Analogue Pocket

[...] FWIW, OpenFPGA on the Analogue Pocket works pretty well. [...]

Retrocomputing FPGA work is a fun diversion from normal software, enough that my brain was convinced they weren't related (had a bit of a mental block for software). Over the course of a year, I went from knowing basically nothing to releasing 3 different FPGA emulation cores of my own for multiple platforms, along with releasing something like 5 ports (which is not necessarily trivial, particularly for a beginner) of existing cores to the Analogue Pocket. [...]

[...] I ordered their Analogue Pocket, with the dock, in October 2022 and it finally arrived in August 2023. [...] At the time that I ordered they only had black and white options, but of course they announced some really cool transparent ones the month after I got my shipment. [...]

If you still have the original cartridges, highly recommend getting a ModRetro Chromatic or an Analogue Pocket to replay them. I have the ModRetro and it has been a lot of fun rediscovering my old childhood games.

I wasn't taught directly (and don't know what I'm doing still), but I've had a lot of fun learning about retro hardware design as a software engineer. I've made a few of my own reverse engineered designs, trying to synthesize how the real designers would have built the chip at the time, and ported others for the Analogue Pocket and MiSTer project. Here's an example of my implementation of the original Tamagotchi: (

[...] The Analogue Pocket is fantastic for getting started with FPGAs because everything you need is built into the device and it's not "too" expensive. [...]

Why bother with an Everdrive on an Analogue Pocket? Mine has only seen a cartridge once, just because my partner happened to have an old GB game she wanted to see if her save had survived on, otherwise it runs entirely off SD.

I own an Analogue Pocket, which is an FPGA system for the gameboy color (and more). I have found that by forcing myself to just play the inserted cartridge instead of games loaded on the the memory card, I have a high attention span for the game and can play for longer periods.

[...] I bought an Analogue Pocket machine and downloaded an archive of ROMs from archive.org and the only game I've found myself playing from time-to-time is Tetris. [...]

FYI the Analogue Pocket supports a number of OpenFPGA emulators quite well, I have several carts but also plenty of harder to find NES, SNES and GBA roms loaded right on.

I purchased the Analogue Pocket and it’s a great little device. Got an archive of all GB and GBC games and can play them off an SD card using some of the FPGA cores available. while expensive, it’s great to have that tactile feel just like an original gameboy with modern quality of life features

[...] It may sound like shilling, but the Analogue Pocket is actually an excellent development platform because it's everything all in one; you don't need to figure out how to take input, load data, or output to HDMI, because that's all taken care of you automatically. Now you pay for that in having a $200-250 price tag, plus $50-70 for your JTAG adapter, but I think it's excellent for starting. [...] Gowin FPGAs are really, really cheap (Tang Nano 9k), and partially support an OSS toolchain, but it's missing many core components, and I've actually found bugs in the hardware (confirmed by others), so probably stay away. [...] If you use Verilator, you can have psuedo LEDs or even a display to draw on.

[...] I have primarily developed for the Analogue Pocket, so my documentation is themed towards that device, but there's IP (code modules) and wiki entries that would be useful for everyone: I had previously written a cycle accurate NES emulator, so I was familiar with hardware techniques, but not what they look like in circuits. [...] Tamagotchi I took a very typical software approach where I wrote massive amounts of unit tests and wrote against those tests. [...]

I wrote a brief article discussing my thoughts on playing 240p games on a CRT compared to a modern display[0]. It’s hard to perfectly convey, but the picture really does look exceptional and so much better than on a modern display and is something worth seeing in person. [...]

Personally, I just bought a GBA SP with proper backlighting and a flash cart for GBA games, but I also have an Analogue Pocket (resolution is better for GB/C, imo). Granted, I bought the SP years ago.

I've had the GBA and GBC set up on my Analogue Pocket, but this is the push I need to install the sega stuff on there, too! I've heard good things about the Switch emulation, though!

I'm so glad I got the Analogue Pocket before it became that and another scalped product... admittedly only ever used it for Game Boy Camera screenshots and I still use my GBA SP sometimes. [...]

My console setup. [...] Switch 2, Dreamcast, Analogue Duo, SuperStation One, and Analogue Pocket. [...]

Some years ago I bought an analogue pocket to play my (many) old game boy games. I was recently reminded that it runs on FPGA, so I dug around and found some cores online, and one thing led to another. Anyway, here’s Quake on a “Gameboy”.

I got a parting gift from my previous employer for my years of service 🫡 ...It's an analogue pocket!?😍😭🙏 (insane display!)

[...] I've had one since launch for basically every handheld I own: Switch, Steam Deck, Analogue Pocket, etc. [...]

Yes this is exactly why i bought an Analogue Pocket: to play Game & Watch tiddy games. Yes this is an actual G&W game, it's called....Squeeze. No im not kidding.

I got my Analogue Pocket in over the weekend, and I have already thrown 20 full hours into Tactics Advanced which alone justified this purchase tbh

I bought an Analogue Pocket which sounds similar to what you have and I've found the games... [...]

I have an Analogue Pocket, which works really well, but the fact that it uses an FPGA is essentially meaningless to me. Is there really any significant difference compared to software emulation? I know how they're different, I understand the mechanics of it, I just don't understand why it's not possible to make a software emulation that is as good as FPGA emulation. [...] I always felt like doing it in software would be a lot more flexible.

[...] I bought the Analogue Pocket with the base that connects to a TV but I've played one game on it and that's it. [...] I bought that Pocket CHIP a while back thinking I was going to use it for something (PICO-8 games maybe?), but now it just gathers dust. [...]

[...] It has a magnesium body, sapphire crystal for the screen and they claim a custom LCD that works well in sunlight. I have an Analogue Pocket. [...] If this is better with real carts it’s already better than the Analogue Pocket in that regard. [...]

I bought an Analogue Pocket last November and already the buttons on the front are starting to wear out. The D-pad sometimes doesn't register a click and other times registers two clicks. Nice device, but for $290 it should last longer IMHO.

I recently bought an Analogue Pocket and I think it's a great piece of hardware, but I'm really not a fan of this company's business model. [...]

I bought an Analogue Pocket and installed a bunch of emulators and games from archive.org. Gameboy Tetris is great (I bought a cartridge from EBay) but for me, that’s the exception. I’ve tried a handful of the other games and came to realize that games from that era just don’t click with me.

IMO, clock accuracy is less important for 3D games than it was for the handful of games that made me prefer the Analogue Pocket (Mother 3 for critical hits, etc.) I imagine they will be hard-pressed to garner a ton of interest over existing solutions, but if the controller is unparalleled and the CRT filters are really good, who knows. I also really hope they build support for microphone emulation. I'd love to play again without having to secure the special hardware that came with it (have it lying around somewhere but it has not stood well to the test of time...)

That said, the software ecosystem side of these devices feels like a near total disaster; I think it's a combination of legal concerns around copyright for ROMs, and the company's DNA. The amount of work to play, say Zelda on an Analogue Pocket, is akin to jailbreaking an Android phone, circa 2013. Lots of sdcard downloads, firmware checks, custom software tools, arcane paths through the OS software. I think they could afford to make a cleaner and easier software path. [...]

[...] I have two Analogue pockets, and really like the device. [...] That said, the software ecosystem side of these devices feels like a near total disaster; I think it's a combination of legal concerns around copyright for ROMs, and the company's DNA. The amount of work to play, say Zelda on an Analogue Pocket, is akin to jailbreaking an Android phone, circa 2013. Lots of sdcard downloads, firmware checks, custom software tools, arcane paths through the OS software. I think they could afford to make a cleaner and easier software path. [...]

I was on the Analogue Pocket waiting list and also the Framework computer waiting list. Still on both actually, though I've had the chance to purchase it (well at least the Pocket) and have not yet.