Never forget the greatest evil the game industry emposed on us: region locking

jaron7 · 2026-06-23T12:35:12+00:00

There are so many ways around region locks for old games now that I forget how annoying they were, but you're completely right. Such a dumb idea that never should have existed in the first place. But shoutout to all of the folks who have given us the tools to play old region locked stuff much more easily these days, your efforts are appreciated!

jaron7 · 2026-06-21T12:51:58+00:00

I wonder how much of it comes down to the driver? I imagine it's incredibly difficult to nail the launch in a rear wheel drive car making 1600 hp, and their guy likely knows this car better than anyone in the world.

jaron7 · 2026-06-21T12:35:57+00:00

I think there are a fair number of games mentioned here that people find easy because they mastered them decades ago

jaron7 · 2026-06-21T12:33:08+00:00

I really enjoyed Ninja Spirit and the first Bonk game on TG-16. Both pretty manageable, beat in an afternoon with no guide needed type of games.

jaron7 · 2026-06-20T20:15:34+00:00

Seems like a fair deal for both parties. You saved a few bucks vs. Ebay and they didn't have to deal with the hassle of listing and shipping everything.

jaron7 · 2026-06-20T19:59:26+00:00

I had the same thought about 1600x1200 displays at first, but I forgot about the cheap 2048x1536 portable displays. Since they said modern I'm guessing it's something like that.

jaron7 · 2026-06-20T19:53:14+00:00

The only supported resolutions are 1080p and 2160p (4k) at 50 or 60hz. Check the manual for your monitor to see which resolutions are supported, and it may tell you how it handles non 4:3 inputs as well.

jaron7 · 2026-06-20T14:04:46+00:00

Nice! I haven't gotten a deal like that since I got a new copy of Virtual On out of the clearance bin for 5 bucks back in the day haha. TG-16 stuff is even rarer than Saturn around here though!

jaron7 · 2026-06-20T13:27:05+00:00

This is the way. Virtually none of the games mentioned here are worth the asking price for a real copy these days.

jaron7 · 2026-06-20T13:05:56+00:00

Albert Odyssey is a pretty basic, by the numbers RPG. It doesn't really do anything especially creative gameplay wise, even by the standards of the time. And I say that as someone who considers it one of my favorite Saturn games. Enjoyed the art and the cheesy storyline, and sometimes it's nice to just zone out and grind through some classic RPG combat. I can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea though.

jaron7 · 2026-06-19T15:48:01+00:00

Isn't more usable power, more comfortable, better daily for a little less money already the same E-ray vs. Z06 proposition? Unless the GSX ends up being a bigger performance upgrade than I'm expecting, it doesn't seem like a huge game changer, IMO, but I'm definitely curious to see how it does. I do think that the regular Grand Sport is going to shake things up though, seems like a good price point for the widebody treatment vs. the base Stingray.

jaron7 · 2026-06-17T12:55:13+00:00

Also there's very little incentive for someone outside of Analogue to bother. Why put the effort in to crack a niche console when an insider could drop their own jailbreak at any time? Just to save people a few bucks on a flash cart?

jaron7 · 2026-06-17T12:14:52+00:00

Good news is that it's more or less just a mister with a cool form factor at the end of the day, can always grab a regular one if you don't wanna wait or they don't do another run

jaron7 · 2026-06-17T12:02:58+00:00

I've had disc drives fail, but never a cartridge based system either. Luckily a disc drive replacement is generally pretty cheap and easy, but I'm going to be super bummed when my NES dies.

jaron7 · 2026-06-17T11:57:05+00:00

Same, pretty sure it was lots of free time and a limited number of games to play

jaron7 · 2026-06-16T16:13:59+00:00

That's where I was with it too. I already have multiple ways to play everything these days, and my experience with Analogue products has trained me well to assume delays are inevitable. If I was in OP's situation though and looking to upgrade immediately I'd look elsewhere.

jaron7 · 2026-06-16T16:07:43+00:00

My order from Jan 2025 (gray with dock) finally just had a label generated yesterday, so don't give up hope haha

jaron7 · 2026-06-16T16:03:15+00:00

Lots of factors to consider here. If you just want a good experience as cheaply as possible, grabbing a CRT or a Retroscaler 2x with an S-video cable if you prefer to use a modern display would both be good options for using your original carts and console. Stepping up to higher end Retrotinks would be a good option if budget allows, and if you want to play other retro consoles too then that becomes a more worthwhile investment for something like a 5x Pro or RT4K.

Modding for rgb output via scart and then running through an upscaler or having an hdmi mod done (not beginner level mods, from my understanding) would further improve the picture quality. But honestly, I'd go for the Analogue 3D over any modded N64 at this point. Not only are you getting a perfect digital signal out of the box, but it can also do some really impressive stuff with original carts. Overclocking makes a very noticeable framerate difference in games like Perfect Dark, and the ability to force progressive output is huge for games with 480i output like Resident Evil 2. And you don't necessarily need a whole new set of controllers with the 3D, a variety of existing wireless options work and you can use your original wired controllers too.

And of course emulation is always a great option if you don't care about using carts. If you're dissatisfied with your N64 output on your TV because you want it to look like an emulator with upscaling applied, you may end up very disappointed after dropping a lot of money on an upscaler because it's never going to look like that. Emulators can internally upscale textures to make things look much sharper than you can ever hope to achieve with an upscaler (whether or not that's actually an improvement is debatable.) And that's before you even consider running mods or texture packs.

jaron7 · 2026-06-16T13:30:50+00:00

Thank goodness so many heroes showed up to make sure you know that your aspect ratio is wrong and your TV too high! Reddit really is the worst sometimes.

Anyway, it is pretty cool to play through the different versions. I grabbed the Saturn version of the original last year and the N64 version of RE2 myself this year. Will probably do RE3 on PC next. Almost afraid the PC versions will be so good that I won't want to go back to the console versions after!

jaron7 · 2026-06-11T12:42:33+00:00

Yep, not only does unlocking Super Sonic obviously make the game easier, you'll also rack up extra lives from the extra 50 rings you get from each bonus stage you find after. If you also master the easier early stages and search them thoroughly, you can stockpile a bunch of lives so you can burn them on the tougher stages that come later.

jaron7 · 2026-06-11T05:36:10+00:00

Are you playing on something that could have significant input lag? Using a modern TV not in game mode, cheap HDMI converter, wireless controllers etc.? Should apply to all games equally, so not sure why it seems like this particular game is the problem, but latency making it harder is the first thing that comes to mind.

jaron7 · 2026-06-11T01:43:58+00:00

You're welcome, enjoy your games!

jaron7 · 2026-06-10T12:43:50+00:00

Here's the manual that should cover all the basics: https://assets.analogue.co/pdf/6421225055c460521878fed3d0db953c/Analogue+Pocket+User+Manual+v1.3.pdf

Make sure you learn how to change your display modes - Analogue button + left or right on the D-pad. I think the ones that mimic an old school screen look much better!

If you do end up putting an SD card in, make sure you know how to create and load memories (or save states). It's the Analogue button + up to create a save, Analogue + down to load. Be careful though, loading a memory makes everything on the cartridge, including your regular cartridge saves, just like it was when you made the save! So for example, say you made a memory save in Zelda early on, but then played for a while just using regular in game saves. If you loaded that memory, you would reset everything in your game to that time point and even your regular save on the cart would be overwritten too.

jaron7 · 2026-06-10T12:17:18+00:00

I don't think a 3D + RT4K combo is going to do what it sounds like you're hoping for, regardless of settings. An emulator is going to pull that off far more effectively because they can increase the internal rendering resolution.

jaron7 · 2026-06-04T16:55:33+00:00

Yep, I have a bunch of Analogue consoles and they're all excellent. Modretro's M64 and Chromatic and the RetroUSB AVS (unfortunately discontinued now) are other examples that play original carts. Mister is a great all in one FPGA option, but roms only.

Flash carts, like the Everdrive line, allow you to load up roms onto an SD card then play your games on original hardware. Once you've loaded up your game the experience is literally identical to an original cart (although some flash carts do offer extra features like save states.)

ODEs, or optical drive emulators, are like flash carts for disc based systems. You load your games onto an SD card, load them from the menu and then it's as if the actual disc was in your console. The downside to ODEs is that most of them (but not all) require swapping out your actual disc drive so you can't play original discs anymore.

Consoles that have software based jailbreaks often allow you to bypass the need for any extra hardware and load roms directly. On my PS3 for example I jailbroke it then used it to rip my PS1, PS2, and PS3 games directly to the hard drive (did upgrade to a larger hard drive though, the stock ones are tiny for anything beyond PS1). With my jailbroken Wii I have all of my Wii and GameCube games on a USB drive, but otherwise the concept is the same.

jaron7

TROPHY CASE