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Games

Analogue Announces Game Boy Clone Dubbed 'Analogue Pocket' (inverse.com) 48

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Analogue is set to announce a new Game Boy clone. From a report: Analogue, known for their FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)-based hardware clones of the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis/Megadrive, will be launching a handheld addition to their lineup called the "Analogue Pocket." The unit will be compatible with the entire library of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, as well as Sega's Game Gear, SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Colour, and Atari's Lynx -- essentially bringing every 90's handheld under one hardware roof, without software emulation. The unit will also feature a 3.5" LTPS LCD at 1600 x 1440 resolution (615ppi), and USB-C charging port. Further reading: Game Boy has turned Game Man, just in time for the original device's 30th birthday.
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Analogue Announces Game Boy Clone Dubbed 'Analogue Pocket' More

Analogue Announces Game Boy Clone Dubbed 'Analogue Pocket'

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  • What a bargain.

    • Yeah, pretty expensive considering you can get a similar device [retrogame300.com] for less than half the price. If you really get a better experience than software emulation, then I suppose it may be worth it, but for that price you could buy a Switch Lite, so it seems like they are asking a lot in my opinion.

      • Re:$200 (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @05:12PM (#59316316)

        Yeah, pretty expensive considering you can get a similar device [retrogame300.com] for less than half the price.

        Similar functionality, but not a similar device. Besides having native hardware support instead of needing to rely on software emulation, this new device also has literally 30x as many pixels in its display as the one you linked (1600x1440 vs. 320x240). You can also dock it to your TV and continue playing with Bluetooth and/or USB controllers. And apparently it does music stuff too? Mind you, I have no idea what good most of this stuff actually does for anyone, and a lot of the other stuff it has is massive overkill (e.g. a second FPGA baked in, just for developers to use?!), but it's undeniably a significantly higher-specced device.

        • Re:$200 (Score:5, Funny)

          by Malays Bowman ( 5436572 ) on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:12PM (#59316516)

          "Similar functionality, but not a similar device. Besides having native hardware support instead of needing to rely on software emulation,"

            Hmm....Super Mario seems to jump around just as well on emulation as he did on a real NES deck back in the 80's

          Or maybe I am not getting the FULL MARIO EXPERIENCE, because Mario isn't being processed through a warm CRT tube which enhances and and softens the fluidity of the jumps, and truly brings out the flavor. All I am getting is the harsh inferior Mario jumping experience that digital/solid state gear is only able to manage.

          • Strange as it may sound to you, some people enjoy video games the way others enjoy a good HiFi or a fine wine. 99% of the world will use spotify and drink green beers because they don't care. But I'm going to guess that there's something you care very deeply about and I could be very dismissive about that too. Sure, like audiophiles, people can take it to unhealthy extremes, but to someone who does care, it doesn't matter how good the emulator is, the flaws are caused by the OS it's running on, the hardware

          • "Similar functionality, but not a similar device. Besides having native hardware support instead of needing to rely on software emulation,"

            Hmm....Super Mario seems to jump around just as well on emulation as he did on a real NES deck back in the 80's

            Or maybe I am not getting the FULL MARIO EXPERIENCE, because Mario isn't being processed through a warm CRT tube which enhances and and softens the fluidity of the jumps, and truly brings out the flavor. All I am getting is the harsh inferior Mario jumping experience that digital/solid state gear is only able to manage.

            Hah! Good stuff. You gave me a good chuckle at my own expense. :)

            I do want to clarify that my intent with that phrase was simply to provide a callback to the only "benefit" the previous poster mentioned. That's it. I wasn't attempting to tout the benefits of native hardware support; I was simply attempting to acknowledge that the previous poster had mentioned a difference already. I felt like a failure to do so would be disingenuous on my part, since it'd come across as if I was denying that they recognized

            • I have a handheld game console called the Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable Game Player, and I bought it at a CVS drugstore (IIRC) a couple years ago. It has a couple dosen games loaded on it as well as a full size SD card slot for loading additional roms. One thing I noticed right a way is that the music to Sonic the Hedghog plays at a much lower pitch but same tempo as the original Genesis/Mega Drive hardware, The unit is also questionable as to whether it's a pirate unit because of the pitch problem, and t

        • All those extra pixels don't matter anyway since the old games had such low resolution anyway.

          • It looks like they're marketing it for use as a music authoring device of some sort, so I think the idea is that it would support apps in that vein, but as I already said, I really don't know what good most of this stuff actually does.

    • What a bargain.

      That is a bargain for an analogue computer with these capabilities.

      It must contain tens of thousands of precision potentiometers, capacitors and op-amps, all stuffed into a tiny portable package. Configuring this system to play classic games must be a real mathematical challenge, though.

    • Yeah, it is pricey, that would put it right up there with the switch lite wouldn't it?
      There's a bit of a novelty to it though, it looks beautiful in the images.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luthair ( 847766 )
      Interestingly it has a second FPGA for developers, which potentially means we might see cores from the Mister FPGA make it to the system.

    • I won't buy it at $200, but it doesn't seem obscene to me at $200 either, given what it does and has for its specs. In scanning down the product page, it:
      - Doesn't use emulation of any sort
      - Supports GB/GBC/GBA games out of the box
      - Has a 3.5", backlit, 615 ppi, 1600x1440 display, which is insane
      - Can be docked so that you can play on the TV
      - Supports Bluetooth and USB controllers

      I have no specific need for it since I still have a late-model (backlit) GBA for when I feel like playing those games, but if I w

      • I just finished buying in bits to get as close to perfect as you can get low latency GB Player output to a modern TV using a gamecube, GB Player, action replay, SD card adapter, custom GB player driver, RGB scart and an OSSC. If they had announced this 6 months ago I could have saved myself a whole lot of money and hassle.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sad_ ( 7868 )

      if you want to buy those consoles you'll spend far more money.
      and the sega game gear & atari lynx all need to be recapped adding upon the total price even more.
      you would end up with 6 consoles, not very handy on the go.

      ok, i know it's not the same, but just saying that for retro gamers the price isn't that crazy.

  • Is that an Analogue in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?

    • MiSTer is very cool, but not a sleek handheld device
    • How well does the MISTer actually work? I looked into it years ago and the general consensus was that for most cores it was about as accurate as a chinese clone console. The benefit to the far more expensive, single purpose Analog devices is that the cores they had built are pretty close to perfect. My take on it is you are better off taking the hit on lag and going software emulation than taking the hit on accuracy and going MISTer.
  • Those shoulder buttons seem look pretty rough for an adult to use.
  • How is something like this legal? Isn't Nintendo kind of known for throwing their weight around in court when it comes to 3rd parties meddling with their game systems?

    • I'm pretty sure this isn't their game system.

    • Because Game Boy Color is more than 20 years old, Nintendo's patents have expired. Whatever valid patents Nintendo might still have on Game Boy Advance are set to expire in two more years, after which point the hardest part of cloning a GBA is reimplementing its BIOS.

    • The Game Boy is from a time when hardware was pure hardware, and didn't contain copyrighted software (firmware/BIOS etc). Patents on the hardware should have expired by now (maybe not in the case of the GBA, though?)

      • If you'll allow me to be a pedantic git for a minute, the Game Boy does have a BIOS, and it used copyright as its anti-piracy. The BIOS is a tiny program that contains a Nintendo logo that checks for the existence of an identical logo on the cart. The GB would refuse to boot anything that didn't contain this bit exact image and since the image was copyrighted it gave Nintendo a relatively easy way to shut down unlicensed carts.

        Now, this is completely irrelevant to Analog because they can just boot the game

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Wulf2k ( 4703573 )

          Wasn't there a court case even earlier than the GBA about that exact sort of thing? Something Sega-ish I believe.

          My understanding was that copyright can't be used as a protection method, and you're allowed to violate it if the sole intention is compatibility.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Megane ( 129182 )

            That was about bypassing protection for running a third-party cartridge on an original console, when the protection required you to use a trademark or copyrighted code. Since the grumpy part is in the console, these guys can just re-implement it minus the grumpy checks. They could even display the Nintendo logo from a Game Boy cartridge without having a copy of it in their unit!

            It's only when the console has library code that games depend on that things get tricky, especially if games just call into arbitr

  • Game Boy has turned Game Manbaby, just in time for the original device's 30th birthday.

    Ftfy

  • Is it really enough to look exactly like a game boy screen? And even if so, who cares? I'd rather have more battery and more CPU so I can use fancier smoothing algorithms.

    The appeal of classic gaming platforms is that they're cheap. A GBA SP will play all the same games, and costs a whole lot less. Ditto a DS with an Acekard or whatever.

    • How many pockets do you have? You could just emulate those games on your phone that you always carry with you.

      • The problem with that is the lack of a controller. I personally think the best solution for handheld vintage gaming is GBA SP on the road and DS at home, and I have both since they were both cheap. I'm more likely to play phone games, but they are not the same games, because playing with on-screen controls is awful. I play the sorts of games that actually work on a phone.

        I had an Xperia Play, but Sony.

        • The problem with phone gaming is the lack of a controller.

          Then purchase an external controller that clips onto your phone and connects through USB or Bluetooth, making your phone look a little like a DS. Or does that have some serious drawback?

          • IME the controllers are either bulkier than a SP, or garbage. Are there any that don't fit that description?

          • Assuming you use android to do this, you will be in for a VERY laggy experience. Android is triple buffered and both the USB controller input and the bluetooth input is delayed more than you'd expect. Android is a dreadful OS top to bottom. It's just good fortune for google that iOS is worse in the ways that matter.

  • What good is that for, in a 90s handheld emulator? Wasting batteries? Probably not even replaceable ones.
    It's not even suitable for (actual) HD movies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zeroko ( 880939 )

      My guesses (without knowing about all the systems it supports):

      Having a resolution that is a multiple of every supported system's resolution

      Alternatively, having a high enough resolution that non-integer scaling is unnoticeable

      Imitating quirks of the original displays (like the scanlines on non-backlit GBAs)

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