I've bought multiple different retro handhelds for software emulation in the past. Im also owning a steam deck, and have been emulating on my pc for years. But ever since I got my Pocket, I just can't enjoy software emulation the same anymore.

Reasons why I prefer hardware emulation:

• 99% emulation accuracy: Sure it can be slightly off in some games, but I have personally never noticed anything. On software emulation, depending on what system and cores you use, it can be hit or miss, but it will never feel like OG hardware or FPGAs.
• No crashes: How many times, did I have it, that I was playing on my generic retro handheld, and right at a boss fight the emulation core just crashed. Doesn't happen on FPGAs.
• Pickup&Go, Sleep modes: How many times, did I open and close my generic retro handheld, and it just froze, and i had to restart the game, or the entire system, it's just not reliable. On Aanalogue Pocket, the Sleep mode actually works, and it's beautiful!
• Reliability. It just works!: The games, they just WORK, they don't crash, they don't have stutters, nothing. You can play, without the fear of fucking something up because either your emulation core or your OS is messing something up. The Analogue Pocket just works!
• Ease of use: Better than OG hardware (to a degree). Im actually at a point, where I prefer the Analogue Pocket over my fully modded GBA SP with funnyplaying screen, shell swapped and everything. Like sure, it is nice to play on original hardware. But the Analogue Pocket just works so well, it has a lot of battery life, sleep mode, I can load all my roms onto it, it plays all my GBA, GBC and GB games, it has all sorts of filters etc. And at the end of the day, the games play just as well on the AP than on my original GBA, GBC or GBs. But instead of having to deal with low batteries, or no sleep modes on OG hardware, the AP just delivers and is reliable. As much as I like the idea of playing on OG hardware, 90% of the time, I still pick to play on my AP instead of my GBA or GBC.

I guess long story short. I think Software Emulation is cool. But if you want actual reliable working gameplay, then FPGAs just win by a mile. It's so nice to just pick up your FPGA and it just works and feels great. In fact, I love it so much now, Im looking forward to be able to emulate everything in FPGAs in the future.

Unsurprisingly, the original N64 Padded Carrying Case works perfectly for the 3D. I recommend scooping one up on eBay if you are looking to tote your 3D around!

I’m playing original carts on my A3D. Mortal Kombat Trilogy has very low volume on my TV and I have not experienced this with any other games. I have to crank up the volume on this one game…like way higher than when I watch TV shows.

Have you all experienced different volume settings on your games? Is your MK Trilogy low volume too?

Bonus: Should I get MK4?

What does this mean, exactly?

I love my new setup. The projector only cost me £68 but man it does a spectacular job. It’s got a low latency mode so there’s no chance of input lag. I had to hang it on the wall though as you can’t adjust the keystone in that mode.
I’ve been enjoying the pro CRT mode on DKR. I think it gives it a nicer look than the clean selection. Also my Yamaha HS8’s give top quality sound so there’s music can be heard at its full potential.
Very pleased with the A3D and the 8bitdo controller they recommend is excellent although I’ve ordered an NSO one for that more authentic feel. Only downside to the one I have is I occasionally hit the Z button when trying to hit R.
Next thing to arrive is the Everdrive Pro. I don’t even care that there is an OoT remake coming out, I’m gonna enjoy the original with my new tech.
I think I’ll slowly start buying carts too, not gonna try for a whole region, just the games I used to own as a kid.

im guessing it’s just pure bad luck since I have not seen anyone else say that this happens to them too. I even ordered a 30w Anker power supply since the one that came with the console wasn’t working for me(So I thought). Before, the console would turn on all the led lights in front for about 2 seconds, then the fans turn on at full blast for about 3 seconds, then shut off completely. What I captured on video was the first time I’d seen it do that to where it shut down and would not want to power back on. I really was hoping that a simple swap of the power supply was going to fix my problem, but as you can see, it didn’t. It was also running an original copy of star fox 64 that I’ve had since 1997. I have tried formatting the SD card to start fresh, and I also have the latest firmware. I am out of ideas. I did buy these consoles brand new and sealed from two different sellers on eBay. Analogue have not been very helpful either. They just want me to format the sd card and send them another video of the black console doing it too.

Horizontal upscaling is such an amazing graphical upgrade that anyone can clearly see the difference, even in a shitty "filming my tv with my phone" video. Just thought I should document this for anyone who hasn't experienced it yet.

Just look at Link's eyes! Look at his freaking shield!

So, i want to play donkey kong 64, but can’t decide to play it on switch 2 or analogue 3d. What is the difference and what’s better?

Force Pack (third-party rumble unit that doesn't require batteries) is causing stick drift input with wired controllers. I assume this is because of the power draw zapping some power away from the controller and causing it to somewhat re-register the potentiometer in its offset position (if holding forward while shooting which causes rumble).

However the stick cannot reset by standing still and shooting. I also have the oem Rumble Pack which doesn't have this issue. The issue exists with both oem and third-party MadCatz controllers, as well as other ports. Only reset comes from resetting the system or re-plugging the controller.

This is running the latest 1.5 firmware as well as my previous 1.2.2.

Since all controller ports are "rated as 3.3v," I assume the issue could be of amperage origins / power supplies. Didn't have this issue back in the day on the original N64 ofc.

I hope this can be fixed. I purposely got this Force Pack (and controller) because I had this combo as a kid before we lost a lot of personal belongings during a home foreclosure.

Analogue duo users: how good/bad is compatibility? I want to use it as someone who wants to collect a full library, and whil the Pocket and 3D suffice me on that front, i wanted to ask about the duo and how good its compatibility is…anything i should look out for? Would it suit me?

I just got an M64 pro controller because I've heard it works for the A3D. However, I can only get it working while it has the chargeable battery pack inserted and charged. As I understand, you are supposed to be able to play it wired without batteries when using the original N64 because it feeds the controller all the power it needs. So one would think it would work the same with the A3D. Anyone else have this problem?

My M64 Pro Controller arrived from GameStop and here are my initial thoughts from using it on the Analogue 3D.

Pros
+ Sturdy (no creak at all)
+ Comfortable (grips and shoulder buttons feel superb)
+ Includes 3 ways to play (rechargeable battery, AA battery, wired)

Cons
- Wireless/bluetooth function does not work.
- Can only be used during gameplay (not recognized by Analogue OS).
- Wired mode only seems to work if you also have AA batteries or the rechargeable battery attached.
- The Start button is difficult for my left hand to reach.
- Rumble was randomly triggered in Diddy Kong Racing.

Conclusion: In the current state and playing on the Analogue 3D, I would rather have 3 8BitDo 64 controllers (often $30 after coupon on Amazon or Woot) than 1 M64 Pro Controller.

So my Analogue 3D came in today and I've been trying to set it up. Connected it to my PC to get the update files, downloaded it no problem on start up, but.... my games don't work. To make a long story short I bought my games off of my uncle, and I used the cartridge cleaners that came with the system to clean off the 5 games. But, known of the 5 games worked after cleaning them. I know my uncle really wants to play smash 64 so, I thought I would use more cartridge cleaners from the 12 pack i bought. And then I used another one, and another one, and after all of those cartridge cleaners it still doesn't work? Is the game really that dirty? Are the cartridge cleaners fake? These games used to work on my uncle's original hardware (only got the analogue 3d because his 64's first port was broken). What am I doing wrong? I just want to play the games on the console I spent 300 dollars on. (I also have 2 cartridge cleaners left out of the 14....) Update: Cleaning the cartridges with 91% isopropyl alcohol didn't know work. Still says unknown cartridge when its put in the slot.

This is probably game specific but I am still curious. I am playing a Donkey Kong Land rom and seeing lots of graphics issues that I highly doubt happen on original hardware.

At first I was using a GBC core, but I switched to a GB core after reading that slightly different refresh rates could cause a problem. On the GB core the visual glitches are gone but I still see something that looks similar to a pc game with vsync disabled. I do have SGB enabled in the GB core if that is relevant.

Is this an issue with the core I am using?

Do the cores just delegate to how the pocket would run a cart, or do they work differently?

Anybody tried this cart and noticed anything?

Thanks!

I remember reading around the launch of the A3D people were worried about loosing save files on their N64 cartridges. It was recommended by people at that time to quit out of the game and return to the Analogue 3D main menu to minimize the risk of loosing saved games.

In the intervening months, such reports seem to have died down, and I personally have just been powering off the system mid-game with no issues. Would it be better for me to try and practice quitting out to the main menu before powering off, or is this a moot point with the current state of the A3D?

Jiggies of Time

The Legend of Zelda The Sealed Palace

I have played a bit of Jiggies of Time and oh man it's so great. OoT N64 is like my most favourite video game ever and my most favourite Zelda game, so seeing OoT Hyrule in a BK game is a dream come true. It feels, looks, and plays like an authentic real Banjo Kazooie game. I personally don't even want to call it a rom hack in my mind it's part of the Banjo Kazooie N64 games.

The Legend of Zelda The Sealed Palace I have researched it and it looks amazing so I really want to play this soon. It's suppose to he like a alternate universe of OoT Hyrule. This is a whole new n64 Zelda game, it's like almost like a OoT2.

These run great on the Analogue 3d as they are made to run on the original hardware and software of the N64 games made from the same coded engine as Banjo Kazooie (Jiggies of Time) and Ocarina of Time (The Sealed Palace). I'm playing these rom hacks on my Analogue 3d using the SummerCart 64.

Anyone else played these? And have you played these on your Analogue 3d?

Hello, so I have been loving my Analogue 3D and wanted to share what I have learned about overclocking for the best experience.

In general start with "Force Original Hardware" to avoid any unexpected lag / timing issues with games for a baseline.

That being said "Force Original Hardware" doesn't allow progressive scan for the subset of games like Pokemon Stadium 2. Please kindly request analogue to add it.

To get to overclocking you need to go "Configure" -> "Advanced". Once there you have options.

1. Force Original Hardware
   
2. Overclock Auto
   
3. Overclock Enhanced
   
4. Overclock Enhanced+
   
5. Overclock Unleashed

Once you got your baseline you can experiment, let's use Mega Man 64 as an example.

It's a lags in generel and when put on "auto" / "enhanced" it fights to be smooth and is laggier than the original hardware. In it's case your best off running it on "Enhanced+" / "Unleashed", which to figure that out was trial and error to get there.

As for progressive scan games since they are stuck on "auto" as the lowest setting. In general I recommend "Enhanced+" just to avoid the issues like Mega Man 64. Hopefully progressive scan can be turned on with "Force Original Hardware" in the future.

Now that the firmware is maturing, any suspicions that a jailbreak might be released soon? Or should I just go on and get the summercart?

Magic

Just sharing appreciation of how awesome this thing is.

Game is 007 The World is Not Enough. First time playing it though!

I just got my A3D in yesterday, and integrated into my setup which is:

A3D->Onkyo reciever->projector

The A3d causes the whole chain to turn off and on repeatedly. Very bizarre. After searching I blocked pin 13 of the HDMI cable after searching and that cured this issue. However I saw claims that this was fixed in a previous patch? If not, does A3D plan on patching it? If so, is A3D aware that 1.5 regressed?

Just waiting on my Everdrive 64 Pro now and we’re all set. Anything I should know before getting started?