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Comment by izzydata | Hacker News Reader

I don't even understand the use-case for this device. Who saved all their cartridges, but not their Gameboy? You may as well get a cheaper and more versatile retro handheld. The idea that hardware emulation is somehow better than software emulation when the end results feel indistinguishable to the user seems like a pointless argument.

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> Who saved all their cartridges, but not their Gameboy?

The point is to be better than a real Gameboy. Most of the original GBs don't have backlights, the original GBA in particular is INCREDIBLY hard to see unless you're sitting directly under a lamp. The speakers are usually pretty quiet. With the Gameboy Advance, if you want a frontlight/backlight you need to get an SP which I personally think is very uncomfortable for extended periods, and also doesn't have a headphone jack without a dongle (Nintendo was way ahead of Apple on that!). The GBA is backwards compatible with older Gameboy games, but the cartridges awkwardly stick out of the device an inch or 2, which make them awkward to transport around.

Plus what others have mentioned, with the fact that it'll probably get hacked very soon to enable running any game from an SD card.

It becomes clear pretty quickly that the biggest boosters do not actually understand what's going on with the FPGA emulators and believe all kinds of false things about both it and software emulators. Of course they perceive it to be much better but it feels like an audiophile effect going on to me.

I will say that FPGA emulation is cool in some ways -- the power draw is less and you can achieve lower latency without some of the CPU-intensive methods that software emulators have pursued to do it. But most of the claims made about it do not stand up to scrutiny.

Most people are buying it for the jailbreak that comes out a few weeks after launch which will allow custom cores as well as loading ROMs from the SD card...

In theory this would also work with a Everdrive?

There is speculation that it will run quite a bit: https://old.reddit.com/r/AnalogueInc/comments/r86i0w/kevtris...

Yeah, no reason why it wouldn't.

Modern Vintage Gamer has confirmed that the Analogue Pocket works with both the GB everdrive and the GBA everdrive in his Analogue Pocket review [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew91PeRy-ro

It does, however the sleep functionality doesn't work when used with an Everdrive, as confirmed by DigitalFoundry.

As a retro gaming enthusiast, I kinda agree. FPGA emulation is still emulation and can suffer from inaccuracy just as much as software emulation does while having a lot more limitations. It can provide lower latencies and better power efficiencies, so it isn't worthless, but its a set of tradeoffs that don't make a lot of sense to me especially when you're using original media instead. Not to mention that used GB/GBC/GBA/GG are all available for a lot less than the Analogue Pocket if you're looking for an authentic experience, and if you're not then software emulation provides a lot more flexibility.

Not saying this to disagree with you, but there are companies manufacturing new cartridge copies of old NES/SNES (probably GB but I never checked) games for a fraction of some of the more expensive games. A friend of a friend of mine got a copy of Chrono Trigger for SNES from aliexpress. There are a few "tells" to know it's a copy (one of which is that it looks too new!), but it plays perfectly in his SNES. Your point still stands, but I just thought this was interesting that this market exists.

That's more understandable, at least to my retrogaming enthusiast eyes. A reproduction cart is trying to look like the original cart and provide the sense of physical connection to the work[0] that ROMs just don't give you. The Analogue Pocket does not really resemble the devices it emulates, and while it can provide a means to play original carts, one can get original devices for the same or less cost that will also do so and be more authentic.

Which is not to say there's no reason to own an Analog Pocket, it's a set of tradeoffs. I just personally find those trade offs make very little sense.

[0] by which I mean the game, taken as a piece of artistic expression

The device supports several different systems, not just the various Game Boy iterations.

Compared to original hardware, the promise is that it will have a better screen, a sleep mode, let you play on TV, load ROMs from computer (if you're a developer), etc. Compared to software, the promise is the form factor.

There are a lot of software-emulation based consoles in this form factor that provide significantly more features than the Analogue Pocket. If authenticity is not your goal, I have to agree with parent that there is little reason to prefer FPGA in this space.

You can easily buy an Anbernic device for less than one hundred dollars if you just want portable emulation, so it's not the form factor. It's specifically for people who are hung up on software emulation vs. FPGA-based emulation.

https://anbernic.com/products/anbernic-new-rg351v-retro-game...

Seems to be $120 for equivalent form-factor, but still missing a large amount of what the Pocket supports (such as physical cartridges, link cable, and TV output), and with a worse display and a smaller battery. And it's not like the Pocket is that much more expensive at $220.

On the other hand, I can't use the Analog Pocket to play PlayStation, Dreamcast, Genesis, etc., can I?

Not yet, but the hardware capability is there.

Irrelevant. Your claim was specifically that the only reason to get a Pocket was for people "hung up on software vs. FPGA emulation". I pointed out multiple unique features of the Pocket and differentiating aspects vs. a random Linux emulator handheld.

OK, I take it back. It's for those people, and also people who have a bunch of Gameboy cartridges but no Gameboy.

The FPGAs are neat, and certainly help with power efficiency here, but they're not the primary draw of this system. It's the fact that 100 pixels make each gameboy pixel and serious work was done to use those 100 pixels to look like a convincing recreation of the original screen. That's easily $100 unique.

A Retroid Pocket or an Anerbnic seem like more all-purpose devices for cheaper with a better form factor. I'll wait to see how people feel about it after the hype goes away.

This device will almost certainly run ROMs -- all their devices do. They do this strange dodge where an "unofficial" hack is released which is clearly made by the original team.

If not, the next item on the list for someone buying a device like this is probably a flash cart.

I think this article explains quite well what makes it so special:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2021-analo...

I've ordered one today as soon as the orders opened, personally I'm incredibly excited about it - it will compliment my collection of classic gameboys really really well.

The carts and games are way more valuable than the consoles themselves, which were mass produced over many generations.

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