Taki Udon's $99 MiSTer FPGA Clone Won't Be $99 - It Will Be Even Cheaper

Mr Cheap.
I'm more wondering how and were i can get one of the bloody things really.

Man how often is it that something is cheaper than expected nowadays? Really cool of the developers to do this. Although I am not personally interested in any FPGA hardware outside of the Pocket, which I already own. Still really cool tho.

This just makes me think that Analogue's products are extremely overpriced. Beware, I'm predicting some FPGA emulation purists will get angry because of these cheaper alternatives, making their investments look silly.

@aegis_autumn

People angry on the internet about silly things ?!
No way !

( sarcasm off course )

@aegis_autumn as a professional who works extensively with FPGAs and the like in both design and procurement:

All of Analogue's products are way overpriced part-for-part. You can argue some of that heavy profit margin is the sum of all the parts being really good. I don't particularly agree the part selection is all that special. I fully believe that they charge thrice what they should so they can sell thrice less units, again, for status.

@avcrypt They didn’t have any real competition before so they were free to make their consoles as desirable as they wanted. Don’t get me wrong, they seem incredible products but I’m not shelling out that much (after shipping and customs fees).

Looking forward to seeing Taki Udon’s new endeavour!

@avcrypt wasn't the fpga chip in the pocket 70$ by itself? remember reading that

I’m fine with my Pocket with dock for fpga but glad it’ll be available to more people. I can’t wait until the day when fpga emulation is as widespread as software.

@aegis_autumn Some are but until now I thought the Pocket plus dock was a very affordable alternative to building a “mister lite” of sorts. Plus you get the ability to play handheld. I don’t feel ripped off at all.

this could be the most refreshing and positive outcome in the retro scene since...ever? i'm never an early adopter of tech so i will see how this plays out from the sidelines. if it reviews well and doesn't surprise us with a bunch of caveats, i may pick one up later this year. but to be honest, emulation quality is so good these days, that it is getting harder to justify FPGA devices now more than ever.

Analogue's stuff was always for people who want to pay more for their retrogaming, with its focus on original physical carts as opposed to roms. Add on the fact that you're getting a beautifully engineered consumer product and an "it just works" experience, it really is the Apple Mac of this hobby and I'm not surprised that they charge a premium and find plenty of happy buyers. And I say: good for them. Retrogaming is all about indulgence anyway; if I can get a literal box of boards and chips for $99 to flawlessly play my roms and someone else can pay three times as much to get an object of beauty which gives value to their $20k physical game collection then we're both happy.

I am glad that a cheaper Alternative for People is there
I was lucky buying the Mister a few Years ago for 260€.
But as more can have near original fun with Games, as better!

Can i preorder this?

Mr. Blister on my thumb. Accurate retrogaming for the masses!

$98.99
:'p

*
Ugh, character limit...

I have no idea what it is or what it is for or how it works or what it needs...

@Spider-Kev

It is an Computer that has a Chip that can "transform" into other Chips.
So it can emulate Consoles and Computer very accurate, as it doesn't uses Software to translate the Code of the Games to another modern Chip.

It is the closes Thing you can get to original Hardware

@Spider-Kev I was just about to say the exact same thing, almost word for word.

@Azuris Thank you for the explanation.

I don't think I am in the market for any of this.

@Daniel36

Yep, it is for enthusiasts, but with such a price drop, it can be also something for people that want a all on one machine and like the idea of having it accutate.

Also a nice alternative to the Analogue Devices (that also use FPGA).

Never tried if i you can plug in a CD Drive or something as the Retrode2, but Adaptors for original Controllers often work and i think i have seen support for drives for something as the C64.

@aegis_autumn Remember that the price you pay for this is just for the board alone, not the actual kit, accessories, or shell. Once you got the board, you still need the kit to put everything together, then a custom shell to close up entire thing in a neat package. By the time you got all those together and setup, you had already spend more than what you would had on any of Analogue's products.

If you made one mistake that screw everything up then you've just wasted your money. Even if you finished building the thing you still had to go online to find the latest up to date operating system, programs, software, compatible cores, and roms to get it working. Note that not every operating systems for MiSTer or likewise its clone are the same. Some may function on your built and some may not and could brick your system. Some will also had better compatibility than others meaning you could play some games better on one os over the others, this applies to features as well. You really had to know what you're doing when building and setting these up to be able to make good use of em.

With Analogue you bought the complete console with everything setup, built, install, and ready to be use, that's why it cost a premium whereas these don't since you're buying parts to make one yourself. You can't compare a finish product to a set of parts that may likely fall apart.

@Serpenterror you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. The board this guy is selling plus the ram he's also bundling for $15 is all you need to use the machine. A case is optional, and if you want one there are extremely affordable yet robust 3D printed options. Anecdotally, I ran mine without a case for the first year or two that I had mine, and never had a problem. My brother still uses his without a case, and has been doing so for the past 4 years without issue. As for software, it's completely idiot-proof at this point, and has been for several years now. You just download the installation file onto an SD card and run it on the machine. Then whenever you want to update you just click on the option that says "update all". I understand you wanting to defend your purchase of Analogue products, which is fine. I own a Pocket as well and very much enjoy it. But spreading misinformation about a different product that you have practically zero familiarity with is not the way to do it