Analogue has been the established front-runner of FPGA-based home consoles that play real game media. Over the last decade, the company has traversed gaming history from 1985 with the Nt Mini to 2002 in the form of the Pocket and 3D, with some stops along the way in 16-bit land as well. One thing that has frustrated gamers -- but delighted scalpers -- over the last couple of years is the sudden discontinuation of the 16-bit home consoles, namely the Mega Sg based on the Sega Genesis and the Super Nt based on the Super NES. Today, Analogue announced that those two consoles will be making a comeback in upgraded forms that will ship by the end of the year.
The Super Nt was Analogue's second FPGA console after the Nt Mini (and, yes, we are acknowledging that Analogue made both the AES and the original Nt from harvested real chips out of Neo Geo and Nintendo Entertainment System consoles). It really nailed the Super Nintendo's aesthetic and did a great job recreating the original console's hardware while playing original software right off of original cartridges and included original controller ports to use either native hardware or modern recreations from 8bitdo. Graphics were upscaled from the original 256x224 resolution to fit a 1080p display, and there were screen effects like scanlines. It was a pretty solid solution in its time.
Analogue's follow-up to the Super Nt was the Mega Sg, based on the Sega Genesis. This little console swapped out the Nintendo cartridge connector and controller ports for Sega Genesis and Mega Drive-compatible versions, and even included the edge connector for the Sega CD and a cart adapter for the Master System. It was a solid implementation in its own right, but it kind of whiffed on a few things. First of all, to this old Sega fan's ears, the low-pass audio filtering and ladder effect of the YM2612 (a form of analogue distortion that was fixed in the Genesis 2's YM3438) were never quite right. The hybrid scanlines that responded to color intensity never got fixed at 1080p. It was kind of unfinished, but that doesn't prevent the console for going for over $500 on eBay today.
What's New In The Super Nt+ and Mega Sg+
Both of the new systems will be available in "Plus" versions for $219 each. What do the Plus versions get you, besides a price cheaper than scalpers charge? Bluetooth controller support, USB-C ports with power delivery support, and power on and off via the controller are the headlining features. That's about all they're saying about these consoles right now.
It is somewhat disappointing that Analogue isn't talking about refining the console cores themselves, because especially the Mega Sg needs some refinement. Analogue shipped the NEC PC Engine-compatible Analogue Duo with some fantastic CRT effects and they're not mentioned on the product pages at all. The 4K CRT effects on the Analogue 3D are splendid. We'd like to hope that these features are coming to the updated Super Nt+ and Mega Sg+ but so far analogue isn't saying. But they get new retail packaging, and a "NEW!" banner on the product page, though. While the Analogue Pocket shipped with OpenFPGA capabilities, none of Analogue's consoles since have done so, and it doesn't look to be the case here, either.
Even more irritating to me is Analogue's insistence on releasing two consoles. The two systems share the same Cyclone V FPGA, and Analogue has shipped multi-console systems in the past, like the fantastic Pocket with its OpenFPGA implementation. The $219 price tag is kind of steep when there are multiple boards and systems compatible with the MiSTer FPGA platform available for the same price, and they can play games from many more consoles, not to mention recent jumps in compatibility with original media for CD-based systems like the PlayStation and Sega CD.
Also removed are the games that were included with the original Mega Sg and Super Nt. To be fair, both Super Turrican Director's Cut and Ultracore have been released as standalone games through Limited Run Games, but they were nice additions in the original consoles.
Alternatives And Analogue Preorder Details
The truth is there are a lot of FPGA consoles out there that are competing for the retro market. We've talked about MiSTer in great detail, but that platform has only expanded to include many more consoles and arcade platforms in the years since that article was published. On top of that, cheaper DE10-nano compatible boards are now available from Retro Remake, as well as the PlayStation-looking SuperStation One. ModRetro has entered the scene, first with the Chromatic, an FPGA-based Game Boy Color, and now with the ModRetro M64, which itself is based on the Nintendo 64 core written by Robert Peip for the MiSTer. Analogue is up against some stiff competition.
It's not that the Super Nt+ or Mega Sg+ are bad products. We're sure that Analogue will sell every single one they make available for preorder. But a single, flexible design with compatibility with both the Genesis and SNES (and the NES, while we're being greedy) would be easy to manufacture and they could pump out more units that would make everyone happy. And personally, I'd line up for a $299 FPGA console that could read my cartridge library from those three systems. But if you're a diehard fan of these 16-bit consoles, Analogue's consoles remain the only way to play original cartridges on HDMI-equipped FPGA hardware. If that's enticing, head on over to Analogue's preorder pages on Monday, October 19 at 8am PDT to get in line.
Ben has been fascinated by technology since he got a Commodore VIC-20 as a child in 1984. By day he's a software developer working in education technology, and at night he's a husband, dad, musician, gamer, and freelance technology writer. If he's not at his PC, Ben can be found hanging out with his family, gaming on a vintage Sega console, or grippin' and rippin' with his beloved Paul Reed Smith guitar.
Follow Ben on Twitter.
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.