Analogue’s 4K Nintendo 64 launches next year for $249

Wha
Do n64 games even render in 4k

2 Likes

That’s a lot of money for something that only does n64.

I say this as someone who is sunk cost hard into the MiSTer ecosystem.

2 Likes

yea we can upscale now. my Odin 2 renders stuff at 1080P, it makes games look the way you remember them lmfao. Lots of widescreen patches too.

1 Like

It’s just going to upscale them – which is potentially very good if your TV has trouble with low-latency upscaling. EDIT: I should also note that for a lot of post-processing effects (scanlines, phosphoresence, etc.) the higher the resolution, the better the effect will look even if the game is rendered at its native resolution.
See also the bit at the bottom of the main page:

  • Resolution is 10x the majority of games at 320. Some games display in 640.

If you want your N64 games in 4K60 you probably don’t want a bespoke FPGA solution. (And, truthfully, I’m still reasonably happy with my pretty basic DE-10 setup for everything I’ve tried it with…the only Analogue device I would want is the pocket, nearly all of which is due to portable aspect.)

I think the biggest draw to this for me is just the fact that it’s supposed to be capable of running n64 games easily on its own. I’m sure I can figure out emulation, but I’ll always prefer using something resembling an official controller, on a tv, for stuff like this, especially for a system with as unique a controller as the n64 (Most handheld games, similarly, I play almost exclusively using jailbroken devices, flashcarts or repros on genuine hardware, or all out genuine hardware top to bottom, because those kinds of games just feel weird on a normal controller). 250 is a bit rich for me (especially considering my non-existent pile of physical n64 games and fairly short list of n64 games on my backlog), but we’ll see where I’m at when there’s a release date…

I think I’d rather take the MiSTer route than drop $250 for an exclusive N64 machine. I prefer to play on original hardware with OEM controllers, but if I’m going to spend that much on this type of device, I would hope it can do more than just play one retro console–one that I can still play on original hardware anyway. (The day will come when that is no longer possible–it’s already happened to almost all of our FamiCom Disk System units–but I’m taking advantage while I can.)

This is just a personal gripe, but I also just get like…Apple vibes from Analogue in a way. Maybe that’s off-base though, I don’t know.

2 Likes