Analogue Pocket’s FPGA-fueled features revealed: $200 pre-order on Aug. 3

After its reveal last October, Analogue‘s portable, retro powerhouse system, the Analogue Pocket, is getting closer to reaching our hands. Today, Analogue has confirmed that Pocket’s pre-order program will kick off Monday, August 3, for $200. That news comes with a delay, however, with the portable system’s original “2020” window being pushed back to May 2021.

As we learned last year, there’s a lot built into this $199 device. The biggest sales pitches include dedicated support for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges, a “hardware-emulation” backbone as powered by a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) board, and an overkill display resolution of 1600×1440 pixels. Today, Analogue answered most of our remaining questions, and most, but not all, of the answers are good news.

Subpixel gaps, thick glass, and cartridge adapters

Analogue Pocket pre-orders go live next week, ahead of the system’s May 2021 launch.

Analogue

Analogue Pocket pre-orders go live next week, ahead of the system’s May 2021 launch. Analogue

“Original display modes” will emulate classic portable screens’ subpixel spacing.

“Original display modes” will emulate classic portable screens’ subpixel spacing.

Here, a clearer look at how the filter (which is optional) will look when applied in GBA games.

Here, a clearer look at how the filter (which is optional) will look when applied in GBA games.

“Original display modes” will emulate classic portable screens’ subpixel spacing.

Here, a clearer look at how the filter (which is optional) will look when applied in GBA games.

And a clearer look at the same effect for GB and GBC modes.

All sides.

Top-to-bottom: Cartridge adapters for Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx, and Sega Game Gear.

A newly recessed Analogue Dock opening should make Analogue Pocket fit more securely.

The number of lit dots represents the number of controllers connected, both wirelessly and wired.

Analogue Pocket will natively support connections to MIDI controllers.

Same goes for laptops.

Analogue will sell each of these cables for $20 or less.

A new transparent hard case option, selling for $30.

You can’t play the Analogue Pocket while it’s sealed up, so this is meant purely for storage or showing the system off on a shelf.

First is the screen, which Analogue confirms will ship with a 1.5mm Gorilla Glass covering on its 3.5-inch LTPS LCD display. Though we haven’t gotten exact clarification on the hardware’s in-game color options, particularly for classic monochrome Game Boy games, Analogue is keen to show off its newly announced “original display modes” feature. This takes advantage of the system’s overkill resolution to emulate the subpixel gap inherent in original portable Nintendo hardware, as shown on games for GB, GBC, and GBA, and the sample images thus far look quite handsome. We’ve yet to notice any uneven pixel scaling or other faulty image-scaling issues.

In killer news, the display will include variable refresh as a default, instead of fixing game refresh rates to specific multipliers, and users will have the option to rotate any game’s orientation in 90-degree increments, should “tate” mode be useful for a particular game.

That’s more likely to matter depending on the system in question, and Analogue has now revealed cartridge adapters for Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket Color cartridges. These will function much like the cartridge adapters for Analogue’s Mega Sg, though exactly how they’ll fit into the Analogue Pocket—and how much clearance they leave for the system’s L and R shoulder buttons—remains to be seen. Only the Game Gear cartridge adapter will be available for pre-order next week, with the other portable consoles’ adapters receiving a vague “coming soon” notice.

Beats, battery, and Bluetooth

Analogue Pocket is bullish about exploiting the Game Boy’s unique series of four sound channels, and we already knew it would include homebrew music app Nanoloop pre-installed. Now comes word that the portable system will support audio-out cable options, via the link cable port, which include MIDI, analog, and USB Type-A. Want to sync multiple Nanoloop devices together or connect Analogue Pocket to your favorite MIDI controller? Analogue will sell you each of those three cable types for $20 apiece starting Monday, August 3. (This is much nimbler than hardware attachments needing to do the same things for existing Game Boy models.)

The system’s battery life, as powered by a 4300mAh lithium-ion battery, should run in the 6-hour range at “default brightness,” Analogue says. The handheld system will also include a “low-powered sleep mode,” should you wish to pause gameplay in a title that doesn’t support save files. And if you have a power adapter that supports high-speed USB Type-C charging, Analogue Pocket’s default Type-C port will play nicely with that for quick recharges.

In bad news, the Analogue Pocket won’t ship with any faked version of Bluetooth multiplayer connectivity, which means two systems won’t be able to wirelessly communicate and, say, let fans trade Pokemon. Instead, you’ll need a third-gen Game Boy link cable, the one designed for the GBA, though Analogue will sell its own version of that cable for $16.

Dock controllers, Pocket homebrew potential

Two USB plugs are on the backside of Analogue Dock.

Credit: Analogue

The Analogue Dock will also open its pre-order program on Monday for $100, and as we already knew, it accepts Analogue Pocket via a USB Type-C docking point and outputs its video feed via HDMI at up to 1080p resolution (or can be connected to the Analogue DAC to play nicely with CRT displays). We’ve now confirmed that the Dock will support up to four Bluetooth game controllers, up to two 8Bitdo 2.4Ghz wireless gamepads, or up to two wired USB Type-A gamepads.