The Analogue 3D Drags the Fondly Remembered N64 Into the 21st Century (techcrunch.com) 31
Analogue, a retro gaming company, is releasing a hardware-emulated Nintendo 64 console that can play every N64 game in 4K resolution. TechCrunch reports: Analogue, as is its habit, spent years meticulously re-engineering the N64 in FPGA form -- basically, this means that the new 3D console is, in several important ways, indistinguishable from the original hardware. One hundred percent compatibility with the console's game library is the most obvious one, meaning every single N64 cartridge works with this thing. Perhaps the bigger challenge with the N64, as with many other consoles of that era, is how it produces an image.
The N64 put out an analog video signal intended for display on interlaced CRT displays -- something that directly influenced the gameplay and art styles of countless games for the platform. Many retro games simply look bad on modern high-resolution displays not because they are dated or the art is insufficient, but because the display techs are fundamentally different.
To that end, Analogue has built in a native upscaler that, rather than cleaning up and digitizing the analog video output of the original system (as some upscalers do, with varying degrees of success), produces a natively digital, 4K signal with imitation CRT artifacts and scanlines. This is something they pioneered early on and produced several versions of to reproduce accurate phosphors and display modes for the multi-system Analogue Pocket. [...] The result is simply that games ought to look how you remembered them, which is to say probably a sight better than they actually looked. The Analogue 3D is available for pre-order at 8am PDT on October 21. It's priced at $250.
The N64 put out an analog video signal intended for display on interlaced CRT displays -- something that directly influenced the gameplay and art styles of countless games for the platform. Many retro games simply look bad on modern high-resolution displays not because they are dated or the art is insufficient, but because the display techs are fundamentally different.
To that end, Analogue has built in a native upscaler that, rather than cleaning up and digitizing the analog video output of the original system (as some upscalers do, with varying degrees of success), produces a natively digital, 4K signal with imitation CRT artifacts and scanlines. This is something they pioneered early on and produced several versions of to reproduce accurate phosphors and display modes for the multi-system Analogue Pocket. [...] The result is simply that games ought to look how you remembered them, which is to say probably a sight better than they actually looked. The Analogue 3D is available for pre-order at 8am PDT on October 21. It's priced at $250.
CRT scanlines (Score:1)
Re: CRT scanlines (Score:2)
Like older movies look terrible as you can see the wires etc. of all the special effects that would be hidden by a fuzzy 16" screen.
I have heard that some actresses have had to have plastic surgery redone due to HD.
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It would be cool to see modern TVs include a retro mode that can recreate some of the effects of analog signals and CRT televisions. Now that many televisions have a 120 Hz refresh rate, the interlacing effec
Re:CRT scanlines (Score:4, Informative)
Because it is authentic. Modern monitors do NOT replicate how CRTs displayed sprites back then. There are multiple reasons:
* pixels were low contrast
* "free" anti-aliasing due to non-discrete nature of CRT "pixels"
* every other scanline was effectively black due to dot pitch
* aspect ratio is off
There are multiple [reddit.com] examples [datagubbe.se] describing [tumblr.com] desciptions [tiktok.com] of how art looks on CRTs vs modern monitors.
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> CRTs always looked like a blurred mess to me.
FTFY. It doesn't matter if it was an Apple 2, C64, or Atari 800. All the color monitors of the day had "fuzzy" pixels due to analog CRTs.
Re: CRT scanlines (Score:2)
Apple ][ used 8Kb of memory for its HIRES framebuffer, and HIRES was 280x192 pixels. Now, THAT's cheap. There is no way to create non-cheap looking color graphics with that little memory. Remember that the awful looking IBM CGA used twice as much memory for a similarly sized framebuffer.
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Personally I LOVE Woz's color artifacting on the Apple 2. But that's because I grew up with it. I love the odd-even columns and rows being black in both directions (vertical scanlines and horizontal columns).
i.e.
The interlacing [mobygames.com] (of Ultima 2) is a decent example.
The solid colors [mobygames.com] (of Ultima 4) just feels "wrong" for me.
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Technology was so limited back then that developers actively relied on the physical properties of CRTs to pull off things like transparency and other effects.
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Nintendo C&D place y'r bets (Score:3, Interesting)
A company that is selling unauthorized Nintendo Intellectual Property... hmm...
How long before Cease & Desist from Nintendo? Place your bets in the reply!
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Re: Nintendo C&D place y'r bets (Score:2)
But they run the Nintendo-licensed cartridges, don't they? I have a feeling that it won't end well for them. Nintendo is going to eat them alive in the court.
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Re:Nintendo C&D place y'r bets (Score:5, Insightful)
If Nintendo was going to do something, they would have done it when Analogue sold their FPGA NES, their FPGA SNES, or their FPGA GB/GBC/GBA, the latter of which probably sold hundreds of thousands.
Fact is, all the patents on the N64 have long expired, it doesn't have any sort of firmware or operating system baked in, the company is based in China, and Nintendo's strategy of threatening to bankrupt emulator developers defending frivolous lawsuits doesn't work on a company that size.
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Now I know Nintendo and I know that you are right about Nintendo wanting to C & D everything they don't create themselves.
But it makes barely any sense to my mind, simply because the hardware is not the big moneymaker for Nintendo. Their games are. And those hardly come down in price so it remains profitable for them, even if they don't produce the hardware anymore to play those cartridges. If someone else makes hardware that allows Nintendo to continue make money on games/cartridges from yesteryear, I
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Are they even trying to sell the games anymore?
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Though admittedly, the N64 library is small, so trying to get most of them on there shouldn't be too much of an issue.....
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It doesn't seem to be using any Nintendo trademarks.
Nintendo's copyright doesn't apply here unless they've been distributing libUltra, (The official Nintendo SDK.) or otherwise using Nintendo's code. Which they don't appear to be.
As much as Ni
MiSTer FPGA has N64 already (Score:2)
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The MiSTer N64 core doesn't run all games and likely never will.
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The MiSTer's FPGA is not big enough for a complete N64 implementation, and so many games require romhacks to work around the missing bits. That's not exactly full compatibility.
Stop Fucking Around (Score:2)
Doing blatant bullshit like this is likely to piss off Nintendo, and this is the type of case that will make it to the Supreme Court or Congress and the lunatics sitting there may ban emulators and ruin the party for everyone as a result.
Re:Stop Fucking Around (Score:5, Insightful)
They've already done an NES and SNES, and as it's compatible with cartridges it's pretty hard to argue it's promoting piracy.
I doubt Nintendo loves them, they'd much rather people "buy" these games ten times than just play old cartridges, but I really doubt Analogue will get sued at this point.
Re:Stop Fucking Around (Score:4, Informative)
And Game Boy, and Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. I don't know why people think the N64 will be the one that gets Nintendo to file frivolous lawsuits.
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They've already done an NES and SNES, and as it's compatible with cartridges it's pretty hard to argue it's promoting piracy.
While I agree, if the SD Slot allows running pirated ROMS Nintendo may have an avenue to sue if they want. But given they've already sold all the N64 cartridges they'll ever sell, and at $250 this is aimed at a small audience compared to their current one, I doubt they will waste much time on this. Most of the N64 gamers I know either still have a working N64, or have long since moved on; and many today never played an N64 and thus less likely to be nostalgic about its games beyond the "this is what my pa
Let me just say (Score:2)
I want this. Badly.
Mario Kart 64 Tunnel Jumbotron (Score:2)
The Jumbotron above the tunnel entry on the very first track in Mario Kart 64 worked the way it did because of the hardware. Emulators still can't do it properly, AFAIK. If it works in this FPGA implementation, that's impressive.