Analogue Nt

Lore & Background

The Analogue Nt was announced in March 2014, and Analogue began accepting pre-orders on May 5, 2014. Pre-orders started shipping in June 2015. A limited run of 10 units of a 24 karat gold plated special edition was produced by April 2016, available at a price of $4999. By July 23, 2017, the Analogue Nt had been discontinued.

The system uses parts sourced from damaged Famicom HVC-001 systems, incorporating a Ricoh 2A03 CPU and an NTSC Ricoh 2c02 PPU on a custom printed circuit board. The lockout chip used on the NES was omitted. The default model includes RGB, Component, S-Video, Composite, VGA, and SCART video outputs, with an additional add-on for 1080p HDMI output and other digital features. The enclosure is a solid aluminium unibody manufactured from 6061 aluminium in China and assembled in the United States, with anodized red, blue, or black casing available for an additional fee.

In 2016 Analogue announced a followup system, the Nt Mini, a smaller model that includes RGB and HDMI output in the base model and uses an FPGA as a processor.

Reader's Guide

The Analogue Nt received positive reviews, with critics praising its performance on HD TVs while noting its unusually high price. Will Greenwald's PCMag review gave the Analogue Nt a 4/5, describing the graphical output as 'simply the best-looking direct feed of an NES cartridge I've ever seen,' while noting the price of the console with HDMI output was 'tough-to-swallow.' Vice praised the build quality and video quality, stating 'the Analogue Nt is a gorgeous machine...The Analogue Nt makes NES games look phenomenal,' while also noting that NES games may have limited appeal to gamers not nostalgic for them. CNET.com said 'In an age where retro games just don't look right on modern HDTVs, the Analogue Nt is a magical piece of hardware,' while noting that 'At $500 the Analogue Nt is obviously not for everyone.' Kyle Orland of Ars Technica noted that 'it's hard to recommend to anyone besides the most committed 8-bit retro gaming addict.' The high price of the system was noted by many critics. The system's significance lies in its use of original hardware rather than emulation or FPGA, offering compatibility with NES, Famicom, and Famicom Disk System titles, and its premium build quality with a solid aluminium enclosure.

Did You Know?

• The Analogue Nt uses original Ricoh 2A03 CPU and Ricoh 2c02 PPU chips sourced from damaged Famicom HVC-001 systems.
• The system's enclosure is a solid aluminium unibody made from 6061 aluminium, manufactured in China and assembled in the United States.
• The Analogue Nt was discontinued on July 23, 2017.