Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- ModRetro has announced pricing for its N64 FPGA console, the M64, at $199.99.
- This is $50 cheaper than the Analogue 3D, which ships next month.
- The video hints at a holiday release date, but no specs or details have been announced yet.
The Nintendo 64 was one of the most interesting consoles of its time, but revisiting those classics isn’t easy. Unless you still have a microfridge-sized CRT in working order, you’re looking at spending hundreds of dollars on mods, upscalers, or converters to play the original hardware on a modern TV.
Thankfully, there’s another option that uses high-speed FPGA chips to emulate the console at the hardware level. Not only does this provide a nearly perfect recreation of the original experience, it also allows for upgrades like upscaling, HDMI output, and more — without the need for expensive dongles or mods.
The ModRetro M64 is a cheaper alternative to the Analogue 3D.
That’s the promise of the latest N64 FPGA console from ModRetro, called the M64. Details are still light on the exact specs and features, but today it was revealed to cost $199.99, which is significantly less than alternatives like the Analogue 3D. At least, that’s the early bird pricing ModRetro is offering to interested shoppers who sign up for the M64 waitlist.
The Analogue 3D gained significant attention when it was announced last year, but even if you somehow managed to snag one on pre-order (it’s been sold out for more than six months), the $250 price tag is a tough pill to swallow. That console ships next month for pre-order customers, but there’s no guarantee that it will ever be back in stock. And if it is, it will almost assuredly come with a tariff-induced price hike.
In the announcement video posted to ModRetro founder Palmer Luckey’s X account today, the company takes several swipes at the Analogue 3D. Text from a flaming retro skull reads “respect the trident” and “black and white is boring.” The first is a reference to the 8BitDo 64 controller, which was designed in partnership with Analogue and drops the iconic trident design. The second is a clear swipe at the only colorways available on Analogue’s N64 clone: black and white.
The video doesn’t fully reveal the M64 console itself, but it does hint at a potential launch date. A note on the covered console reads “No peeking until Christmas,” which may indicated a holiday 2025 release.
It’s worth mentioning that Luckey is a very divisive figure in the gaming community. Apart from designing retro consoles and founding Oculus, he’s also involved in arms and defence contracts via another company he founded, Anduril Industries. The billionaire also doesn’t shy away from his controversial political beliefs, which likely led to him losing his job at Facebook after the company acquired Oculus.
Regardless, the M64 is set to be ModRetro’s second console release, following the Game Boy Color-inspired Chromatic. After selling out almost immediately, the Chromatic was made permanently available for purchase earlier this month.
The Chromatic is designed as the ultimate Game Boy, but we don’t yet know exactly what the M64 has in store. At the very least it should provide a cheaper way to play original N64 cartridges on modern TVs, which is great news for retro gamers.
