Analogue Pocket

[QualityChimp]

Good posts, guys, thanks.

I think noting the glossy photos is a very important point, because they really have got their marketing sorted and it all looks brilliant.

I still don't see why this is better than getting a refurbished Game Boy Pocket or Game Boy Colour for about £140.

[Asura]

Good posts, guys, thanks.

I think noting the glossy photos is a very important point, because they really have got their marketing sorted and it all looks brilliant.

I still don't see why this is better than getting a refurbished Game Boy Pocket or Game Boy Colour for about £140.

Those do look fantastic.

Admittedly also it depends what you want to do with it. I really wanted something good enough to allow me to sell my GBA collection and to play NGPC games, and I feel I've got that.

[wakka]

Good posts, guys, thanks.

I think noting the glossy photos is a very important point, because they really have got their marketing sorted and it all looks brilliant.

I still don't see why this is better than getting a refurbished Game Boy Pocket or Game Boy Colour for about £140.

Well, it plays quite a few more systems than those would...this does NGPC, GameGear, GBA, Lynx, plus GBA and GB/GBC. I also just think the general build quality on these is going to be higher, based on Analogue's previous stuff.

I think Analogue products are always a little divisive, and I honestly think part of that is their overall aesthetic. Their marketing is modelled very closely on Apple, and I think that kind of annoys people.

Their prices are high, but not excessively so for this kind of enthusiast retro gamer stuff. I mean, there are Everdrives that cost £200, £300, £400 or more, and you need the original hardware (and probably a scaler) to use those. But those all very much have that kind of homebrew, underground vibe to them that I think a lot of retro folks are more comfortable with than the super-slick Analogue presentation.

[SuperDanX]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nintendo announcing a new Gameboy ‘mini’ before this comes out that plays games from across the gameboy family.

[Asura]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nintendo announcing a new Gameboy ‘mini’ before this comes out that plays games from across the gameboy family.

To be honest, it's kinda shocking they haven't. Those ANBERNIC devices really show the potential of such a thing.

The GBA library is such a treasure-trove that Nintendo, for whatever reason, don't seem to want to plunder. God knows why.

[SuperDanX]

To be honest, it's kinda shocking they haven't. Those ANBERNIC devices really show the potential of such a thing.

The GBA library is such a treasure-trove that Nintendo, for whatever reason, don't seem to want to plunder. God knows why.

Nintendo have some event thing in August I believe so I’m expecting a handheld mini thing or a N64 mini for Xmas.

[fuse]

@Asura also see this regarding the screen.

Embedded Tweet

In general, I'm fully expecting this to be a reference-grade product for original GB/GBC/GBA carts. We can already see that it's actually been designed by folks who know and care about quality design. Comparatively, a lot of these generic handhelds have the design ethic of Homer's Car, with a bunch of inputs in vague service of best-effort software emulation for any given platform where it doesn't visibly drop frames, and has even pre-loaded 'teh romz'. It reminds me of those MAME cabs you see where the CP has 20 buttons per stick and a trackball, and you can't even play Street Fighter 2 without having to scroll for half an hour through some jank interface and giving yourself hand cramps trying to press more than one button at once. I get that the price tag for a lot of Analogue products has been high, but I think $200 for the Pocket is actually really good for people who want something of this nature.

[dataDave]

I'd certainly be after one if I didn't already have original hardware.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nintendo announcing a new Gameboy ‘mini’ before this comes out that plays games from across the gameboy family.

[Arashikage]

What with the Switch drought currently being like it is I wouldn’t be surprised at Nintendo pulling another Mini out of the hat. This is exactly the kind of situation where it suits them. Let’s hope they fully mastered that N64 emulation...

[Baseley09]

First Analogue product that actually has a purpose.

[Nu-Eclipse]

What with the Switch drought currently being like it is I wouldn’t be surprised at Nintendo pulling another Mini out of the hat. This is exactly the kind of situation where it suits them. Let’s hope they fully mastered that N64 emulation...

The work that Nintendo would need to do just to get N64 emulation running at a minimum 720p/30fps on SoC hardware is precisely why they won't do it, imo.

If they were able to just put the NES/SNES Mini hardware into an N64 shell, they would surely have done it by now, no? The fact that they haven't is kind of telling imo.

And that's not even mentioning that interest in Mini retroconsoles has pretty much died.

[speedlolita]

Have to agree, they're smart enough not to release a sub par product.

[randombs]

Even if they could, is it even worth the hassle to make one? It's not quite NES/SNES levels of popularity and nostalgia so the market would be smaller.

[Arashikage]

Oh I know full well that an N64 Mini would be a pipe dream considering the emulation limitations of their chipset, I was just opining that the drought is the kinda situation where something like this might pop up.

The Mini console band wagon has come and gone for them however, it provided a purpose at the time and that was that. Unless they’ve got a killer direct coming up the drought might be real for them this year. I wonder what they’ve got up their sleeves to stay in the “conversation”.