F@#$ I missed the Analogue Pocket pre-order!

God DAMN, that was fast. I have had my eye on this thing for about 2 years... and then it sold out instantly while I was on a business conference call. I was about 20 minutes late I guess.

^&%* !! Apparently they are making more but man, I'm pissed I couldn't get in on the first batch. :(

https://twitter.com/analogue

They lost my sale with the design, unfortunately. If they'd modeled it after the GBA SP, so that I could throw it into a backpack without worrying about the screen getting scratched, I'd have been waiting in line today.

Don’t beat yourself up too bad. Many people missed out just due to the credit card processing screen delays. Myself being one of them.

@nnickers: I actually like the design, the screen looks gorgeous - I think they sell a simple plastic case you can toss it in as well

Yeah, I'm bummed!! I've kind of regretted selling my Gameboy SP for a pittance many years ago and wanted a way to play these games again. Hopefully this product doesn't become impossible to obtain.

I guess I don't really understand this thing. I think it's cool, I think it looks cool, I think the fact that it's so versatile is cool--with or without the add-on adapters. But it seems like people are in a frenzy about this thing and I'm not sure I understand. The GBA SP does most of what this thing does...can someone tell me why people are so hot for this thing?

@regularassmilk: I lost my GBA SP some years back. So I'm in the market for a replacement. Better screen. Sleep mode functionality. The dock beats my dragging out my Gamecube Gameboy player which is currently my best way to play GB and GBC games.

Personally I think the business practices of Analogue are bad and not great for the fpga community.

But it is exactly the right product for a specific need I have. So I picked one up.

@regularassmilk: If your goal is just to play GBAS games and you have an "in good shape" SP then yeah, that is a good model. Even moreso if you mod it to have a better display and so forth

If your goal is to play other platforms: it is the usual precision versus cost debate that comes up when the FPGA solutions are discussed.

Personally: This is motivating me to want to make a psp (and original gba?) form factor device out of a raspberry pi since I don't need the extreme precision and think it would be a fun project.

@regularassmilk:

- (subjective but) incredibly attractive device

- from very competent developers & hardware manufacturers

- supports GB, GBC, GBA, GG, NGPC, Lynx, likely to support other classic non-handheld systems

It can perfectly play all GB, GBC and GBA games, on a high-res screen on a very slick device. If you have the dock, you can also output via HDMI to any TV. That is already interesting to me... but you can also buy adapters to play Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx... and once it's released and somebody probably 'jail breaks' the thing... it will most likely play everything from anywhere. There is a very high possibility that you can eventually put an SD card in there with 1,000's of games (all of which you own a personal hard copy of... of course..) and play all kids of things. It's a pretty amazing device and a I really, really, really want one...

I'm pretty sure they do another run of the Analogue Pocket. I don't think they've ever done a single production run, except for collab efforts.

I feel a little bad for them given that they are probably supply constrained due to COVID-19, but this was a crummy pre-order window.

I grew up with the gameboy but realized spending $200+ to play games I've played to death wasn't worth it. Plus I still have my 3DS and Switch, with the latter I get to play new stuff.

As for the appeal of the Pocket - it's new tech. You can send it in if it breaks and Analogue says you can user-replace the battery (although it voids the warranty). Plus it'll likely be jailbroken after a week so you can rip your games and load the roms onto an SD card. It's a great win for gaming nostalgia.

I hate gaming on my smartphone and this would be easy to throw in my jacket pocket. But like I've said, I have a Switch and I really don't mind carrying my messenger bag around.

@regularassmilk: Have you seen the price of a GBA online these days. They go easily for over $100 and them being 15 plus years old, the screens are not doing the greatest and the batteries are harder and harder to come by. $200 just for the base product is honestly an amazing price.

Shhh! I don't want them to hear and mark up the price for the next batch!

I thought they would have shifted to an open pre-order system by now. Have preorders open for like a month then just build to demand (with maybe a couple extra).

Are there even any videos of this thing in action?

everything I've seen so far, as a marketing push, is a CG render.

Nothing direct off screen or anything... but the images of the device and screenshots of what the games look like on the screen... and the fact that the company has a history of making pretty amazing hardware... that was enough to sell me. If they were some unknown company just putting out this device as their first product I would be VERY suspicious. These guys may suck a PR and apparently Web Store design (...or maybe load balancing..) but they make awesome hardware.

Analogue made the Analog NT, the Analog NT Mini, the Mega SG, and the Super NT, all of which have been stellar products well worth the asking price (except maybe the NT Mini, which is a hunk of aluminum and way too luxuriously expensive for what it actually does). It's a safe bet that this device will also be an excellent piece of hardware for anyone looking to play the portable games of yesteryear.

@justin258: @darkfiber:

Yeah that's fair – they have a reputation for making solid products, and the Pocket looks sleek (especially the black variant).

As someone (me) who has never used any of their products, I'm interested to see footage of it in someones hands, being played, clicking those tiddly looking shoulder buttons, scrolling through the OS etc