Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

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Taiyaki
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Taiyaki »

Steven wrote:Well, I think the system is borderline garbage due to having one of the worst d-pads I have ever used, so don't worry about it.
Really? I find the D-pad to be fine actually, at least for use on GB and GBC games.
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

OK, so what's up with the colors? The colors on the GBA are usually overly bright. How does this differ on the AP?
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Steven »

ldeveraux wrote:
Steven wrote:Well, I think the system is borderline garbage due to having one of the worst d-pads I have ever used, so don't worry about it.
Also that price...
Yeah, for this price there is no excuse for this d-pad.
Taiyaki wrote:
Steven wrote:Well, I think the system is borderline garbage due to having one of the worst d-pads I have ever used, so don't worry about it.
Really? I find the D-pad to be fine actually, at least for use on GB and GBC games.
Well, it's better than the disc thing on the Intellivision controller, but that's about it.
evil_ash_xero wrote:OK, so what's up with the colors? The colors on the GBA are usually overly bright. How does this differ on the AP?
You can adjust the colors on the Pocket to some extent. Pretty sure you can even run GBA games in black and white if you really wanted to. Just checked and you sure can! There is a desaturation slider thingy that you can use to adjust the colors from sickeningly saturated at +0 to black and white at +9. I find +4 or +5 looks more or less like a stock regular SP.
fernan1234
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by fernan1234 »

Steven wrote:You can adjust the colors on the Pocket to some extent. Pretty sure you can even run GBA games in black and white if you really wanted to. Just checked and you sure can! There is a desaturation slider thingy that you can use to adjust the colors from sickeningly saturated at +0 to black and white at +9. I find +4 or +5 looks more or less like a stock regular SP.
Yeah this is a very bad approach based on the wrong idea people developed that the only thing that set the original GBA screens apart was that they were desaturated/dim. They actually used a non-standard/sRGB color space, and to see the correct colors on a backlit screen it's necessary to do color correction, which is standard on today's emulators, as well as the MiSTer and other solutions out there.

The same applies to the GBC (and even some early NDS games!).
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768peeistrash
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by 768peeistrash »

is it normal for lots of games on Genesis core to have flicker at the top right edge of the border? is that the area that overscan on CRT's cuts off?
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

This was supposed to ship to me a while back, and I didn't get anything.
I wrote them, but go no response. Do they have any kind of customer support? I would just like some kind of idea of when it may come in.
They really shouldn't have said it was going to ship the week of January 9. Now I'm like "Where is it?".
spmbx
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by spmbx »

evil_ash_xero wrote: I wrote them, but go no response. Do they have any kind of customer support?
No
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bobrocks95
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by bobrocks95 »

768peeistrash wrote:is it normal for lots of games on Genesis core to have flicker at the top right edge of the border? is that the area that overscan on CRT's cuts off?
Don't know about top right in general but tons of Genesis games show jittery horizontal dots at the bottom or top scanlines due to I believe VRAM access? You see it a lot.
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Konsolkongen
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Konsolkongen »

Taiyaki wrote: I do. I've had my Analog Pocket for about a year now. I tried GBA games and noticed shimmering so yeah it is noticeable despite the high pixel density. At least that was my experience. I've since stuck to GB and GBC and been delighted. Been replaying a lot of games this way. I don't have the Game Gear adapter yet.
Pixel shimmer is an absolute deal breaker for me too. Is there no option to use a sharp bilinear filter on this thing? On such a high resolution screen such a filter would look extremely close to integer sharpness anyway. Done right it can even work in much lower resolutions too. The SNES Classic Mini looks pretty damn good even at 720p.
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Guspaz
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Guspaz »

I'm not sure what kind of scaling it uses, it's far too high resolution to tell if it's nearest neighbour or sharp bilinear. There is a sharpness setting, but I don't know if that's a post effect or part of some sort of polyphase scaler. You'd need a high power macro lens to check, I think.

There is no visible pixel shimmer on horizontal scrolling in GBA games at all. I spent a bunch of time walking back and forth over and over again in Circle of the Moon trying to see if there was any pixel shimmer and I could see absolutely none. However, the display *is* rotated 90 degrees and so refreshes left-to-right instead of top-to-bottom, which some people can see in vertical scrolling.
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by fernan1234 »

Guspaz wrote:However, the display *is* rotated 90 degrees and so refreshes left-to-right instead of top-to-bottom, which some people can see in vertical scrolling.
Wow I had totally forgotten about it being rotated, and didn't consider the implications of it refreshing from an unusual direction. Is it only noticeable with non-integer scaled scrolling pictures like GBA?
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Guspaz
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Guspaz »

People who are sensitive to it would see it in any kind of vertical scrolling, it's not a matter of the scaling (again, it's so high resolution that integer scaling is irrelevant). It's not a Pocket-specific problem, all devices that use rotated screens (such as recent iPad Mini) exhibit the same phenomenon. I don't know why rotating the refresh direction 90 degrees makes this more noticeable than top-to-bottom refresh, which in theory should have similar problems, but in practice doesn't. it's some sort of psychovisual phenomenon, how our brain/eyes work.

I'm not susceptible to it, and that appears to be true for the vast majority of people (since there are so few complaints about the phenomenon), but for people who are susceptible to it (that is, notice it), it's worth noting.
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charlie chong
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by charlie chong »

new cores recently include pc engine cd and jotego's cps2 core so that is a lot of shooties.i think i put about 30-40 games in my pce cd folder and it didn't take up too much space.games over 27 tracks you have to convert into single bin/cue files atm
the cps2 core doesn't load games with graphics over 30 mb so vs series/mars matrix and others don't work yet.
still thats
19xx
1944 loopmaster
dimahoo/great mahou
eco fighters
gigawing
progear

and they all run at proper difficulty unlike those stadium releases
another recent arcade core of note is robocop/hippodrome also by jotego
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bobrocks95
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by bobrocks95 »

charlie chong wrote:and they all run at proper difficulty unlike those stadium releases
Oh, how are the Stadium releases off? I only have Progear so far but I planned on picking up a couple 1940 series games too.
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Konsolkongen
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Konsolkongen »

Guspaz wrote:I'm not sure what kind of scaling it uses, it's far too high resolution to tell if it's nearest neighbour or sharp bilinear. There is a sharpness setting, but I don't know if that's a post effect or part of some sort of polyphase scaler. You'd need a high power macro lens to check, I think.

There is no visible pixel shimmer on horizontal scrolling in GBA games at all. I spent a bunch of time walking back and forth over and over again in Circle of the Moon trying to see if there was any pixel shimmer and I could see absolutely none. However, the display *is* rotated 90 degrees and so refreshes left-to-right instead of top-to-bottom, which some people can see in vertical scrolling.
I got to try a friends Analoge Pocket the other day. Game Boy Mega Man II and the Batrider core. I think you’re right. The 240x320 upscaled 4.5x to 1440 looked really nice, and I didn’t notice any shimmer. I did only try it for a few minutes though.
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charlie chong
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by charlie chong »

bobrocks95 wrote:
charlie chong wrote:and they all run at proper difficulty unlike those stadium releases
Oh, how are the Stadium releases off? I only have Progear so far but I planned on picking up a couple 1940 series games too.
progear and gigawing are definitely too hard at default on the stadium and even fiddling with the settings i couldn't get the difficulty to how it should be. i am not familiar enough with the other ones on stadium to know how they should be.
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

I've been using some of the various open source cores, and I had a question about the PCECD one.
The sound is terrible. Lots of distortion. Is this something anyone else is experiencing?

A great example would be the choir in the "Name Entry" part of Rondo of Blood.
I'm not having trouble with any other system. Sounds bad on headphones too.
Tried a different card, as well.
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TooBeaucoup
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by TooBeaucoup »

evil_ash_xero wrote:I've been using some of the various open source cores, and I had a question about the PCECD one.
The sound is terrible. Lots of distortion. Is this something anyone else is experiencing?

A great example would be the choir in the "Name Entry" part of Rondo of Blood.
I'm not having trouble with any other system. Sounds bad on headphones too.
Tried a different card, as well.
The core and audio worked great for me on version 0.1.6. Then 0.1.7 made the audio go all wacky, which many other people reported. There's a problem with it that needs to be fixed. I rolled back to 0.1.6 and audio is fine again.
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by evil_ash_xero »

I'll give that a shot.

EDIT: It worked.
Melbont
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Melbont »

Is there any way to play the pocket on a crt tv yet? I’ve read that the dac still doesn’t work but has anyone downscaled using the dock yet?
shmupsrocks
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by shmupsrocks »

Do USB controllers work with the Pocket?

(Can't wait for the PCE adapter.)
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by TheRetroCarrot »

evil_ash_xero wrote:This was supposed to ship to me a while back, and I didn't get anything.
I wrote them, but go no response. Do they have any kind of customer support? I would just like some kind of idea of when it may come in.
They really shouldn't have said it was going to ship the week of January 9. Now I'm like "Where is it?".
Their customer support is pretty nonexistent, I'm sure they know even if customer's don't purchase their product, scalpers will buy every unit they can produce anyways.

Their order policies are awful. Because stock never exists and is almost always on a pre-order basis, they won't allow you to place orders together on items that release or are available at different times. I reached out to them interested in the pocket, super nt, and some adapters, and every single item I was interested in had a different estimated ship date and could not be in the same cart. That would be fine as I'm in no rush for any of it, but because of this there was no option but to pay separate shipping on every single item, resulting in $323 of shipping to Canada for a few items.

I reached out about this asking if I can pay for items together and have them held until the final production item is complete, and a month later got a pretty lackluster response of "these items cannot be bundled due to different shipping times.". I've been interested in almost every release they've put out, and own none of them, either due to availability or them gouging customers on shipping. It does not cost them $70 to ship a pocket to Canada. We pay enough shipping without the markup, that's just profiteering. Luckily I'm not really interested in supporting them at this point.
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bobrocks95
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by bobrocks95 »

The second the Super NT went up I could tell they were drastically overcharging on shipping so they could hit that $199 advertised price point (which they aren't even anymore). Stopped me from getting one at launch, now I got one in the final batch as a Christmas gift, which of course isn't here yet...

With most Mister cores being open source at this point I'm amazed there aren't multiple competitors popping up. It's a bad time to buy FPGAs but I haven't heard anybody talking about even toying with the idea. If you want an FPGA system that plays original carts it's just analogue (excepting NES).
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by DejahThoris »

JemmyPaeg wrote:
evil_ash_xero wrote:This was supposed to ship to me a while back, and I didn't get anything.
I wrote them, but go no response. Do they have any kind of customer support? I would just like some kind of idea of when it may come in.
They really shouldn't have said it was going to ship the week of January 9. Now I'm like "Where is it?".
Their customer support is pretty nonexistent, I'm sure they know even if customer's don't purchase their product, scalpers will buy every unit they can produce anyways.

Their order policies are awful. Because stock never exists and is almost always on a pre-order basis, they won't allow you to place orders together on items that release or are available at different times. I reached out to them interested in the pocket, super nt, and some adapters, and every single item I was interested in had a different estimated ship date and could not be in the same cart. That would be fine as I'm in no rush for any of it, but because of this there was no option but to pay separate shipping on every single item, resulting in $323 of shipping to Canada for a few items.

I reached out about this asking if I can pay for items together and have them held until the final production item is complete, and a month later got a pretty lackluster response of "these items cannot be bundled due to different shipping times.". I've been interested in almost every release they've put out, and own none of them, either due to availability or them gouging customers on shipping. It does not cost them $70 to ship a pocket to Canada. We pay enough shipping without the markup, that's just profiteering. Luckily I'm not really interested in supporting them at this point.
Customer service in my experience was... interesting. My Pocket (like some others I'd read about online) wouldn't read SDHC/XC cards properly and would claim that the core was broken and reboot. I tried different firmwares and about 6 SD cards and reached out to them when I saw it wasn't just me. Immediately got a message back going over the details of what I'd tried so far. I replied inside 2 or 3 hours and then silence for 4 days. Got asked another question, replied right away. A full week later I'm told I will need to send it in for repair. Dead silence for 17 days and suddenly I got a return shipping label with no message in the body, just the attachment. Shipped it on out, and it returned to me in less than a week with ZERO communication. No idea what they did to it, was never told it was fixed or on its way back, but it's here now and it works, so I guess no complaints?

Regarding their shipping, it's been brought up elsewhere that they outsource to a very expensive company rather than handle any of the orders on their own and that's why it's so pricey. Which is still awful for their customers, but it at least makes sense. Not remotely trying to defend them on this because I paid $40 to have the Pocket shipped to me a whopping 210 miles from them, just offering an explanation.
ldeveraux
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by ldeveraux »

Glad to see folks getting on the Analogue hate train, if only the company. No comment on the actual product as I've never considered owning one.
Taiyaki
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by Taiyaki »

ldeveraux wrote:Glad to see folks getting on the Analogue hate train, if only the company. No comment on the actual product as I've never considered owning one.
I'm not a fan of the company, even going back to their wooden CMVS which was a terrible idea imo. I've also always taken issue with their products (especially that despite being called analog their products are among the least analog friendly these days). All that said to be fair this is easily their best product to date imo and it's quite an amazing product that I'd recommend to anyone who loves the original Gameboy and GBC.
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TooBeaucoup
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by TooBeaucoup »

I guess I'd say I like Analogue simply because I haven't had a problem with their products yet. I imagine my opinion might be different if I actually had to deal with them. That said, I'm not a fan of the way they announce things and make you preorder and pay a year in advance. LOL! I got a Super NT when that first came out and that launch seemed fine. The whole Pocket thing has just been a mess, though. Understandable given covid and everything, but still...

I actually got my Pocket by accident. I was browsing Facebook Marketplace, which I rarely do, and a guy had some brand new and sealed. He had 3 of them and was letting them go for $200 a piece. I don't know what his deal was. I'm guessing he got a bunch (somehow) and wanted to scalp, but maybe nobody was buying as fast as he wanted, so he was just trying to get some money back. Honestly, I thought it was a scam at first and was fully expecting to potentially be robbed when I went to meet him. I didn't really even have any intention of ever buying one, as handhelds aren't really my thing. But, $200 brand new and I don't have to give the money to Analogue? Win/Win! :lol: I picked up a new Dock on Ebay, just a little overpriced, got a DAC and now have it running into my Tink5x at 240p with scanlines. Absolute chef's kiss!
kamiboy
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by kamiboy »

We all have different priorities. Personally I am fan of the company, their products and hope they will continue to make new systems in the future because I am likely to buy everything they will and have made. I view them more as a hobbyist boutique venture than a big company. One that makes products that appeal specially to my aesthetic sensibilities, which is a need no one else seems to be focusing on, so they are afforded much slack. I went into the Pocket venture knowing it was likely to take a long time, and it did take over a year before I got mine, but I certainly am enjoying it. As a hobby I started modding real Gameboy systems while waiting, and when all choice modding parts were purchased I often ended paying prices close to the Pocket just to have an inferior device with a fraction of the functionality and sex appeal.

For me the only suboptimal thing about the company is being a customer outside of US means one is saddled with clown world shipping prices and customs duties. This might be tolerable if one buys a bundle of several products that are all in stock, but this is not an option with their preorder items or just single low prices items. Parts shortages mean that almost everything they have is now on pre-order.

If I wanted to buy a GG adapter for my Pocket now it would be a reasonable 30 freedom bucks, however, I would have to pay 60 for shipping, then just as much in customs duties. So in total I could end up paying close to the original price of the Pocket just for one of the adaptors which is quite absurd. I really should've just bought it from them originally.

Oh, well, thems the breaks. I do wonder when or if they will ever return to the PC Engine system project though. Although they still mention it on their website, there has been no news on it forever.
ldeveraux
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by ldeveraux »

kamiboy wrote: If I wanted to buy a GG adapter for my Pocket now it would be a reasonable 30 freedom bucks, however, I would have to pay 60 for shipping, then just as much in customs duties. So in total I could end up paying close to the original price of the Pocket just for one of the adaptors which is quite absurd. I really should've just bought it from them originally.
This right here I hate the most. They'll release this portable console that everyone will say is amazing... until the hidden costs. Sure the Pocket itself SHOULD only be $220, but you only get 3 Nintendo portables. Want a dock? $100. Want a case? $30. Screen protector, cable, charger, adapter kit, game gear adapter are another $166. So all said and done you're looking at over $500 BEFORE their disaster of a shipping system. God that's terrible!
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Re: Analogue Pocket (FPGA GB/GBC/GBA/NGP/LYNX)

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

kamiboy wrote:We all have different priorities. Personally I am fan of the company, their products and hope they will continue to make new systems in the future because I am likely to buy everything they will and have made. I view them more as a hobbyist boutique venture than a big company. One that makes products that appeal specially to my aesthetic sensibilities, which is a need no one else seems to be focusing on, so they are afforded much slack. I went into the Pocket venture knowing it was likely to take a long time, and it did take over a year before I got mine, but I certainly am enjoying it. As a hobby I started modding real Gameboy systems while waiting, and when all choice modding parts were purchased I often ended paying prices close to the Pocket just to have an inferior device with a fraction of the functionality and sex appeal.

For me the only suboptimal thing about the company is being a customer outside of US means one is saddled with clown world shipping prices and customs duties. This might be tolerable if one buys a bundle of several products that are all in stock, but this is not an option with their preorder items or just single low prices items. Parts shortages mean that almost everything they have is now on pre-order.

If I wanted to buy a GG adapter for my Pocket now it would be a reasonable 30 freedom bucks, however, I would have to pay 60 for shipping, then just as much in customs duties. So in total I could end up paying close to the original price of the Pocket just for one of the adaptors which is quite absurd. I really should've just bought it from them originally.

Oh, well, thems the breaks. I do wonder when or if they will ever return to the PC Engine system project though. Although they still mention it on their website, there has been no news on it forever.
The Analogue Duo project seems like damn vaporware at best but they'll get to it eventually (perhaps going into 2024 would seem more reasonable these days). Still no way to even pre-order on in for the 1st production batch (which I'm sure will sell out mighty quick). I'd stick to a real PCE console with a Turbo Everdrive Pro setup and you're good to go with playing CD-Rom2, Super CD-Rom2 & Arcade CD-Rom2 games without the need for a real CD-Rom2 or Super CD-Rom2 interface unit anyways. How cool is that?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
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