The Analogue 3D Drags the Fondly Remembered N64 Into the 21st Century (techcrunch.com) 15
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:1)
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.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nintendo C&D place y'r bets (Score:2)
A company that is selling unauthorized Nintendo Intellectual Property... hmm...
How long before Cease & Desist from Nintendo? Place your bets in the reply!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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
MiSTer FPGA has N64 already (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The MiSTer N64 core doesn't run all games and likely never will.
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:3)
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: (Score:2)
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.