Analogue 3D: FPGA-Based N64 Available For Pre-Order On October 21

I believe it's probably slightly more for a used N64 in good condition, but your point is valid. I actually bought an Analogue Pocket. It's a quality product, no question about it. I guess the appeal for that one for me is that you can get adapter to play whatever handheld cartridges in one system and the screen is way better quality than the original systems. An N64 though, I'm not as certain. These typically have an SD card slot so that you can run roms on them, but if you just want an emulation machine, there are far more cost effective options. I'd probably argue that the N64 model makes the least sense because the console was pretty reliable and didn't have the read issues like the standard front loader NES.

A quick search on EBay shows some results for $100. That’s also relying on the console to be in decent shape besides being heavily used, and you have to deal with getting a video adapter, which is like $20 for a cheap one or $100 for one with fancy features that makes it look nicer.

$250 for a brand new product supporting modern features like HDMI, USB, and Bluetooth sounds reasonable. It’s got a built-in video filter system like the fancier adapters, and if it’s anything like their previous products, it will have support for mimicking other consoles of similar compute power (the original PlayStation 1 potentially?) I checked and their website says it won’t support this feature. However, it does mention it has support for the Expansion Pack, which is another ~$70 although it’s only needed for a handful of games.

Their previous products have sold quite well, so there’s that.

I got a used, working N64 maybe 11 years ago, and I had to pay $40. Maybe you can get it for less, but I sincerely doubt it. The decent, working ones only tend to become more rare with time, and what was $40 11 years ago...certainly...isn't the same as $40 today. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

My friend went to a nerd convention & IIRC there were people selling "reconditioned" N64s for $130, more for exotic & limited edition colors. While expensive I think this is actually the way to go, because the nerds take them apart & give them a great cleaning, to where they're basically like new! My friend bought one for his kids.

Then for a little more money, there's new tech in this one. Crazy upscaling, modern connections, fixes to old problems in the original console. I have such fond memories of the N64, but I also remember sometimes when it was trying to render some very intense Super Smash Bros scenes it would struggle & lag out for a while. This should be fixed. 10x the resolution, but in keeping with the spirit of N64! And with the original N64, you have to find, buy hokey low-storage memory cards & such. This one has a microSD expansion port & modern 8BitDo Bluetooth controllers, ALL the bells & whistles.

....so.... this appeals to millennials who want to experience their childhood on crack, just the best of what is old rendered & reimagined on snappy modern tech by people who care so much about retro gaming. To get together with their friends. To share with their children. Idk I think it has more than a little appeal, to the right person!

I’m still very curious what consumer segment ends up picking this up. It’s $250, and I would assume you can just get an actually N64 for like $30, no?

Sure, but you're not factoring in all of the price factors that come associated with playing that on a new TV or complicated AV system. This comes with HDMI output built in, and will have scalers and other amenities for QoL usage in 2024. The sad truth is that it's actually pretty expensive to have an AV setup that is designed to handle old consoles, especially with how TVs have not properly supported lower-res content for a long time.

Fact of the matter is some of the best scalers with low latency that you can buy are nearly $2k US, and even the cheaper or more budget options are more expensive than the $250 price tag that this targets (the OSSC, for example). I wish this wasn't the case, but the Analogue 3D and equivalent reimplementations are actually super important for people who are still interested on playing the closest to "real hardware" in 2024.

It’s going to support more systems, eventually, unofficially. Analogue Pocket takes in Gameboy carts (and some other systems with official adapters) but there are also plenty of community cores, some brand new, some ported from Mister. Unfortunately those Pocket ones won’t be compatible :/

Depends but a nice condition N64 with the cables and expansion pak is probably about $100 without a controller. If you plan on connecting it to a modern TV, you need a decent scaler that can do Svideo/composite, so another $60 for the RAD2X. You even can complicate it more by throwing in cheaper RGB mods if you have a compatible system but that adds probably around $60 if you can't do it yourself.

Their price point is very competitive, especially considering its plug and play.

I have bought so many Analogue products and yet I am still a 40 something dad who struggles to get excited about any formerly favorite hobby.