Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

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parodius
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by parodius »

Maybe they changed their way handling it this time, and have waited to be quite far both in the development and the securing of the production process before opening the pre-orders.
That would explain why it took so long since the initial announcement, and also why they can take more pre-orders.
They probably have learned from the Pocket mistakes...
At the same time they could again be late in delivering the actual product in the hand of customers by quite a bit... we'll see.
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Deubeul
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Deubeul »

fernan1234 wrote:
Deubeul wrote:I think us westerners underestimate the potentially high demand from the japanese market for this thing.
You'd think so right? But it may not be the cased at least going by what I've observed about the Japanese market for retro gaming stuff including the PCE.

The biggest trend is that most retro gamers in Japan don't care at all about video quality, and most will plug their 100% unmodded PCE's via composite to LCD TVs. Another big segment will be happier using that PCE Mini that Konami released. Of course there are some more hardcore users who will play on CRTs, use scalers, and mod consoles, but they are relatively fewer than the corresponding niche in the West. I've heard from modders in Japan about how most of the Duos and briefcases they mod for RGB are going to overseas buyers.

The HDMI output would be attractive to a fair share of people there perhaps, but I can't see it justifying the expensive dollars for most.
Your point is valid and well known, but the fact that the japanese law is very repressive against piracy must be taken into account.

I'd love Analogue to publish their sales numbers by region.

I understand that Mister users feel the need to evangelize the poor ignorant people willing to do the big mistake of buying an Analogue product; But as I said, I already own a Mister, and I love it, but it can't play all my physical games, and doesn't look like a sick modern redesigned Duo. Sometimes a purchase has nothing to do with reason and logic.

And yes it's also FOMO.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by fernan1234 »

Don't want to add to the Analogue "hate" necessarily, but as a word of caution for those acting purely on FOMO I'd remind that previous Analogue consoles suffered from significant bugs for years, though eventually (last week) firmware updates were released with apparent fixes to reported issues. This means your FOMO may get you stuck with a bad product for an indefinite amount of time, and by the time it's fixed something better may already be available anyway.

It may be better to wait for reliable reviews and if it turns out to be good, it may be worth paying a bit extra to a reseller/scalper of which there will be many, but with peace of mind that the experience will be good. And without having given Analogue an interest-free loan for an unknown, usually very long, pre-order period. Chances are many of the orders placed are from hopeful scalpers who forgot or were not around to see what happened with the Nt Mini Noir, which means you may even get an equal or better deal from them with basically the same cost as what you would loan to Analogue including their inflated shipping.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Deubeul »

You're right, I should have waited for all the concurrents to release their own hucard and CD based fpga console, surely most of them will add PC-FX support, dumb me!
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BazookaBen
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by BazookaBen »

So how quickly does Analogue usually get out jailbreak firmware?

I'm still crushed by indecision here because I'm in a spot where I can either cancel my Core Grafx 2 order from yesterday or my Analogue order I made an hour before that haha.
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Rulumi
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Rulumi »

I'll personally recommend an actual PC Engine system to someone who has a lot of interest on it, more so considering various things with the system.

And seeing people talking a lot about Analogue products seemingly slow updates release history, for interested people as well to probably not buy this without knowing about the product performance before? But it's up to everyone's decision and choice at the end of the day.

Also considering the high shipping prices they are know to have only in their own country already, I can't imagine it being something that doesn't affect international buyers even more.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by bobrocks95 »

BazookaBen wrote:So how quickly does Analogue usually get out jailbreak firmware?

I'm still crushed by indecision here because I'm in a spot where I can either cancel my Core Grafx 2 order from yesterday or my Analogue order I made an hour before that haha.
I'm not entirely sure we're guaranteed to get disc loading via SD card for the jailbreak firmware. That would have its own complications I'd think that they may or may not put in the time to solve. I'd say original hardware + Turbo Everdrive Pro is a safer bet, unless you plan to buy some original disc games or use the Duo on a digital display in the future.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by BazookaBen »

bobrocks95 wrote:I'm not entirely sure we're guaranteed to get disc loading via SD card for the jailbreak firmware. That would have its own complications I'd think that they may or may not put in the time to solve. I'd say original hardware + Turbo Everdrive Pro is a safer bet, unless you plan to buy some original disc games or use the Duo on a digital display in the future.
I was thinking, if jailbroken, HuCard games would work on SD card, and just burning CDs would be fine for the drive.

But I don't plan on buying many disc games at all. Besides Limited Run Games' pressing of Rondo of Blood if they do one. Which I'll just rip to the Everdrive if need be.

I just think the Analogue Duo is cool. It would be cool to own a Kevtris designed system. Also, would be easier and cheaper to make multiplayer happen on it thanks to bluetooth controller support. Though I'm not that interested in its multiplayer library.

PC Engine, on the other hand, is also cool. A little cheaper after adding up the bill of materials. But I don't have any nostalgia to the form factor of it. I didn't even know what a Turbo Grafx or PC Engine was until the 2000's.

At the end of the day, I just want to get an authentic experience, meaning authentic video, sound, and controller. Which both options provide.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

You can't any better than with a real PCE/TG-16 console setup with a Turbo Everdrive Pro + EDFX add-on = priceless and 100% authentic experience not to be missed. Plus the ability to play the TTI version of Magical Chase is well worth it alone. The cool multi-player aspect with PCE/TG-16 are the Bomberman games, especially Bomberman '94 is the best one to play with five folks indeed (Hudson Soft released it under the title of Mega Bomberman for the MD/SG consoles as well but with up to four players max).

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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Deubeul »

Besides the Bomberman games, Moto Roader MC is one of the best multiplayer game of the system, the hidden battle mode is hilarious.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by bigbadboaz »

Took a look at this after being reminded how cool I thought it looked at announcement. The wired ports are on the SIDE and BACK!?

Given a chance to design the ultimate tribute version of a console, from scratch, how in the hell do you fuck up something so basic?
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Guspaz »

bigbadboaz wrote:Took a look at this after being reminded how cool I thought it looked at announcement. The wired ports are on the SIDE and BACK!?

Given a chance to design the ultimate tribute version of a console, from scratch, how in the hell do you fuck up something so basic?
The answer is simple, the primary input connectivity method is intended to be 2.4g and bluetooth, which are built-in, and the original PCE controller input is on the side as a fallback. Personally, I'd have put that controller port on the side much closer to the front, though.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by bigbadboaz »

Nope, sorry. Built-in wireless is a great feature but the idea that people buying a remake console to play actual CDs and HuCards on aren't going to want to use their actual legacy controllers as well is bunk (And don't try to tell me the 8BitDo PCE pad obsoletes the originals, I had one for the Mini and they borked the design). And nobody wants them sticking out the side, particularly depending on A/V cabinet arrangements.

The TWO wired USB ports included indicate they understand people will have a lot of fun utilizing whatever modern tribute pads they have lying around as well. Yet nobody wants to have to snake them over the top of the machine after having to reach around the back to attach them. There's a damn good reason nobody put controller ports there since the Atari freakin' 2600 went off the market.

They had a completely clean slate to design the "ultimate" combo NEC machine. There's just no excuse not to place each and every port in the proper logical place.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by bobrocks95 »

The original port should've been in the front for sure, but I think the integrated bluetooth and 2.4ghz are an acceptable compromise for throwing the USB ports on the back. How many USB wired controllers are people commonly using these days? If I hooked up a fightstick it's going to have a super long cord that doesn't matter much.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

At least you can use the Brook PS3/PS4 to MD/SG/PCE adapter to the left side of an Analogue Duo's controller port and whatever wireless or wired PS3 or PS4 gamepad or arcade stick on hand for even greater compatibility/versatility. Of course, the two best PCE arcade sticks to own/play with are Micomsoft's XE-1 Pro HE & Hori's Fighting Stick PC.

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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by fernan1234 »

PC Engine Fan X playing PC Engine games with a PS3/PS4 controller? Clearly nothing is sacred in this day and age.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by NightWolve »

I still can't buy it, the payment processor gave me hell no matter what I tried, and now I'm stuck waiting on a paygo Visa card to make the $330 in funds available...

First I tried my bank Mastercard, I kept being told it's declined. I got advice in discord to call my bank to get authorization, so I try that, first person tells me to hold and then just transfers me to voice mail. I try again, now I got a hold of the right person. She lifted the daily spend limit to $750 and said it's good for 24 hours but warned me I may have locked myself out for too many retries. I return to the Analogue website, repeat the process, but now I get a different message, a block!! Yep, I'm locked out, but it's not by the bank now!

Next I ran out to a local store to buy a Visa card and load it with cash. I returned home, tried again, but I'm still getting that same block message!!! Luckily I was in an active discord channel and someone noticed my problem, told me to switch IP addresses. Since I was blocked on my desktop PC with home ISP, I grabbed my phone, turned off WiFi, turned on mobile minutes from phone service, tried again, but now I was back to the declined message, hahaha!

I knew I had to register the Visa to make online orders internationally, it told you it'd be limited to US orders if you didn't, so that wasn't the problem. I eventually noticed the $330 I paid remains in a "pending" status meaning it hasn't transferred from the store's bank to the Visa's bank, it's a 3-5 business day wait situation for it to be ready to spend... Ugh.....

With all that, thankfully it's not a Super NT situation of them selling out like hotcakes in one day; Analogue has about 7800 left to sell! Anybody still want one you got plenty of time but likely the white Duos will sell out first, they're more popular.

Here's a weird link that lets you monitor the stock and show units decrease in real time :
https://store.analogue.co/1427122/check ... 1684508823

Anyway, I'm pretty irate about their payment processor, and I'm not the only one. I looked around Analogue's FB page and Twitter threads and same thing, people reporting they're having to call their banks, giving up, literally not being able to give them their money to buy the damn thing! I foolishly kept my PayPal loaded to buy this thing but I never checked what payment methods they supported, couldn't imagine it'd be just Visa, Mastercard, and F'ing American Express as the only options...
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by bobrocks95 »

Had to use a credit card myself- their payment processor is in China from what I hear and it sucks to actually get a payment through.

Could try calling the bank again and using your original card on your phone to bypass the block? Looks like under 2000 white units left (the objectively correct color choice).
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Austin »

Yeah, my actual DUO is grey, so I opted in for the white unit, which looks pretty damn slick.

Looking forward to getting this. Despite having the caps and laser replaced, my real DUO is still flaky with reading burns. I suspect that shouldn’t be an issue with this new unit. DAC is on the way as well so I’ll still be able to use it on one of the CRTs, depending on the mood.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by spmbx »

Wow, given the numbers, the relative niche-ness of the system and the fact there must have been a big scalp-order wave when orders opened i'd be very surprised if the market is not absolutely flooded for a while after these release.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by neorichieb1971 »

Put my order in, no problems with that. Its nice to actually be able to order a product that I really wanted.

I actually put off buying a real PCE as I don't really understand all the things that can go wrong with it, not to mention the system cards and revisions. Better to just get something new out of the box that works. I have a PCE collection of a massive 2 hucards. Unlike most of you my intention is to own the real game cards and discs.

Most of the Analogue products have shot up in value especially the ones that state they are no longer in production. I have everything except the pocket as I won't use a product on the go, I'm not a big handheld person. I really like the idea of playing PCE games in HD on my TV. My last experience was with a Duo around 2002 and I was upset it was composite only. Super Star soldier was my favourite game.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Deubeul »

Yes SSS is awesome. Try Soldier Blade from the same series, or Nexzr from the same devs, my favorite vertical on a system that does not lack gems.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by BazookaBen »

When this first was announced, I was thinking it would be possible to play hucard on burned CD, but on second thought, if the Duo emulates all the original I/O between CD and system then it might not work.

Which makes me wonder if this old hucard>CD ROM hack might be useful again, and if it might be compatible with more games than is on original hardware: https://www.zeograd.com/super_hucard_download.php
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Austin »

BazookaBen wrote:Which makes me wonder if this old hucard>CD ROM hack might be useful again, and if it might be compatible with more games than is on original hardware: https://www.zeograd.com/super_hucard_download.php
Perhaps? I'd wait to see if the console is jailbroken. If so, the above method of playing HuCard ROMs will be pretty redundant.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by BazookaBen »

Austin wrote:Perhaps? I'd wait to see if the console is jailbroken. If so, the above method of playing HuCard ROMs will be pretty redundant.
Yeah, I don't know how accurate what I read was, but in the past it took a while before the jailbreak firmware was released? Like months?
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

neorichieb1971 wrote:Put my order in, no problems with that. Its nice to actually be able to order a product that I really wanted.

I actually put off buying a real PCE as I don't really understand all the things that can go wrong with it, not to mention the system cards and revisions. Better to just get something new out of the box that works. I have a PCE collection of a massive 2 hucards. Unlike most of you my intention is to own the real game cards and discs.

Most of the Analogue products have shot up in value especially the ones that state they are no longer in production. I have everything except the pocket as I won't use a product on the go, I'm not a big handheld person. I really like the idea of playing PCE games in HD on my TV. My last experience was with a Duo around 2002 and I was upset it was composite only. Super Star soldier was my favourite game.
You can pick up a PCE/CoreGrafx I or II + a Krikzz Turbo Everdrive Pro & have the ability to play any CD-Rom2, Super CD-Rom2 or Arcade CD-Rom2 disc based games without the need for a real PCE CD-Rom drive setup. The slick factor of being able to play the sole Arcade CD-Rom2 stg of Sapphire on a barebones stock & unmodified CoreGrafx II console with said flash cart works like a charm with me. Congrats on picking up an Analogue Duo -- it'll certainly be well worth the wait.

I like the ability to use real PCE Hu-Cards/TurboGrafx-16 Turbo Chip carts & the real PCE/Turbo Duo cd-based games on the real consoles but with a TE-P flash cart setup, it actually saves wear 'n' tear on the physical mediums themselves for posterity/preservation purposes in the long run (however long they may endure/last due to possible bit-rot with the original cds or Hu-cards not being able to boot up anymore -- those well known issues have be taken into consideration in the end).

My aging NEC Turbo Express handheld still works to this day but it's quite notorious for draining six brand new double AA alkaline batteries in about three hours or thereabouts -- it's a battery guzzler/hog alrighty (the real reason why that is, the lcd screen is already high-draining to begin with + in that it was considered top-of-the-line & cutting edge for it's time with manufacturing done by Epson of Japan with it's high-tech TFT-based lcd screen -- NEC went all out & no expenses spared when producing it's lineup of PCE GT/TE handhelds, indeed, back in 1990).

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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by spmbx »

Does analogue actually allow order cancellations? I refreshed the store tab i had open and actually saw the stock go up by one
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by NightWolve »

bobrocks95 wrote:Had to use a credit card myself- their payment processor is in China from what I hear and it sucks to actually get a payment through.

Could try calling the bank again and using your original card on your phone to bypass the block? Looks like under 2000 white units left (the objectively correct color choice).
It worked with the PayGo Visa after it was mailed out (10-day wait) and all features (international orders) were activated. I got hit with a 3.51% international transaction fee ($11) for it being in China or wherever and "special" state taxes for a grand total of $325; I have some screenshots here: https://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status ... 5915456512

The other MC arrived too which says 0% foreign transaction fees but I needed to empty that Visa having loaded upfront with cash, I just thought it'd be a quick/disposable option but wasn't quite that easy...

Anyway, glad that's over with, started to wonder if I'd have to buy it from a scalper or ask a mutual at some point. 8500 units are left as of now, so plenty of time for anyone else if the payment processor is giving you trouble.
neorichieb1971 wrote:I really like the idea of playing PCE games in HD on my TV. My last experience was with a Duo around 2002 and I was upset it was composite only. Super Star soldier was my favourite game.
Yeah, Super Star Soldier is my absolute favorite shooter in terms of most hours played, including handheld, on the Turbo Express (Dragon Spirit by Namco is another). Stage 2 and 6 offer the best soundtracks and the final stage boss level of battling every boss, all forms is good fun. I almost 1CC'ed it on maximum difficulty which is only unlocked with a secret code/Easter egg but I choked on the absolute last boss in his final form although I beat him other times on 1 ship when no mistakes are made. I've been meaning to try again and beat starsoldier1/Desmond's world high score record.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by neorichieb1971 »

I am going to Japan soon and I was just wondering which heritage joypads are the best ones to get for the PCE?

I am not sure if I will get SF2 for the system but might if its cheap. Joysticks will be too big. My main big hitters will be platform and shooters.
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Re: Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

Post by Steven »

neorichieb1971 wrote:I am going to Japan soon and I was just wondering which heritage joypads are the best ones to get for the PCE?

I am not sure if I will get SF2 for the system but might if its cheap. Joysticks will be too big. My main big hitters will be platform and shooters.
Avenue Pad 3 and Shuttle controller are the 2 best PC Engine controllers. You especially want the Avenue Pad 3. It's awkwardly wide, about the same width as a PS4 controller, but you will get used to it and having the Select or Run button assigned on button III is amazing for those games that have those as action buttons. You can't do this with the Avenue Pad 6, so make sure you get the Avenue Pad 3. This controller is super easy to find CIB for some reason, too.

Shuttle controllers are not easy to find unless you get one bundled with a Shuttle, but if you do find a Shuttle controller alone, buy it.
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