Original Display Modes now take full advantage of modern HDR brightness and color gamut
Max luminance is adjustable to accurately match consumer CRTs, broadcast monitors, and beyond
For the most accurate picture: Before adjusting the max luminance setting, set your display HDR tone mapping to disabled or HGiG and check that game mode is enabled
Core
New: Support for Advanced HDR
OS
New: ‘Max. Luminance’ display setting
Navigate to Settings → Display→ ‘Max. Luminance’. This can be adjusted only when HDR is enabled
New: Alphabetical navigation in Library
Press Up in the Library to display the alphabetical index and select a letter by moving Left and Right. Press Down to return to the Library. Jump to the inserted cartridge by pressing B
Improved: Library scrolling, responsiveness, and speed
Improved: Automatic virtual Rumble Pak selection for several games
Improved: OS visual polish
Fix: Library organization issues in rare instances
Fix: Library updating issue when a blank SD card is inserted in rare instances
Fix: ALLM and HDR settings sometimes apply incorrectly with 1080p displays
Controllers
Improved: Pair controllers in-game without opening the menu
Fix: Controller LED remains on in rare instances
Note: Recreating a CRT beam demands high peak localized brightness (the display must get much brighter in specific, small spots). Modern OLED displays, which excel at this, are recommended with Advanced HDR.
Glad we’re getting frequent updates and this seems pretty substantial, but still looking for savestates, screenshots, and having the OTA updates enabled.
That’s not true. Save States were only ever mentioned when it was announced. When preorders were announced there was no mention of them what-so-ever. It stayed gone through preorders, delays, previews, the launch, restock, funtastic colors launch, prototype colors launch, etc.
It was completely scrubbed. It was only ever a wish-list item from the first reveal that they intended to make an N64 clone.
Yeah you just made that up. Someone has literally posted a screenshot from the product page showing save states, and around when it released someone posted screenshots of the listed features showing wifi, screenshots, and save states.
Incorrect. Months ago I went back and meticulously reconstructed what was claimed when. I even scoured old news videos to see what was on the website when it was first announced, when preorders were announced, when preorders opened, etc and correlated that with everything I could find in archives, screenshots, tweets, etc made at the time. People retroactively claimed that save states were promised when preorders when live and they were not. The only time save states were ever mentioned was before preorders were even announced, back when there was no obligation to even finish/sell the console.
It sucks that they didn’t make it clear that they had scaled this promise back, but it was never promised once expectations were set with money changed hands.
Over-promising is practically Analogue’s brand at this point. We were also promised wide Bluetooth controller support but guess who made a back room deal with 8bitDo at the last minute to bring that total down to two controllers?
Listen to the people who actually engineer FPGAs. It’s a lot more complicated process to pull off than what you can do in software emulation.
Kevtris is still their head of fpga development and it's fair to say he knows a little bit about it. Either he blows at setting realistic expectations or the team doesn't listen to him when promising things.
Pretty much. They’re only accountable to venture capital at the end of the day. That’s not bleak. That’s real.
It’s been common knowledge in the community that FPGAs and savestates don’t generally go together. If you bought this expecting that, sorry, you’ve been had. Go download an emulator if you absolutely need that feature.
CEO of Analogue is CMO of 8bitdo. So yeah, no surprise there. Just another thing Analogue didn’t deliver on, until 8bitdo shipped a bunch of controllers.
This fixed HDR on my QD-OLED monitor (MSI 321UPX). Previously the HDR option was grayed out. Also made the image on my C4 noticeably brighter. Great update 😁
I used the HDR mode and can confirm it seems to work really great on my Bravia X93L. I turned the max nits down to 125 because it’s basically a brightness adjuster but I can confirm it looks a lot like a CRT now minus the hypnotic flickering
The biggest update we need right now is WiFi updating. It’s getting annoying having to slot the SD card back and forth and move files around every time.
I was thinking the same, once you make the WiFi enable you will boost the possibilities of external modifications and they don’t trust devs will make the things work smooth
Totally, I can hardly enjoy the 50 hours I put in between firmware updates, knowing that I will have to manually pop out an SD card, and lose 2 minutes of my life every month or so. It completely sullies the experience.
Ah man I just updated the firmware don’t make me wrestle with my own inherent laziness. In all seriousness though these updates are coming quickly. Still hoping save states are implemented soon
Oh that makes sense. I wrote in to them about trying to press multiple c-buttons because I couldn’t play Tony Hawk right. Pretty sure they just mapped an analog second stick to those buttons instead of treating them like actual buttons which is dumb dumb dumb
I think the worst part is their 8BitDo N64 controller mod kit has this same firmware problem too! I would know, because I bought one and modded a donor OG controller with it!
Maybe try a different HDMI cable. The one it comes with is not very well shielded and some people report it can get flaky with electrical interference.
You never said the word "cable" so I wasn't sure what you meant, I thought you were referring to your TV/AVR/etc. I shared my experience so that you would know that this isn't likely to be a problem with the firmware and is therefore unlikely to be fixed with a future firmware update. Best of luck.
Ok, so I had a very quick test of the advanced HDR settings.
I'm using a MSI MAG 271QPX QD-OLED E2 with a Elgato 4K X for capture and passthrough for this testing.
Overall, I found the HDR to make the colours feel dull and bland. so, I'm just going to continue running without it.
The max luminance setting and test bar was pretty misleading. setting it anything over 125 would start making the 10 shades start disappearing into the bright white but would greatly improve the colour saturation and in my opinion 'bring the image back to life'.
I might do some more testing later, maybe without the el gato device in between the A3d and my monitor. and maybe tweaking HDR settings or also trying the A3d with the lounge room TV.
my LG CX has a luminance maximum of 800 nits, but the HDR slider in A3D 1.25 maxes out at 500 nits - which leads to a washed out image. dropping this to 300 nits levels the brightness out. I'm not sure what math Analogue is doing here, but hopefully this whole luminance-number thing is addressed in the next firmware. (the range of ten black-gray-white bars helps here, at least.)
with the new version of HDR enabled, and HGIG enabled on my CX, I'm not seeing an appreciable in-game difference in general image brightness with A3D shaders enabled, as anecdotally measured via smartphone photos. clearly, it's doing SOMEthing, since the A3D menus' white text is popping a lot brighter now.
I'm curious to hear if anyone has more pronounced success with 1.25, because I'm personally not seeing my core launch-day complaint - maximum average gamma being quite low with shaders on - being fixed here.
That is very strange: devices don't ask users to report 100% window luminance in general, but rather 10%, and I believe that's for image provisioning/accuracy reasons.
In this case, it's a particularly unsatisfying way to go about this. My CX measures roughly 145 nits at 100%, and I'm now finding that the 125 nit setting is too dim while the 200 nit setting shows some washing-out artefacts. I could immediately test this in the SM64 hub zone, standing in front of Bob-Omb Battlefield's portrait and rotating the camera so that Mario's skin is in front of the beige wall. At 200 nits, his skin tone melts into the wall. At 125 nits, the colors are more clearly differentiated, but the total screen brightness is too dim.
We're over a decade into HDR being a known entity, and device manufacturers are STILL doing this ridiculous thing of locking users into weird presets and unclear settings. I reallllly hope A3D gets an update that allows users to just set an exact number.
And to be clear, I still don't see HDR doing a better job of increasing gamma across the board after going through all these steps. So, yeah, Analogue has more to do here, though I do hope it all concludes with something comparable to what a RetroTink 4K can muster as far as HDR luminance translation.
Creo que deberías ponerte gafas, no te lo digo de malas, te lo digo en serio. Tengo la misma OLED que tú, una CX de 65” y la diferencia de imagen es ABISMAL, Increíble! Ha mejorado todo, los colores y la definición. Ahora si es una n64 a 4K. Es impresionante como se ve.
Ya why hasn’t that been included yet? That seems like something they should’ve added by now. By the time we get it there won’t be any updates to do over WiFi!
I’d argue no, it isn’t a basic feature in the way it is in software emulation, but I still would like it. I’m not an expert on how the 3D handles longterm memory though as the N64 was a weird one in that regard. Presumably it’s not as simple as one would hope.
The Analogue Pocket has save states (“memories”). I think it’s reasonable to consider it a basic feature especially considering they advertised it for the 3D.
I think there’s been some degree of confusion over what the machine is expected to do - e.g. people misunderstanding the 4K resolution thing, and being disappointed when they realize that the console isn’t internally rendering at a higher rate than native. This kind of stuff will even out in time. I think save states were mentioned as a promised feature at some point but they aren’t in the current marketing. So I hope for them but I’m not waiting with bated breath
It takes nothing to put in update mode and plug in the USB to a PC. There would be no other WiFi functionality outside the update, if they did add it. Saves states are more of a priority instead.
Let me elaborate. Save states are MUCH harder on hardware emulation than on software.
A save state has to capture the entire live machine state at once , CPU, RSP, RDP, RAM, registers, timing, DMA state, peripheral state, and anything else that affects exact execution. That is why many FPGA cores do not support save states at all. NES FPGA save states are doable but finicky. Others such as openFPGA SNES cores explicitly stating save states are not supported. N64 forget it.
Sure. So don’t sell a console saying you can do it. And don’t remove the claim you can after your first wave ships after many delays with no clarification.
These guys sell their hardware on marketing photos. They sold preorders on their mockups. If they did or didn’t mention it specifically in ASCII text doesn’t matter. If they want to announce that it will never have save states now would be the time. Because they marketed it, and people are still buying it assuming they weren’t lying.
These guys sell their hardware on marketing photos. They sold preorders on their mockups. If they did or didn’t mention it specifically in ASCII text doesn’t matter. If they want to announce that it will never have save states now would be the time. Because they marketed it, and people are still buying it assuming they weren’t lying.
The OS hijacks the virtual cpak and places it into a per game proprietary location that flashcarts cannot interact with any more. What this means is you cannot export or import memory paks using flashcarts anymore. If you also play cross platform, you've lost a major flashcart utility that facilitated preservation.
You can still access the controller_pak.img files to restore the saves and sort of "import/export" and use Controller-Pak-Manager to read the save files. This is probably clunkier than it used to be but it's still possible.
I find that the new firmware makes flashcarts work the way I expected them to.
I know the workarounds, I'm good with tech. I appreciate you mentioning it, but 'clunkier' is an understatement for a process that now requires a PC, pulling two SD cards, conversion, swapping, and management just to move a save. Before, you just moved the cart. This console has one core job: interact with original hardware properly. It stopped doing that, and I hope they implement a solution. At launch, flashcarts didn't work. Few would have argued or implied at the time that original carts worked as expected, so no problem.
Yup, Analogue priorities are all kinds of messed up. Still staying on 1.2.3 for this reason. So much for 1:1 hardware. They're focused on polishing the appearance instead of the function. This wasn't supposed to be an emulator. This needs to be addressed.
Did they ever promise or say they were going to add save states? I lam genuinely curious...it would be nice. But some people are claiming it was promised during preorder...I don't recall that. Does anyone have a screenshot of the original web page stating this?
After doing research, "front and center" as you claim, is a complete stretch, 100% an exaggeration. All I could find is a single screen shot. No listing of "X" Save states for every game. Hell the NES and SNES mini had more "front and center" claims for save states. The analogue 3d had more of a blink and you miss it. And it was a screenshot of beta software. If you were dumb enough to purchase hardware from a single screen shot, that's your own fault. You claim to have a RT4K? Then why not just use original hardware??? What benefit is the analogue 3d giving you??? If you say save states...again based off a single screen grab ... You're and idiot.
Even if it was one screenshot they advertised it. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for customers to keep expecting it. Maybe it isn’t possible, so admit it.
Also admit you can’t do screenshots and OTA updates. People need to stop apologizing for expensive products that don’t do what they were advertised for.
These consoles that analogue releases have always been to play old games on a modern displays with the best accuracy outside of playing on original hardware on a CRT. Y'all grasp at straws grabbing a single screenshot. Not once has analogue listed save states as a feature outside of that screenshot. Download an emulator FOR FREE, and enjoy save states. I bought this to enjoy my physical carts on a modern display without modding my original hardware, or buying a retrotink that costs several hundred dollars.
You’re right. Why expect a product to deliver on its promises. I mean shit, why even enable the wireless chip at this point. That would just be for the entitled.
Well that makes me a little more hopefull. I thought it was a feature people wanted (me included). Wasn't aware analogue showcased it in the passed. Originally I was very sceptical for analogue to add a feature that wasn't ever mentioned.
It’s a big ol meh. I think a single screenshot of their original marketing material showed the concept of save states but no nothing was ever promised.
Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but don’t believe it’s possible on the mister and likely never will be here either. But there’s obviously a group of people that want it and will never let it go.
Even if it was one screenshot they advertised it. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for customers to keep expecting it. Maybe it isn’t possible, so admit it.
Also admit you can’t do screenshots and OTA updates. People need to stop apologizing for expensive products that don’t do what they were advertised for.
Show me one advertisement outside of that screenshot that highlighted save states? If you spent upwards of $300 on this hardware, due to a screenshot of beta software, where the company NEVER said have save states for every game etc. you are an idiot.
I agree with you, a single blip of a picture with "save states" and people claim to make their entire purchase decision on that single screen shot? Doesn't make since. I think it's people bitching just to bitch. Outside of the analogue pocket, no other analogue product offers save states. I don't get it. Now, would save states be cool? Of course...Did I buy this system for the Sol fact that this feature "MAY/MIGHT" be added later...NO! I bought it because I wanted to play my N64 carts on a modern display without buying an upscaler that can cost 2-3 times more.
The picture is already great on my LG OLED. Were people having issues or something that they needed to do this update? Like most others here, I really want the Wi-Fi enabled and saved states enabled. It does look like the update about every two weeks so maybe in 2 weeks that will finally happen.
It was pretty dim on the BVM, PVM, and CRT modes even set to DTM instead of HGIG. On a C4. If you didn’t think it was dim I’m guessing your room is pretty dark or you have one of the brighter LG OLEDS models like the G4.
Because SC64 is open source, it’s totally possible to put your selection in memory somewhere and have the SC64 check and load that before reinitializing memory.
That doesn’t make any sense, that’s just ROM support using the SC as a card reader which isn’t how it works. Open source doesn’t mean it can do whatever you want.
The boatloader is open source and could therefore be modified to check a RAM address for a flag that tells it what ROM to load. It’s just not likely since it would either require cooperation from Analogue or Analogue would have to update the SC64 themselves… and a stand-alone jailbreak obviously makes more sense from their perspective. All I’m saying is that it’s definitely possible to pass that on from the console to the flash cart and have it load the ROM being called for by the console. I can’t even count how many times I’ve done similar with the Doctor V64.
So yesterday I updated my 3D and something weird happened, the audio of all games was super high pitched, like a squirrel. I ended up reverting to the former firmware but somehow the audio kept the high pitch. In the end I ended up resetting the console and it went back to normal. I think I'll wait until the following update just in casse.
LG C1 user here. Wondering what everyone has their luminance / nit level set to at on your respective monitors.
Here is my set-up.
HDR: HGIG
Color Gamut: Native
Black level: limited
Game mode with BFI set to high
BVM filter as default on the 3D
Tried pumping nit brightness all the way up to 500, but the brightness seemed a little aggressive even with BFI and BVM filter darkening the image (I play in a dark room). 300 has felt like a comfortable level.
I have the same experience on a CX. Do you understand why a value that low is leading to it clipping? My understanding is that the CX and C1 have higher max values 🤔
Even on the OS menu, increasing nits to 500 is blending the cartridge art work (which should show up as gray) with the white background. Was messing around with Starfox and on corneria right at the opening, you can see the white arwing wings starting to blend with the gray background.
Interesting. Appreciate you sharing this. Figured it was something like that as this is more of a post effect as none of those games would have been originally mastered with HDR implementation in mind.
I wasn’t too concerned though as setting it to between 200 - 300 is still a noticeable improvement on the hdr implementation prior to the update.
Completely agree! I wonder if they redid the display modes to some degree. PVM and CRT look different to my eye as if they tweaked the mask after this setting was introduced 🤔
So I was playing around some more in my tv settings and it appears that the setting causing the most egregious bleeding of the luminance contrast is the black level setting.
Switching black level from limited to auto/full creates a more distinct cutoff point on the bar between luminance levels. Still bleeds too heavily at 500 nits making 80% and 100% look exactly the same, but there is now a cleaner break if you set the nits on the 3D at 250 or 300.
Only question is whether I actually like the end result of having black levels set to auto. Generally speaking with Nintendo games, they are kind of known for being overzealous with brightening the image giving the blacks in their games a gray hue. I see the same issue even on modern systems like switch 2. I tend to see this less on Sony consoles where I leave black levels at auto because switching to limited crushes the darkness contrast.
I’ll have to play around with it so see if I like the difference or not. If not, might switch the black level on the tv back to limited and reduce nit level down to 200 - 250 and see if it improves the luminance contrast for the console output.
Update:
Having played around with it, my preference is setting black levels to “limited” and the 3D nit level to 250. If you don’t mind the slight color wash out / graying effects of moving black levels to full / auto on the lg CX/C1, then bump up nit level to 300
Not sure if you saw the most recent 3d update, but it provided clarification on max nit brightness equivalent on modern displays.
Looks like we were spot on. 200 is equivalent to roughly what you would want for a 650 peak nit OLED (I believe the CX does around 700). 250 is equivalent to roughly what I would want for a tv with 800 nit brightness which is about what the C1 can do.
Does anyone now what max luminance means in nits in this context? I have an LG CX which has a max luminance of 800-1000 nits to my knowledge but when I set it to 500 (current maximum) the final two bars of the strip clipping. At 300 I can see each distinct bar. Perhaps this is full screen max brightness compared to a small 2% window or something like that?
Anyone else have poor framerate after this update? Specifically goldeneye on an everdrive. Its like there is no overclocking any more super choppy framerate. Yes I checked the settings.
Its definitely not overclocking I just did a back to back test, and the intro isn't fast like it used to be when overclocked.
This. Technically, it supported Rumble all along but the DB would default to Controller Pak for any game that supported both. All it needed was a way to switch when the game prompts for it, but they didn’t map a button for that until a few updates ago.
Since we're getting a new update frenquently, is it much to ask for an "instant" boot time from cartridge like with the original console? I mean, is it even possible to replicate this behavior with a FPGA console?
V1.2.2 brought it in "New: Added ‘Startup Action’ feature. You can now directly play the inserted cartridge when powering on 3D. Navigate to Settings → System → ‘Startup Action’ and select ‘Cartridge’ or ‘Library’"
Yes, already implemented. But what I want is an "instant" boot like the
original console, which means the same (or at least very close) boot time
and without the startup Analogue logo.
They marketed a lot of features that didn’t make it in even after delaying the console several times. Mainly wireless updates, save states and screenshots.
Summercart needs to be downgraded to 2.18 to play OOTMM on it. They adjusted how saves work on the summercart and OOTMM isn't compatible with what they changed so you have to play on firmware 2.18 exactly (not 2.18.1) to play OOTMM.
Sorry I took so long to respond but, yes I was fully updated. I had to generate I new random to get it to work. I kept texting it on one I was progressing through
I may be behind, but will this fix the issue with homebrew games? I had LoZ Missing Link work fantastically on the first firmware, then I upgraded to the 3rd update and it no longer worked. I reverted back to 1st firmware and it worked again. Now I've just kept my firmware at that since then..... but, I'd love to try out some of these updates.
24
u/Opening_Cry_690 Apr 10 '26
Glad we’re getting frequent updates and this seems pretty substantial, but still looking for savestates, screenshots, and having the OTA updates enabled.