Analogue, the retro remakers behind the Game Boy-like Pocket, is jumping a full dimension and is doing FPGA emulation in 3D. The first console the company has its sights on is the late, great Nintendo 64 with its newfangled Analogue 3D. Like the Pocket, this revised console will play all your lingering N64 cartridges that are gathering dust in your attic. However, this may be the best way to hunt for jigsaw pieces in Banjo-Kazooie. The console doesn’t just let you connect your N64 via HDMI, it will upscale the tiny resolution on Nintendo’s 64-bit console up to 4K.
The $250 Analogue 3D can take most of the N64’s library and boost the resolution 10 times to 4K. Games on the N64 natively play at 320 x 240 up to 640 x 480. However, Analogue noted that there are a select few games that will sit at the max 640. Other than the boost in resolution, the device is designed to mirror the “warmth, depth, and texture” of CRT TVs. That includes subtle hints of scanlines and the phosphor glow of cathode ray tubes.
Analogue said the revised console should support any N64 cartridge, region-free. You can plug in all your old N64 accessories or controllers, but if you want a more modernized take on the original console’s classic single-joystick design you could opt for the $40 8BitDo 64 Controller. The device maker said it worked with 8BitDo to design the new controller with the same feel on the stick without the notorious drift. It will also work wired or with Bluetooth, so it also plays on Nintendo Switch, PC, or Android. 8BitDo offers mod kits to retrofit original N64 Controllers, if that’s more your jam.
You don’t get a controller or cartridges in the box, though a recreation of the N64 Expansion Pak comes pre-installed (the Pak doubled the RAM to a whopping 8 MB). There’s a 4K HDMI output along with two USB-A ports and a USB-C port for its power supply.
Analogue is mostly known for its Pocket Game Boy FPGA device, though the company has also created recreations of the Super Nintendo and the poor, forgotten NEC Turbografx-16. In short, FPGA is a kind of hardware replication using modern chips to mimic the original device. Most recently, Analogue crafted a $500 CNC aluminum Pocket, which CEO Christopher Taber told Gizmodo was one of its most expensive and complicated devices to produce.
In an email, Taber told us the company has spent four years trying to perfect the Analogue 3D. It’s a heavier lift than the Game Boy, not just because it’s more complicated hardware, but because the point of the new hardware was to preserve and even enhance the N64 experience, rather than just replicate it. The company is layering the system with its own operating system called 3Dos, which not only launches games but saves your in-game screenshots.
As for the nitty gritty, the makers said they developed the Analogue 3D off an Intel 220k LE Altera Cyclone 10GX FPGA, a far more complicated setup than the Pocket.
The Nintendo 64 wasn’t necessarily a landmark console because of its hardware, but because of its landmark games. Super Mario 64 revolutionized 3D platformers. Super Smash Bros. created an entire subgenre of fighting games. Goldeneye 007 proved shooters could work on consoles. Despite its pedigree, the N64 is a notoriously difficult console to emulate due to its proprietary hardware. Any time you try to emulate an N64 title, you’ll find the game looks nothing like the original.
The console is up for preorder starting Oct. 21 at 8 a.m. PT, 11 a.m. ET on Analogue’s website.
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