Sort of suprised at the lack of interest in the Analogue Duo

[Spartacus]

The Duo went live today and neither version appears to have sold out yet. I was really nervous about getting one as they were a fixed quantity and not an open pre-order. Had my order in as soon as it opened.



I have a beautiful PC Engine collection, something at one time I thought I would never be able to afford. I started collecting video games by collecting shmups. Those weird ships, monsters and robots appealed to my love of horror, sci-fi and war films. Almost seems comical to me now because I don't care for the forced forward scrolling game play at all. Baltron and Xenon 2 are two of my favorites simply because they allow you to go backwards - retreat!
I used to look at the PC Engine shmup library at http://www.shmups.com/xenocidefiles/pcengine.html and drool at the pictures. My goodness that PC Engine had some pretty games! But it was a PC Engine game called Mr Heli that got me started collecting PCE games. I have a helicopter game collection and knew it would have to have a game with Heli in it's title. I'm sure the PC Engine is easy to emulate, but I'm not aware of a console release of a PC Engine compilation disc. The Evercade doesn't have PC Engine games either as I recall.
I bought two Japanese PC Engine Duo consoles modded to output in S-Video and RGB, both of which are easy to upscale to HDMI. But the CD drives are old and I am happy to have Analogue's modern version of the Duo.

[Aussie2B]

This is the first I'm hearing of it. I have two PC Engine Duo-RX systems that are holding up, so I'm good, but it looks like a nice product. I haven't been keeping up with the values of retro games and systems that well, but as far as I know, there isn't a version of the Duo or base model + CD add-on that wouldn't set one back just as much, if not more, and that's not even getting into system cards and the SuperGrafx and such, so it looks like a no-brainer for anyone wanting to get into the system now.

[Niku-Sama]

i mentioned something about it in the SuperNT thread. i really want to get one but pre orders when live today and payday isnt till next thursday and i dont wanna dip into savings that badly...

also i still havent gotten my SuperNT

[Tron 2.0]

I'm fine with my current setup,TG16+TurboCD and Duo-R.Beside analogue really get's you with that shipping fee etcs Not to mention analogue is really terrible at having enough systems in stock.When the price was gonna be $199.99 i all most consider it.Still looking at it now if i want another way to play pce on a hdmi tv i rather just have a mister at this point.Btw yes it has a core for playing pce,hucards and cds.

[Steve W]

I'd never heard of it until today. And I just can't justify the cost. I have a TurboDuo with bad caps, it'd be financially easier on me to recap it, get an HDMI converter, and a region converter card. Or I can just play the games in emulation.

[Tron 2.0]

I'd never heard of it until today. And I just can't justify the cost. I have a TurboDuo with bad caps, it'd be financially easier on me to recap it, get an HDMI converter, and a region converter card. Or I can just play the games in emulation.

This and have it modded for rbg and run it through a retrotinx 5x or an ossc and you're set.

[turboxray]

i mentioned something about it in the SuperNT thread. i really want to get one but pre orders when live today and payday isnt till next thursday and i dont wanna dip into savings that badly...

also i still havent gotten my SuperNT

You don't have a credit card???

[Spartacus]

One YouTuber who passed on the Analogue Duo gives his thoughts: "Too Late To Care? Why Are People Not Buying The Analogue DUO? " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLSCh-XTsF0

Gamespot thought "Analogue Duo Preorders Go Live May 19, Will Likely Sell Out Fast"
Slashgear thought "Analogue Duo Pre-Orders Finally Open, But You Have To Be Fast"

At this point I'm just thinking that there aren't that many folks who own TG-16 or PC Engine games. This was never a cheap collection to have. If mine was a TG-16 collection instead of a import PC Engine collection, I could not have afforded it. Nobody was giving away the Japanese versions either.

Analogue is really slow at shipping. I'm still owed a Pocket (my second) with all the adapters. But I excused it because the news was full of supply shortage stories, especially for micro chips. I don't feel Analogue's Duo was priced too high because I know what a real Duo cost me. Heck, you could probably find a working Genny or SNES for under $40 and Analogue's versions cost 5 times that! I'm one of those who plunked down $500 for a aluminum Analogue NES. That's kinda crazy, but I own over 500 NES and Famicom games that I could use to justify it with and I wanted to play them on my HD TV. Plus it made me the coolest kid on the block. Nuk Nuk Nuk

That MiSTer, I don't know. It just seems more complicated to me that what I'm willing to deal with. I don't want to build the machine. I want to play the machine.

My hope is that Analogue will sell out of Duo's, encouraging them to further develop other future FPGA CD ROM based consoles. And I'm really really curious what might be next.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, I figure anybody who has or plans to buy legit games probably either already has the original hardware or would want it, so it comes down to who wants to double-dip getting another system that plays the games. Everybody else would probably say screw it to the prices for the games and any of the system options and just emulate. I'm lucky that I got most of my PC Engine stuff in the '00s when prices weren't too crazy. I've got a TG-16 too, but I have very few US games, and that collection isn't likely to increase in size with prices as they are.

[Koa Zo]

As of today, 4 days after orders opened, they've sold well over 30,000 units.
That is hardly "lack of interest".

[Koa Zo]

30,000 units is pretty dang good! I wonder if that's worldwide or if Analogue has a breakdown of where these are all going? That would be interesting to know. Are there a lot of US buyers as it didn't do oh so hot here in the States?

It would be very be interesting to see a breakdown of where units are shipped.
The sales numbers are world wide. 20,000 units in each color to be manufactured.
Just under 1600 white remaining and just shy of 7000 black remaining in stock apparently.

[SparTonberry]

Tempting but probably shouldn't, as my Turbo collection consists of only a few PC-Engine CDs.
I don't think it'd be a good idea to get into card collection at this time.

[Gamevet]

I pre-ordered the black Duo on Saturday. I always wanted to play the PCE CD games, so this was better than trying to feta Duo with the arcade card. I currently have a TG-16 with 10 hucard games, complete, plus the Turbo Booster.

[Gameguy]

This does look like a well made console, especially compared to other knock off clone systems that have been produced by other companies. The main issue I would consider is the price, as that's a lot for a system that people with original games would already own. But with original hardware becoming unreliable, this is a good option. I just wish this would include standard composite output in addition to HDMI so this could be connected to a standard CRT as an option. I play classic consoles on essentially period correct type monitors and as this is only HDMI I wouldn't consider buying it for practical use.

Also good to see long time posters in this thread, it certainly has been awhile.

[Tron 2.0]

This does look like a well made console, especially compared to other knock off clone systems that have been produced by other companies. The main issue I would consider is the price, as that's a lot for a system that people with original games would already own. But with original hardware becoming unreliable, this is a good option. I just wish this would include standard composite output in addition to HDMI so this could be connected to a standard CRT as an option. I play classic consoles on essentially period correct type monitors and as this is only HDMI I wouldn't consider buying it for practical use.

Also good to see long time posters in this thread, it certainly has been awhile.

Analogue just release there dac adapter which allows you to play there consoles on a crt.
https://www.analogue.co/dac

[Gametrek]

I honestly did all my PCE collecting already. I mean there are titles to look foward to, but on the other hand I pretty much experienced it on a real TV, and on my computer. The only person I honestly see purchasing this is somebody who has not figured out how to run stuff on your computer and or ( like me previously ) have purchased the actual unit.

I am still blown-away by the experience and till this day I say to myself. PCE > NES. Nintendo obviously looked at the prices but lets be realistic. The prices would have dropped over time and we would not need the SNES for a very long time. My only problem with that is the possibility of no FX microchip and no specialized chips add-ons, and no Satilite-view ( like those home-made RPG maker games ). Think about how the costs would have been justified.

NEC + Nintendo + Red + Konami ( when they were great and not jerks ), it would have wiped SEGA out making them dependent on the Amiga. The SNES could have been the Genesis by logic. I would have love to see a Motorola SNES + mAster-System + Genesis + 32X, but alais we will never know.
You also have to consider the creation of the SONY sound-chip. My good word we would just have to live with regular red-book audio-tracks. Rather then carts.

When the PC + CD world started to become a reality Nintendo games would have been copied, with pirates selling everything to anything on the side, along with home-brew games and software popping up. Imagine "The Guy Game" on the PCE in all it's glory, or the actual amount of AV ( audiovisual ) models CD would be flying around.

I guess the carts was good for censorship and keeping within the "kids toy" mainstay. It did way better then the Dreamcast and there lame GD-roms, dummy space.

[Spartacus]

I had a chance to play with my Analogue Duo and it is a solid piece of kit. I thought I would have preferred the Analogue Duo's CD drive to be a top loader for it's simplicity and easy access to the disc. But after handling the Analogue Duo for awhile, I realized that a top loading CD drive would have made the Analogue Duo more flimsy feeling, with hinges, lids and latches likely becoming easily broken liabilities. But I wish Analogue had included a emergency eject pinhole for the CD drive.

I own hundreds of PC Engine games on various formats and regions and everything I tested ran without problems. I'm using a 65" OLED TV with a 5.1 surround sound system and did have to change my TV's screen from 16.9 to 4.3 for the best picture. I set the Analogue to 480p with RGB color to get the best looking video for my preference. I noticed that some in game sound effects were coming from my rear speakers, but maybe this was only happening on CD games. I expected only front left and right stereo so I was pleasantly surprised hearing those effects coming from back speakers.

The original PC Engine controllers I tried worked fine but I found that having easy access to the Analogue Duo's OS made using 8BitDo's TG16 wireless gamepad the easiest way to play. Oddly, the home button on the 8BitDo which brought up the Duo's menu screen only worked for me when wired. In Bluetooth Mode the home button simply paused the game. I didn't play with that too much and maybe other button combinations would have brought up the menu.

My PC Engine consoles are white and my Analogue Duo is black, but after seeing how closely Analogue matched the cream color of my PC Engine consoles, I kinda envy having the white version giving me reason to double dip. I have already purchased two SuperGrafx games now that I have the hardware to play them. If only the Analogue Duo would have been capable of playing PC-FX games too. I could have justified adding a whole new collection of games to my library.

I think the Analogue Duo is a great back-up system for people owning original PC Engine/Duo hardware and software.

[Gametrek]

I had an idea while thinking about this again.

Can this play "Street Fighter 2" and "Populus" ?
The card insert lacks that bit of space for those two cards or cards like them?

Am I able to do the card trick to access the mini game in Castlevania ?

Since this is a CD-player am I able to attach any CD-player into data-read mode and use as a backup reader?

$200.00+ at least still a original duo can cost twice as much compared to analogue.Though this isn't shocking there's all ways a jailbreak for there consoles.

Here is the funny. Look at the cost of an actual PCEngine setup when it was released, and combine the Turbografx/Duo cost as well.

If you think about it the PC-Engine was the greatest invention, because even the Switch
is basically what a PCE is today or at least was.

Then the cost of owning one today and repairs that would need to be made over time.

Like right now I am thinking my CD-rom AC adapter might fail one day. Looking at that big adapter ( which can be repaired ) but would rather a slim adapter plug instead.

[retroman]

I bought both of the Analogue Duo's. I have a black one and a white one. I have the black one hooked up and the white one still sealed in the box. I always like to have back up systems to everything I buy. This thing is far from perfect. Its nothing but FPGA emulation and that is to be expected. Nothing beats real hardware.