Alex Mitchell

Analogue Releases Updates, Reaffirms SNt/MSg/DAC Restock

(Update 2: Feb 23, 2021) Smokemonster has added updated jailbreak firmwares to each console’s respective GitHub page. I have also included links to those updates next to the official links at the bottom of this article.

(Update 1: Feb 22, 2021) Analogue has also posted an article to their support website that addresses ongoing community concerns with Analogue, including their responses to bots, scalpers, and supply chain issues over the last year.

Analogue Inc, a company that designs and sells “Hi-Fi” retro gaming hardware, has made a handful of announcements today that address concerns from both their current and prospective customers.

First, Analogue has reaffirmed its commitment to restock three of their products:

  • The Super Nt, which is capable of running software from the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom libraries.
  • The Mega Sg, which runs Mega Drive/Genesis software natively and can also support Sega Master System, SG-1000, and Game Gear games through separate adapters.
  • The Analogue DAC, a bespoke digital-to-analog converter that allows Analogue’s consoles to output legacy analog signals to older devices (e.g., Composite, S-Video, RGB, or Component video).

For now, Analogue’s timeline for the restocks is still a little nebulous. As per their twitter post, they expect to have more Super Nt units in March/April, with the Mega Sg and DAC restock to follow “…soon after”. Unfortunately, there is no indication of what Analogue considers “soon”, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we know more when the Super Nt restocks are official.

Second, Analogue has released updates for their three most recent consoles: the Super Nt, the Mega Sg, and the Nt Mini Noir. In addition to addressing some lingering bugs and compatibility issues, there are also a few feature additions that give users the ability to further customize the way that these consoles render their video output. While there are provisions to address a persistent bug that affected SegaCD/MegaCD games crashing when played on original SegaCD/MegaCD hardware with the Mega Sg, users are reporting that finding the correct SegaCD timing setting is easier said than done. It sounds like these games are continuing to work fine on flash carts like the Mega Everdrive Pro and Mega SD though, so there shouldn’t be any change for users of those products.

Here are the firmware changelogs:

Super Nt Official (v5.0) – Super Nt Jailbreak (v7.0)

– Added SPD HDMI packet to identify as “Super Nt”
– Added Dejitter checkbox added to suppress the shorter scanline every other frame
– Added option to press start to skip the bootup sequence
– Fixed video settings (scanlines, etc) not applying when running games
– Fixed non-visble top scanline in HDMI
– Fixed non-centered picture when horizontal/vertical position sliders are centered
– Fixed Final Fantasy III (US)/Final Fantasy VI (Japan) graphics corruption bug
– Fixed Final Fantasy V graphics bug
– Fixed Bahamut Lagoon graphics bug

Mega Sg Official (v4.8) – Mega Sg Jailbreak (v7.8)

– Added blurring for the entire screen – enable dither blending and set blending depth to maximum
– Added SPD HDMI packet to identify as ‘Mega sg”
– Added timing sliders for Sega CD
– Added horizontal position slider for DAC/analog output
– Added SMS Model 1 reset by pressing X, Y, and Z at the same time on a 6 button controller
– Fixed non-visble top scanline in HDMI
– Fixed graphical corruption in Paprium
– Fixed six button controller reading for Ultracore, Paprium and other games
– Fixed cartridge adapters failing to work properly if startup is set to “Cartridge Direct”
– Fixed Spider Man: Web of Fire 32x cartridge not working
– Fixed non-centered picture when horizontal/vertical position sliders are centered
– Fixed Z80 inability to write to the cartridge bus
– Fixed timing bug reported by krikzz

Nt Mini Noir Official (v1.2) – Nt Mini Noir Jailbreak (v6.6)

– Added SPD HDMI Packet to identify console as “Nt Mini Noir”
– Added ability to decrement letters with cheat code input by pressing select
– Replaced Firebrandx palette with the latest one (“Smooth_-_Balanced_Greys_FBX”)
– Fixed FDS RAM Adapter, Super Mario Bros. and many other games exhibiting graphics issues when cartridges were being used
– Fixed non-centered picture when horizontal/vertical position sliders are centered
– Replaced scaling defaults with more useful values.
– Fixed Trojan audio channels cutting off early
– Fixed Sunsoft 5B audio implementation
– Fixed Battletoads and Double Dragon player 2 selection box moving on its own
– Fixed games (i.e. Kickmaster) with mappers that used A12 for scanline counts had jittering graphics in 16 sprite mode
– Fixed Maniac Mansion’s intermitent flickering top line
– Fixed Eggerland – Meikyuu no Fukkatsu and Egger Land – Souzou e no Tabidachi’s popping square channel

The lingering elephant in the room is the question of when we can see these improvements rolled in to the Jailbroken versions of these firmwares, which have not been updated as of this article. Those firmwares typically lag the official releases by a pretty small margin though, so check back at RetroRGB for links as they become available. The jailbroken updates are out!