Have you ever had a burning desire to revisit the games from your youth? Emulation is usually the first place that people turn, only to release that it leaves a lot to be desired over the original hardware. But the original hardware ages too. Enter FPGA devices, devices specialising in hardware emulation that creates a new perfect experience. It’s expensive to get into this hobby, but Taki Udon a Tech Reviewer is about to make it a whole lot cheaper with the SuperStation One.
FPGA has become a buzzword in the emulation and game preservation communities. Field Programmable Gate Arrays are effectively a technology that emulates hardware. The device’s original clock speed and architecture are replicated to more accurately run original software or video games. This is a gross oversimplification of course, but you get the general idea. Given the technology and its niche applications, FPGA devices usually fetch high prices. Taki Udon is best known for his YouTube channel reviewing emulation and gaming devices. He set out to create an affordable alternative.
Taki created a company called Retro Remake. Their first foray into the FPGA space was the MiSTER Pi. An affordable FPGA development board that can punch well above its weight class when playing games. The base model (when available) sells for just $95.
As shared by the folks over at The Verge. Taki announced Retro Remake’s second offering – the SuperStation one, over on BlueSky. The SuperStation One accomplishes everything that other MISTer FPGA boards do but at a fraction of the cost and in a really good-looking form factor reminiscent of the PlayStation 1.
It’s not just a looker either, the SuperStation One supports multiple display formats VGA, HDMI and DIN10. It also supports a blend of modern and retro IO Ports and will work with your original PlayStation 1 controllers. The MISTer FPGA open-source project supports several consoles, retro computers, arcade machines and handhelds. As the SuperStation One makes use of the same architecture it can use those cores too.
In addition, an add-on device called the SuperDock has been announced that will allow users to load data directly from discs. It will also feature an SSD slot so that you can save all of your ROM backups onto the device and have them in one place.
The SuperStation One is a stylish affordable alternative to its competitors. It will set you back $225. If you choose to preorder now, you can get one for $179.99 (The $149 variant is already sold out). All of these prices exclude shipping obviously, so keep that in mind. According to the Retro Remake website, orders are expected to ship in Q3 2025 but may ship earlier.
If you’d like to find out about other game preservation efforts – The Video Game History Foundation’s Digital Library went live today. Click here to find out more.
