Modern processing can’t fix vintage flaws

While there are countless ways to play old video games, including endless emulators that devour ROMs and spew memories, Analogue’s hardware offerings have elevated the act of retro gaming to an art form. With an obsessive dedication to pixel-perfect replicas of classic platforms, Analogue’s various devices generally set the standard for consuming older games on new displays.

The company’s latest entry is a song for the Nintendo 64, and it poses a bit of a problem. While Analog’s other systems honored the golden age of 2D gaming, in many ways the pinnacle of pixel art, the N64 ushered gamers into the early, ugly days of 3D gaming. Nearly three decades after their initial release, most N64 games look pretty disastrous by modern standards. Can the Analog 3D ($250) treatment save them?

analog/engadget

Analog’s greatest system is a mighty ode to the classic Nintendo console, but it can’t fix all of the N64’s flaws.

Pros

• great hardware design
• solid controller
• endless configurability
• Next level 4K CRT emulation

Shortcoming

• Most N64 games don’t hold up

$250 on analog

original story

The early to mid-’90s were a prime time for console gaming. Sega and Nintendo printed so much money in the 16-bit era that both were throwing everything they had at the wall to capture the fluorescent pink, Velcro wallets of gamers of the time. Wild controllers, endless system add-ons, and even virtual reality were in the cards.

But it would be the humble CD-ROM that really took things forward. Sega created its own multimedia add-ons in-house with the Sega CD. Nintendo decided to team up with Sony to develop their own disc drives. When that project failed, Sony famously decided to continue it, releasing the original PlayStation in 1995.

Almost overnight, the gaming world was all about three-dimensional gaming, a scenario for which Sega’s Saturn was poorly prepared. However, Nintendo went all out for its next system, the Nintendo 64. Not only did it pack more polygons and colors than Sony’s system, but Nintendo finally cracked the code of making a good three-dimensional platformer. mario 64,

mario 64 Not only is it a great game, but it became a template for how player and camera controls work, defining rules that still exist today.

The N64 was also the first mainstream console to feature an analog controller out of the box, the first console since the Atari 5200 in the early ’80s to have four controller ports, and the first US console to offer haptic feedback in the form of 1997’s Rumble Pak. It all seems strange today, but back in the day it was a truly revolutionary machine.

N64 Redux

Analog 3D is also somewhat revolutionary, but for different reasons. At its core, it relies on a field-programmable gate array, or FPGA, like Analog’s previous devices (Super NT, Mega SG, Pocket, and Duo). An FPGA is effectively a processor filled with virtual building blocks, called logic elements, that enable it to replicate any other system. It requires a huge amount of configuration, but the result is pure hardware emulation.

Again, this is the same concept as Analog’s previous devices, just on a larger scale. Where the Pocket used an Altera Cyclone V FPGA with 49,000 logic elements, this one uses an Intel Cyclone 10GX FPGA clocked at 220,000 logic elements. While Analog never offered much in the way of explanation, it’s likely that the excessive complexity resulted in delay after annoying delay – well, that and the complexities of running an international business in the tariff-laden minefield that is today’s global trade landscape.

Beyond that, Analogue 3D largely follows the same aesthetic seen in the company’s previous units: a minimal impact on the original hardware. It looks like a small and thin N64 – which requires active cooling, so make sure you don’t put this thing in between your other, lesser game consoles.

It supports (virtually) all of the N64’s major peripherals, such as the Transfer Pak, Expansion Pak, and Rumble Pak. It’s USB-C powered and output comes via HDMI, and you’ll find the necessary cables included in the box. There’s also an SD card on the back for firmware updates, and a pair of USB-A ports for good measure. On the front, you’ll find four controller ports with the distinctive circular style used by the N64. But if you prefer, you can also connect the controllers via USB or wirelessly.

The system’s default controller is again provided by 8BitDo, which has created special designs for Analog’s other recent releases. For better or worse, the $39.99 8bitdo 64 controller doesn’t mimic the three-dimensional N64 style, but features all of that system’s buttons in a more traditional layout. It’s probably so traditional, it’s hard to tell it apart from Nintendo’s own Switch Pro controller from a distance.

I haven’t been a fan of 8BitDo controllers in the past. Given the premium analog fees for their systems, 8BitDo controllers don’t quite reach that level of polish. However, this new generation is definitely a step forward. The controller’s buttons don’t rattle when you shake it, the inputs have a good feel, vibrations aren’t harsh and pairing is quick and easy.

That said, I encountered latency issues if I was more than about 10 feet away from the system, or if I closed the door of the cabinet that housed the analog 3D. This is a far cry from the connectivity of the Switch Pro controller, which I can easily use from another room if I ever feel like it.

CRT vibes in the OLED era

Analog has made its name by having a passion for creating the right mix of respecting the original systems while making them great in the modern world. If I may insert an automotive reference, they’re doing with game systems what Singer Vehicle Design does with Porsche.

But while both vintage and reimagined cars look great on the same road, vintage consoles struggle with modern TVs. Plug an original N64 into your 4K HDTV via a series of adapters, and you’ll get a blurry, blocky mess that will make you question everything you held dear about your childhood. Even if you go the hardcore route with something like an open source scan converter or HDMI mod kit to take old analog signals and convert them to modern digital, you still probably won’t like the results. This is because it is not just about getting a clear signal from the console to the display. These systems were designed for cathode rays, where one colored pixel was flowed into the next to create a seamless view, hiding many of the N64’s 320 x 240 imperfections.

Analog 3D takes great effort to replicate that look through a series of filters to replicate everything from consumer-grade CRTs to professional-grade monitors that cost as much as a new car in the ’90s. Analog has experimented with these filters in the past, but they’ve been taken to a new level here, with options to specify monitor type, quality, and size. The results are quite impressive, still a bit grim compared to the giant-sized CRTs in real life, but looking miles better than the game’s unfiltered scene. If you’re particularly finicky, you can even tune and tweak those display settings on a per-game basis.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to take my word for it. 4K CRT effects aren’t actually visible through a capture card, and as of now analog 3D has no integrated screen capture functionality. He, I was told, was coming later.

Back to the future of gaming

I began my testing with the game that, in the eyes of many, represents the high-water mark of the N64 experience: perfect darknessRare’s classic first-person shooter shares many of its concepts (and of course its code) with that other N64 icon, gold eyeBut, in the three years between those games, developers learned a lot of tricks, resulting in a game that really pushed the hardware to its limits,

Or has really crossed his limits. perfect darkness It was equally famous for its uneven frame rates. Expecting a one-to-one recreation of the original hardware, I was surprised to find that the game ran very smoothly on analog 3D. How?

The system includes a range of tweaking and tuning options, including some baked-in overclocking function. By default, it is on auto, which, at least in the case of perfect darknessThe power of Analog 3D was dialed up to compensate for the polygon processing shortcomings of the original system. But analog 3D is nothing if it can’t be changed, and with a few taps in the system’s menu, I was able to turn it off.

Now locked in “Force Original Hardware” mode, perfect darkness Played just like it used to, an unsettling and unsettling testament to the overachieving aspirations of Rare’s developers. And, thanks to more settings adjustments, I could enable 16:9 mode perfect darkness And stretch the video output on analog 3D, getting a proper widescreen effect – even if the game doesn’t output a full 16:9 grid of pixels.

Beyond Auto, you can set the game to run at Enhanced, Enhanced+, and Unleashed speeds. I turned to another game notorious for its poor performance: Superman: The New Superman AdventuresI first reviewed this game in 1999, and since then it has become infamous as one of the worst games of all time,

It’s no better today, but thanks to analog 3D, it’s at least more fluid. The game’s funkiness is gone, replaced by very fast-paced and uninspired ring-chasing gameplay. Sadly, the faster frame rates don’t compensate for that omnipresent green fog superman 64 Feel very claustrophobic. Nor does it fix the crisp, blurry texture that surrounds you perfect darkness,

However, it is not all bad. 1997 decade super robot spiritsA giant robot fighting game only released in Japan, it features untextured 3D models that use Gouraud shading to look slightly less blocky. The result looks really crisp and clean on analog 3d.so also like games mario kart 64 And yoshi’s story3D games that rely heavily on 2D elements scale very well to a modern, 65-inch 4K OLED, like the LG B7 I used for testing.

Unfortunately, there were few games that were really popular for me. Most of the time, I was left staring at blurry, blocky textures emerging from blurry landscapes that were much less breathtaking than I remembered from more than 25 years ago.

wrap up

Analog’s earlier systems take some of the greatest 2D games ever made and elevate them to clearly defined, high-resolution pixel art. They are gorgeous and attractive to look at, which makes them even more attractive to play. Sadly, few games are this good on the N64. Making these games really look good would require pushing back the ubiquitous fog and enhancing the ugly textures that plague many N64 games. It’s safe to say, however, that the faithful entertainment that Analog strives for will be well past that point.

It’s hard to blame analog 3D for this. The hardware does a remarkable job of recreating that original experience. My N64 library has never looked so good, and I’m definitely enjoying digging through games I haven’t played in decades, as well as some newly acquired gems that I missed back in the day. But, more often than not, I’m left shaking my head at how bad these games look, and no amount of 4K upscaling and CRT emulation can fix that.