Anduril Industries cofounder Palmer Luckey has pulled back the curtain ever so slightly on his retro gaming company side project’s next console. We still don’t know what the M64 looks like, or what exactly it’s capable of, but a brief new teaser shows it running Mario Kart 64 on a CRT for the “early bird” price of $200.
“This is real gameplay on real hardware using our real core,” Luckey, who helped design the Oculus Rift and now sits at the nexus of AI and drone warfare, wrote on X last night. “The most efficient and accurate reimplementation of the original by far. We show off the final design and launch preorders for hardware, new titles, and re-released classics pending final legal checks.”
The M64 sits under a cloth in the video with a card that reads no peeking until Christmas, suggesting the device will launch this holiday season, roughly a year after ModRetro, his retro gaming company, sold the Chromatic, reimagined Game Boy Colors that replicated the look and feel of the original hardware. Reviewers praised the accuracy and build quality, though neither came cheap. The handhelds were $200 each, much more than the Android-based emulation devices currently flooding the retro gaming market.
The M64 will start at the same price point, however. “Inflation isn’t nostalgic,” Luckey quipped, noting that his Nintendo 64 clone will be launching at the same price as the original did back in 1996. It’s not the only device hoping to capitalize on N64 nostalgia this year, though. Analogue announced its own years ago and the Analogue 3D is finally getting ready to ship beginning next month, though it will cost $50 more than the M64.
That’s right, there will soon be at least two FGPA-based N64 tributes on the market. Nintendo now has the chance to do the funniest thing and finally release its own N64 classic fans have long requested. While diehard enthusiasts will still opt for more premium alternatives, it would save everyone else who just wants to recreate that old Christmas morning fun with a few rounds of Mario Kart a lot of money.
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