I am here to shit on Analogue and also be happy analogue is doing something cool. I love the Pocket is getting PCE but that beautiful duo has some serious design flaws. For those with a big PCE Hu card collection, awesome. For those of us using the Turbo ED… i see a problem here. Might not be able to fit the FPGA on the ED.
Also, this is a big gripe from me. Analogue should have made a Mega CD attachment and made a cart adapter for the Mega SG. This way we could get both PCE & Sega CD games. I am totally out of room under my tv and I don’t want to have one of every console under my tv. I think its time for a Multiconsole analogue.
Imagine if instead of buying new plastic shells with the same fpga we bought one and they added compatibility over time with new cart adapters. Kind of like the Polymega. I am sure this is going to be very limited and I would not be surprised if I caved but its getting a little ridiculous at this point.
More than anything, I wish analogue would support their old hardware. You are lucky if you get any patches after the first few months. I think we got a surprise update to the Super NT after they reworked the Mega SG scan line settings. To this day, the scanlines are wrong and if you were able to shift from top to bottom like you can on the OSSC they would line up but they don’t. Its just so silly.
Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I think this company is stealing code from MiSTer. Is Kevtris even involved anymore? I get the feeling this company is shady and I can’t put my finger on it but something is fishy.
Oh love how this product got announced just after MiSTer got a working Turbo CD core. The pocket is probably going to be all MiSTer cores.
I got on the contact list. The fact you can get hardware for PC Engine/CD for about half what an actual Duo goes for is an actual bargain.
The bigger issue for me is starting a collection from scratch for this system in 2020 is expensive as hell. And this will mean more people searching for those games too… so it’s going to be a pricey proposition.
8BitDo had shown off a PCE controller way before this announcement…I think the next retro joypad they announce I’m just going to assume analogue is making a console to go with it.
It’s compatible with almost every NEC game format, including TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine, and SuperGrafx HuCards as well as TurboGrafx, PC Engine, and Super Arcade CD-ROMs.
No MiSTer PC 98 core yet. Mark my words. No new cores will happen for Analogue before MiSTer. Even if they are looking at the MiSTer cores or using parts of the knowledge to create their own core. I still can’t shake the feeling now.
Edit
@poptart Totally feel like that now. I can’t help it. MiSTer is too good to not evangelize it. I don’t feel like Pi is worth it for this crowd. MiSTer legitimately broke my brain. Suddenly, it was my go to way to play retro on my 4K and I just use real hardware and games on my CRT.
This is some ridiculous bs. Claiming they’re stealing code from MiSTer, wtf. Yeah Kevtris is still with them and he’s had a PC Engine core going back years. This is some fanboy bullshit.
Seriously, this is just an absolutely ridiculous post. Got any tang to go with your MiSTer kool aid.
I remember seeing a post on Atariage where someone asked about a pc engine jailbreak core for the NT mini v1 and Kevtris said the one of the biggest barriers to doing it at the time was the drama involved with the tg16 scene.
Now, years later, I was hoping he’d do a core for the pocket via jailbreak, but official support with an adapter is way more than I expected,
Definitely going to try to snag a duo as that’s the last bit of 90s gaming that I’m interested in and missing. Finally opened my TG16 mini that arrived a month and played some today due to the excitement.
I never come at people like this. I haven’t and never will disrespect anyone here.
Let me address a few things that Kevtris has done. Great work. Can he do a PCE CD core? Sure, I bet he can. Is he the only FPGA dev working there? Probably not. Did Kev have a PCE CD core before Sorg did. Nope, at least it wasn’t publicly known like the original TG16 core.
Let me also address some things that Analogue is doing currently.
1 They will have 3 pre-orders for consoles that have yet to be shipped (these are charged when the order is placed, not when it ships)
2 They are no longer based in Washington. They are now a firm based in China and its not unheard of that some companies there have not respected open source code, such as Retroarch.
3 They’ve change the scope of a pre-order into an improved product after they took the money of their customers. (this is kind of a bonus for those that ordered but also a bit of a fuck you for people who have a NT but would have wanted an improved one).
4 They don’t support their hardware after 3-5 months. Maybe a random update will come out here and there.
5 All of what I am saying about code could be true or false. Analogue uses a closed source so we will never know for sure. I just find it interesting.
6 They are making the Pocket somewhat open so they might be able to get some people developing cores on that like they do for MiSTer. This is a plus, but why would you hand over code to a company that is making money off of your work without compensation?
I really thought of Analogue like a boutique Nintendo. I loved their products but too many things have changed in recent years for me to not only look at them sideways but also wonder whats going on.
Now John, do you own a MiSTer? I do, I also back several MiSTer developers. I am hardly unbiased towards MiSTer but I am not a fan boy. I am really a FPGA fan. I own every analogue console save the Neo Geo including the original NT with the real hardware. I was a HUGE fan of theirs. Things changed. I am very suspect of them now. This is not unfounded hate, this is caution.
Maybe I am wrong. I certainly hope I am. I just have a gut feeling something is fishy and something about them makes me nervous now.
Edit. Maybe they aren’t stealing code. That’s quite a charge (and an obvious shit post by me) but it feels suspicious and i shouldn’t have phrased it that way. I still feel its just weird that its happening now. I do stand behind my above stated issues with the company. I just feel something is off with the company and my first guess was are they looking at or borrowing code and my next thought was is Kev still working for them.
You made baseless accusations of Analogue stealing MiSTer developer cores. A PC Engine CD addon isn’t anywhere near as complicated as the Mega CD, it’s literally some ram, a bios, and a disc drive, but sure make it sound like Kevtris had to steal this far less complicated core to get one. Cause this core which is so much simpler than a SNES or Genesis Kevtris couldn’t do. Hell they have the physical disc drive there, they probably even have the ram on board, but yeah Kevtris had to steal a bios that is already out there from the MiSTer devs.
None of your list means shit or hints that they’re stealing cores.
And yes I do own a MiSTer, its sitting on my desk here and I’ve posted about it before. You are a raving lunatic of a MiSTer fanboy, try to deny it all you want. Throwing out baseless accusations of them stealing code, and cores from open source developers is the action of a fanboy who just wants to make the competition look bad.
If you wish to argue that is fine. But name calling is not okay. Please refrain from resorting to derogatory language about other members of the forum who you may disagree with.
I feel the same but honestly just think it’s that they’re small and independent and now have a bigger than expected following; that always seems to result in problems for these types of companies. Not sure there’s anything untoward going on, maybe just inexperience?
