Analogue Pocket - FPGA GameBoy/GBC/GBA

[bmoc]

The patent trademark leaks were true! Analogue is releasing a portable unit that can play GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance games. With adapters it can also play Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Lynx games. The price is $199 and it will be available in 2020.

3.5in screen
1600x1440 resolution
rechargeable lithium ion battery
Dock with HDMI out
syncs with bluetooth controllers

https://www.wallpaper.com/lifestyle/ana ... d-game-boy
https://www.fastcompany.com/90417529/th ... sign-snobs

I'm most certainly preordering one as soon as it is available. This will likely be the way to play portable games on a TV. No more having to track down or commision consolized versions of Game Gear or whatever.

EDIT: The product page is up now. https://www.analogue.co/pocket/ There is a dock!

[Golgo 14]

I'm probably in, though I don't know how GBA games are going to look and play on it. All of the screenshots are of O.G. GameBoy and GBC games. I'm also not sure about those shoulder buttons.

I just bought a backlit GBC and I love it, but yikes, that screen is small. This device could save my already faltering eyesight.

[bmoc]

I'm really eager to learn more about the jailbreaking possibilities and that second FGPA. Since this can do GameBoy Advance, it can probably handle any 8 or 16 bit console. It has a microSD slot that could be potentially loaded with ROMs. Imagine having the entire library for all 8 & 16 consoles on one device that you can easily take on the go or play on a TV with same accuracy as original hardware. Yeah you will be missing out on light gun games and oddball consoles like Atari 5200 (due to the numberpad controller) but it is still an exciting prospect.

[marurun]

While this is not something I'm angling to pay $200 for, I do think it is rather impressive. What's up with that massive screen resolution? That might be just to make it easier when outputting via HDMI. But what I really want to know is if they have managed to improve the audio output of the GBA and circumvent/replace the 8-bit linear DAC.

[bmoc]

What's up with that massive screen resolution?

It is an integer scale of the GameBoy's original resolution 160x144 as well as 320x240 (240p). I betcha that is the reason. Also I corrected the resolution in my original post. I was off by a number.

[dsheinem]

Any word on how much the dock is? How about the adapters for Lynx, etc.?

[bmoc]

They are targeting $10-15 for the adapters. No word on the dock yet though he said "it would not break the bank". I'm betting under $50. https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/16/2091 ... cartridges

[dsheinem]

They are targeting $10-15 for the adapters. No word on the dock yet though he said "it would not break the bank". I'm betting under $50. https://www.polygon.com/2019/10/16/2091 ... cartridges

Sweet. Thanks.

[alienjesus]

I'm interested in this. A portable console that plays real games, has a headphone port (stupid GBA SP...) a decent quality, well-lit screen and a rechargeable battery (stupid original GBA...) is right up my alley. The fact that it also supports other old portable gaming hardware with a backlit display is even better. I wish it worked for Wonderswan too, but you can't have everything I guess!

However, I can't lie when I say that at this stage I have concerns about the form factor. The original GB layout isn't the most comfortable - theres a reason basically every other handheld put the screen in the middle of a horizontal layout. The d-pad and buttons look too close to the edge, and those buttons look really close together too. Using the bottom two buttons (as you will for literally every portable this system supports, why even have 4?*) doesn't look very comfortable. And then the shoulder buttons are placed right beside the cartridge port, which looks alarmingly easy to knock the cartridge and crash the game. Hopefully this will all be improved or prove insignificant, but I'm a little worried right now.

*Yes, I know it probably has 4 facebuttons so it can be used for emulating SNES and Mega drive and whatnot later, but I'd rather they prioritised comfort for the system's primary purpose first and foremost!

[Sarge]

Going that high-resolution also ensures systems that use resolutions that don't multiply cleanly will still look pretty sharp, even if using interpolation.

It's also apparently using the same FPGA as the MiSTer project, which would potentially open the doors for bringing over cores from there. If they do, I'd very, very much consider snagging one. There is some irony that I just now finally got an AGS-101, but since I only paid $30 for it, that's not a bad deal.