NT Mini Noir

[Larrs888]

1. The original Nt mini lacks from what I’ve read Interpolation, which is a key feature in my view when gaming at 4.3 on a flat screen.

What if you game at 240p RGB on a 4:3 monitor?

Then of course you don’t need it. It’s a shame it’s not there though, especially considering the price.


All this NT mini talk inspired me to play some NES on my AVS last night, it really is a great system and shouldn’t be overlooked imo.

I almost bought the AVS a couple of years back, in the end my hobby budget went on the Super Nt then Mega Sg when that came out. I have an AV Famicom which I really need to get the RGB mod for (I have a Framemeister) but I moved away from a setup with all the old consoles, I like these new HDMI / USB powered ones as I can neatly set them up in the living room without having loads of Scart cables, PSUs etc all over the place.

I was holding out for a Nt "Lite" which would be similar to the Super Nt etc, I do like the look at the Nt mini, always have but as a flat screen gamer no interpolation is a deal breaker for the price in my view. I like the features of the AVS but I'm not a fan of the look of the console, I to appreciate the inspiration however.

If Analogue confirm what firmware upgrades might be implemented i.e Interpolation and even the Super Nt/Sg scanline engine than I would probably take the plunge, if not then maybe the AVS + an N8 is the way to go for now.

[EnragedWhale]

I almost bought the AVS a couple of years back, in the end my hobby budget went on the Super Nt then Mega Sg when that came out. I have an AV Famicom which I really need to get the RGB mod for (I have a Framemeister) but I moved away from a setup with all the old consoles, I like these new HDMI / USB powered ones as I can neatly set them up in the living room without having loads of Scart cables, PSUs etc all over the place.

I was holding out for a Nt "Lite" which would be similar to the Super Nt etc, I do like the look at the Nt mini, always have but as a flat screen gamer no interpolation is a deal breaker for the price in my view. I like the features of the AVS but I'm not a fan of the look of the console, I to appreciate the inspiration however.

If Analogue confirm what firmware upgrades might be implemented i.e Interpolation and even the Super Nt/Sg scanline engine than I would probably take the plunge, if not then maybe the AVS + an N8 is the way to go for now.

The lack of 1080p and the cart slot death grip are my only complaints with the AVS. It doesn’t look as nice and isn’t as fully featured as the Analogue consoles but neither of those points bother me too much. In fact one of the most frustrating things about the Mega SG in particular is all the myriad of visual and audio settings you have to re enter every firmware update. I’m in the U.K. so have 50hz settings to do as well.

[BrianC]

I'm interested in the NT Mini, but 500 is a deal breaker for me since I just spent a bunch of money on Saturn stuff. I definitely plan to get those 8bitdo 2.4G NES and SNES controllers, though.

[waiwainl]

I got all excited, because I interpreted this as making a nt mini in the vein of the super nt and mega sg. Decidedly not interested realizing what it is. I have a rgb nes and mister.

I just wish they'd let us preorder the pocket!

+1 for Pocket yes!

[kitty666cats]

Anyone picked up that ridiculous overpriced DAC they made (with parts/chips anyone can easily get for dirt cheap)? I'd imagine those could be pretty cool if you can easily get them working with things besides their ridiculous overpriced consoles. I don't mean to talk TOO much crap, their consoles look real sturdy and carefully developed, but the price tags are a tad loony to me (I know, FPGA-ing ain't cheap, but still!)

[brentsg]

Anyone picked up that ridiculous overpriced DAC they made (with parts/chips anyone can easily get for dirt cheap)? I'd imagine those could be pretty cool if you can easily get them working with things besides their ridiculous overpriced consoles. I don't mean to talk TOO much crap, their consoles look real sturdy and carefully developed, but the price tags are a tad loony to me (I know, FPGA-ing ain't cheap, but still!)

Yes I got one. But there's no sense discussing it really because I don't consider their prices to be high on consoles or the DAC.

I'm not sure why it matters that I could go source the DAC parts. I'm not capable of producing a PCB that performs the functions (and in a nice form factor as well).

Note: The Nt Mini is overpriced in my opinion but the move away from aluminum chassis was intended to tame that, which is why I expected a plastic Nt Mini.

[tacoguy64]

I jumped on it. Been happy so far with both the super nt and mega nt and been wanting this one for a while now. Lucky for me i have the money to put down for this at this time so i figured i wont make the same mistake as last time and jump on it. As far as prices go? it may lower the price of the re-sellers for a short time but once this run is over, prices will creep up again. Maybe go up higher since this will be the last run for the nt mini.

[vol.2]

What's the point in this thing? Can you do something with it that you can't do with a NESRGB or a hi-def nes mod? something that makes it worth $500, or that all just bling? i personally don't care about bling, especially when it's for retro stuff. This looks all new and shiny and not retro at all.

[ldeveraux]

What's the point in this thing? Can you do something with it that you can't do with a NESRGB or a hi-def nes mod? something that makes it worth $500, or that all just bling? i personally don't care about bling, especially when it's for retro stuff. This looks all new and shiny and not retro at all.

Well this thing is bling times 100 !

[EnragedWhale]

What's the point in this thing? Can you do something with it that you can't do with a NESRGB or a hi-def nes mod? something that makes it worth $500, or that all just bling? i personally don't care about bling, especially when it's for retro stuff. This looks all new and shiny and not retro at all.

The unofficial/official jailbreak firmware allows to you play a whole host of other 8 bit systems loading ROMs from the SD card, inc master system, game gear, gameboy + colour, atari etc all over HDMI or any analog signal you could want.

Not my thing at all as I don’t like ROMs, but I can see the appeal even at $500.

[RuySan]

The success of Analogue's products baffles me because they look so bland. If I paid 500$ for a console I would expect at least for it to look awesome. And why is this nonsense with aluminum? Is this the apple-lization of consoles? Bland looks and aluminum?

Also, look at Analogue pocket. Plain black or white? How long did the designer think to came up with this idea? Old consoles look cool because they had daring designs.

Old machines were made with plastic for a reason. If this doesn't look nice, I'd rather spend money on a MISTer.

[ldeveraux]

What's the point in this thing? Can you do something with it that you can't do with a NESRGB or a hi-def nes mod? something that makes it worth $500, or that all just bling? i personally don't care about bling, especially when it's for retro stuff. This looks all new and shiny and not retro at all.

The unofficial/official jailbreak firmware allows to you play a whole host of other 8 bit systems loading ROMs from the SD card, inc master system, game gear, gameboy + colour, atari etc all over HDMI or any analog signal you could want.

I mean, so can a RPi, but for $35. I know, I know, add in cost for an SD card, controller, power cable, HDMI cable, etc, but still far less than $500.

[EnragedWhale]

What's the point in this thing? Can you do something with it that you can't do with a NESRGB or a hi-def nes mod? something that makes it worth $500, or that all just bling? i personally don't care about bling, especially when it's for retro stuff. This looks all new and shiny and not retro at all.

The unofficial/official jailbreak firmware allows to you play a whole host of other 8 bit systems loading ROMs from the SD card, inc master system, game gear, gameboy + colour, atari etc all over HDMI or any analog signal you could want.

I mean, so can a RPi, but for $35. I know, I know, add in cost for an SD card, controller, power cable, HDMI cable, etc, but still far less than $500.

I’m not going to argue that $500 isn’t too much, I agree so I haven’t ordered one.

But there is a world of difference between a RPI and an FPGA hardware simulated console. I’m not going to write out a full comparison as I suspect you are just looking for an argument but if you genuinely aren’t aware you should do some reading. You might at least gain an insight even if the concept doesn’t interest you. I never thought I’d ever buy a clone console but now I play all of my SNES games through a Super NT.

[ldeveraux]

The unofficial/official jailbreak firmware allows to you play a whole host of other 8 bit systems loading ROMs from the SD card, inc master system, game gear, gameboy + colour, atari etc all over HDMI or any analog signal you could want.

I mean, so can a RPi, but for $35. I know, I know, add in cost for an SD card, controller, power cable, HDMI cable, etc, but still far less than $500.

I’m not going to argue that $500 isn’t too much, I agree so I haven’t ordered one.

But there is a world of difference between a RPI and an FPGA hardware simulated console. I’m not going to write out a full comparison as I suspect you are just looking for an argument but if you genuinely aren’t aware you should do some reading. You might at least gain an insight even if the concept doesn’t interest you. I never thought I’d ever buy a clone console but now I play all of my SNES games through a Super NT.

EDIT: apparently this was formatted terribly! Fixed it.

Oh no, I wasn't looking to fight, I agree with everything you've said. I was agreeing that if a person was looking for multi level emulation, there are much better options available.

[EnragedWhale]

Oh no, I wasn't looking to fight, I agree with everything you've said. I was agreeing that if a person was looking for multi level emulation, there are much better options available.

Yeah at that point a MiSTer is the way to go

[brentsg]

The success of Analogue's products baffles me because they look so bland. If I paid 500$ for a console I would expect at least for it to look awesome. And why is this nonsense with aluminum? Is this the apple-lization of consoles? Bland looks and aluminum?

Also, look at Analogue pocket. Plain black or white? How long did the designer think to came up with this idea? Old consoles look cool because they had daring designs.

Old machines were made with plastic for a reason. If this doesn't look nice, I'd rather spend money on a MISTer.

I guess it’s subjective bit aside from the aluminum device I think all the other stuff looks amazing. Recall that this is a customer demanded production run of an older device. As soon as they moved away from metal enclosure they have nailed it with elegant designs.

But regardless they are successful for what they do, not how they look.

[fernan1234]

You could say that Analogue products are in fact similar to how Apple products used to be (and to some extent still are) perceived: pretty products for the "aspirational consumer" (i.e.: dumb people with expendable income) that are overpriced and functionally inferior to less shiny alternatives. But at least with the Nt Mini that was not completely true, back then at least.

The Nt Mini was originally the right product at the right time. There was nothing else like it. There was no other alternative for such a relatively robust FPGA-based NES emulator (now there's a better one). And the scaling and video options were also impressive at the time (now they are seen as limited). So it wasn't really a dumb move to get one. You swallowed the high price tag and unnecessary aluminum because the functionality was unique and arguably worth it. This combined with the limited availability were enough to create "aura" around the product and brand.

One thing that I'm curious about is the firmware compatibility, since the jailbreak FW is a big selling point (though the cores in it are not that great now, compared to what you can have on MiSTer). It's supposed to ship with a new UI, which would mean a new official firmware. This time kevtris cannot provide a jailbroken FW, but Smokemonster or someone else could "release" it instead like for the newer Analogue products. I'm also guessing you could install the old jailbreak FW and just live with the old UI.

[vol.2]

But there is a world of difference between a RPI and an FPGA hardware simulated console.

My original statement wasn't Rpi based. I was comparing the $500 nt mini to other FPGA-based solutions like the NESRGB and the hi-def NES. You can have either of them for way less.

As to the Rpi comment, what do you think is better about the NT mini? (or a super nt for that matter) To my eyes, SNES games played on Lakka with a RPI4 and 3840 super resolution look *stunning* on a PVM. Are you saying that the looks noticeably better? If so, I really do have to see it.

[EnragedWhale]

But there is a world of difference between a RPI and an FPGA hardware simulated console.

My original statement wasn't Rpi based. I was comparing the $500 nt mini to other FPGA-based solutions like the NESRGB and the hi-def NES. You can have either of them for way less.

As to the Rpi comment, what do you think is better about the NT mini? (or a super nt for that matter) To my eyes, SNES games played on Lakka with a RPI4 and 3840 super resolution look *stunning* on a PVM. Are you saying that the looks noticeably better? If so, I really do have to see it.

I was quoting Ideveraux’s post where he compared it to a RPI.

I’m totally the wrong person to be getting into this with as I use original carts on a modern flat panel tv with no ROMs or CRT’s in sight. For this the super NT (and mega sg) suit me perfectly. The mini does not as it’s too expensive for my use case (I bought an AVS).

Importantly the Analogue consoles have no additional lag over an original console allowing me to minimise input lag to just the screens response time. Have RPI emulators got to this point yet? (Genuine question)

[vol.2]

Importantly the Analogue consoles have no additional lag over an original console allowing me to minimise input lag to just the screens response time. Have RPI emulators got to this point yet? (Genuine question)

Genuine answer is that I don't know. I can tell you that I don't notice any lag, but I am using a CRT and no additional scaling. I play a reasonable amount of NEOGEO. (you can buy the games from GOG for like $3 each like I did if you want) and I don't notice any input lag with Pulstar or Shock Troopers, etc. I didn't actually measure it though, this is just my own personal tolerance, and that seems fine to me.

[kitty666cats]

Importantly the Analogue consoles have no additional lag over an original console allowing me to minimise input lag to just the screens response time. Have RPI emulators got to this point yet? (Genuine question)

Genuine answer is that I don't know. I can tell you that I don't notice any lag, but I am using a CRT and no additional scaling. I play a reasonable amount of NEOGEO. (you can buy the games from GOG for like $3 each like I did if you want) and I don't notice any input lag with Pulstar or Shock Troopers, etc. I didn't actually measure it though, this is just my own personal tolerance, and that seems fine to me.

Sorry to drag it a tad bit off topic (didn't want to dig up an old thread), but @vol.2 have you made any progress RE: 240p RaspPi via HDMI(or VGA!)>YPbPr? Do you think you could PM me the name whichever image you'd found you liked best & a copypaste of your config.txt settings of whatever you had before upgrading to a Pi 4 (if you still have them)? I was fiddling with some config settings from the thread here & some threads elsewhere trying to make a 'Frankstein-ed' 240p HDMI to YPbPr image but couldn't quite put the nail in the coffin. What I CAN say is it still looked amazing! I suppose it could be because the HDMI>YPbPr route is 24-bit (like the RetroTink Ult.) whereas all current readily available GPIO hats remain 18.

[vol.2]

I'll pm you.

[Lawfer]

Pre-orders are closed, it sold out in a week.

[Gara]

They sure love to mess about over at Analogue. They opened orders Friday February 28th at 8:00 am pst and "sold out" Friday March 6th at 8:00 am pst. I suppose just telling people it was a week long open preorder with no set amount would not have generated as much hype.

Between this and that ridiculous petition...

[fernan1234]

Pretty good timing for them. Assuming they sold around 1000, that's a sweet 500k to play with during all this stock market volatility period, and a few months later use a fraction of the gains to cover the production cost for these units

[vol.2]

That's $500 that you can spend on something more useful, like a monitor or a system you don't already have.

At this point, they are just selling exclusivity.

[Lawfer]

Between this and that ridiculous petition...

Nothing "ridiculous" about trying to show Analogue that people wanted more of these made and not have to pay 2k-3k for one on ebay...

Unless you are trying to insinuate something?

I find it funny that people think an item that has been selling consistently for 3000$ over the last few months is suddenly "too expensive" at 500$.

Now there are some people who are disapointed because it sold out (again) and they didn't order and are asking Analogue to make (again) another batch.

*Nt Mini goes up for pre-order*

Analogue: "Final Run!" "Limited Quantities!"

Customers: "500 is too expensive!"

*Nt Mini Sells out*

Customers: "NOOOOOO! You never said it would be so limited, make another batch please!"

[vol.2]

Like I said, they're selling exclusivity.

It's absolutely too expensive. It's absurdly expensive at $500 and it's irresponsibly wasteful at ebay prices.

People who thought $500 was too much had a sane reaction.

[Lawfer]

They sure love to mess about over at Analogue. They opened orders Friday February 28th at 8:00 am pst and "sold out" Friday March 6th at 8:00 am pst. I suppose just telling people it was a week long open preorder with no set amount would not have generated as much hype.

We don't know when the Nt Mini sold out exactly, basing it on tweets times is probably not accurate, as a matter of fact it seems that Analogue didn't thought it would sell out so fast and scheduled a series of "hype" tweets in advance that are still going up everyday despite the fact that it sold out days ago.

Some tweet posts:

https://twitter.com/FateForWindows/stat ... 7440478210

"You know where it normally says "Twitter Web App", "Twitter for Android", etc.? It's saying LaterMedia here, which means that these tweets are scheduled. Pretty frickin' annoying if you ask me."

https://twitter.com/tenchi95/status/1237449923391610885

"Most likely they didnt think that it was gonna sell in a week so they had probably a months worth of advertisement planned and welp are still just throwing it out. Dont see a reason to be mad just ignore it and move along."

[Dochartaigh]

It's absolutely too expensive. It's absurdly expensive at $500 and it's irresponsibly wasteful at ebay prices.

(not picking on you vol.2, you just happened to be the last one who posted something like this)

For people who think it's too expensive, I'm going to play devil's advocate and show you what's needed to have the same kind of functionality as a NT Mini. I know this is simplistic logic for a lot of us, but if that's the truth then I'm still kinda baffled why people think it's such a ripoff considering everything you get in one tidy package in the NT Mini, compared to what I paid for my personal NES setup (I have the NESRGB) for example:



NESRGB (console, Tim's board, mod work, multiout, new power caps) cost me $279 with insured shipping
SNES (used on RGBNES) RGB SCART cable (10' feet, retro access uber shielded) $39
8Bitdo NES30 controller $35, retro receiver $25 (they're a little cheaper now)
My OSSC a couple years ago cost me $212
N8 Everdrive $117
SD Card $10
HDMI cable $5
_______________
$722



Hell, let's say I go the cheaper route and get a RAD2X cable instead of a pricy OSSC (I assume the SNES version will work on a NESRGB with SNES multiout):

RGBNES (console, Tim's board, mod work, multiout, new power caps) cost me $279 with insured shipping
SNES RAD2X scaler cable $52 (out of stock for the forseable future mind you)
8Bitdo NES30 controller $35, retro receiver $25 (they're a little cheaper now)
N8 Everdrive $117
SD Card $10
HDMI to mini? HDMI cable $5
_______________
$523



Let's say I want the Hi-Def NES installed (totally ballparking here as I don't own one but should be decently accurate)

decent condition NES console off eBay, shipped, $50
Hi-Def NES board $145
~$100 install w/ shipping (of course talking about non modder/DIY types...)
8Bitdo NES30 controller $35, retro receiver $25 (they're a little cheaper now)
N8 Everdrive $117
SD Card $10
HDMI cable $5
________________
$487



NT Mini, shipped, with newer 2.4ghz controller, $522
SD card $10 (doesn't need Everdrive...can play directly from SD card)
HDMI cable $5
_______________
$537



So you can slice and dice this a good dozen+ different ways... and of course many of us already have a bunch of the stuff I mentioned above so it's a moot point for you (especially if you can mod yourself)... and of course in the first example the OSSC has WAY more uses than just a single console... but I hope you can see how this logically makes sense for a lot of people, even from a price perspective.

I know there's the AVS, and this is totally my personal opinion, but I consider all the above options to be primo top-shelf type systems and mods. I just can't get over the AVS and put it in this same realm (plus don't care for no 1080p, NEED Analog output for all my CRT's as well, and how it has a bit less customization options than the others... still need the Everdrive and such for the AVS combo as well..).

So for me, when I want something primo for my actual living room, and I want an EASY and SIMPLE way to play NES on my 65" there (and NOT have to move over all the OSSC scaling stuff from the den everytime and setup everything everytime and have wires everywhere...), and/or have something handy I can super easily bring over to my friends houses... this is dinging quite a few bells for me all around (and especially from a design perspective as well).