Analogue, the retro gaming hardware company behind the excellent Nt Mini, Super Nt, Mega Sg and more, has announced a shipping date for its much-anticipate Analogue Pocket handheld: December 13. The portable console, which has support for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges out of the box, has been delayed due to COVID and supply constraints, but the company says all pre-orders will now ship out on December 13, with anticipated delivery dates between December 14 and December 30.
The Analogue Pocket looks to be a fantastic retro gaming experience, with a 3.5″ LCD display that operates at a resolution of 1600×1440, for a total display density of 615 PPI. In addition to supporting the range of Game Boy titles, it also works with adapters to support Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Atari Lynx cartridges, too. On top of its gaming chops, the console has a built-in digital audio workstation called Nanoloop that acts as both synthesizer and sequencer for music creation.
Analogue’s major technical achievement, besides the hardware design, is the creation of FPGA chips that allow it to run the game cartridges it supports natively, just as they were originally intended – crucially not in emulation mode. This means it’s a reference quality gaming experience for purists, with screen modes to support replication of original hardware experience for hardcore gamers.
On top of everything else, the $199.99 Analogue Pocket also supports accessories like the Analogue Dock, which provides 1080p output to a connected TV, as well as support for connecting up to 4 8BitDo controllers for local multiplayer via wired or wireless connections. The console itself also offers up to 10 hours of gameplay via its internal battery, and USB-C charging.