FPGA Based Videogame System

[Atariboy]

lol

 

I kept refreshing wondering where the preorder buttons were. I'm glad though to have some time to think it over some more. $300 with the dock is awfully steep.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Atariboy

[F34R]

Shipping in May 2021, maybe. lol

[hyrulebr]

25 minutes ago, Atariboy said:

lol

 

I kept refreshing wondering where the preorder buttons were. I'm glad though to have some time to think it over some more. $300 with the dock is awfully steep.

 

Is $20 for this USB-C power supply a fair price?

Well, afaik you can pay $10 for a similar Aukey (18w) usb-c wall adapter on Amazon.

 

But the dock already comes with the wall adapter... if you plan to buy it.

 

I don't think the pocket needs USB-C 18w. Maybe a usb to usb-c cable and a regular 2.4a usb wall adapter charges as well (but in 1 X mode?)

 

From wall adapter page:

"Fast charge Pocket 2x as fast. Designed for Analogue Pocket but compatible with all Analogue products."

 

 

[Atariboy]

I noticed that the dock comes with the necessary power supply after I had posted, but didn't edit out my question fast enough. 

 

For something that I believe is new information to us, sounds like the dock will have an integrated 2.4g receiver. I believe all we knew previously was 8BitDo Bluetooth support and USB support. So this should support 8BitDo's 2.4g line out of the box, such as their upcoming NES gamepad that will be perfect for many of the Pocket's supported platforms.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Atariboy

[Toth]

1 hour ago, Atariboy said:

I noticed that the dock comes with the necessary power supply after I had posted, but didn't edit out my question fast enough. 

 

For something that I believe is new information to us, sounds like the dock will have an integrated 2.4g receiver. I believe all we knew previously was 8BitDo Bluetooth support and USB support. So this should support 8BitDo's 2.4g line out of the box, such as their upcoming NES gamepad that will be perfect for many of the Pocket's supported platforms.

All of their 2.4ghz controllers come with a receiver that is pre-paired.  If this is true they would need to tell us how to pair those to a different receiver which would be cool.

[Atariboy]

Analogue's page on the Pocket has been amended with today's news. Among the items, it does confirm that the dock will "sync up any wireless 8BitDo Bluetooth or 2.4g controller".

 

Presumably we'll be finding out how to pair our existing 2.4g controllers to the dock (and then back to their original receiver) come next year. 

[jamon1567]

1 hour ago, Atariboy said:

Analogue's page on the Pocket has been amended with today's news. Among the items, it does confirm that the dock will "sync up any wireless 8BitDo Bluetooth or 2.4g controller".

 

Presumably we'll be finding out how to pair our existing 2.4g controllers to the dock (and then back to their original receiver) come next year. 

If you look a little further on their page it says the dock will support 4x bluetooth, 2x USB or 2x 2.4g. I would assume that's because the 2.4g receiver will need plugged in as there are only 2 usb on the dock. If it were as you describe though that would be great.

Edited July 27, 2020 by jamon1567

[jamon1567]

Happy to see that, even though it won't be released for almost a year, they're gonna do it right and have all the accessories ready for pre-order immediately. 

[Atariboy]

Alas, you're probably right, I imagine. 

 

Was hoping not to need to buy a new 8BitDo controller for this, but it does read as if 8BitDo 2.4g support will be via USB receivers. 

[jamon1567]

Also a bit curious on the price of those adapters....the Mega Sg ones were $50 for the bundle. $30 a pop seems a bit steep, but at least they'll be available as well.

[SlCKB0Y]

6 hours ago, Atariboy said:

Alas, you're probably right, I imagine. 

 

Was hoping not to need to buy a new 8BitDo controller for this, but it does read as if 8BitDo 2.4g support will be via USB receivers. 

I disagree. 8bitdo does not currently make a 2.4g USB receiver as far as I know, only NES, SNES, Genesis, SNES/NES Classic. It also makes zero mention of the need to buy additional receivers.

 

my guess about the 2X2.4g controller limitation is not the USB ports but instead the 8bitdo controller/receiver firmware support. 
 

as well as this, down the bottom of the main product page they have a long list of “foot notes” but specifically exclude any mention the need for additional receivers 

Edited July 28, 2020 by SlCKB0Y

[Steven Pendleton]

I suppose if you wanted 2.4GHz through USB, you could use the Retro-Bit Saturn and Genesis controllers. Those are good controllers anyway and they work on quite a few different systems because of the USB receiver.

 

I just noticed that they changed the location of some of the buttons on the Pocket. They now go where the Start and Select buttons are on the Game Boy instead of directly below the buttons that would be the ABXY buttons if they actually had labels.

 

old

 

new

A welcome change.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[Atariboy]

3 hours ago, SlCKB0Y said:

I disagree. 8bitdo does not currently make a 2.4g USB receiver as far as I know, only NES, SNES, Genesis, SNES/NES Classic.

No, they're actively selling 2.4g USB receivers with their M30 2.4g marketed for the Sega Genesis Mini and their gamepad for the TurboGrafx-16 Mini.

[RetrogamerX]

So a pocket with the dock plus shipping fees and custom charges sent to the UK I'll be looking at £450, nearly $600 just for a handheld?  I'm still wait for my Nt Mini Noir as well?

 

While I really want a pocket that's way to steep atm.  

[SlCKB0Y]

3 hours ago, Atariboy said:

No, they're actively selling 2.4g USB receivers with their M30 2.4g marketed for the Sega Genesis Mini and their gamepad for the TurboGrafx-16 Mini.

Thanks, I didn’t know that.

[Steven Pendleton]

45 minutes ago, RetrogamerX said:

So a pocket with the dock plus shipping fees and custom charges sent to the UK I'll be looking at £450, nearly $600 just for a handheld?  I'm still wait for my Nt Mini Noir as well?

 

While I really want a pocket that's way to steep atm.  

Don't forget the hidden transaction fee that they don't tell you about.

[blzmarcel]

10 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

A welcome change.

Looks nice, though I do wonder why they went with 4 main face buttons instead of 6. This will make playing many six-button Genesis/Mega Drive games difficult, as well as the likes of NeoGeo and others. Feels like an odd oversight for something that is supposed to be a multi-platform classic gaming system. Even the Sega Nomad had all six buttons. Not the end of the world, still looks awesome, though I just wonder why they made this decision.

[Enragedwhale]

5 hours ago, RetrogamerX said:

So a pocket with the dock plus shipping fees and custom charges sent to the UK I'll be looking at £450, nearly $600 just for a handheld?  I'm still wait for my Nt Mini Noir as well?

 

While I really want a pocket that's way to steep atm.  

How do you work that out? $300 + shipping ($50 based on their current rates) is roughly £271. Tax isn’t £180...

 

Im in the U.K. and in my experience the import tax roughly equals the difference between currencies so I’d expect the total cost to be roughly £350. Which is still a lot!

Edited July 28, 2020 by Enragedwhale
Spelling

[Steven Pendleton]

17 minutes ago, blzmarcel said:

Looks nice, though I do wonder why they went with 4 main face buttons instead of 6. This will make playing many six-button Genesis/Mega Drive games difficult, as well as the likes of NeoGeo and others. Feels like an odd oversight for something that is supposed to be a multi-platform classic gaming system. Even the Sega Nomad had all six buttons. Not the end of the world, still looks awesome, though I just wonder why they made this decision.

I have absolutely no idea why everybody decided to copy the 4 face button design instead of copying the Saturn controller. Even Sega did it even though they already made the best 2D controller ever created to this day. All they had to do was take the Saturn controller, attach some analog sticks like Sony did with the second version of the original PlayStation controller, and maybe also second set of shoulder buttons, and you'd have a perfect controller for anything that isn't a flight simulator or a first/third person shooter. You'd still need HOTAS and mouse + keyboard for those games, respectively, of course. Oh well. Everyone knows I have a massive bias in favour of Sega and I don't feel like ranting about this too much, so I'll stop.

 

Anyway, yeah, I figure that 6 button games will get the typical button assignment that uses the shoulder buttons and the top face button as XYZ, sadly. As for Neo Geo, the Neo Geo controller has 4 face buttons and start and select, so just configure the buttons to match how they are on the awesome Neo Geo CD controller and it's good.

 

Also for Neo Geo, I wonder if it would even be possible to build a Neo Geo core for this system. I REALLY hope so and I was talking to one of my friends about it today, but both of us figure that if any system from around the early 90s isn't going to be possible, it's the Neo Geo. I honestly do not expect Neo Geo, but the only thing that would please me more than Neo Geo support is SuperGrafx + all types of PC Engine CD games. Genesis/MD would be awesome as well, but I do have my Nomad already. Perhaps I will hope for it just for people who are not fortunate enough to have the Nomad!

 

Now that I think about it, as crazy as it sounds... X68000. That would be AMAZING beyond words. I get the feeling that there's no way in hell that would happen, though...

Edited July 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[Enragedwhale]

I’m in two minds about getting a pocket. It looks properly awesome but I feel a little let down by the support for the Mega SG. Sonic CD and Final Fight CD don’t work on original hardware and tearing in many MS games means I’ve switched back to my JP Megadrive. 

[blzmarcel]

10 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I have absolutely no idea why everybody decided to copy the 4 face button design instead of copying the Saturn controller. Even Sega did it even though they already made the best 2D controller ever created to this day. All they had to do was take the Saturn controller, attach some analog sticks like Sony did with the second version of the original PlayStation controller, and maybe also second set of shoulder buttons, and you'd have a perfect controller for anything that isn't a flight simulator or a first/third person shooter. You'd still need HOTAS and mouse + keyboard for those games, respectively, of course. Oh well. Everyone knows I have a massive bias in favour of Sega and I don't feel like ranting about this too much, so I'll stop.

 

Anyway, yeah, I figure that 6 button games will get the typical button assignment that uses the shoulder buttons and the top face button as XYZ, sadly. As for Neo Geo, the Neo Geo controller has 4 face buttons and start and select, so just configure the buttons to match how they are on the awesome Neo Geo CD controller and it's good.

 

Also for Neo Geo, I wonder if it would even be possible to build a Neo Geo core for this system. I REALLY hope so and I was talking to one of my friends about it today, but both of us figure that if any system from around the early 90s isn't going to be possible, it's the Neo Geo. I honestly do not expect Neo Geo, but the only thing that would please me more than Neo Geo support is SuperGrafx + all types of PC Engine CD games. Genesis/MD would be awesome as well, but I do have my Nomad already. Perhaps I will hope for it just for people who are not fortunate enough to have the Nomad!

IIRC, NeoGeo supported controllers with up to eight face buttons (arcade pro and such), and there are many other arcade systems that used around 6 main action buttons.

 

As for everyone copying the 4 face button design, unless you're making a SNES/NES/GB specific unit instead of more general mlti-platform system, it's difficult to understand why two more face buttons couldn't have been added while keeping the shoulder buttons, allowing for near native configurations for most classic Nintendo, Sega, Atari (2600/7800 mainly, not sure how the Pocket would deal with the Jaguar's number pad, or 5200/ColecoVision/Intellivision for that matter...), NEC, and such.

 

And assuming there is some capability to remap buttons for specific games, being able to use 6 face buttons is useful for fighting games on the SNES/SFC where using shoulder buttons on the native system/controller, which Sega's six button pad had a real advantage over back in the day.

[konradklaus]

21 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Also for Neo Geo, I wonder if it would even be possible to build a Neo Geo core for this system. I REALLY hope so and I was talking to one of my friends about it today, but both of us figure that if any system from around the early 90s isn't going to be possible, it's the Neo Geo. I honestly do not expect Neo Geo, but the only thing that would please me more than Neo Geo support is SuperGrafx + all types of PC Engine CD games. Genesis/MD would be awesome as well, but I do have my Nomad already. Perhaps I will hope for it just for people who are not fortunate enough to have the Nomad!

 

Now that I think about it, as crazy as it sounds... X68000. That would be AMAZING beyond words. I get the feeling that there's no way in hell that would happen, though...

 

I bought a Super NT and a Mega SG.  Both times I hoped and dreamed of extra cores.  Now the Mega SG had more cores which was great, but none of the previous cores released.  I understand why they aren't.  It cuts into their other products.  I highly doubt the Pocket will have additional cores besides what has been listed (which honestly, is a pretty hefty list with GB, GBC, GBA, GG, NGP, NGPC, and Lynx.)  I am also a little nervous about a JB this time because this is the only one that the FAQ specifically mentions no roms (correct me if I am wrong.)  I assume (dangerous, I know) that you all speculating on additional cores are referring to how one of the FPGAs will open for development, but I don't think we'll have the same success like the mister has for it.  Maybe we'll get a NES core... MAYBE SNES and Gen...  I wonder how good they'll be .  Maybe I'm just being a negative nancy....  I'll still probably buy a Pocket... not sure if I need a dock or not.  I hope I don't.... 

[Steven Pendleton]

1 minute ago, blzmarcel said:

IIRC, NeoGeo supported controllers with up to eight face buttons (arcade pro and such), and there are many other arcade systems that used around 6 main action buttons.

 

As for everyone copying the 4 face button design, unless you're making a SNES/NES/GB specific unit instead of more general mlti-platform system, it's difficult to understand why two more face buttons couldn't have been added while keeping the shoulder buttons, allowing for near native configurations for most classic Nintendo, Sega, Atari (2600/7800 mainly, not sure how the Pocket would deal with the Jaguar's number pad, or 5200/ColecoVision/Intellivision for that matter...), NEC, and such.

 

And assuming there is some capability to remap buttons for specific games, being able to use 6 face buttons is useful for fighting games on the SNES/SFC where using shoulder buttons on the native system/controller, which Sega's six button pad had a real advantage over back in the day.

To be fair, this is marketed as a GB/GBC/GBA/NGP(C)/GG/Lynx thing and anything else is secondary and built by someone else, so having only 4 face buttons at most is basically expected. I don't know anything about the Lynx aside from the fact that I found a broken one here in town a few months ago in a box of broken American consoles (mostly a few US Genesis systems. I wonder how they got here), but I think it's got a few buttons on there, so it needs them or something.

[Steven Pendleton]

7 minutes ago, konradklaus said:

 

I bought a Super NT and a Mega SG.  Both times I hoped and dreamed of extra cores.  Now the Mega SG had more cores which was great, but none of the previous cores released.  I understand why they aren't.  It cuts into their other products.  I highly doubt the Pocket will have additional cores besides what has been listed (which honestly, is a pretty hefty list with GB, GBC, GBA, GG, NGP, NGPC, and Lynx.)  I am also a little nervous about a JB this time because this is the only one that the FAQ specifically mentions no roms (correct me if I am wrong.)  I assume (dangerous, I know) that you all speculating on additional cores are referring to how one of the FPGAs will open for development, but I don't think we'll have the same success like the mister has for it.  Maybe we'll get a NES core... MAYBE SNES and Gen...  I wonder how good they'll be .  Maybe I'm just being a negative nancy....  I'll still probably buy a Pocket... not sure if I need a dock or not.  I hope I don't.... 

The other systems' pages mention no ROMs. Disregard. I thought I saw it somewhere. but maybe I didn't.

 

As for the other cores, it's up to whoever makes cores for this thing. Maybe kevtris put other things in it, but I do know for a fact that it is capable of Genesis/MD/SFC/SNES, so I am hoping for at least Mega Genesis Drive and SuperGrafx. Anything else is a bonus.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[blzmarcel]

3 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

To be fair, this is marketed as a GB/GBC/GBA/NGP(C)/GG/Lynx thing and anything else is secondary and built by someone else, so having only 4 face buttons at most is basically expected. I don't know anything about the Lynx aside from the fact that I found a broken one here in town a few months ago in a box of broken American consoles (mostly a few US Genesis systems. I wonder how they got here), but I think it's got a few buttons on there, so it needs them or something.

Yeah, I admittedly overlooked / forgot about that, and just mistakenly ran with the assumption that it would be meant playing for all sorts of retro consoles and maybe classic arcade systems, which I don't feel was a totally-way-out-there assumption, especially with Genesis which has the Nomad, but it was an assumption nonetheless, which might have been fueled in part by posts I had seen in previous weeks or months that seemed to allude to a rather wide array of system support.