RetroRemake has just sent out an update for people who placed a $5 deposit on the SuperDock optical drive addon for the SuperStation FPGA console. They’re now ready to take official pre-orders and you can either append your original purchase and both items will ship together, or cancel your original $5 deposit and place a new order (or just cancel the order); Check the email from RetroRemake for the instructions. I wanted the SuperStation as fast as possible, so I just placed a new pre-order for the drive addon, which came to $73 total. You can also still pre-order the SuperStation with this 3rd batch shipping early next year. Here’s links to everything with a lot more info on the upgrades and changes to the SuperDock below:
SuperDock: https://retroremake.co/products/superdock
SuperStation: https://retroremake.co/products/superstation-one
There’s certainly lots to talk about with both products. First, it looks like there were slight delays and the team is missing the “Q3” shipping target, but they think they’ll make it to customers before the end of the year. The delays were due to quality control of the Power and Menu buttons and it’s my opinion that they made the right choice – I’d much rather wait a bit longer, than have something with finnicky buttons. I’m still excited to try it out and especially interested in comparing the analog video and audio outputs to the MiSTer MultiStation 2.
Next, the SuperDock itself has gotten some very big upgrades since it’s announcement. While it originally was a fun device that allowed you to rip your games, it’s now a fully-functional optical drive for the PS1, Sega CD and PCECD cores! That’s absolutely awesome and really makes this a worthy addon. That’s not all though, here’s the current feature list for the SuperDock:
- DVD-RW Drive
- Internal NVMe m.2 2280 Slot
- 4x USB Type-A Ports
- SNAC Bypass Port
- USB Type-C UART
- USB Type-C PC Mode
- IR Sensor + IR Remote
- Additional IO Expansion
The switch to a DVD drive was based on availablity – They no longer manufacture those types of CDROMs, but DVD-RW’s are still in mass production. The SNAC bypass port will allow you to use any standard SNAC adapter instead of just the PS1 ports in front, by toggling a switch on the side. The IR sensor is for controlling the MiSTer via a remote, which may come in handy. The UART port allows for easy debug access to SuperStation via a USB-to-serial interface. And the additional IO expansion on the back can potentially be used for future cartridge reading options – They’ve shown this as a proof of concept and while it’s much slower than running a ROM from an SD, it’s still handy as a cartridge/savegame dumper. So I hope they pursue this further.
There’s also a port on the back of the SuperDock that allows you to use the optical drive, NMVe and USB ports on a PC. I honestly think some people might buy it just for that functionality and I think it’ll really come in handy. Overall, I’m much more excited for this now, then when I originally pre-ordered!
