The Mystery Tech Review: A Deep Dive into the Analogue Duo

We give him presents and he just drops them on the floor. Okay. Gaming cup noodles. What makes these gaming?

So, it has like caffeine and a bunch of other things in it. Oh, you know what? It's shrimpy. It's super shrimpy. It's garlic and shrimp, I believe it. It is. Matt, you're gonna get high smelling this.

Yes, the-- Oh, let's go. Oh, that's smells so good. It's literally called energy garlic. I love how you just glide over to Matt like here Matt sniff this. And he's the one that's allergic. I'm allergic, he just likes -- You'll give the best reaction to it.

Cooking is activated. I'll be right back, once I've poured them into the sink. There's like a 70% chance he's gonna set the building on fire. By the way, that has 41 grams, milligrams of caffeine. Okay, grams and milligrams are two very different numbers. So basically half a cup of coffee in your cup noodle.

So actually not like an insane amount of caffeine, I'll say. But I know the caffeine's bitter. So if you add a lot of caffeine to something, that's why coffee tastes the way it tastes. Is like you've got that sort of flavor. You know what I mean?

Auto is like literally I'm not playing the game. So I will say that the Analogue Duo is a niche product. But that's what I love on Mystery Tech. Something weird, something unusual, clearly a labor of love on behalf of Analogue.

So it's not for the vast majority of you, I'll say. If you see this, you think this thing looks dope, check it out the link description, I'll drop there. I don't know, when you're watching this. I think the pre-orders are still probably gonna be live.

From everything I'm seeing here. Did a really good job of bringing an old series of consoles back to life in a very modern way. Coming in hot. Oh it's actually very light and it's a Union Jack.

Hello Governor. Sure, sure. Wow, Austin Evans disrespects the Union Jack. Oh, caught in 4K. Okay, so it's just some box stuff and there's a letter inside. Should I read the letter or no? Yeah.

We've got the Analogue Duo, which is one of the areas I think Analogue does a really good job of. Essentially, all of their hardware allows you to customize the display. For example, when it comes to Analogue Pocket, you can change the actual RGB values of the screen. So if you want it to be original like green, like the original Game Boy, you wanna have different color palettes or whatever.

And it seems like much the same thing here where they allow you to change, I'm sure like scan lines, the actual scaling. Like typically they do a pretty good job of giving you a good level of customization, especially if you're trying different types of hardware.

Let's take a look at PC Circus '91 on the Analogue Duo. Oh, I mean, immediately that HDMI looks terrific. Now if I press select and then left and right, I can change the modes. System, Headphones, HDMI, I'm gonna just play it as it is for now.

So I've played this game a little bit before. It is really fast. The advantage of the Duo being an FPGA is that it's not really emulating, it's running the actual games, the actual cards, and it does it the exact same way that the original hardware would do it.

And it'll say that as far as I'm concerned, this looks exactly the same. Now we're gonna try a Super CD-ROM game, which is a gorilla playing baseball. I'm ready to baseball it up. So do I wanna play manual, auto-catch, simulation, or auto? Ha ha ha, auto, please.

This is a sprite-based game. I think that pretty much everything PC Engine was pixel based. It's not actually gonna be 3D stuff, but this is like sort of the era where sprite and pixel-based content was kind of at its peak, right?

Because I think after this, people moved to 3D and sort of, it's a different sort of era. But look at like the fidelity of these graphics. Like it's cool. Auto is like literally I'm not playing the game.

So, in conclusion, if you're looking for something weird, something unusual, something that's clearly a labor of love on behalf of Analogue, check out the Analogue Duo.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Oh.- We give him presentsand he just drops them on the floor.- Okay.Gaming cup noodles.What makes these gaming?- So, it has like caffeineand a bunch of other things in it.- Oh, you know what? It'sshrimpy. It's super shrimpy.- It's garlic and shrimp, I believe it.- It is.Matt, you're gonna get high smelling this.- Yes, the-- Oh, let's go. Oh, that's smells so good.- It's literallycalled energy garlic.- I love how you just glide over to Mattlike here Matt sniff thisand he's the one that's allergic.- I'm allergic, he just like-- You'll give the best reaction to it.Cooking is activated.I'll be right back, once I'vepoured them into the sink.- There's like a 70% chancehe's gonna set the building on fire.- By theway, that has 41 grams,milligrams of caffeine.- Okay, grams and milligramsare two very different numbers.- So basically half a cup ofcoffee in your cup noodle.So actually not like an insaneamount of caffeine, I'll say.But I know the caffeine's bitter.So if you add a lot ofcaffeine to something,that's why coffee tastesthe way it tastes,is like you've got thatsort of flavor in it.- Oh yeah, I know.I experience bitter everyday when I talk to Matt.- That's fair, actually that's,he has a lot of regrets.- Wait, that's not wherethey were connected,why are you doing it that way?- No, I do it this way anywayjust to make sure thatthere's nothing on the ends.Just a warning for headphone users that,it's coming your way?- That's about as good ascup noodles can get it.- Yeah, I agree withthat, I agree with that.- Now the fact that's got caffeine in itis a little bit of fine,I would say I would rather have caffeinewith like coffee or something,but I mean it's not bad.I will say I don't usuallylike the garlicky flavors.It's fine.But if you like garlic, I meanthis is actually quite nice.- Did you just say youdon't like garlic flavors?- No, not really.- You've justinsulted his entire heritage.- Mm, I don't like it.- Don't bother touch my Spaghetti.- A huge thank you to thesponsor of this video, Acronis.Acronis' Cyber Protect Home Officeis still one of the best data backupand cyber protection personalsolutions on the market,but now, with identity protection.Cyber criminals are getting smarterand even using AI toenhance their attacks.In 2022, over $10 billionhas been stolen through identity theft.Think it won't happen to you?You're vulnerable evenwhen ordering food online,shopping or booking a flight.Don't let that happen to you.Acronis provides real-time monitoringand alerts for identity theft attempts.But just in case anything does happen,Acronis' certified experts are availableto help you restoreyour losses and identity24 hours a day, seven days a weekwith up to a million dollarsof identity fraud insurance.So if you need award-winningbackup software,malware protection, and now identity theftall in one easy to usedashboard, Acronis has your back.Just use code Austin Evans2023 for a 40% discount,which we use for all home office products.And thank you very much to Acronisfor supporting the channeland protecting us all.What is inside of here?- Bubble wrap?- Yeah.Well, it's somethingthat's nicely packaged.Okay.The Analogue Duo, now hold on a second.- Ah.- So if you're not familiar,Analogue is a company whodo retro gaming right.So this is a care packagefrom Analogue I'm guessing.- Yes.Especially considering itis still on pre-order and,so, we got this super early.- Well, thank you Analoguefor hooking us up.So we have a couple of 8BitDo controllerswhich are quite nice,and they are micro USB.Well, immediately we'll saywonderful packaging and that-- That's it?- Yeah.This looks dope.So it's got a CD-ROM drive.It also, I assume is where,this is where the cards would go in.You can run the majorityof TurboGrafx gamesusing this device.It does look kind of likemetal, but it is plastic.However, it feels really nice.They also have this like lovelylike sort of like rubbertexture on the bottom.First impressionsis based on what Analoguehave done in the past,there's a lot of care, love, and attentionthat has gone into this.So, let us start by turning on the unitand hoping that it works.Aye!So we are using this with a plasma,which obviously,this is meant to be usedwith modern televisionsince it has an HDMI.But this is, this is an HDMI plasma.So we're kind of splittingthe difference here.So this is one of the areasI think Analogue doesa really good job of.Essentially, all of their hardwareallow you to customize the display.So for example, when itcomes to Analogue Pocket,you can change the actualRGB values of the screen.So if you want it tobe original like green,like the original Game Boy,you wanna have differentcolor palettes or whatever.And it seems like much the same thing herewhere they allow you to change,I'm sure like scan lines,the actual scaling, like typicallythey do a pretty good jobof giving you a goodlevel of customization,especially if you're tryingdifferent types of hardware.So, let us start out with PC Circus '91.Oh, I mean, immediatelythat HDMI looks terrific.Now if I press selectand then left and right,I can change the modes.System, Headphones, HDMI,I'm gonna just play it as it is for now.So I've played this gamea little bit before,it is really fast.Now the advantage of the Duo being an FPGAis that it's not really emulating,it's running the actualgames, the actual cards,and it is doing it the exact same waythat the original hardware would do it.And it'll say that, asfar as I'm concerned,this looks exactly the same.And now, we're gonnatry a Super CD-ROM game,which is a gorilla playing baseball.I'm ready to baseball it up.So do I wanna play manual, autocatch, simulation, or auto?Ha, ha, ha, auto, please.So this is a sprite based game.I think that pretty mucheverything PC Engine waspixel based.It's not actually gonna be 3D stuff,but this is like sort of the erawhere sprite and pixel based contentwas kind of at its peak, right?'Cause I think after thispeople moved to 3D and sort of,it's a different sort of era,but like look at like thefidelity of these graphics.Like it's cool.Auto is like literallyI'm not playing the game.So I will say that the AnalogueDuo is a niche product,but that's what I love on Mystery Tech,something weird, something unusual,clearly a labor of loveon behalf of Analogue.So it's not for the vastmajority of you, I'll say.If you see this, you thinkthis thing looks dope,check it out the linkdescription, I'll drop there.I don't know, when you're watching thisI think the pre-orders arestill probably gonna be live.From everything I'm seeing here,did a really good job of bringingan old series of consolesback to life in a very modern way.Coming in hot.Oh it's actually very lightand it's a Union Jack.- Hello Governor.- Sure, sure.- Wow, Austin Evansdisrespects the Union Jack.Oh, caught in 4K.- Okay, so it's just some box stuffand there's a letter inside,should I read the letter or no?- Yeah.- "Hey Austin, my son and Iare long-term fans of you in the channel.We live in Manchester, England."Oh, I'm sorry for slicing theUnion Jack open my friend.- Oh gosh,don't you feel bad now?- I do feel bad.- What a jerk.- Sorry, I just, I wasopening a box. Okay."We saw your recent studio tour videoand your PSA graded Pokemon cardson the stands on your shelf,and we heard that youlike to swap them around.So we sent you one of ourgraded card slab storage boxes,we put a generic geometricshaped circle on top.If it resembles anything familiar,it must be a coincidence."Yeah, surely not a Poke Ball or anything.Jack and Chris, thank you very much.I, in fact, do keep a rotating selectionof PSA grade slabs in my officeand this looks quite exciting.Oh, you already grabbed my slabs.Let's see what we've got here.Oh yo, wait, wait, wait.Yo, this actually looks really cool.Look, I see what you mean aboutthe generic geometric shape.Can't imagine what that could possibly be.Oh, oh, oh, I get it, I get it.So you're supposed to putthe slabs along the side.Oh that actually looks reallycool, that is very cool.And you can put this on top.I see what they mean aboutlike if you actually puton like a rotating standso you can just sit thereand watch your card spin.This is really neat,and it really fits those slabs well.You can tell it's definitely made for PSA.It's not literally wobblingaround or anything.I wouldn't necessarily noticethat this is 3D printedunless I actually took alittle bit of a closer look,like it's actually really nicely done.Chris and Jack, thank you very much,I will gladly use this to displaysome of my cards in my office.Shout out to Chris and Jack.They didn't even like plugtheir like store or whatever,I don't even know whereyou could buy this.This is very, very nice.Aha.The 8BitDo retro mechanical keyboard.So 8BitDo are typically knownfor their Bluetooth controllers,they have a large range.And honestly, most ofthem are pretty solid.What I don't like is thefact that nowhere on this boxdoes it say what kind of switches.It just says mechanical,which is probably not gonnaleave you a lot of confidence.That's like saying your car has enginenot a V8 or something.It has all the gamer stickers I need like,- Emo!♪ 'Cause tonight will be the night ♪♪ That I'll fall for you ♪- I don't know if I love it.So, USB-C on the back,but it also have a A, B, X, Ylike little like AUX connectors.What?- Huh?- What?- Huh?- Okay, this makes alittle bit more sense now.So you're not just getting the keyboard,you're getting the chunkybuttons where you can-- That's so you canplay Family Feud with a-- Yeah,that's what those stickersare supposed to be for.- Oh.- Get the hell out.- What's the emo button then?- The problem with thisboard, how much is it?- A hundred dollars.- Okay.- Oh actually-- I feel better at a hundred,I was assuming it's like 200 bucks, okay.- Dude it has, it has a power light.- Nevermind, nevermind.Let me do a littletyping test here and see.That was actually my very first run,92 words per minute, 100% accuracy.It is rare for me to land on a keyboardand not have a little bitof an adjustment period.I will say my favorite part of this by farare the actual switches.I think that, I likethe clickiness of them,the keys themselves, Ilike the actual key caps.It, this is solid.Like honestly, I think I wasa little bit negative on it'cause I assumedit was gonna be way moreexpensive than it is.At a hundred bucks verylittle to complain about.I wish that they had maybespent a little bit more moneyon like the build qualityand some little fit and finish thingsto just kind of takeit to that next level.And honestly, I kinda wishthat they just put some weights in itjust to make it feel a little bit heavier.'Cause like very sortof hollow on the bottom,but at a hundred bucks, Icannot complain, this is neat.- Oh please don't throw that one.- Oh, no.Okay.Nondescript brown box.I see Japanese characters.A Canon Transformers Optimus Prime R5.And also it comes from someonewho's given me a five Yencoin, which is worth, oh.- Half of a penny.- Yeah.That's very nice though,that's very, you know, thoughtful of themto give a neat little five Yen.Here, don't spend it all in one place.- Oh, geez!- This is Optimus Primewho turns into a Canon R5,which is kind of great.I'll admit, this is kind of great.And then you said this goes with it.- Well, what doesevery Transformer need?- An SD card?- A nemesis to make theepisode really entertaining.Oh wait, it's a USB.He sprouted a USB port.I don't see a face or anything anywhere.I'll let you do this whileI try to build the Canon.- I love how there's no assembly required,yet it's still a challenge for him.I can't wait for you tounbox the real thing.- Yeah, I'm a littleafraid of this next one.'Cause like, here's the thing,I am zero for zero for buildingthese things correctly.Well, can I just ask, why doeshis USB stick out of this?What? What? What is it?- Does your USBnot stick out your butt?What do you do? Oh my god.- Oh, we got to censor that, sorry, sorry.- Offending the entire '80s.- Oh, this is cute.Lens cap and our 24 to105, oh, that's that.Oh look, wait, I see legsinside. I see legs inside, okay.So this is gonna pop out of there, yep.And then we've also gotour Canon R5 itself,which obviously is much smallerthan the real thing, but.- This is-- Also, this went,this went rear window real fast.- Yeah, POV you're in thebathroom and you see Austin Evans.- We also have a baby model ofthe camera, which is adorableand just really, reallylittle, really, really little.Oh yeah! Yeah, I got that, that's fine.- It's all pictures,you should be able to get it.- Okay, that's alreadythings are happening.So his legs are supposed to spread now.- Well.- So on this step where...- Okay, I'm willing to admitthis is a little bit complicated.- And there we go.After a mere three minutes of buildingour Transformer hasrolled out and assembledinto a 93% correctimplementation of Optimus,the Canon R5 camera.- And now he's cantake pictures of the wildlifewith the other one.- Yeah, exactly.- Dattebayo.- Is it time? Is it time?(upbeat music)- Wow, is that the One Piece?- Don't you do it.- Boogie water.- I don't have the headband,but I feel ready for this next item.- I still like thesexy Magikarp on pin.- Oh!For that, dude, that was a Mystery Techfrom like four yearsago. I forgot about that.I'm assuming that this is aNaruto-themed HyperX item?What is this?- You don't need the headband when.- Is it a headband builtinto some headphones?I'm a little rusty on Naruto,I haven't seen it in a long time, so.- Just all you gotta do-- My references aren't good.I don't know my sexyclone jujitsu, I lost it.That just looks offensive Matt,that just looks offensive.Oh, you can't show that, oh my god, oh.Inside we have HyperX hasyou covered. I'm sure you do.Wait, wait, these arejust orange headphones.What?I mean they're kind of cool.Wait, this is just aregular 3.5 mil headset?And it does have the detachable boom.So I just attached this here.This is the normal HyperXCloud Alpha headsetjust with a Naruto colorway.It actually, you know, I mean,this metal feels pretty nice,very plush headband.I will say the orange and theblack stitching looks nice,this looks a little like cheapy to me.It's just like sort of screen printed on.Where's my Bluetooth? This is...Go blu mobile bluetooth headphone amp.Okay.So, I'm guessing I just plugged this inand then it will mobilybluetoothsized my headset.- Yeah, in theory.- Okay, all right.Inside we have an instruction.Oh, that's really tiny, oh, you know what?Okay, now I get it. That is-- That's cute.- So much smaller thanI thought it was gonna be.- Yeah, that's really good.So we got USB-C on thebottom, we have a microphone.Oh listen to this.Nice tactile response.And we have ourselves, oh look at that,a little leather bag.This thing is actually really like legit.My problem with these, traditionally,it's just been, I don'twanna carry it around.Like honestly I'm lazy,like I'm not gonna do it,but this is small enough.If it has remotely decent battery lifethat's actually like,I mean, that's not bad.So just playing around this,there's a lot of stuff going on here.So you can not only have itcall out to you what kindof Bluetooth you're getting.So it's aptX right now, 44.1 kilohertz.USB-C socket isn't just a charging port,it also plays up to 24 bit 96kilohertz directly from USB.- Let's go.- So if you want to, youcould use it for Bluetoothor as an actual little DAC, this is neat.I feel like, how much is this?'Cause I feel this is gonna be expensive.- $200.- So the DAC this little guy cost $200,whereas my headphones cost 75,so my problem here is I justcan't really fully judgethe quality of thisjust because these headphones are fine.I mean, I'll listen a little bit more,but like they're not, they'renot blowing me away over here.I'm cranking up to almost fullvolume and it's still not-- Are the headphonescranked? Yeah, like or the...- Oh my god, there's an inlinecontrol for the headphones.Ah! Ah!I hear the headphones clipping'cause it's so much power.Okay, nevermind, this littleguy packs one hell of a punch.- What is this?- Jesus.- Oh god.- Oh.- They don't sound great evenwith a absolute badass DAC.And honestly given how loud that wasand how many different features,like this thing actuallydoes seem to be pretty legit.Now, to give it a proper go,I would need to not only try it via USB-C,connect it to some headphonesthat are actually worthyof being driven by something like this,but this thing seems neat.It was easy to set up.It's super tiny, which I appreciate.I'm just not gonna carrysomething big and bulky.Like I just don't care enoughabout a Hi-Fi audio experienceto carry a bunch of nonsense, right?Like I want something that's super thin,super lightweight, superportable, this is actually cool.(thunder rumbling)