Veteran N64 dev says Analogue 3D ‘nowhere near cycle accurate’ in new test video
Veteran N64 developer and hacker Kaze Emanuar has jump-started a conversation in the retro-gaming space, questioning the accuracy claims of the Analogue 3D and whether it really lives up to its marketing promises.
Emanuar uploaded a video titled ‘Analogue Lied’, in which he goes into a deep dive, conducting side-by-side tests of the FPGA-based console and a real Nintendo 64. He noticed some quirks that run counter to Analogue’s claims of “100% compatibility with all officially released 64 games” and of cycle-accurate hardware recreation.
In his tests, Emanuar discovered that the Analogue 3D isn’t cycle-accurate. According to him, the Analogue 3D's performance lags the original hardware by 5% in most gameplay scenarios. Specifically, the Analogue 3D has a 6% slower CPU and a staggering 30% slower RSP, i.e, the N64’s geometry processor.
Titles like Diddy Kong Racing ran at almost 4% slower frame rates, failed a few system tests, and lacked features of the Nintendo 64, such as the secret 9th megabyte of RAM that homebrew devs exploit. Emanuar concluded, “This thing is nowhere near cycle accurate.”
Despite the clickbait thumbnail and title, he isn’t outright dismissing the Analogue 3D. Emanuar says that it's “factually your second cheapest option to be able to play Nintendo 64 games, mostly without tech issues,” making the first or best option a modded Nintendo 64 with HDMI support.
At the end of the day, most original N64 cartridges will work flawlessly right out of the gate, and casual retro gamers won’t notice the most minor differences. Emanuar even chatted up the FPGA core’s design engineer, who reassured him that fixes would be implemented via future firmware updates to smooth out the timing anomalies and ensure precision.
Analogue, on the other hand, has remained tight-lipped about the cycle-count and performance drop conversation. The company has yet to make a public announcement since the video dropped on 14 December.
There’s always a debate about the Analogue online with speedrunners and modders sharing their gripes about rare incompatibilities. Still, the consensus among casual retro fans is that it’s still leagues better than Nintendo’s own Switch emulator.
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