Review: Analogue Pocket

I'll admit it: I'm a skeptic, and a grouchy one at that. I rarely let fun or interesting new products go by without a “harumph” or a “humbug.” That's why I think I need to issue a retraction here.

See, when niche video game console maker Analogue announced the Analogue Pocket, its first handheld retro gaming system, I rolled my eyes and sneered. In my defense, Analogue's previous game machines, which played Nintendo and Sega games, were made in limited numbers, making them scarce and highly sought after. Analogue devices are like the hypebeast sneakers of the retro gaming world, for better or worse. 

So, the Analogue Pocket seemed to me like it was doomed to be a limited-run handheld with some incredible features that … would be hoarded by collectors who'd let it sit on a shelf. Or that it'd be a new nerdy status symbol for the well-heeled. Well, after waiting nearly a year for my preorder to arrive, I can say that I was wrong.

This console exists, I have one, and despite all the hype it's even a bit better than I thought it would be, especially thanks to some recent software updates. If you don't care about the nostalgia brought on by using an actual Nintendo Game Boy, the Analogue Pocket might be the ultimate upgrade for your retro games collection.

The initial promise of the Analogue Pocket was pretty simple: This modern handheld, with its high-resolution display and USB-C rechargeable battery, works just like a Nintendo Game Boy. Pop in one of your beloved childhood game cartridges—maybe it's Super Mario World from the original Game Boy, maybe Pokémon Crystal from the Game Boy Color, or perhaps Metroid Fusion from the Game Boy Advance era—and it comes to life in vivid, pixel-accurate detail.

Let's say you're more of a Sega Game Gear person, or maybe you prefer the Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket, or the obscure PC Engine Express. You're in luck! Adapters—sold separately, of course—let you plug in those games too.

At the heart of the Analogue Pocket is a technology Analogue has used in all its products. Unlike the generic retro Android-based gaming handhelds that "emulate" console hardware with software, the Analogue Pocket has something called an FPGA. FPGA stands for field-programmable gate array, and the field programmable part means that it can be trained, on the fly, to mimic many kinds of classic gaming hardware as soon as you fire up a cartridge.

TL;DR: It's got some fancy chips inside. How well does it work at, y'know, playing games? I'm happy to report that when it comes to Game Boy games (including Color and Advance titles), it's awesome. 

The glorious 3.5-inch, hi-res display has 10 times the pixels of the original square Game Boy but ably shows off wider Game Boy Advance titles, albeit with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Analogue has preset some different screen profiles for each system, giving you either eye-bleedingly sharp and modern graphics and colors or a faded look that mimics the original screen along with a grid effect that renders games in a convincing facsimile of an original Game Boy LCD.

My collection of original Nintendo Game Boy cartridges has a few dozen titles, from Japanese imports to weird hardware add-ons like the Game Boy Camera. Everything I slapped into the Analogue Pocket worked as advertised, although a few sent the Pocket into a failure mode where it tells you to clean the connector on the cartridge. It's not surprising to me that decades-old, dirty, and slightly corroded games may not work the first time I slot them into a sparkling new console. My advice is to pop out the cartridge, clean off the cart's pins with some isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip, and let it completely dry off before trying it again.

Screen aside, the Pocket hardware itself is nice to behold. It's clear that Analogue is going for Bubble-Era-by-way-of-Dieter-Rams with its design, reducing every aspect of the Pocket until it's almost annoyingly minimalist. Although many buyers opted for the black version, I think the white model I ordered looks more akin to the original Game Boy, albeit with most traces of color sucked out.

As such, the mint-green power button on the left side is really flat and far harder to press than the reassuring power switch on Nintendo's original hardware. This button doubles up as a sleep-wake button when you're running a game, which makes short bursts of gameplay simple and convenient. The neighboring volume buttons are also really tiny, although you can instantly mute the Pocket by clicking plus and minus simultaneously.

The all-important game controls are exceedingly well executed. The Analogue Pocket has a D-pad and four face buttons (A/B/X/Y, all unmarked). At the bottom edge are the buttons for Start and Select, and right in between them is a button with the Analogue logo engraved in it. Press this middle button to jump into the settings menus while a game is running to change audio settings or tweak the screen profile.

You can also use this button to create ad hoc save points in games (Analogue + Up) or take hi-res screenshots (Analogue + Start), both of which are saved to an inserted microSD card, which lives on the console's right edge. (These functions are part of the Pocket's Memories feature, which is still in beta.) 

If I had any bit of feedback for Analogue here, it'd be that a version of the Pocket with clicky controls might be interesting. Later Nintendo consoles like the Game Boy Advance SP and some Nintendo DSes had very tactile dome switches under the buttons, which is super satisfying. The Analogue Pocket takes after the earlier-style Boys, then, with a silicone membrane under the buttons providing bounce and feedback. 

Around the back are two itty-bitty, clicky left and right trigger buttons, necessary for Game Boy Advance games. These flank the Game Boy cartridge slot. Unlike on a real Game Boy, the cartridge is kind of hanging out in the open, exposed and too easily jostled. This could be an issue especially when putting Pocket into a bag when it's asleep—the system can lose your spot if the cartridge gets knocked around. I can see how Analogue needed to compromise. After all, the adoption of triggers on Nintendo's first Game Boy Advance model dictated a complete redesign of the system from a vertical orientation (buttons on the bottom) to a horizontal one (buttons on either side of the screen). Here, since Analogue chose the first Game Boy as its inspiration, the small triggers have nowhere to go other than dangerously close to the loose-feeling cart slot.

This makes Game Boy Advance gameplay a little worse than standard Game Boy and Game Boy Color gaming. On real Nintendo hardware, I can go ham on the triggers without worrying about the cartridge popping out. Here? I'm less confident. It never happened in my hours of testing with trigger-heavy games like Drill Dozer and Metroid Fusion, so the fear may be irrational. But I did have a cartridge get brushed out while resting the console on the sofa, so it can happen. 

The last noteworthy hardware components are on the bottom edge: a Game Boy Advance-style link cable port (multiplayer with actual Game Boys and other Pockets is totally possible), a USB-C port for charging and for use with the optional HDMI dock, a power LED, an IR sensor (yes, Pokémon-heads, the Analogue Pocket does work with Mystery Gift!), and a 3.5-mm headphone jack.

The Pocket's internal battery lasts, in my testing, right around 7.5 hours while playing a Game Boy Advance cartridge. To compare with "competing" solutions, I ran the same cartridge in a GBA SP and original-style GBA, both modified with IPS backlit screens you can buy online. The GBA SP, with a fresh rechargeable battery, lasted a bit over seven hours while the GBA's rechargeable AA batteries took it a bit past eight hours. Kudos to Analogue for making the battery somewhat user-accessible; the cell is hidden beneath the rear panel. After removing the four Torx TR6 screws that secure the panel, the battery can be gingerly lifted out. I'd reckon it’s about a 10-minute job.

Most of the advertised functionality the Analogue Pocket offers is well done. If you're looking for a new-school handheld that plays your beloved Game Boy cartridges, then it's nearly a turnkey solution. But what if you want a little more power? Well, this is where things get weird.

I mentioned that the Pocket uses an FPGA chip. That was only half true. Analogue Pocket has two FPGA chips, one of which is now user-hackable as part of the OpenFPGA program. Since this was unlocked with a firmware update over the summer, the hacker community has released a number of "cores" that support an even wider array of gaming systems. 

This also means it's possible to play games without cartridges. While the legality gets a little dubious in some cases (it goes without saying that you shouldn't pirate games), if you own a game cartridge and can extract the file inside, you can put it on your microSD card and create a playable backup.

This opens the floodgates for playing indie games and other oddities. For instance, using the community's Super Nintendo core, I was able to play a fan’s translation of an obscure Japanese dating simulation game. While it seems technically infeasible to get retro 3D games running on the Pocket (you probably won't see a Nintendo 64 or PlayStation core), everything up to and including the 16-bit era is on the table. There's even an Amiga core in the works! And fan-created apps let you load up a microSD card quickly and effortlessly.

Admittedly, it's early days for these cores. If playing Game Boy games is your primary draw to the Pocket, then this hacked mode will be less attractive, with its fewer features and lack of the excellent default screen modes. There's a chance that the state of the community-powered software will improve, but right now playing games directly from the cartridge is still the fastest and easiest way to do it (even if you have to swap carts to change games).

Analogue, for its part, also has some promises to keep. There are still grayed-out options in the menu system, like one on the home screen labeled Library. Another promised feature was supposed to automatically save Game Boy Camera pics directly to the SD card. Neither of these things has materialized yet. With the OpenFPGA work out of the way, I'm hopeful the company will deliver on these and many more feature upgrades in future firmware updates.

In terms of authenticity, the biggest competition to the Analogue Pocket, perhaps ironically, is the Game Boy itself. Nintendo designed its hardware to last awhile, and there are millions of systems still in circulation. If you like the original Game Boy designs, then there's never been a better time to clean off an old Boy and start tinkering—hi-res screens, colorful new shells, and rechargeable batteries are now installable with the (gentle) turn of a screwdriver, no cutting or soldering required.

But as cool as it is to revive a trashed Game Boy with 21st-century tech, not everyone will want to deal with the hassle. That makes the Analogue Pocket the best new Game Boy you can buy. I'd argue that saving old systems and creating new compatible ones is a form of media preservation. The fact that Nintendo itself has been wildly inconsistent when making its old titles downloadable means the cartridges in circulation are incredibly precious artifacts. And if you've got a stash of your own, the Analogue Pocket is one of the best ways to celebrate the gaming legacy of the Game Boy. Just be prepared to wait awhile for your order to arrive.