Beginning the Works at the end: Analogue Duo | Turbo Works preview
991Disclosure: Duo review unit provided by Analogue.
This week's episode arrives a couple of days earlier than usual. It's also wildly out of sequence in terms of console chronology.
I've spent the past week or so kicking the tires on the Analogue Duo, which arrives at the same time that I've been gearing up to dive into the chronology of the TurboGrafx-16 in the U.S. I've been experimenting with different TurboGrafx hardware setups, photographing the game library, and familiarizing myself with the system's history and games for the past year. However, the Turbo Works series won't kick off until sometime next year, so this preview episode doubles as an overview of the Analogue Duo and as an introduction to the Turbo family hardware (and the quirks of its many variations).
If you're not interested in the preamble, you can skip ahead to the 3:10 mark.
This is not a particularly technical review, by the way. I have no illusions about being able to match the nuts-and-bolts knowledge of channels like My Life in Gaming or RetroRGB, so you'll probably want to check out their videos for your extremely granular details about Duo. I'm more concerned with convenience, comprehensive and accurate software support, flexibility, and the overall feel of the game experience.
There are a lot of options out there for playing TurboGrafx family software in 2023. Where does the Duo fit in? Does it have a place in an enthusiast's setup, not to mention a video creator's? That's the question that hovers over this episode.
(Spoilers: It does, though for the moment it comes with a few caveats.)
Production notes:
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TurboGrafx, PC Engine, CD, and SuperGrafx footage captured from Analogue Duo, SuperGrafx with Super SD System 3, TurboGrafx-16 with TurboBooster, and MiSTer FPGA (special thanks to MiSTer Add-Ons). NES footage captured from Analogue Nt Mini. Analog video upscaled to 720 with xRGB Mini Framemeister.