You may recall a mention of the DAC in a post I wrote last month about 32X support on Analogue’s Mega Sg console – well, it appears that Analogue has finally pulled the trigger on pre-orders for the device that they’ve been teasing since last year.
So, what it is? If you’re not in the know, DAC stands for Digital to Analogue Converter and this credit-card shaped device allows Analogue’s Super NT and Mega Sg consoles to connect to CRT and PVM monitors for than authentic 80’s/90’s experience and, basically, not look like garbage.
It’s effectively the opposite of a Framemeister or the OSSC (Open Source Scan Converter) that allows older consoles to be plugged into modern TV’s and not look like garbage – except it only works with the Super NT and Mega Sg (although future Analogue products are planned to be compatible).
The device is very much plug and play, only requiring a HDMI cable from the console to the DAC while the power is supplied from USB that can be plugged straight into the console – so an additional power plug is not necessary. On the output end, the DAC supports s-video, component, composite and RGB for both NTSC and PAL monitors. None of these cables are included, however (not even a HDMI lead is), which is certainly a shame.
From the few reviews of the device I have found around the web, though, it does appear to be good at its job. Both the NT and Sg reportedly look fantastic on monitors of old. Here’s a blurb straight from the horse’s mouth:
“A typical analog output in classic game systems is designed with low cost, mass consumer product level components, driven by low quality digital signals. DAC is designed in pursuit of performance. DAC uses only the highest quality components and is engineered with reference quality, state of the art analog video and audio signals. This means an in-house-engineered digital to analog conversion, gold plated I/O’s and a complete control over every detail of the output.”
The Analogue DAC will cost $79.99, and pre-orders are expected to ship in February of next year.
Growing up while the fifth generation of consoles reigned supreme meant that Brendan missed out on much of the 80’s and early 90’s of gaming the first time around. He either lacked the cognitive ability to play them, as naturally, he was a baby - or he simply didn’t exist yet. Undeterred, Brendan started a blog called Retro Game On in 2011. This followed his exploits as he collected and played everything he could get his hands on no matter what the release date. While RGO is mainly YouTube focused these days concentrating on video reviews and historical features, the itch to do some old fashion writing never went away. More recently, Brendan has been a staff writer for the gaming website, GameCloud, mostly focusing on the indie gaming scene in his locale of Perth, Australia.
This big one here for me is that now both units can support light gun accessories with the DAC. I’ve yet to take a look at all the in-depth reviews out there, but it would be awesome if you could split the HDMI signal and perform the video capture in 1080P while the DAC outputs to a CRT.