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racketboy
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Analogue OS

by racketboy Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:08 pm

Analogue is stepping up their interface game and creating a more fleshed-out OS for their FPGA systems. Lets you build and add cores and have more UI capabilities to bring it more in line with the likes of the MiSTer project, RetroArch, etc while playing on their slick hardware.

I know a lot of people like to give Analogue a hard time, but I really enjoy seeing what they come up with.

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From their Twitter:
Analogue OS is the start of something big. At its heart, Analogue OS is purpose built for exploring and celebrating all of video game history. Designed to be the definitive, scholarly operating system for playing and experiencing the entire medium.

With Analogue OS you can explore, discover and play through all of history, save your game at any moment with cartridges, create & share playlists, track your gameplay & even develop your own FPGA cores to help preserve video game history. It's all for the love of video games.

Powered by FPGA. Everything at Analogue is powered by FPGA. An FPGA provides unparalleled accuracy and low latency - eliminating the problems of software emulation. So you know you are experiencing history with the respect it deserves.

FPGA powered DEV. Pocket is designed to be as easy as possible to develop and port FPGA cores to. Developers will be able to interface with Analogue OS: Library, Memories and Tools. And to Pocket hardware, I/O's and scalers.

Explore the Library. Everywhere. Library is a reference level database to play, explore & discover. A scholarly cataloging of the entirety of video game history. The database that serves Library was developed holistically, from the ground up, with the highest standard possible.

Search and explore through its full breadth: system by system, game by game, region by region, developer by developer, publisher by publisher. All of it.

Make it visual. Add your own box art, game title screens or artwork for a beautiful and customizable way to showcase every game. *User added artwork required.

Create and Share Playlists. Organize and access your favorite games faster than ever through playlists. Build from scratch or add games from their Library pages.
You can even share your playlists, too.

Memories. Save States. Screenshots. Save and capture whenever you want, even at the same time. Capture (or load) a save state in an instant, live while playing any game cartridge.

Tools. Track your Gameplay. Remember where you were, and were you are going. Analogue OS provides tools that allow you to look back on key statistics across gameplay — across all systems. Tools that allow you to look forward and track gameplay as it happens.

Play Everywhere you Play. Analogue OS is designed for Pocket, LCD/OLEDs, & CRT/PVMs. Dock and/or DAC required.

Unique features for unique systems. Analogue is dedicated to highlighting each video game systems distinct hardware quirks & attributes with reverence. Pocket features original display modes that recreate, with stunning accuracy, on a subpixel level, the identical look and feel.


More info, screens, and vids in full thread: https://twitter.com/analogue/status/1449389698493861888
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bmoc
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Re: Analogue OS

by bmoc Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:09 pm

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I probably would have missed it otherwise.
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MrPopo
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Re: Analogue OS

by MrPopo Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:10 pm

I'll be honest, from the title I was hoping it would be someone creating an OS designed to install on modern hardware while providing a layer so that old games could install natively.
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Re: Analogue OS

by Nemoide Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:11 pm

I'm really looking forward to the Pocket, but I find a lot of this Analogue OS stuff to be a bit puzzling and doesn't scream out an appeal to me. I don't really understand what a "retro game playlist" is or why I'd want one; I can't imagine wanting to share save states. Am I going to have to go online with that thing for certain features? The whole "it's FPGA not emulation" marketing kind of makes me roll my eyes (it IS still emulation after all). Describing the Pocket's OS as "definitive" and "scholarly" seems unnecessarily aggrandizing.

But who knows, maybe as soon as it's in my hands, I'll be convinced. I assume that in short order I'll be able to download packs with all images of game cover art and maybe manuals and load them on without much hassle. Maybe the inevitable jailbreak firmware will take this beyond my imagination. Maybe I'll find it infinitely useful to pop in a cart in a retro game store to see if something's legit or bootleg (is that what it can do?).
I don't quite get it! But no matter what, I'm still really excited to get the Pocket I preordered!
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racketboy
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Re: Analogue OS

by racketboy Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:02 pm

What what it's worth, probably the biggest deal of this vs their older stuff is support for Save States.
Previously was the biggest downside to previous Analogue stuff.
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nickfil
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Re: Analogue OS

by nickfil Thu Nov 04, 2021 2:28 pm

Nemoide wrote:I'm really looking forward to the Pocket, but I find a lot of this Analogue OS stuff to be a bit puzzling and doesn't scream out an appeal to me. I don't really understand what a "retro game playlist" is or why I'd want one; I can't imagine wanting to share save states. Am I going to have to go online with that thing for certain features?


I actually think playlists are going to be huge. I've been waiting for digital comics to do something like this for *years*. The cool thing about playlists and sharing playlists is that you can start to really get into the platform in different ways. I know that Satoru Iwata's first nintendo programed game was pinball on the nes, but I couldn't tell you his second. It would be neat to share playlists that come from the angle of history. "Iwata's programing in chronological order." I'd play that. Plus 90% of youtube videos out there are 'top 10 nes games' 'top 10 nes hidden gems' etc. Now guess what? They are playlists. You can easily play them for yourself. Imagine every single racketboy article with a playlist button at the end you can just add up to your console for browsing.

Nemoide wrote:The whole "it's FPGA not emulation" marketing kind of makes me roll my eyes (it IS still emulation after all). Describing the Pocket's OS as "definitive" and "scholarly" seems unnecessarily aggrandizing.


100% agree with this. "fpga isn't emulation' Welllllllll it is. It is just emulated hardware not software. And there are small differences. Analogue makes a lot of money by creating small runs of things that sell out and hyping everything they ever put out. They market well. But for anyone who knows- they know Analogue is full of it. For my money, I think I'm going to eventually sell my NT NOIR and pick up a mister. If I'm going to emulate hardware, I want stuff like the Capcom playsystem 2 and neo geo.
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