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Comment by markx2 | Hacker News Reader

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markx2

Buttons. You need buttons.

Analogue Pocket

Everything Game Boy and so much more.

https://www.analogue.co/pocket

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Or any of the multitude of Chinese emulation handhelds, which are generally cheaper, can emulate systems like the PS1/N64 which can't feasibly fit onto the Pockets FPGA, and are available in more ergonomic horizontal form factors. The Pocket is a nice piece of hardware but it's far from the only option if you want real buttons.

Here's a primer on the current <$100 market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UGr42nOv54 . Above that price bracket there's options like the Retroid Pocket 4/Pro, which get into the territory of being fast enough to emulate the Gamecube/Wii/PS2.

Or any controller and android phone clip

Yeap. Analogue Pocket is neat, but pretty much anyone that can afford one probably already has hardware capable of playing Game Boy games in their pocket. Unless you're a stickler for FPGA gaming, I think most people would prefer to buy a cheap Bluetooth controller and play that way. It's not like most people still have their cartridge of Yoshi's Cookie to play on anyways.

It's very easy to screw up the controller when designing a device. And if the built-in controller sucks, then it's completely worthless no matter how powerful it is.

D-Pads especially are hard to get right. You can either be way too lenient on diagonals, or way too hard to hit diagonals. I had a Chinese handheld where you couldn't consistently hit Down while holding Right. Sonic runs into the enemy because his roll attack didn't start.

The major benefit of a Game Boy emulator on iOS is how much it would increase access to Game Boy games. While I love Analogue, their limited quantity stocks and high price tag make them a high barrier to entry. The iOS emulator would be an incredibly low barrier to entry.

There are many Game Boy emulator PWAs available on iOS today. I haven't tried it myself, but I believe some of them even support gamepads.

Alternatively, the Miyoo Mini+.

Costs less then the shipping of an Analogue Pocket to the UK /Europe (when you add the import tax+fees to the excessive shipping cost) and gives a decent pocket-sized gaming nostalgia hit.

Another alternative is to upgrade a real GBA or GBA, there's IPS screen kits, replacement shells, and modern rechargeable battery packs available now. Also for less than the shipping of an Analogue Pocket, if you've got a device to upgrade.

The Analogue Pocket was unobtanium for so many years that relatively inexpensive alternatives appeared. And while FPGA gaming is great to reduce input lag or to output to a CRT, the benefits are less obvious on a small handheld.

Cheaper FPGA systems are starting to appear too, the FPGBC is an FPGA-based drop-in motherboard replacement for the Gameboy Color. Every other component of the GBC has also been cloned already, so you can actually build a fully functional replica of the GBC using zero original Nintendo parts now, but with a better screen, USB-C charging, etc.

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