WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.600 There has never been a better time to be a gamer, and a big part of that is all these amazing retro 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:10.720 devices that are coming out that make playing old games better than ever. And today we have the 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:18.560 analog duo. This is the first PC Engine TurboGrafx 16 focus FPGA console, which is pretty cool. 00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:24.480 You might not have ever played the TurboGrafx 16 if you're in the west, but the PC Engine, 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:29.920 the Japanese counterpart, was actually a better seller than the Mega Drive, which is the Genesis 00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:37.360 in Japan. And it has probably one of the most underappreciated libraries of any console ever. 00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:42.560 It has the best classic venue in my opinion. It's got the Bonk and Arizona games. It has 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:48.960 the start of the Ease franchise. And finally, it's easy to play. Getting a TurboGrafx 16 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.040 is pretty expensive. You can get PC Engines for cheap, but they look like a smoker, 00:00:53.040 --> 00:01:00.240 ate them and spat them out just like this. This white console is kind of pre-smoker colored, 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:06.400 and I think I kind of dig it. The console itself is very reminiscent of a Turbo Duo, 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:12.560 which is the combo device that they released that was both the PC Engine and the CD add-on built in, 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:16.720 because the CD add-on actually came later and with it brought some of the console's 00:01:16.720 --> 00:01:21.520 absolute best game. So this is a pretty small package. It's a lot wider than other analog 00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:26.800 consoles, but it's not deeper, which is nice. So that'll fit very well. And because there's no 00:01:26.800 --> 00:01:31.440 cartridge going on top, you could fit this in quite a small little space on your retro shelf. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.480 On the front, we have our power, our hue card slot, and our CD slot with the eject button. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:42.080 On the back, we have our SD card slot. Ours came pre-loaded with an SD card that has some cover 00:01:42.080 --> 00:01:48.320 art on it, but yours will not. We have an HDMI slot that can do up to 1080p60. You have your two USBs 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:53.600 where you can use any wired controller, which is really nice. And this one's actually Type-C, 00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:59.840 which is sort of new for the full-fledged analog consoles. The NT Noir, the Super NT, 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:05.280 and the Mega SG are all micro USB, which is not a huge deal, because I'm not unplugging, 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:10.720 replugging all the time, but it's nice that they've entered the 21st century. On the bottom, 00:02:10.720 --> 00:02:14.160 we have this cool little analog pattern. I think it's quite attractive, and it'll help 00:02:14.160 --> 00:02:19.040 prevent it from slipping and sliding. It's quite grippy. And the neat little wavy pattern, 00:02:19.040 --> 00:02:24.080 just like the turbo duo had back in the day. On the top, we have this transparent bit 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:29.280 that looks like you should be able to see the CD spinning, but there's actually another smoker 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:36.080 beige piece of plastic underneath. So you cannot. On the side, we have the PC Engine Controller 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:42.000 port. It's cool that you can use an original controller, but if you want to use a turbo 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.920 graphics controller, you actually need a little adapter. They're cheap, but it would have been 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:50.320 nice for them to include it in the box. The compromise is that they've built 2.4G, 00:02:50.320 --> 00:02:54.640 as well as Bluetooth, right into the console. So you can use the 8-bit dough wireless ones 00:02:54.640 --> 00:02:58.800 without a dongle. We also have our headphone jack, just like the original console had, 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:04.720 as well as our volume rocker and the pairing button, as well as what I believe are controller 00:03:04.720 --> 00:03:09.680 port indicators. All right, let's see what else is in the box. We have a little analog sticker, 00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:15.840 FPGA, and a quick start guide. We have the full manual PDF, as well as the most recent firmware, 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:21.840 which is nice, but even better is the jailbroken firmware that's just been released, which we will 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:30.240 try. Also included is a, is that what, three feet C to C cable, which works with the included block. 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:36.480 Analog really recommends that you use this block. There's been some reports of voltage issues with 00:03:36.480 --> 00:03:40.960 other ones. It's a bit of a shame. I like to have four six port USB things, so I can power a bunch 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:46.400 of devices at once. So having to use an entire block just for this to be safe is a bit of an 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:51.520 issue. And honestly, I probably would risk it. We're going to be using the white analog today, 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:56.400 but it also comes in black. So it's just a preference thing. One thing of note is that 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:02.400 analog has finally caught up to their demand. For many years, it took years to get stuff that 00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:08.400 you ordered. What isn't awesome is that there's actually no controllers included with the device. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:13.360 I understand you're trying to keep costs down, but it's kind of frustrating if you don't know that 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:19.040 and you get this beautiful device and you can't play it. And most stores aren't carrying these. 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:24.560 So you have to wait another week or so to get your controller. Just something of notes. Make 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:28.720 sure you get a controller when you buy this. All right, let's turn it on. In terms of games, 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:34.640 we have the super rare Keith Courage that you don't see at every game store ever. Powergolf, 00:04:34.640 --> 00:04:38.720 which I've never played, although I've been told it's extremely difficult, 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:44.800 as well as my favorite Shrek 3D. We're playing on a 1440p display, which is an ideal. 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:50.720 The analogs cap out currently at 1080p. And so there'll be some scaling happening in the monitor. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:55.920 That's fine for today. It gives us an idea of what we're working with. Okay, 00:04:56.640 --> 00:05:01.760 we load right into a little tutorial. Pairing is surprisingly easy once you read the manual. 00:05:01.760 --> 00:05:05.600 You hit the pairing button on the console, then the 8-bit dough button on the controller, 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:12.080 and then hold select for it to flash quickly. And then it paired in just a second. And away we go. 00:05:12.080 --> 00:05:18.160 That's not bad. Truly not a big deal. I wish the pairing button on the console was not so flush 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:22.320 with it. I'm not sure if I'm touching an LED or the button. For the best experience, 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:27.840 Duo requires a dedicated SD card. Uh, it's good that I got one in there from you. 00:05:27.840 --> 00:05:30.960 Memory's allowed to save states, capture screenshots, 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:34.320 libraries, reference level database to catalog your game collection, the games you play. 00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:38.640 This is kind of neat. In your library, every time you play a game, it'll add it, 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:42.800 and it'll show the time played and theoretically could have the art. So you'll have a nice little 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:48.000 database of all the games you've played. It's not ripping the game seemingly to the device 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:53.760 like a poly megawood. The whole point of this over a mister is that you want to put your real 00:05:53.760 --> 00:06:00.160 games in. If you're buying this to rip games to this and you play other consoles, just get a mister. 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:03.200 Display modes. Original display modes record the appearance of the original hardware display, 00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:08.480 such as the PC Engine LT and PC Engine GT. I'm not super familiar with the specific display modes 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:12.560 that they're talking about that are console-based. Um, but I do play a lot on a CRT. And that's one 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:17.200 thing I really like about analog consoles on modern displays is that they do a good job 00:06:17.200 --> 00:06:23.440 approximating what a CRT would do to the very primitive sprites. Here we are at the main menu. 00:06:23.440 --> 00:06:27.200 We got insert game. We don't have a game in right now. That's fine. We have our library, 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:30.960 which shows all the games that have been played on this console. If you're not familiar with the 00:06:30.960 --> 00:06:36.000 PC Engine slash Turbo graphics, it's kind of hybrid 8-bit 16-bit. So it's more primitive than 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.080 the Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo, but it's much more advanced than the NES or the Master 00:06:40.080 --> 00:06:44.800 system. And you can see right away with the amount of colors as well as the sprite detail. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:49.760 We're going to go to settings, duo, system, and then we can mess around with my favorite part of 00:06:49.760 --> 00:06:55.360 the settings. So we have our display mode. So based on the different consoles, they'll all have 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:58.960 slightly different color profiles. So we have our display modes. We have our mode settings where 00:06:58.960 --> 00:07:04.560 you can adjust sharpness. Inside the size menu, we can set a custom scale with our resolution here, 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:09.680 or make sure that we're at integer scales of three, four, five. If you're on a 1080p display, 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:14.720 I don't think there's a reason to not do five necks. We have an option to show or unshow over 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:21.120 scan. We can choose between RGB and composite color. In terms of audio, we have the HuCard audio, 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:26.720 as well as our volume selector. It's nice. This can actually play every PC Engine game ever, 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:31.840 including the super graphics games. There was like 16 of them that were made. And so it's very 00:07:31.840 --> 00:07:36.720 nice that it's just included here. We have CD-ROM options. We can choose the CD-ROM format if we're 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:40.400 trying to like lock it into one specific one. We'll leave that on auto detect. We have our 00:07:40.400 --> 00:07:46.400 controller options. Again, auto detect. I'm going to trust that it works. That's one of the strengths 00:07:46.400 --> 00:07:51.360 of the analog systems. When I play on my minster at home, I often have to tinker with things and 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:56.640 mess around with things. If I want just to plug something in and it works exactly as intended, 00:07:56.640 --> 00:08:02.080 I generally choose an analog console for that. This is apparently OS 7, but if you have an analog 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:07.600 pocket, it's going to look very familiar, although it doesn't have open FPGA. And so I'm a little 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:12.720 bit disappointed that you don't get access to the multitude of cores that are designed for open FPGA 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:16.320 use. And I think that's especially disappointing considering that the card adapters for the 00:08:16.320 --> 00:08:20.320 analog pocket have come out. And you can actually put HuCards into an analog pocket using the adapters 00:08:20.320 --> 00:08:23.920 now. And there's a lot more options available through the pocket if you're playing handheld, 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:28.320 and they're even updating it to be more versatile through the dock. At the end of the day, the 00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:33.600 thing that matters is, does it look good and does it play well? And because this is an FPGA system, 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:38.000 it's probably going to be friggin awesome. There's in perceptible lag. They claim it's not emulation, 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:43.280 but FPGA is still emulation. It's just way better hardware design specifically for this one task. 00:08:43.280 --> 00:08:47.040 And so I could play this game, but I want to play a game that I actually know much better. And that 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:52.640 is Castlevania Rondo of Blood. The fact that I want to just play this game and stop talking tells 00:08:52.640 --> 00:08:57.280 me that this is a very accurate experience. Even wirelessly, I don't feel any lag. It's an immediate 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:02.640 response. It looks good. I wish I had other filters I could play with to get a preferred look. But in 00:09:02.640 --> 00:09:07.440 terms of play experience, this feels awesome. As much as I want to sit here and play through this 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:13.040 entire game right now, I'm going to call in Tanner, who has a whole new perspective on retro games 00:09:13.040 --> 00:09:20.800 for me. All right, what game do you want to play? What do we have? We have, I think our best games 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:27.440 are legally backed up in this beautiful Shrek double dragon. We have Garud and Tetsu special, 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:31.600 which I don't know. And Bong 3, which is another great single player game. 00:09:36.880 --> 00:09:40.160 One of the issues I'm seeing now that we're connected to controllers is that there's no 00:09:40.160 --> 00:09:45.440 indicator on the controllers, which port they're plugged into. There's the indicator on the side 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:49.520 of here that tells you how many are plugged in. That's not necessarily the fault of analog, 00:09:49.520 --> 00:09:54.000 but that's a little bit of an oversight for this controller. Maybe they'll make a v2 that has like 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:58.080 more LEDs to indicate what we're doing. Errgolf, Bong 3, what are we doing? Bong 3. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:04.960 Bong 3? Two player? Two player. It's probably like Mario where it takes turns. Oh, it's like Sonic, 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:09.440 where we can't play at the same time. So yeah, when you jump on stuff, you have to use your 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:18.000 forehead to see. Oh, no. I was so excited to be giant for a second. Honestly, this picture looks good. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:23.920 The sound we're using a monitor, so I don't have very high expectations for the sound. 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:27.520 I assume the sound is probably pretty good. Yeah, that's one of the things I like about 00:10:27.520 --> 00:10:31.600 analog consoles is that the sound works pretty well. For my mister, there's some consoles that just 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:36.320 in certain situations sound off. And I never really feel that with my analog consoles. I always 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.840 am pretty darn certain that I'm getting the right experience. People that are a little more 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:44.880 familiar with this library games have noted that there are some audio inconsistencies compared 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:49.680 to original hardware. But it seems like it's nothing so serious that if this is your first 00:10:49.680 --> 00:10:53.200 time playing PCN2 games, you would notice. Let's change the game. We're going to eject this one. 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:59.840 That's not bad. Apparently, some people have been complaining about how far it spits this out. 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:04.080 And it seems like a reasonable spot where I can just kind of pull it out. There are reports of 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:08.400 disc becoming scratched in the console. These are old discs, so these are not a good indicator. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:12.560 Hold on. Before you do that, before you do that, let's take a look at what the bottom looks like. 00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:18.240 You're smart. Oh, there's some chonks. Yeah, these are not well-cared for discs to begin with. 00:11:21.280 --> 00:11:26.080 All right. Double drag. Double dragon. Let's go punch some other floppers. I think that the 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:30.640 PCN2 is such an interesting piece of hardware. Hold on. What's happening with the sprites here? 00:11:30.640 --> 00:11:35.040 Are you seeing what's happening? Yeah, that flickering. I'm not sure if that's 00:11:35.040 --> 00:11:39.440 accurate to the original experience or not, but it's definitely noticeable. I found it interesting 00:11:40.400 --> 00:11:47.040 how neatly between 8th and 16th bit the PCN2 sits. It looks better than NES games, 00:11:47.040 --> 00:11:52.000 but not quite as good as Genesis games. I was just playing Streets of Rage 2 on the Genesis, 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.720 and it looks so much better than this, but this is so much better than double dragon on the NES. 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:02.480 Oh, I forgot about price. It's $250. It seems like a lot, but for the polished experience that 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:08.400 you're getting, I think it's pretty fair. You'll know if that's worth it to you. Overall, if you're 00:12:08.400 --> 00:12:13.120 the audience for this, you probably already know it. If you want a very easy out-of-the-box 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:20.000 experience that's very accurate, very simple to use, the analog consoles are great. If you're 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.640 someone that's trying to maximize your dollar and get every system and you're not that concerned with 00:12:24.640 --> 00:12:30.160 plugging in real cartridges or CDs, this probably isn't the best move. Even with a jailbreak, 00:12:30.160 --> 00:12:35.280 it makes a lot more sense to save the money on this and your next analog console and combine that 00:12:35.280 --> 00:12:40.480 and get a mister. The mister experience is just as accurate, takes a little more work to get running 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:47.920 properly, but then you have access to pretty much everything all the way up to PS1. Playing this now, 00:12:47.920 --> 00:12:52.720 I do not forget my period. I got exactly what I thought I was going to get out of the box, 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:57.920 and the fact that it's already jailbroken means that all of my legally backed up ROMs are easily 00:12:57.920 --> 00:13:02.800 playable. I don't have to burn a bunch of disks to make that happen, and I'm a big fan of easy 00:13:02.800 --> 00:13:06.800 and consistent, like ShortCircuit. If you liked this video, why don't you check out the video 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:12.720 where Emily unboxes the analog pocket. The device, I think, is the better option for most people.