SqeV9Yzwh1V-AchNoLJCBxqqRcLYAoqTl_23zLHSMoIIQyRQb-tvo

Edited October 19, 2020 by Californication

[CMR | 517]

1 hour ago, TDIRunner said:

HDMI output only, but the DAC they sell should work fine with it.  

My mistake.  That was a controller port.  I thought it was a nine pin port like the Genesis II has.