Hot on the heels of the recently released competing retro machine, the Analogue 3D, ModRetro is finally unveiling what the upcoming M64 console and its controllers look like.
Palmer Luckey’s retro gaming company has been teasing its modern interpretation of the Nintendo 64 for months now as an implied answer to Analogue’s own Analogue 3D.
Just like that other aforementioned aftermarket console, the M64 is FPGA-based and it allows you to play your original library of Nintendo 64 cartridges on modern displays easily via HDMI output up to 4K resolution. Both consoles support original controllers and accessories as well, but beyond those fast facts, the specific technical details for the M64 are still a bit nebulous, but it will be powered by AMD.
But now today, we finally can see the actual design of the console itself (shown above) and the controllers (shown below). Clearly, both are very reminiscent of the originals they’re based on. Personally, I quite like the M64 console’s design as I’ve always been a fan of Y2K-era translucent plastic in my tech, and it calls back to some of the color schemes Nintendo themselves used.
The controller, on the other hand, feels far less exciting. It’s almost identical to the actual original Nintendo 64 controller, complete with its three-pronged look, and I don’t see how it enhances the layout or solves any problems. Analogue 3D’s partnership with 8BitDo to deliver an all-new 64 controller that looks and feels like a Switch 2 Pro controller seems far superior. But of course, I haven’t tried the M64 controller yet.
Both the console and controllers will be available in white, purple, or green, all of which I think have a great vibe. It’s very fitting.
Since I’ve already got four original N64 controllers, four 8BitDo 64 controllers, and a Retro Fighters Brawler 64 controller, this new controller doesn’t really do much for me. However, I’m very interested in the console.
The price point for the M64 will remain at just $200, the same as the N64 itself was back in the 1990s and $50 cheaper than the Analogue 3D.
But the most exciting part of it all, at least to me, is that Luckey confirmed the company will be releasing brand-new games for the M64 as well, just like they have for the company’s Game Boy Color-inspired ModRetro Chromatic. The possibilities of the types of games developers could create for N64 hardware with modern sensibilities have my mind racing.
There are still plenty of open questions about the M64. We don’t yet know exactly how the ModRetro console will handle video modes beyond 4K60, whether it will match Analogue 3D’s depth of display filtering, whether or not flash carts and homebrew games will work out of the box (they don’t on Analogue 3D at the time of this writing), or how robust its controller ecosystem will be.
Regardless of how things shake out, the ModRetro M64 is high on my list of most-anticipated upcoming gaming hardware.