Analogue Pocket

Thanks, Paul! So the first core in the Pocket will run all the devices they’re saying it’ll support, and then they put a second one in there that devs can play with to make custom cores. Or, presumably, make the Pocket emulate other legacy devices as well. Which means as a user of a Pocket, I can probably go on the internet and get an HDL that will make my Pocket a C64 machine, if that’s what I want.

You know you could just buy a DS for cheaper, right?

That’s a reasonable expectation for the Analogue Pocket. In fact, it’ll probably happen within days of its release.

Yes that sounds about right. I am not sure if you will have access to reprogram both FPGAs or not officially but I am sure people will figure things out pretty quickly once it ships.

Note that while Analogue claim you can’t use roms with their hardware all their previous devices have had unofficial firmware that lets you do just that released pretty quickly.

Yes, but is it in SEXY BLACK with WAY TOO MANY PIXELS in the display?

wumpus had a weird hate for Analogue’s products.

Pocket will be expensive, and you’ll have to pay up front when you pre-order. That’s how it’s worked with Super Nt and Mega Sg before it. Their shipping costs are astronomical in 2019 (or presumably 2020), too. Premium product with premium fees.

Remember how they opened up preorders and were bought out by bots in minutes? Well, here’s some good news that got buried: Analogue Pocket pre-orders will return in 2021, with anti-bot and scalper measures - Polygon

Hopefully this means I’ll have a chance to get one.

I fail to see the appeal of this thing in a world where most of my gameboy batteries and some of my GBA ones are starting to fail, and where the individual games are now more expensive than the old consoles you need to play them.
Ah, the GB and GBC run on non rechargeable batteries, I guess there is that.

These are on sale right now. It’s possible your order won’t ship til 2023 (you can cancel) but I went ahead and ordered this time. Fingers crossed I’m in the first group in 2022.

It’s not totally my bag, but the reviews of the shipping systems arriving with people now are absolutely excellent and I’m very happy with Mega Sg and Super Nt, so I’m in with Pocket now too.

I ordered one too! If I end up in group C (2023) I’ll likely just cancel.

Nice! Yeah, I’m not sure I’ll let $300 tied up for a year and a half. I think I had $250 hanging out there for Super Nt for at least six months when they did that one initially.

Did you get anything else? I got the case and the screen protector. Considered the Game Gear adapter but passed. More likely to get the Neo Geo Pocket and especially the TG-16 one.

Ordered as well. 260 bucks shipped. Kind of pricy, odd they are charging 27 dollars for shipping and handling domestic. I don’t think that feels correct, especially for something so small. I do understand the need to increase the price due to demands, but also, is that going to decrease the time it takes to get one shipped to me?

I did not order any other extras, those typically don’t sell out as quickly, and I will wait till I actually get it to buy extras. Most of my collection are GB and GBA anyway.

They’ve had outrageous shipping since the beginning. They used to use DHL but they said they used FedEx this time so who knows? It’s a feature of buying from Analogue. Premium product with premium shipping costs for no good reason.

Just so you guys are aware, they charge you immediately. They do not wait until it ships. Another feature, not a bug.

The good thing about their stuff is it’s super valuable so if you don’t like it, or you tire of it, or whatever, you’ll be able to re-sell for at least what you paid, almost guaranteed.

Low-volume shipping is expensive as hell, but maybe they’re padding their margins a bit?

All I know is I’m glad I’m not trying to fabricate electronics in 2021.

It’s never been fully explained, but I think they’re using services for warehousing, packaging and shipping that are rather expensive. It’s not fast either. It took a few days both times I ordered.

Again though, the product is quality. I’ve been very happy with their stuff.

This looks really cool - i am thinking about ordering for my wife so she can play Dr. Mario or Tetris.

But where do you get carts? Do you just have to find them all on ebay? Or are they going to get reproduced?

You probably have local retro game stores near you depending where you live. That’s an easy place to begin. But yes, after that you’d have to use ebay or whatever other online retailer that deals in retro you might like to use such as sites like DKOldies.com or estarland.com among many others.

The appeal of these devices is that they play the original games you own using FPGA chips that simulate the original hardware. As far as the game is concerned, it’s being played on an original device. The FPGA allows them to create cores for multiple machines though and then add all sorts of trickery to make it look like it originally did on the original hardware (or crisper and clearer if you prefer that look).

Ebay or local game shops. I like dkoldies.com for their service, very good shipping, lots of inventory, but they are a bit pricier than ebay.

There are reproduction carts out there for a lot of games, and if that is what you want, they mostly work ok, not as good as an original cart, but for some titles, like the pokemon games, if you don’t want to shell out 100$+ a reproduction cart is your only option.

Q4 2022 for me. Number in the 90000s. Anyone do better?

So mine arrived the other day, and it’s LOVELY!

However, the Analogue Pocket is VERY sensitive to dirty cartridges, so I’ve cleaned them all and one still won’t work: Mario Golf Advanced, the one game I’m MOST EXCITED ABOUT.

So in my quest to find a solution, I was shown this video: