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NT Analogue announces Super NT

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dolabla

Member
I received mine on Friday. Despite being plastic, it has a lot of weight to it and the rubber bottom keeps it from sliding off your table (which I wish the SNES mini had). Like the videos say, it's extremely compatible with everything I've thrown at it and everything looks and sounds great.

Nice!

How is the grip on the carts? Does it grip them tough? Or are they pretty easy to get out of the system?

Or if anybody else knows?
 

Social

Member
Are save states really important to most people? As someone who grew up during the NES and SNES era, I never understood the appeal of them. Always felt like a form of cheating to me.

Actually yes, for me it's a must have. I don't think I would enjoy a lot of games if it wasn't for the rewind feature and the save states on using RetroArch on a Rapsberry Pi 3.
How can you not understand the appeal of them though? Loads of old skool games are hard as balls and not everyone has infinite time to retry them and just want to finish a game.
I understand your point of view for seeing it as a form of cheating but you know, opinions :).
 

Evenball

Jack Flack always escapes!
Nice!

How is the grip on the carts? Does it grip them tough? Or are they pretty easy to get out of the system?

Or if anybody else knows?

It grips them a little tight. It's not terrible, but i would prefer them to be a little looser.
 

nightmarcher26

Neo Member
Here is a lossless comparison between Higan (2CHIP) and the Super Nt:

p57tOhc.png


woRbGSD.png\


Notice the crushed blacks in the Super Metroid title screen and also the muted colors (especially red) of the Super Mario World title screen. This is very disappointing, and no review is reporting on the systems inaccurate color reproduction. Hopefully, enthusiasts on AtariaAge and shmups will brings this to the attention of Analogue.
 
D

Deleted member 12837

Unconfirmed Member
Are save states really important to most people? As someone who grew up during the NES and SNES era, I never understood the appeal of them. Always felt like a form of cheating to me.

I feel the same way. I can see them being useful or convenient every once and a while, but missing support for them would never be a dealbreaker for me.

How do these people handle playing modern (non-PC) games?
 

JP

Member
I suppose there is a chance that save states could be added at some point but I believe that it's a really complicated thing to achieve using an FPGA and may actually be impossible depending on the space that is still available on the FPGA chipset.

For people who do desperately want one of these but really have issues with no save states, there are cartridge options for enabling save states. Obviously they cost money and like any other option that's running on original or clone hardware like this, it's always going to be a bit hit and miss in relation to how well they'll work.

N nightmarcher26
These things have been mentioned in reviews and there is a gamma boost option included to increase what you talk about. As we are talking about completely different video formats to the original SNES output, it's difficult to say which is actually more accurate now that they have changed but obviously people are far more accustomed to the Higan interpretation.

It's the same with the colours too, there are already several different colour pallets available so that you can tune the colour output to align with your won interpretation of what the original was. There are several "correct" colour palettes including more than one official one from from Nintendo themselves.

EDIT:
Actually, no. The SNES supports RGB natively so I'm not even sure if they'll be adding different colour palettes to the Super Nt.
 
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Here is a lossless comparison between Higan (2CHIP) and the Super Nt:

p57tOhc.png


woRbGSD.png\


Notice the crushed blacks in the Super Metroid title screen and also the muted colors (especially red) of the Super Mario World title screen. This is very disappointing, and no review is reporting on the systems inaccurate color reproduction. Hopefully, enthusiasts on AtariaAge and shmups will brings this to the attention of Analogue.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242970-fpga-based-videogame-system/?p=3961050
 

dolabla

Member
Welp, I just caved a few minutes ago and pre-ordered :). I went with the Classic style since that's what I grew up with. Man, I am super pumped to get this thing. Now I'm trying to figure out what I want to play first :p. I think I'll get way more use out of this thing than the AVS since I enjoy the SNES more than the NES.

Not having the save states does not bother me personally. I think that makes it a little bit more nostalgic. Though I wouldn't oppose it if they wanted to add it since some people would like it.

It grips them a little tight. It's not terrible, but i would prefer them to be a little looser.

Gotcha. Maybe it will loosen a little more over time as we insert/take out many games.
 

JP

Member
Mine turned up today which was a nice surprise as it was supposed to be tomorrow. I think I nearly wet myself when I received the text telling me that it had been delivered. Fortunately for me, Analogue mark the value down to $10.00 so I've avoided the £40 to £50 import charges that I was expecting. It's hardly cheap but when you consider how much I thought I'd be paying in total, it almost feels like a bargain now. :)

I've just returned home so I'm having a coffee now and then I'll update to the latest firmware then give it a quick try.

dolabla dolabla
Yoshi's Island, you crazy maniac!!! ;)

I know that it will work fine but it's an absolutely beautiful game and really technically demanding so I think it's a good one to test.

EDIT:
Typical, I update to the latest firmware v4.0. Refresh Analogue's support page and there's now a v4.1 firmware. Lets do it again.

It seems to take a while to update, changing from a rapidly flashing red light to a flat red light. Be patient though, even if it takes longer than the three minutes that they say, it will restart and go to the home screen when it's completed the update.
 
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DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
Are save states really important to most people? As someone who grew up during the NES and SNES era, I never understood the appeal of them. Always felt like a form of cheating to me.


Its a matter of preference I guess. When I was a kid I had all the time in the world to play games over and over until I could beat them.

Now I have a lot less time but I still want to experience the progression of the game. Last year I played MegaMan X for the first time. The game was great, it was challenging, but not unbeatable. However I dont have the time to replay levels over and over until I get the pattern of all the enemies, the location of all the spikes/traps etc.

Everyone can play how they want but if I didnt use save states these old games would quite literally take me months to complete.
 
I preordered one a couple of days ago. Really looking forward to its arrival. Does anyone know if you can use a Game Genie on the Super NT? Although my original SNES is long gone, I found an old Game Genie in a box and thought it might be fun to give it a whirl.
 

_Justinian_

Gold Member
This has far exceeded all my expectations. Like receiving a SNES on Christmas as a child all over again. I used the video from My Life In Gaming to help with the video settings and the game looks beautiful on my HDTV. And I agree with E Evenball . The grips are a little tight. There's no eject button so you have to apply a bit more force than normal to pull the cartridge out. A minor thing, but yeah it's there.
 

JP

Member
Custom jailbreak firmware has been released: https://github.com/SmokeMonsterPacks/Super-NT-Jailbreak

However, it doesn't appear to be from Kevtris so use at your own risk. It also doesn't support additional cores, etc. It only supports loading ROMs (that don't use special chips) from the SD card slot.
Technically, we don't actually know whether it is anything to do with kevtris at all. There was always the rumour that this may have been the way it happened now that he is "officially" an Analogue employee.;)

With the Nt Mini Analogue always claimed that it was impossible to brick the console and that was why using the jailbreak firmware didn't actually void your warranty. I'm not entirely sure how this firmware would effect the warranty because they're distancing themselves from stuff like this, which maybe they've had to do.

I can't imagine there's anything to worry about but I'd much rather wait for people who understand this stuff far better than I do to pull it apart and seeing what it does. The good news is the console has only been pout a week and now that's on GitHub it'll probably move forward pretty quickly from now on.
 
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dolabla

Member
J JP

Unfortunately, I don't have Yoshi's Island :(. However, I think a friend might have a copy to try out. I plan to buy it anyways. I gotta re-buy some more games that have gone missing over time (Mortal Kombat series, F-Zero, Kirby Super Star, etc). I'll be super busy with this thing, ha. The one game I don't have (and will buy soon) but really want to play (cause I haven't played in a long time) is Batman Returns.

Did you get a chance to play around with yours for a while? How you liking it?
 

JP

Member
dolabla dolabla
Ha, don't worry, I was joking when I said needed to be that. It is a good game to test but if you're like me you'll probably quickly work through a few of your games before you start playing properly.

I've just been to busy to spend loads of time with it but I've seen and heard enough to know that I'm really happy with it. Hopefully I'll get a bit of time top mess around tomorrow.

I've been waiting to see it the jailbreak action.


from what I've been reading. it all seems to be working for people apart from their being issues with saving games. I'm expecting the project to grow pretty quickly.



EDIT:
The second run is out of stock now. Only the Black and Transparent models are still available to order.
 
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JP

Member
Lon's new video seems pretty useful for people wanting to see the current jailbreak firmware.


I may well be the only person who cares but I do love a good looking board.
 

dolabla

Member
J JP

Haha, that's pretty much what I did with my AVS when I got it. I said I was gonna play this game then ended up trying all my games, lol.

I'm glad I got my pre-order in when I did for the Classic. I can't get enough of watching vids on this thing. Been watching them on the tv to get a feel what it's like :D
 
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JP

Member
dolabla dolabla
To be honest, it looks far sharper in real life than if you do that. Although doing what you say will give you a rough idea how it's going to look. For me, it looks as good as I was expecting but what's really thrown me is the audio quality that it outputs, they've doubled the sample rate and it now outputs audio at 48KHz 16bit and there's so much more depth to the audio now. Really impressive.

Analogue have said that they're currently working on improving the video output, giving people more options in terms of colour and adding more options to the scan lines so when yours turns up there could well be more and improved options for everyone.

Tarin02543 Tarin02543
At the moment, yes but the jailbreak firmware is incredibly early at the moment so it may happen at some point. Kevtris has said that he has a lot of space left on the FPGA but there could be other issues that make the higher end chips really difficult to reproduce. It may happen though. I suppose in the long run they may actually be able to add a hardware solution to the complex chips using the cartridge port, I don't really know how likely that would be though.

A lot of things will change with the system but if you're thinking of buying one, I really wouldn't recommend buying it because of things that you're hoping will be added at a later date.

EDIT:
I've installed the Jailbreak firmware as I've been dying to see how well it works.

It's really simple to install, as is the official firmware and it works fantastically so far even though it isn't perfect. I briefly tried a few games and they seem to work as expected and I've tried a few translations and hacks too and the vast majority of them seem to work perfectly, which is really exciting. Some do refuse to work but I'm not sure if that's due to issues with this firmware or because of the specific hack that was used, if it is the actually hack I'm sure that in time a database will be built up of hacks and translations to use and also which version of those translations and hacks.

I haven't even tried saving games at the moment due to the save bug and the fact that I'm just messing around with things at the moment.

I'm hoping to start Shadow of the Colossus on the PS4 this weekend so I'll probably leave this firmware on the Nt over the weekend as it's unlikely that I'll also get the chance to get into a game properly but I will still be able to just mess around with different games to see how they work.

I'm very happy with the console without this but this is will make it even more worthwhile once it's been developed into a far more stable version. Hopefully the NES core will make an appearance at some point and then all I'd need to make it perfect for me would be a GBA core, which probably won't happen.

I'm so happy with this so far though!:)
 
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Are save states really important to most people? As someone who grew up during the NES and SNES era, I never understood the appeal of them. Always felt like a form of cheating to me.

I grew up in that era too and I would have loved save states back in the day. Would have saved hours upon hours upon hours of frustration. Now days my patience is so much thinner is basically a necessity for me
 

rich!!

Neo Member
Got mine last week. Transparent model. Some photos I took:

dsc_0011p6qx7.jpg


dsc_00083hq40.jpg


dsc_0013a7oln.jpg


dsc_0015b0pir.jpg


Works really well. No issues with any games I've tried. SD2SNES and SGB work perfectly. Scanlines (only 1px height in 1080p mode when they should be scaled accordingly) and colour range (0-255 not set correctly) are a bit fucked, but kevtris is aware and fixing them in the next update.

Fits nicely in my gaming setup:

dsc_0020u2qt8.jpg
 

JP

Member
I'm hoping to start Shadow of the Colossus on the PS4 this weekend so I'll probably leave this firmware on the Nt over the weekend as it's unlikely that I'll also get the chance to get into a game properly but I will still be able to just mess around with different games to see how they work.
Well, that's clearly not going to happen now! I must have spent hours messing around with the jailbroken version. Just having a quick go on each game to see how well they work, I've tried so many hacked games now that I can't even remember which Mario game is which.

Very happy with it so far and looking forward to getting the future improvements.

I meant to mention this last week but I kept forgetting, when you first start it up and think that there may be an issue with your controller check on the screen to see which buttons you need to use as the default buttons are probably different to what you're expecting them to be. You can actually customise them though.
 

rich!!

Neo Member
Amazing pics mate. Cheers for sharing them. I love your set up and console collection. You're clearly a man of taste. What game is running on your PVM?

Thanks! Kirby Super Star (it's the cart in my SFC Jr at the bottom - it's the JP version cart, but I converted it to the US version). Looks washed out there due to the flash, but this is a better couple of shots of it on my JVC:

261fec1ad837ec0ae19e9894fc0bd73e332e7aff_1_690x461.jpg

b50f5b5323e78bae697bfa60eaca8f110f976195_1_643x500.jpg



The monitor was only £20, under ten years old (produced 2007, sparingly used since purchase in 2010). Didn't have RGB input so I built an rgb card and added a SCART input. It's fantastic.
 
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rich!!

Neo Member
Hey guys

if anyone else has a Super NT, and like me are unhappy with the scanlines in 1080p mode, feel free to share this image with Analogue on twitter:

scanlineissuewcrd5.jpg
 

dolabla

Member
J JP

Yeah, I'm sure it doesn't do it justice since the compression of YouTube. That's amazing to hear about the audio.

I was reading some of comments on AtariAge and saw TV's aren't detecting the correct RGB value (it should be Full) and it's crushing the blacks. And they said they have fix coming pretty soon.

From what I've read, these guys seem to be quick with their updates. I love my AVS, but if there is one major complaint I have about it (besides the early stuff), it's that RetroUSB is super slow on firmware updates. There's still some pretty big game breaking bugs present on the newest firmware and it released 3+ months ago. I had to go back to a more stable firmware.


R rich!!

That thing is gorgeous. I prefer that old classic look, but that transparent looks cool too.
 
Thanks! Kirby Super Star (it's the cart in my SFC Jr at the bottom - it's the JP version cart, but I converted it to the US version). Looks washed out there due to the flash, but this is a better couple of shots of it on my JVC:

The monitor was only £20, under ten years old (produced 2007, sparingly used since purchase in 2010). Didn't have RGB input so I built an rgb card and added a SCART input. It's fantastic.

Dammn...and now I have PVM envy. I have to track one down one day; those scanlines look brilliant. My 2006 Sony CRT died this year so I plan to replace it and somehow find a way to dispose of the giant 80kg beast. I'm tempted to try and repair it but I fear that it's beyond my technical skills.

I knew that I'd seen that game before. Kirby Super Star is on my backlog of games to play. Great stuff.
 
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_Justinian_

Gold Member
Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but this system makes me miss how much more simple and enjoyable gaming used to be. I can just take a cartridge, put it in the system, turn it on and play. No advertisements, micro-transactions, achievements, notifications, updates, bug fixes, DLC, DRM, online account requirements, or anything else.
 

dolabla

Member
Just a heads up, I was looking on eBay for some games and noticed I had a $15 coupon that expires on 2/21. The purchase has to be $30 or more. I guess this is a special ebay is running, but it works on some games. So check your eBay accounts to see if that coupon is in there.

The thing is I just bought a bundle of Mario World, Mario Kart and Mario Collection Super Famicom versions and I only noticed it after the purchase when I went to my account summary :(:(:(.
 
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JP

Member
_Justinian_ _Justinian_
It's close but you aren't quiet getting away DRM with this.

As I spent the whole weekend having a quick go on as many games as possible with the jailbreak firmware I ended up testing a few European exclusive games that bring up a warning that states that that aren't designed for this system when you try to load them because I have it set up as an NTSC system. Obviously, it is easy enough to get around with the Super Nt though, you just switch the console over to a PAL system and they boot up fine.

EDIT:
The Transparent version joins the SF and Classic and is now out of stock.


They do still have the Black version in stock. I'm quite surprised that the last version to sell out, I would have thought it would have been more popular. A week on Thursday and the second batch are supposed to be dispatched for people, not long to go now.
 
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dolabla

Member
New 4.3 firmware is out now for you guys lucky enough to already have your NT's:

v4.3 notes:

-Fixed RGB/color issues
-Fixed Front Mission - Gun Hazard. This game did mid-frame HDMA enables and disables.
-Fixed Ninja Warriors
-Re-fixed the Mecha-robot Golf fix, this should fix several random crashes
-Fixed Uniracers 2 player mode, where player 2 hovered above the track
-Added individual RGB gamma sliders
-Added "straight through" RGB when not using HQX scalers; this should fix the RGB issues some have had. These are under the "scanlines" menu
-Linearized the brightness steps for the overall screen brightness (PPU reg 2100 bits 0-3)
-Added limited RGB mode checkbox. This is under the "scalers" menu. Also now outputting "underscan" flags, and "IT content" flags which should force some monitors/TVs to disable overscan, and any filtering/processing (IT mode).
-Super Powerpak fixed - check "use launch system timing" box under the hardware menu when using
 

Dizagaox

Member
Has there been any news on a ROM hack for it? Whilst I have a decent library of physical SNES games, I'd only buy the system once it's able to accept my ROM SD card.
 

V2Tommy

Member
Has there been any news on a ROM hack for it? Whilst I have a decent library of physical SNES games, I'd only buy the system once it's able to accept my ROM SD card.

It already has a jailbreak firmware out. Has some issues but it definitely works.
 

dolabla

Member
Here's a comparison vid of the new color palette introduced in 4.3 vs old. colors vs. original colors of a real SNES :




It's very close to a real SNES now. Amazing!
 

V2Tommy

Member
The colors are much better now with 4.3. At this rare, in 3 months, this is gonna be a totally different machine :cool:
 

JP

Member
Has anybody who pre-ordered from the second run of consoles had a dispatch notice yet? I know it's a little early but I thought I'd remind people that there was issues with accurate information being dispatched with the first round.

For anybody who has pre-ordered from the second run, it may be worth reading my early post here as it seemed spot when I did what I said, even though I didn't receive any notifications from Analogue themselves until it was well on the way. It takes minutes to sign up for a free UPS account and because they have your details in your account it will add your package without you having to do anything manually.
 

_Justinian_

Gold Member
Has anyone else experienced pixels dimming or "mildly flickering" when certain games are scrolling to the left or right (whether by your character movement or automatically)? It's hardly noticeable and not game breaking or anything like that, but I can't tell if it's the TV or Super NT related. For example, in Zelda: A Link to the past, the walls in Hyrule castle and tiles dim and "flicker" a little when Link's movement causes the screen to scroll. It stops the moment the screen isn't moving anymore. I also noticed this in Final Fantasy II.
 

V2Tommy

Member
Has anyone else experienced pixels dimming or "mildly flickering" when certain games are scrolling to the left or right (whether by your character movement or automatically)? It's hardly noticeable and not game breaking or anything like that, but I can't tell if it's the TV or Super NT related. For example, in Zelda: A Link to the past, the walls in Hyrule castle and tiles dim and "flicker" a little when Link's movement causes the screen to scroll. It stops the moment the screen isn't moving anymore. I also noticed this in Final Fantasy II.

That's likely shimmering from an incorrect pixel ratio. Try something like 4x or 5x and then enable the "Horizontal Interpolation" and it should go away.
 

_Justinian_

Gold Member
That's likely shimmering from an incorrect pixel ratio. Try something like 4x or 5x and then enable the "Horizontal Interpolation" and it should go away.
Hmmm... Horizontal Interpolation was already enabled and I tried both 4x and 5x. The dimming/shimmering effect still occurs during movement. Still messing around with settings to see if I can figure this out.
 
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