Inside The Analogue 3D

📰 New article from RetroRGB

Inside The Analogue 3D

https://retrorgb.com/inside-the-analogue-3d.html

If you’ve ever wondered what makes the Analogue 3D feel like a N64 but better—Ken from What’s Ken Making just cracked it open, and it’s basically a tech love letter to retro gaming. Inside? A sleek FPGA brain, flawless video output, and… a sneaky little Bluetooth stack that’s not actually free for commercial use.

Yep. Analogue used an open-source Bluetooth library—cool, right? Except this one requires a paid license if you’re selling products. And yet… no public credit. No mention in the docs. Just silence.

Is this a violation? Probably not—if Analogue paid for the license, they’re likely under NDA or terms that let them stay mum. But it’s still a weird vibe in the open-source world, where attribution is basically gospel. You don’t just borrow someone’s code and pretend it’s yours.

Still, the console itself? Pure magic. The video quality is buttery, the controllers feel like nostalgia with a turbo boost, and the whole thing just works. So while we wait for Analogue to drop a “Built with ❤️ and licensed libs” footnote, just know: you’re not buying a box—you’re buying engineering art. And maybe a tiny bit of legal gray area.

(Still totally worth it.)