Analogue will be opening pre-orders on their PC Engine / Turbo Grafx-16 “Duo” console this Friday May 19th at 8AM PDT / 11AM EST. The price is $250 + “premium shipping”, so budget around $300 or up for each. This will play original HU Cards, as well as CD’s, however this is NOT compatible with OpenFPGA. It outputs HDMI and can accept original controllers, or you can also purchase low latency (7.5ms) wireless PCE controllers separately. More info below the links and all the specs are available in the Duo’s page:
Analogue Duo: https://www.analogue.co/duo
8BitDo PCE Wireless White: https://amzn.to/41MysBe
8BitDo PCE Wireless Black: https://amzn.to/3pUulpu
8BitDo PCE Wireless Grey: https://amzn.to/3WdELMV
We need to discuss the glaring omission of the OpenFPGA platform. While the console itself is pretty cool and I love that it’s closer to the original shell than Analogue’s other products, locking it to original games (and ROM carts) really cripple what this is capable of. I think if you could access the OpenFPGA cores, many people would buy this over a MiSTer, simply because it looks and feels like a game console. I mean, wasn’t that the ENTIRE point of releasing OpenFPGA? To create an Analogue-based ecosystem for people to develop and use their cores?
I wonder how developers feel, who’ve dumped hours into porting their cores over, expecting more than one console to be supported. And maybe a console you can actually purchase ;/ Also, imagine the ability to port cores like Sega CD over and run original discs? That’s something even MiSTer can’t currently do.
I think a very real concern is how many people will buy this assuming it has OpenFPGA, as the ONLY place this is addresses is in the fine print at the bottom of the page; That’s why I’m making a big deal to highlight this in both the thumbnail and here at the bottom of the post – I don’t think Analogue is intentionally hiding it from us, I just think a lot of people will be disappointed when it arrives without support. Click for a full-sized view, or just check out the link about to see for yourself:
