News by Matt S.
Ever since I discovered the Analogue Pocket, I have been looking forward to the opportunity to secure one of these devices. A retro machine designed to play old cartridges (and I have dozens of Game Boy games thanks to trips to Japan), the Pocket is a deluxe unit in every sense of the word, and it finally has a pre-order and tentative shipping date. You’ll be able to pre-order on August 3, and the unit will ship in May 2021.
This device has 10x the resolution of the original Game Boy (1600 x 1440), on one of the most gorgeous-looking screens we’ve seen on a handheld device, ever. Out of the box it’s compatible with Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, but there are additional add-on adapters for those with Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket and Atari Lynx cartridges too.
There’s even the potential that a development environment might spring up around this device, because the hardware creators have partnered with GB Studio – a “game maker” designed specifically for Game Boy game creation, to encourage developers to make fresh new games that are compatible with the machine. We’ve even written a review of one such new Game Boy game – Deadus. The potential here is really exciting.
As a final curious note, the machine also comes with a host of music creation and beats tools designed for live performance. It seems like an odd secondary feature for the machine, but I’m sure this will be a compelling “bonus” for a lot of people.
There’s no news on how much this device will cost, but expect it to run for a premium. You’ll probably want to pre-order one of these as soon as pre-orders open, as it will no doubt be a limited first hardware run, and you wouldn’t want to miss out.
In fact, I’m not sure I should even publish this story. I don’t want to add on to the competition…
– Matt S.
Editor-in-Chief
Find me on Twitter: @mattsainsb
