Analogue Duo, New PC Engine Duo FPGA From Analogue

[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.

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.

The Avenue 3 looks more like what I want. Shuttle looks a bit big I will be buying 50 titles on my trip and suitcase space is limited. Thanks for your suggestion.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The NEC Avenue Pad 6 has built-in slo-mo on tap (actually at the flick of a switch) + auto-fire support for buttons IV, V & VI.

When it comes to dealing with PC Engine arcade sticks, can't go wrong with either Hori's Fighting Stick PC or Micomsoft's XE-1 Pro HE. More details about each PCE arcade stick is provided:

The Hori Fighting Stick PC (and it's counterpart companion that goes by the name of "Hori Fighting Stick SFC" for both Super Famicom/SNES consoles) has support for both 2-button based games & 6-button based games + adjustable auto-fire for all 6-buttons (if it needed be) + slo-mo capability + very responsive Seimitsu 8-way joystick (is micro switched from the get-go) and comes with a "square" gate already installed (crucial if you want to gain the "upper hand" with PCE stgs indeed) + all metal based arcade stick base that's got some serious heftiness to it (it won't budge during a heated PCE stg session -- which is a plus in my book). This is a world-class PCE arcade stick bar none & originally came with a 7,800 yen suggested retail price tag back in 1993 -- it's best to pick up one in brand new condition nowadays.

The Micomsoft XE-1 Pro HE arcade stick has some cool & very innovative features not found on any other PCE arcade stick including a very elaborate & elegant mechanism to let the end-user choose from playing with an old-school 4-way arcade stick layout or going with the more robust and traditional 8-way arcade stick layout + you can adjust the angle of buttons I & II to your liking (for better ergonomics-wise with your hand/fingers placement in regards to playability) + a built-in four game controller port with up to four additional PCE gamepads or arcade sticks plugged in (is essentially a glorified PCE multi-tap located on the right side of the arcade stick base itself -- so no need to buy a separate bulky PCE multi-tap anyways) + fully adjustable auto-fire with variable sliding switches with slick 'n' high-tech LED-based readout bar indicator for both buttons I & II (how cool is that?) + built-in slo-mo capability on tap as well. It is highly regarded as a world-class PCE arcade stick and worthy of your PCE gaming collection -- best to pick one or two in brand new condition or super mint condition to truly appreciate it.

Micomsoft really went to town with their own sole PCE arcade stick release/offering and has never been eclipsed since then with all the aforementioned features/highlights/gadgets -- it truly delivers in spades as a dedicated 'n' extravagant 2-button based PCE arcade stick with it's smaller & compact form factor.

Pick one up or why not get 'em both to enjoy the positive merits each has to offer to the discerning PCE gamer/collector. Sure, I own 'em both myself.

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Back in 2000, an eBay seller had a brand new factory boxed Hori Fighting Stick PC listed up for sale -- ended up winning it for a mere paltry $20.00 usd. The deal breaker was that this particular PCE arcade stick was located in Japan & I had to pay an additional $35.00 for shipping & handling to the USA via EMS shipping method -- totally worth it in the end. By using this Hori manufactured PCE based arcade stick, my high scores, naturally, get higher and higher with it (especially with PCE-based stgs) -- the fine craftmanship and overall general appearance of it (a "Made In Japan" sticker located on the underside of the metal arcade stick base denotes it's origin of manufacture) is on par with the overall size of a PC Engine Duo/Turbo Duo console, dimension-wise (this was before Hori got into producing it's famous 'bigger is better' "Real Arcade Pro" lineup of console-based arcade sticks for the PSX, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, etc). Truly worth the $55.00 I paid for it new back in the day. You certainly can't get one new at that cheap-ass price nowadays, that is a given alrighty.
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Reports are coming in that some folks are finally getting their Analogue Duo today, 12/11/2023 as the first day of them being shipped out, from the initial preorder batch back in May of 2023. Have you gotten yours yet?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Guspaz]

Reviews are up on youtube. Looks like it's in pretty rough state for launch, needs a lot of polish. Which, based on the Pocket, might take a few years.

[neorichieb1971]

Got a shipping notice. I'm in UK though so will get it last.

[Ricdeau]

Got my shipping notice. ETA Wednesday. I didn't expect it to be shipped that fast, but we'll see.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Checked out the Youtube video of "My Life in Gaming's" review of the Analogue Duo being used with a RT4K setup. Fascinating to learn in more depth with this newfangled hardware.

I, currently, use an 8bitdo TG-16 bluetooth controller with a bt controller adapter piped into a stock unmodified PCE Core Grafx II + Portable LCD monitor + Turbo Everdrive Pro flash cart -- all powered up by a 20,000mah 5v power bank setup. It's quite nice to play PCE/TG-16 games wirelessly, especially Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (cut the damn cord, son) on OG hardware indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[fernan1234]

The "Game Sack" review video is a good supplement to the MLiG review, especially since it better demonstrates the audio issues the Duo core has.

Even without those inaccuracies, this device will remain useless until DAC support is added to be able to get the system's real refresh and scan rates.

[LDigital]

I cancelled my preorder when I saw the reviews. No DAC support at launch is unacceptable. I have been waiting forever for the pocket so I know what soon means to them. I’m not buying any more products based on future features ever again.

[Koa Zo]

I cancelled my preorder when I saw the reviews. No DAC support at launch is unacceptable. I have been waiting forever for the pocket so I know what soon means to them. I’m not buying any more products based on future features ever again.

Did you get the refund?
I cancelled my preorder a month or so ago and have yet to be refunded, even though my order history now shows "Cancelled". They haven't responded to further emails.

[bobrocks95]

I cancelled my preorder when I saw the reviews. No DAC support at launch is unacceptable. I have been waiting forever for the pocket so I know what soon means to them. I’m not buying any more products based on future features ever again.

Did you get the refund?
I cancelled my preorder a month or so ago and have yet to be refunded, even thought my order history now shows "Cancelled". They haven't responded to further emails.

To cover yourself just because the clock is ticking, I might look into chargeback options for PayPal/Credit card

[bigbadboaz]

So what exactly is the point of these products when the vaunted FPGA isn't even accurate..?

[Koa Zo]

I cancelled my preorder when I saw the reviews. No DAC support at launch is unacceptable. I have been waiting forever for the pocket so I know what soon means to them. I’m not buying any more products based on future features ever again.

Did you get the refund?
I cancelled my preorder a month or so ago and have yet to be refunded, even thought my order history now shows "Cancelled". They haven't responded to further emails.

To cover yourself just because the clock is ticking, I might look into chargeback options for PayPal/Credit card

Thanks! I did, my CC provider requires a request to start the dispute in writing by mail! so I just sent that off.

[BazookaBen]

Wait, why are people suggesting chargebacks?

Does analog have a history of not refunding preorders?

[Dochartaigh]

Wait, why are people suggesting chargebacks?

Does analog have a history of not refunding preorders?

They have a long, storied, history of not answering some peoples emails at all. Experienced it myself over the years personally (plus read about it all the time in the FB groups).

I cancelled my preorder when I saw the reviews. No DAC support at launch is unacceptable. I have been waiting forever for the pocket so I know what soon means to them. I’m not buying any more products based on future features ever again.

I'm not canceling my order, but I also find this utterly unacceptable as well. We've been waiting for DAC support for the Dock, which listed as a launch feature, for TWO YEARS now... fucking insane.

[kamiboy]

So what exactly is the point of these products when the vaunted FPGA isn't even accurate..?

The point of an Analogue device these days is that two to three years after launch it will have been updated to a pretty polished state. At launch they are usually serviceable at best. Perfectly fine for a casual user who just wants to play their PC Engine games on the flat panel, but as always far short of demanding tastes who will notice every small detail.

I got mine knowing that it would take a few years of firmware upgrades to reach a sufficient level of polish to be a fit alternative to the OG PC Engines I own, but I don't really mind that. I have several real hardware revision alternatives to hold me over until the firmware has been polished to a sheen. This is a device for posterity, not a replacement for anything here and now. I can certainly see that it would be a frustrating product for power users who do not have real hardware to fall back on.

The situation is likely to be even worse with the upcoming Analogue 3D, since emulating Nintendo 64 hardware is an order of magnitude more complex than the 8 and 16 bit systems so far released by Analogue. I will be getting that at launch as well, but I would not recommend it to anyone other than casual N64 enjoyers at before 2 years of firmware upgrades at the very least.

To be fair though, it is increasingly becoming clear that Analogue is churning out more hardware than they have software resources to properly service and maintain. I hope for their sake that if they plan on releasing stuff at this pace they have and are hiring more FPGA developers.

[evil_ash_xero]

No DAC support, huh?

I mean, I know it's supposed to come... but how long has it been in the works for the AP? It's so late, I wouldn't be surprised if
it never materialized.

[ldeveraux]

So what exactly is the point of these products when the vaunted FPGA isn't even accurate..?

The point of an Analogue device these days is that two to three years after launch it will have been updated to a pretty polished state. At launch they are usually serviceable at best. Perfectly fine for a casual user who just wants to play their PC Engine games on the flat panel, but as always far short of demanding tastes who will notice every small detail.

I got mine knowing that it would take a few years of firmware upgrades to reach a sufficient level of polish to be a fit alternative to the OG PC Engines I own, but I don't really mind that. I have several real hardware revision alternatives to hold me over until the firmware has been polished to a sheen. This is a device for posterity, not a replacement for anything here and now. I can certainly see that it would be a frustrating product for power users who do not have real hardware to fall back on.

The situation is likely to be even worse with the upcoming Analogue 3D, since emulating Nintendo 64 hardware is an order of magnitude more complex than the 8 and 16 bit systems so far released by Analogue. I will be getting that at launch as well, but I would not recommend it to anyone other than casual N64 enjoyers at before 2 years of firmware upgrades at the very least.

To be fair though, it is increasingly becoming clear that Analogue is churning out more hardware than they have software resources to properly service and maintain. I hope for their sake that if they plan on releasing stuff at this pace they have and are hiring more FPGA developers.

You preorder unfinished products. You do the same with AAA games?

[kamiboy]

Anyone who plays modern games who doesn't? It is so common that it was given names such as early-access and turned into a business model. At least Analogue is a small operation, not a billion dollar AAA game developer with thousands of employees.

Lets be honest here, while the Analogue Duo launch firmware might seem like disastrously lacking for this here forum, which is made up of a cohort leaning heavily towards the nitpicking end of the scale (don't deny it, its true) it is in no way comparable to how broken AAA games can launch as per modern standards. Cyberpunk and most Bethesda games come to mind.

Plus, Analogue hardware tends to be sold out or be out of stock when you do actually want or need one, so I rather have it in hand ASAP, so it is ready to go when the golden firmwares eventually hits. Also, I am kind of an outlier here, since I mostly buy their hardware for posterity, as a backup in case my original consoles should fail at an unspecified future date.

[ldeveraux]

Anyone who plays modern games who doesn't? It is so common that it was given names such as early-access and turned into a business model. At least Analogue is a small operation, not a billion dollar AAA game developer with thousands of employees.

Lets be honest here, while the Analogue Duo launch firmware might seem like disastrously lacking for this here forum, which is made up of a cohort leaning heavily towards the nitpicking end of the scale (don't deny it, its true) it is in no way comparable to how broken AAA games can launch as per modern standards. Cyberpunk and most Bethesda games come to mind.

Plus, Analogue hardware tends to be sold out or be out of stock when you do actually want or need one, so I rather have it in hand ASAP, so it is ready to go when the golden firmwares eventually hits. Also, I am kind of an outlier here, since I mostly buy their hardware for posterity, as a backup in case my original consoles should fail at an unspecified future date.

I've never preordered a game in my life. Why would you in the digital age? Justify your purchase however you want, as long as you understand you're not getting what you pay for, if not years later.

[kamiboy]

I think most people here know how Analogue operates, by now there is more than enough data to know exactly what one is in for when pre-ordering one of their products. Expect to pay now, and out of your nose for shipping if outside of the US, then get the hardware, maybe a year or more down the line, then a fully polished firmware a year or two after that.

As for games, I never buy digital, I simply refuse, especially when it comes to full retail price releases. As much as I would love to be able to play some recent high profile AAA games with no physical availability, I'll wait until they either come out on disc in the future, or I'll just buy a single month of game pass when/if they show up there.

I only "pre-order" physical releases a few days before launch to make sure I get a copy, because these days there is always the risk that even if the game has a physical release, it might not have enough copies to go around on launch day.

Off topic but for cyberpunk at least, even picking the game up 6 months after launch, one was handed a product in a sorry state. At least with Analogue one gets a nice looking piece of hardware from day one...

[ldeveraux]

I think most people here know how Analogue operates, by now there is more than enough data to know exactly what one is in for when pre-ordering one of their products. Expect to pay now, and out of your nose for shipping if outside of the US, then get the hardware, maybe a year or more down the line, then a fully polished firmware a year or two after that.

As for games, I never buy digital, I simply refuse, especially when it comes to full retail price releases. As much as I would love to be able to play some recent high profile AAA games with no physical availability, I'll wait until they either come out on disc in the future, or I'll just buy a single month of game pass when/if they show up there.

I only "pre-order" physical releases a few days before launch to make sure I get a copy, because these days there is always the risk that even if the game has a physical release, it might not have enough copies to go around on launch day.

Off topic but for cyberpunk at least, even picking the game up 6 months after launch, one was handed a product in a sorry state. At least with Analogue one gets a nice looking piece of hardware from day one...

Let's agree that Cyberpunk is absolutely not the norm! Kudos to you for buying physical. In the ever decreasing availability of physical media, that's getting harder. I'm in the same boat, why I have a bluray burner too.

[bobrocks95]

RE fully polished firmware years out- doesn't the MegaSG still have bugs that were reported around launch?

[SavagePencil]

In the MLIG video, they talk about needing to use the officially provided power supply vs a beefy Anker device in order to get past problems running some games. What’re the specs on that, I wonder?

[Dochartaigh]

Lets be honest here, while the Analogue Duo launch firmware might seem like disastrously lacking for this here forum, which is made up of a cohort leaning heavily towards the nitpicking end of the scale (don't deny it, its true) it is in no way comparable to how broken AAA games can launch as per modern standards. Cyberpunk and most Bethesda games come to mind.

I wouldn't call a launch feature, like DAC support (THEIR own product mind you), which they specifically list on their product page as it working with (with no asterisk saying "*available later on... perhaps in years" or whatnot), and it NOT working with the Dock at launch, as being "nitpicking"... they did the same with the Pocket - it's STILL listed on its product page as a feature, and TWO YEARS LATER it still does NOT work. That's blatant false advertising. Period. Not nitpicking in any possible way. Also not nitpicking to want to run a retro console on a retro (CRT) TV... again, as advertised.

In other words they have said multiple products would work with CRT TV's (via their Dock), and they STILL do not. That is textbook false advertising and blatant lying.

In the MLIG video, they talk about needing to use the officially provided power supply vs a beefy Anker device in order to get past problems running some games. What’re the specs on that, I wonder?

They said it turned out to be the cable itself for some reason - so just use the included power brick with THEIR cable and you'll be good.

[Austin]

Still waiting for a shipment notification on my end. Crickets at the moment.

Watched several reviews yesterday. I'm sure I'll enjoy the unit in the end, but out of the gate I'm.. pretty disappointed. There's quite a few negatives (many of which are specific to my use-case, others will find less annoyance with them):

- For the white model (which is what I ordered), the actual color of the shell looks nothing like what's advertised (it's shown being a bright, clean, Series S style white, where the actual end product has a milky/darker tone like an actual PCE). Probably not a bad thing for some, but I ordered this color based on what I saw on their website. I thought it looked slick as hell. It's misleading.
- No support for the oldest Everdrives at the moment (which is all I have, meaning if there's no jailbreak, I'll have to invest in a more expensive card, which I do not want to do). It doesn't make much sense to me considering these run on various forms of real original hardware.
- No DAC support out of the box. I've got a Super NT and Mega SG, and the DUO is what put me over the edge in justifying the DAC and its ridiculous extra $30 for shipping (which they wouldn't let me combine with the DUO itself, so I paid a glorious $60+ for shipping at the time of pre-ordering the DUO).
- The Analogue OS interface feels like a massive downgrade compared to the slick interface of the Mega SG and Super NT. I probably didn't read the fine-print, but given their past console reproductions, I was completely expecting the same sort of deal as the other 16-bit offerings.
- Some games may not be recognized as proper discs and will get stuck in the drive without the user adding a specific text file to the SD card.. what the hell? Shouldn't that sort of thing just be handled at the OS level (like having an "eject disc" option on the menu)? Or is there some kind of ridiculous technical limitation that we don't know about? It just seems like a problem that shouldn't even exist.

The rest of the hiccups don't bother me much (FMV getting out of sync, occasional sound glitches, whatever), as they will likely be addressed. Some of the other new features are neat, but are mostly frivolous fluff for my use-case (the library and time tracked on games, for instance). I was just expecting this would be a full-on replacement for my finicky PCE DUO right out of the box, as I really just need something that, A) works with my older Everdrive; B) reads the burns I already have (which thankfully it apparently *does* do); and, C) works on my CRTs. This most certainly is not that right now, which is kind of insane to me. I wonder how long the wait will be to get it to that state. At the moment my hype for the thing has fizzled out. Talk about really fumbling a launch.

[Austin]

Looks like there's already a firmware update to address some issues: https://www.analogue.co/support/duo/firmware/1.1

Release notes:

OS
- Added option to manually disable CD-ROM^2
- Adjusted PSG noise channel level audio
- Fixed button mapping on 8BitDo NeoGeo controller when connected via USB
- Fixed integer video scaling issue
- Fixed “Limit RGB Range” setting
- Fixed OS detection for some HuCards
- Minor UI fixes

System
- Fixed Shinobi HuCard boot issue
- Fixed Power Drift HuCard boot issue
- Fixed Paranoia HuCard boot issue
- Fixed Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego graphics issue

[Larrs888]

- For the white model (which is what I ordered), the actual color of the shell looks nothing like what's advertised (it's shown being a bright, clean, Series S style white, where the actual end product has a milky/darker tone like an actual PCE). Probably not a bad thing for some, but I ordered this color based on what I saw on their website. I thought it looked slick as hell. It's misleading.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the awful colour of the "white" model in the MLiG review. I held off the pre-order, too many costs this time of year and only recently got the dock for my (actual) white pocket, which I now feel a but gutted about since a white dock was just released..... In any case I'm glad I did hold off now, what a complete false advertisement. I wanted the white one myself as it looked super clean but what was released is a yellowed looking console, as if the factory coloured matched sun faded console and went with that, it looks terrible in my opinion, If I wanted something that looked 30 years old I'd buy a 30 year old original...They need to update their website asap but I suspect they won't.

It is somewhat reminiscent of the "clear" super Nt, what was advertised is a glass clear like shell and instead a more frosted colour was released. I don't see why Analogue can't release real photos of their products ahead of release and engage more with their customer base. 8bitdo might be to blame, their N30 2.4 nes controller is also a yellowed colour out of the box instead of the more grey colour it is supposed to be, so perhaps they do the plastics for Analogue?

[fernan1234]

Them releasing a firmware update quickly after launch is a good sign, but at the same time they have a track record of making you wait for years for the next one.

- Adjusted PSG noise channel level audio

I wonder if this actually fixes the inaccuracy issue shown in the Game Sack review video. It didn't seem like only a level problem though.

(By the way, are these forums loading really sluggishly lately or is it just me?)

[Lord of Pirates]

Them releasing a firmware update quickly after launch is a good sign, but at the same time they have a track record of making you wait for years for the next one.

- Adjusted PSG noise channel level audio

I wonder if this actually fixes the inaccuracy issue shown in the Game Sack review video. It didn't seem like only a level problem though.

(By the way, are these forums loading really sluggishly lately or is it just me?)

Sluggish on my end as well.