New Analogue 3D firmware is the update N64 fans have been waiting for

There is a particular kind of anxiety that comes with playing Nintendo 64 games the way they were originally made to be played. It is the feeling of being deep into a level with no save point in sight, halfway through a boss fight you do not want to repeat, or ten minutes into a tricky platforming section when someone calls you away from the television. Games from that era were designed around different habits, different living rooms, and a very different relationship with time. Analogue’s latest firmware update for the Analogue 3D changes that relationship in a meaningful way. With firmware 1.3.0, released on May 15, 2026, the company has added Memories, its save-state system, to the FPGA-powered console. In practical terms, Memories lets players capture a game exactly where it is and return to that precise moment later.

Why save states matter more here

Save states are nothing new in the wider world of retro gaming. Emulators have offered them for years, and handheld retro devices often treat them as a basic feature. But on the Analogue 3D, they mean something different, because this is not a general-purpose emulation box with a menu full of ROM files. The Analogue 3D is built around original Nintendo 64 cartridges. Its promise is to let players use real carts, original-style controllers, and modern displays without turning the experience into something that feels completely detached from the hardware it is preserving. Adding save states to that formula is not simply a convenience. It is a careful modernization of a stubbornly old-school machine.

The whole N64 library gets Memories

Analogue says Memories works across the full 900-plus Nintendo 64 cartridge library, which is a bigger claim than it might first appear. The N64 was never a simple platform. Its games saved in different ways, relied on different accessories, and often behaved in ways that still make preservationists and hardware engineers sweat.

Some cartridges saved internally. Others leaned on the Controller Pak. Certain games used the Transfer Pak to connect with Game Boy cartridges. Pokémon Stadium even turned that accessory into a core part of the experience. The N64 was a console full of physical add-ons, unusual memory arrangements, and game-specific quirks. That makes this update more than a neat box-ticking feature. Save states on a system like this require the console to capture not just the game, but the surrounding machinery of play: controller inputs, memory contents, cartridge state, accessory behavior, and whatever odd assumptions a particular title is making in the background.

Designed to stay out of the way

For players, the system sounds deliberately simple. Each game can hold up to 20 Memories. Once that limit is reached, the oldest Memory is automatically deleted when a new one is created. Important Memories can be pinned so they are not overwritten. That is a smart approach because it understands how people actually use save states. Most players are not carefully curating a museum archive of every jump, boss, and menu screen. They are saving before a difficult section, pausing life at an awkward moment, or preserving progress when the game itself refuses to be generous. The best modern retro features are the ones that quietly disappear into the background. Memories looks like exactly that kind of feature: there when needed, invisible when not.

Original controllers still have a role

Firmware 1.3.0 also adds quick button shortcuts for creating and loading Memories. On the 8BitDo 64 Bluetooth controller, holding Home and pressing D-Pad Up creates a Memory, while Home and D-Pad Down loads the most recent one. Players using an original N64 controller get their own shortcut: Z + Start + C-Up to create a Memory, and Z + Start + C-Down to load one. That detail matters because the Analogue 3D has to serve two different audiences at once. There are players who want a clean wireless setup from the sofa, and there are purists who still believe the original three-pronged controller is part of the point. Firmware 1.3.0 gives both groups a way into the new feature without forcing either to compromise.

The small fixes that make retro hardware feel premium

Memories is the headline, but the update also spends time cleaning up less glamorous corners of the system. Analogue has improved how Controller Paks and virtual Paks are handled, including support for saving across different Controller Paks. There is also a new “No Pak” option when switching virtual Paks with wireless controllers, a change that fixes cartridge save access in Blast Corps. That may sound like a tiny edge case, but retro hardware lives and dies by edge cases. A premium retro console is not judged only by whether Super Mario 64 boots. It is judged by whether the weird stuff works too.

Controller quirks get ironed out

The update also fixes an issue where 8BitDo 64 Bluetooth controllers could not press certain C-button combinations simultaneously. That matters in games where the C buttons are not just camera controls, including titles such as Doom 64 and Cruis’n USA. Another small but telling fix changes how Chameleon Twist starts up with wireless controllers. The game now begins with the virtual Controller Pak instead of the Rumble Pak, addressing boot problems that could get in the way before the player even reached the game proper. These are not glamorous patch notes, but they are the sort of improvements that turn a promising device into a mature one.

A smoother system around the games

Firmware 1.3.0 also improves menu speed when switching Original Display Modes and virtual Paks in-game. A rare issue where the “Play Cartridge” option could become disabled has been fixed. The beta Progressive Output mode has also been improved for certain titles. None of this will grab the same attention as save states, but together these fixes matter. They make the Analogue 3D feel more settled, more responsive, and less like a first-generation product still finding its footing.

Convenience without breaking the spell

The real significance of firmware 1.3.0 is not just that Analogue has added save states. It is that the company has added them in a way that fits the philosophy of the machine. The Analogue 3D is built for people who care about cartridges, original controllers, authentic behavior, and the physical ritual of playing older games. Memories could have felt like a cheat bolted onto a purist device. Instead, it feels more like a practical concession to the fact that the people who grew up with the Nintendo 64 now have jobs, families, interruptions, and less patience for repeating a half-hour section because real life got in the way.

A better way to return to the N64

Good retro hardware should not trap old games in amber. It should not force players to relive every inconvenience that came with them. But it also should not modernize them so aggressively that they lose their identity. That is the line Analogue is trying to walk with the 3D, and firmware 1.3.0 moves it closer to that ideal. The cartridges are still real. The controllers can still be original. The games still look, feel, and behave like Nintendo 64 games. They are just a little kinder now.

Spread the love