#kevtris

Analogue NT mini semi-officially updated: NES ROM support now, more consoles later ⊟ 

So, in the middle of evaluating the Analogue NT mini, the console suddenly got new functionality, with more to follow. Not really something I expected from a retro console!

Developer kevtris, who helped design the FPGA-based console, has decided to release other FPGA “cores” as free downloads, which can be installed on the NT mini via the console’s SD card slot. The first release is, well, the NES core, which enables the console to read NES ROMs off the SD card. It also includes CopyNES support, so you can even copy your cartridges onto the card.

I have some future plans beyond just offering cores for this system, I want to offer controller and cartridge adapters too!   I have big plans for this if people are interested.  Specifically, Atari 2600/7800, Coleco, Gameboy and possibly others.   Let me know what cartridge adapters you think would be useful.  

This isn’t an official update, but, like, it is the guy who designed the thing. And it’s a really neat extension of the console.

Analogue NT Mini Initial Review / Thoughts

In case you didn’t know about this, the Analogue NT Mini is a FPGA in a custom aluminium shell that plays NES carts.  If you need to learn more about FPGA, I wrote this article about it.

It has a lot of video/audio features (such as scaling modes, resolution, aspect ratio, etc) and the system outputs in both HDMI and in analog (i.e. RGB).   The NT Mini wasn’t cheap and ran around $500 I believe.  That’s a lot of money to pay to play NES carts, but I own around 900 NES carts and I do really enjoy them so I thought it was worth spending the money on.

I ordered my Mini back last year and I’ve been patiently awaiting while my friends play games on their less-expensive (although still awesome) RetroUSB AVS (which is also a FPGA that plays NES carts).  

Aesthetically, I went for the plain aluminium look instead of the black (which was $50 more).  I honestly liked the silver look to be honest.  Having it be black is akin to having a black plastic case in my mind.  I mean it’s still pretty cool, but I wasn’t as much into it as I would have been for a metallic red (which I don’t believe was offered - just on the original Analogue NT).

The unit came with a wireless 8Bitdo NES controller and receiver and it worked very well right out of the box.  I played around with the unit a little the day I received it and I’ve been pretty happy (I tried with scanlines and without and settled on no scanlines and the 4.5x ratio - which filled up my LCD TV vertically).

I’ve been playing it mainly with my PowerPak and it’s been a bit finicky about the cart connection (I think it’s that they give you a bit of play around the connector out of fear of scratching carts.  When I did get the cart to line up it worked very well (and it’s very convenient to restart the system via the controller to pick another game).

Last night, I saw that KevTris (the FPGA core designer) had posted a patch that jail-breaks the system - meaning that you can run a NSF (Nintendo sound file) player and load roms off the SD card slot on the side.  I updated my firmware and this works rather well (although I couldn’t play FDS games through it like I could on the PowerPak).  The roms do take a while to load whereas the PowerPack loads them instantly.  But the SD card method lets me play Castlevania III - something I don’t believe the PowerPak is capable of (could be wrong on that).  One minor thing I didn’t like about the update was having to exit back out of the game to change audio/video settings (although there might be a way to do it that I’m missing).