Dan

Neat!
https://www.analogue.co/pocket/


Also a dock:


Specs:
They made one mistake, though...
It's not 10x.

It's 100x.

Looks pretty slick.

Mike86

Jeremy517

Depends on how you count. If you are just going based on number of pixels it is 60x, but doing it that way is kind of misleading. If you are going by the ratio of the dimensions, it is 6 2/3x the width and 9x the height. Also those measurements mean it is either going to be letterboxed, cropped, or stretched.

Edit: Ignore this, I was thinking of the GBA's resolution

Jeremy517

Also, saying "no emulation" is misleading since FPGA is still emulation. They just have an asterisk at the bottom that says no software emulation.

Dan

I think your math is off. GB resolution is 160x144.
Analogue Pocket resolution is 1600x1440. it's 10x in both directions.
So GB games will be a perfect scale. A 10x10 GB tile will be a 100x100 tile. It's 10x on each axis, but 100x overall.
I'm not sure about the resolution of all the other game formats it supports, though. I imagine there will be some scaling and letterboxing, appropriately.

As for the emulation thing... yeah. I get what you mean. Hardware emulation isn't the same as software emulation, but it's still "emulation" in the greater sense.

milo bloom

I love the idea of these, but we have a GBA SP still in very good shape so we use that for all our GB games. And even that doesn't get played that often.

Jeremy517

Whoops yeah, I was thinking of the GBA resolution instead, which is 240x160.

Dan

Ah yeah, that makes sense. GBA is a little bit wider (1.5:1 on GBA vs 1.1:1 on GB), so I'm sure Analogue Pocket will offer 1:1 scaling with letterboxing AND some kind of stretching.

DVDTalker76

Thank you. I'm so tired of them spitting out this marketing point and everyone - "professional journalists" included - just lapping it up without question. It can be argued that FPGA reproductions are superior, that hardware is better than software, etc... but they are really pushing semantics to their advantage here. It also ultimately comes down to the quality of the implementation in the end, whether you are setting up an FPGA or writing an emulator.

Mike86

Dan

Mike86

DVDTalker76

I fully acknowledged that: "software vs. hardware". Their continual "no emulation" claim is strongly questionable when FPGA reproductions can be defined as hardware emulation. They are playing with terminology in a way that is deceptive to a less-informed consumer.

Mike86

tanman

Looks awesome but $200 is a bit steep. I thought that Nintendo would have come out with a gameboy version of the next iteration of their classic line. Like maybe a GB color with a much better screen and included games for $50.

Mike86

This goes up for pre-order on August 3rd. Not expected to ship until May 2021. I’m probably going to pre-order. Just need to decide if I want it in black or white.

They’re offering a bunch of accessories for it too. The dock is going to be $99. There’s also the adapters for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, Game Gear, and Lynx for $29.99 each. Plus stuff like a screen protector, a case, some cables, a fast charger.

I’m for sure going to get the Pocket itself and probably a screen protector. Maybe the fast charger.

fujishig

Already sold out.

Dan

Yep. I thought long and hard about getting this, but couldn't do it today for other reasons. I think I'm on board with getting one eventually, but I'm not in a rush. I can wait until the next round or until there's more casual availability.

Mike86

Was on the site and ready to pre-order. Got stuck on the screen where it was calculating shipping and it sold out.

I don’t really get how you sell out of a pre-order that’s almost a year away. I would think it would make more sense to have a pre-order window period if they wanted to make it limited rather than producing just a set amount.

I kind of hate companies that pull shit like this where they limit to the point where it’s not even easy to obtain an item.

rocket1312

Anyone here get one of these besides me? I get the sense that whatever shine was on Analogue in past years has kind of worn off in the eyes of some, but I'm having fun with this. Its feels great, although it may not be ideal for those with larger hands. I haven't played anything with the shoulder buttons yet, but I could imagine those not being the most comfortable to use. Right now all I'm doing is playing around with the 10 or 12 old games I had on the original Gameboy back when I was a kid, but now that I finally have it in hand, maybe I'll pick up some GBA stuff. That was a system I never had or never played. I've read a bunch of reports of problems with both the system and the dock, but I haven't seen anything yet on my end. But I also haven't attempted to update the firmware (which Analogue suggested we do immediately) and that seems to be the source of some of the problems out there.

Dan

I'm definitely interested but I'm in no rush. I do absolutely love how they've used their high res screen not to just produce 'pixel perfect' rendering, but rather a hybrid where it can genuinely mimic the look and feel of the original screens without the bigger drawbacks like lack of brightness, by giving it those outlines around the pixels and not just 'scanlines'.

It's very cool and tough to describe, but the Digital Foundry video goes into it a bit.

rocket1312

Like I said, I've only been playing orginal Gameboy games and I LOVE the way it mimics the pea green screen. It feels 100% authentic, but like you said, without any of the drawbacks.

Mike86

I’m wanting to get this. I might put in a pre-order at some point, but I know I’d be in the third batch at this point. So I wouldn’t even get it until early 2023.

fujishig

If the order numbers are indeed sequential, they sold a crapload of preorders within the first hour or so of opening them up again.

milo bloom

I couldn’t see a price when looking earlier, what’s this gonna set ya back?