The Analogue 3D is the perfect console for N64 collectors

I’ve developed a sixth sense for old video game cartridges. I can spot them at flea markets and thrift stores, spy them hidden behind stacks in used book stores. It happened after I first bought an Analogue Pocket, when the hunt for new and interesting Game Boy games became as important as actually playing them. Now my attention has turned to the Nintendo 64. Analogue’s long-delayed take on the console — dubbed the Analogue 3D — might just be the most premium way there is to play N64 games, making it ideal for collectors.

After playing with the Analogue 3D over the last week, I’ve found a new appreciation for Nintendo’s oft-neglected console. I’ve played through games for the first time and revisited old favorites, all with the benefit of modern conveniences like wireless controllers and 4K visuals.

Analogue first made waves in 2015 with the Analogue NT, a modern re-creation of the NES. Since then, it has done the same for platforms like the Sega Genesis and SNES, all of which are designed to play old cartridges — which can cost anywhere from a few bucks to a few hundred, depending what you’re buying — on modern televisions. The consoles use field-programmable gate array, or FPGA, technology to function just as the original hardware did.

The Analogue 3D takes this concept and applies it to the N64. There are easier and cheaper ways to play many of these games, such as with the Nintendo Switch Online subscription or through emulators on the App Store. But, much like how a high-end record player preserves the physical element of listening to music, a console like the Analogue 3D offers a different and more tactile experience. It’s one that I’ve found creates a deeper connection with what I’m playing.

The $249.99 console looks like a slightly streamlined N64 — it’s available in both black and white — complete with a cartridge slot on top and four controller ports on the front, along with “power” and “reset” buttons. On the back there’s an SD card slot, two USB-A ports, and an HDMI port, which allows you to play it on a modern TV, unlike the original N64 hardware. It comes with an HDMI cable, USB cable, power supply, and a 16GB SD card preinstalled with the console’s operating system. It doesn’t come with a controller, but it supports the original wired N64 gamepads if you have some lying around, and various wireless options. I tested it using 8bitdo’s $39.99 Bluetooth option, which crams the three-prong N64 controller into something resembling an Xbox pad.

The console outputs at up to 4K, and is region-free, meaning you can play games originally released in any territory, and the company says that it has “100 percent compatibility” with every N64 game. I obviously wasn’t able to test that, but I did throw a few oddballs at it — like a Japan-only J.League soccer game that I snagged for $10 — and didn’t run into any issues. In fact, one of the best parts of the system’s barebones interface is that it recognizes cartridges you pop in, so you can build up a digital list of your library. You can then use this function to customize aspects like the visual output for each game. Analogue says other features are coming in a future update, including quick save states and screenshots.

But it’s those visual settings that really show the power of the Analogue 3D. Over the years, the N64 has proven to be a difficult console to emulate; even Nintendo messes it up sometimes, with games that have ugly textures or are missing effects like fog with few customization options. The Analogue 3D goes in the opposite direction with five different output modes, and I’ve found myself swapping between them depending on the kind of game I’m playing.

For instance, one of the visual modes is called “clean,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like: the original game rendered in high resolution with bright colors and sharp edges. This became my go-to for bright and colorful games like Banjo-Kazooie, which really popped with life on my TV. But for other games, this more pure and clean output ruined the vibe. Titles like Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, for instance, use a lot of muted colors and effects like fog to create a darker, moodier tone. That energy was lost with the “clean” option. But as soon as I swapped over to BVM mode — or Broadcast Video Monitor, which Analogue calls “reference-grade for N64” — all those elements flooded back in. There I was, in the bleak Ord Mantell Junkyard, hunting down Boba Fett just like I did three decades ago, trying to spy drones flying through the fog.

There are other modes, which you can swap on the fly, including one that mimics the look of a CRT monitor, along with further customization options with names like “gamma transfer” and “beam convergence,” which I admit are a bit beyond me. I had no problem finding the best output for each particular game. You have a lot more control here than when playing the same games with Nintendo’s subscription, which offers one solitary CRT filter.

The one caveat I’ll make here has little to do with the Analogue 3D hardware and more to do with the platform it’s tied to. The company’s previous consoles all focused on 2D games, which typically age a lot better than early 3D titles. Even though I played many of these N64 games when they first came out, I still found myself struggling with some of the 3D platforming segments, and, boy, did I miss the lack of a free camera to help me look around these three-dimensional worlds. It was even harder for games that were completely new to me. Again, this isn’t the Analogue 3D’s fault, but it is something to consider if you’re looking to invest in a library of cartridges.

But, for me at least, this has also made those cartridge hunts all the more satisfying. Finding something cool and surprising, and then spending time learning how to play it, gives me a chance to engage with these games on a deeper level. Unlike when I’m choosing from dozens or more games on a digital platform, where I can quickly swap to something else if I’m bored, a device like the Analogue 3D and the cartridges it plays force a level of focus that I often feel is missing from my life, as so many things vie for my attention.

I doubt I’d have given Jikkyo J. League: Perfect Striker a second thought through Nintendo Switch Online. But now that I have the cartridge, it’s become a multiplayer favorite in this house.