Analogue Pocket Pre-Orders Have Sold Out, But More Are On The Way

It looks cool, but is way too over priced

The announcement of an announcement was super lame.
But it helps seeing how much everything will run

Heck yeah. I paid $120 for a modded GBA SP, so $199 for a premium product like this isn't too much of a stretch for me. The $99 dock doesn't seem too far-fetched given the price point of the switch dock.

@jwfurness Agreed. Analogue's quality is incredible. They simply make the best modern consoles to play retro games

I want to know what measures they will be taking to prevent bots from buying everything in under 30 seconds like is happening across the toys and collectibles market every time a new item goes up for sale online.

My GBA SP AGS-101 make GB, GBC and GBA games work. It's easy to find as well and much cheaper than this. It's cool about transferring via dock "a la Switch" for a screen experience but there are several ways to have this on the big screen. In all, its a nice slick product but that is overpriced for what it is.

insta-buy (both the dock and the console). Might buy multiple.

I am waiting for Playdate.

@The_Legged_One When you really check out the specs (especially that screen and the 2x FPGA), the thoughtful design choices and the software, I think it's priced to match the quality. I'm definitely intrigued - and have been wanting for more info since it was announced last year.

Compared to the casual Chinese handhelds everywhere these days this will be a breath of fresh air in the market.

@Hordak Very good question! I think we should ask them.

@Damo Fingers crossed that you’re right, my friend.

I am glad to see it is so cheap. I really expected it to be $250-300.

Looks cool, but it is a ridiculous price, 150 would of been enough.

Not a fan of the design to be honest, especially the half-thickness top portion that just looks weird to me like half of the top is missing. And I don't like how all the buttons and stuff are just totally plain and blank either; it makes it look like the design is unfinished with details that have still to be added, which, as far as I'm aware, is not the case.

@NoTinderLife Definitely a sexier design than the Analogue Pocket imo, and that crank is just a cool and unique feature (some might say gimmick, but I say cool and unique).

Very tempted, looks amazing. I wonder if the latest Chinese Handheld Makers will copy the design before the Analogue Pocket even comes out.

I was so ready to go at 11 am est when I expected preorders were to go live.....and nope, all I got was the announcement that preorders go live in a week. Haha.

I’ll try again next week. I want this thing!

Honestly, this looks flipping amazing. Going to start buying up carts I think. I have a gameboy color but I mean... rechargeable battery and HDMI-out and all that sounds great. Plus that music tool has really got me interested since MilkyTracker never really “clicked” with me. Sucks about the delay but it seems worth it!

You guys must be Huey Lewis, because this is the f$%#ing news. I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this console. Gameboy is my favorite console of all time, and this device is a beautiful love letter. I'm getting both colorways. 🤓

Considering this will be able to use all the console cores made for their FPGA systems until now (there are many) off of an SD card with system perfect emulation. I think this is great, there is no need for me to get any of their other systems. Being fully 8bitdo compatible is also a dream come true haha.

I own a Mega SG and Super NT and the quality is amazing, the price is exactly as it should be as this is an FPGA product, 100% cycle accurate with some great features and not a dodgy software emulated rom-dumper.

For the price, I would need it to be compatible with the GCN/GBA link cable so I can play the original Crystal Chronicles and Four Swords.

I don't mind the delay, I'm just excited they are actually bringing it out.

I think I will cave in. I have a somewhat big GBA cart collection.

Playing on the SP is great. Maybe only the console itself. The dock is a bit too pricey for me, but will get some other things.

I hope the display looks as sharp as it does in the screens. I always like seeing the sharp pixels.

@Panopticon maybe it is? The link cable port seems to be the same as the original one so I assume the gamecube cable works fine. 🤔 They mention you can use their cable on older model (except for the very first game boy) so I assume its the same connector.

I still think that this is a neat idea but the screen is too small for me these days.

@Gridatttack Once I have confirmation it works, I will definitely consider purchasing it.

@impurekind that's where the game goes, lol

Well, I will decide on ordering when it gets much closer. I see no point in pre-ordering right now as it is projected to ship May 21. It is a shame too, I was looking forward to this, this year.

This thing is super cool, but not $200 cool. I'm sure it's worth the price as their stuff is top notch from what I've read. Hopefully we get a NSO update that adds GB/GBC/GBA games but definitely not holding my breath for that :/

hmm I have about 35 ish GBA games ( I think)
Looks cool but a bit pricey

@YANDMAN

How on earth do you know $150 would be "enough". For all you know they would be selling at a loss at that price point or their margins would be so thin it's not worth putting it to market. This isn't a random Chinese emulation machine that you see in eBay for $20. They've designed the best possible product they could for a very niche market. Anyone baulking at the price was never in that target audience.

@IPrino

Just a heads up that historically if you're not in on the ground floor for this companies products you end up waiting a long time for them. Obviously you'll be waiting a long time anyway but more than likely the only people who'll get this in may are the people that pre-order asap.

Just something to think about. It is a long wait from now until next may and I completely understand waiting until there's a more reasonable time frame from putting your money down and getting the product. .

@RhiannonRune Doesn't mean the entire area has to be missing or that they couldn't have added some kind of cover so that when closed the thing is basically the same thickness all over (even with a gap for the shoulder buttons). It just looks weird the way it is imo.

@MetalGear_Yoshi That is true. Thanks and tske care my friend.

I'll keep waiting for the day that a N64 FPGA is possible. Now that will be a day one purchase.

If this was shaped like an original GBA, I'd preorder it right now. I just don't think those tiny triggers will be comfortable to use. Also with my big hands, i don't know how comfortable a vertical system will be during long gameplay sessions.

Does this have the ability to back up your cartridge library so you can boot games from it instead of carrying around cartridges? Because that would be really cool.

Also, if I play a game which has a dead save battery (like ALL my old Pokemon games) will it store a save in the console or not?

@TenEighty Let's hope they're able to make something like that! The original Analogue Nt used original parts from the NES, so they might be able to do something like that for the N64 as well. It's not ideal, but beats poor emulation!

@Baker1000 No, Analogue products don't offer that functionality without modding. You could buy a rom cartridge like an Everdrive ~

@Baker1000 Actually the jailbreak firmware offers that. I backed up my carts to SD. Only carts that don't run from SD are the 3D chip ones. You have to have the carts for those.

This is pretty tempting. I have my original GBC and GBA SP but the screens are not great. This looks like a great way to replay my old collection of games. Don't think I'd bother with the dock as these are handheld games that won't get much from being played on a tv IMO.

The World is blowing up next year, but you can sign up to escape next month.

@Gridatttack It's pricey, yes, but it will be worth it to me to have my GBA collection playable on the TV. It's almost worth it just for the three Castlevanias, two Fire Emblems, two Golden Suns, and two Metroids.

@MetalGear_Yoshi because I know that's how much I would have been prepared to pay, Hence 'Would have been enough'. Secondly, I'm very aware this isn't some Chinese handheld for $20 for two reasons, 1: it isn't Chinese, 2: it costs $200. Thank you for your input though and raising my awareness of not being the target audience for this product.

@NoTinderLife yup, so am i, but has been quiet on that release front as well... (advange of analoquecoming out in 2021 i have a new thnig every year...

Time to start searching for some classics!

Will this support 4K TV output over HDMI, or is it 1080p or even 720p instead?

@RupeeClock

Unlikely to need a flash cart unless you want save states. The Super NT/Mega SG can both be loaded with games via SD card. I'd be shocked if this was not the case for this machine.

I love their other products. I kind of want to wait because this is their first manufacturing product with a screen. So there may be some issues that they can work out over time. But reality is I'm pretty excited for it so I'll buy it day 1 and be their beta tester.

@RupeeClock

Kevtris builds those jailbreak firmwares. Yeah it seems his agreement with Analogue is to post it in a non-official capacity but it's as good as it gets and they do bug fixes on it. The one issue that analogue has is their roll out of products. They will likely not have cartridge adapters day 1 so jailbreaking is likely going to be the only way to play non gba/gc/gb games initially.

@RupeeClock

This will have two fpga cores with one open for development. That said I'm not sure that it's powerful enough for Snes/Gen and I'm not sure how much that feature will be used by the community (IE if other cores will come). Based on previous launches this will sell out fairly quickly. They'll have additional runs of it though so it's likely you'll be able to pick one up sometime.

@RupeeClock

I think it's kind of vague thus far. There are two cores and I'm not sure they are opening up both cores for development. As such, it's possible that they don't open up the full power for development and that it can't reproduce SNES/Gen. The 2nd FPGA is quite a bit smaller than the primary one if that's all they give access to.

@RupeeClock

I think it's great value. If you were to buy a GBA with AGS 101 screen you are looking at paying $120. Add an Everdrive X5 and that's another $110. Assuming the highly likely jailbreak happens you get both of those in this device. And that's just one system.

A Game Gear with a McWill screen costs about $270. Then add in a GG Everdrive for $80.

A Lynx Everdrive with McWill with cost about $330. Add a flashcart for $70.

A backlit Neo Geo runs around $230.

If you are interested in any system with mods or flashcarts this system will be better value. It's also right around where the competition is. The RetroUSB AVS is an FPGA NES which will cost less than an NES and RGB mod and you'll still need an OSSC or Frameister to output great picture and it's $200 and doesn't have a screen and has a smaller FPGA chip.

Value is subjective, but I think the value here is a slam dunk and will be purchasing immediately. I actually have many ways to play most of the systems and have already heavily invested in modded systems but I still want to grab this.

Ah, I looked last night and saw they still had plenty of other systems still for sale so figured this wouldn't sell out immediately...I was wrong.

Got mine pre-ordered. It's worth it to me just for the new lease on life it will give my GBA collection. I can't wait to play Golden Sun, but on a nice big screen with nice loud music on my nice comfy couch. And old school Fire Emblem. And three outstanding Castlevania games. (Well, two outstanding and one very good.) And Gunstar. And the wildly underrated Racing Gears. And...

I really hate this continued pre-order nonsense that companies constantly use these days. I have to work and have other commitments hence I can’t sit at a computer waiting to pull the trigger when a product goes live......just give us a release date and allow people a chance to buy it fairly on that date.
I’d also love to know how many were actually sold, it sucks they’re willing to hold peoples cash for a year but can’t give an answer on further stock.
Scalpers paradise no doubt!

I got my preorder in just in time. Woo!

@The_Legged_One So please show me the cheaper one.
I will buy a cheaper one using an FPGA right away.

I gotta know- can this play emulated games or does it play older cartridges or are games pre installed in the device?

Damnit, I forgot the pre-order was today. I'm salty about forgetting I was going to snag two of them (one in each color) and a dock. At least more are on the way.

Lucky I preorder mine before they sold out.

£200??? Looks lovely and would look nice but at the end of the day would I play it that much? Probably not.

@NoTinderLife Wow, thanks for pointing this thing out. Really cool. Anything Teenage Engineering has a hand in is sure to be fun and interesting. This is definitely something to keep an eye on.

@impurekind Of course you're entitled to not like the aesthetics, but the reason it has to be fully open, rather than just the size of a GB cartridge, is to allow for cartridge adapters. I personally much prefer having that option, even if it does look a little weird.

@Nookingtons Would be that pay pig if there was stock.

But seriously, if you're someone with a giant collection of GB/GBC/GBA/GG games like me, a high quality modern solution to use them both portable and docked is well worth the price.

@NoTinderLife Exactly

This might be the best example of something you think you want, but absolutely do not need. They rely on your fomo to exist.

How can they "produce more" when they haven't even produced any to begin with?

🤔

@KillerBOB Unless they produce none, how could they not produce more, if they haven't produced any to begin with?

Though I think it's pretty obvious they put up pre-orders for an existing contract/order with a manufacturer, and they're saying they are planning to increase capacity.

@Nookingtons He who smelt it dealt it.

Yeah, we will probably see more stock of these available before we get GBA games on NSO.😣

@RupeeClock fascinating; good to know, thank you.

After waiting about 8 months with no updates at all - to be then told its nearly another year to wait, whilst they hang on to your $300 and garner a nice bit of interest - pi**ed me right off to be honest.

I MAY buy this in the future - but not releasing it in 2020 after such anticipation and radio-silence has made me question if the bloody thing is worth it - and whether the devices I already have are all I need.

Honestly, the way they've handled it has given me a right anticlimax towards the product and this company. They should have feed us information on the delay earlier. But no, they left us assuming the wait was nearly over to buy the ruddy thing. Rant far from over. Badly handled Analogue.

@The_Legged_One Powerful FPGAs are super pricey. This honestly seems quite reasonable.

@Hordak Concert tickets as well.

Wow. Now those are pretty systems.

Scumbags are already trying to sell these on eBay for up to $950.00. I put in an offer for $50.00 on one of them lol

Somehow I got my preorder in. Went black w/base, case and screen protector. Never sold a GB or GBA game in my life. Can't wait to revisit my library and pick up some new ones as well!

@brunojenso Yeah not the best look. This is actually the most excited I've been for a system launch in some time, and I was ready to buy a black system, white system, dock, cases, screen protectors, cables, and a set of cartridge adapters... a stupid expensive purchase to be sure. So after the lengthy delay, I'm kind of glad I didn't hand over $600-$700 for them to hold ransom for a year. I just hope they really do follow through with increasing production, because I'm going to be beyond disappointed if I can't get at least one of these.

Very interested in this but I'd rather see how well it's received first as it's a lot of money.

I was out of internet connection bang on release time. By the time I got connection again I managed to get one in my bag but it wouldn't purchase, and then they were all gone. Disappointed but hopefully more are produced.

@Jokerwolf I’m not sure about that; Analogue havent released the SNES, Megadrive or NES cores to be used on their other systems, unless native to that Super Nt, Mega Sg or NT mini.

The cores that have been released on the unofficial jailbreaks were for lesser systems like master system and gameboy, plus older stuff.

So it will be down to the fpga community to port over cores from Mister (for example) for snes, MD, NES, PC engine, and maybe some of the other cores that have been developed for Mister like neo geo, CPS1, Sega CD. At this point we have no idea how powerful the available core is (its a cyclone V like Mister uses) but im sure theres a lot more to it than that.

We also dont know if this thing will again be unofficially jailbroken by Analaogue themseves straugjt away like their other systems have been, which i assume would make both fpgas available.

If it can do GBA which is a 32 bit system, you’d think it would be able to handle the rest of the 8 and 16-bit systems as well. So in that sense this could be the last retro system you’d ever need....

@Hordak I have a fake ebay account and enjoy blowing scalpers out of the water and bidding ridiculous amounts and never paying....suggest everyone does the same

@roadrunner343 i agree. its just too much money to had over to a small company for a year nearly. If they go under you aint getting anything back

Too rich for my blood. I have a modded GBA, works great and I'll stick with that. Emulators if I want to play on a big screen. EZ

@bryce951 I'm pretty sure Analogue has been around for some time, now. Hardly a fly-by-night company. Still, the item is overpriced. Also, screwing around on eBay is only showing something about you, not something about the people you are ripping off by falsely bidding.

@bryce951 I doubt they're going under any time soon, and I've been thrilled with past purchases from them. They clearly know how to make top-notch products, even if for a niche market. That said, I still don't like anyone holding on to that much money for such a long time.

@TG16_IS_BAE I actually don't think the system itself is overpriced, but the dock seems to be. Don't get me wrong, the system is very expensive, but I think you get what you pay for here. It's just a very niche market who would care about most of the technical specs.

EDIT: Regarding the eBay scalpers... I blame the dumb people willing to pay that much more than the scalpers themselves. I purchased an Analogue NT Mini back when it first launched, played with it for a year and realized one day people were paying stupid amounts of money on eBay for them. I put it up for sale and it auctioned for $1700. Obviously that's different than someone intentionally buying loads of stock just to resell (Though, Analogue limits 2 per buyer) but the way I saw it, I had something that someone else wanted, and if they value it more than I do and they are willing to pay a stupid sum, I will let them. Like I said, I'm more excited for the Analogue Pocket than any other system I can remember, but it's not that hard to refrain from paying scalpers.

@roadrunner343 i suppose my issue is why do they take all money up front. and its probably a little naive to think they might not go under in the current economic climate, its not beyond the realm of possibility at all that they could have issues from their supply chain.

@TG16_IS_BAE i will continue to sabotage ebay listings where scalpers buy products with the only intention of illegally reselling them.

@bryce951 Anything's possible - I'm not saying they're immune, just that it's not a concern of mine.

Also, back to eBay - what are you talking about illegally reselling? To my knowledge, there's nothing preventing people from reselling items on eBay at a higher price, apart from morals... though I'd say you're just as bad if not worse for intentionally sabotaging auctions.

@bryce951 How do you know their operation is illegal?

@bryce951 I love that fake account/sabotage idea

I was so bummed. I got up early to pre order had everything in my cart and the shipping took forever, pocket was sold out when I went to my final payment screen at 8:09. That said yea I’m not too bummed to save $388 on something I won’t see for a year..

If I owned a lot of games for this then I would definitely get it. It looks great. Unfortunately I would have to rebuy all the games so I'm out.

Well looks like I made a rookie mistake. I was thinking 8 PST was 12 EST. I actually did log in 9 minutes after the sale started and had it in my cart but it went OOS while picking shipping. So it took 9 minutes to sell out. Their tweet just went up 15 minutes after the clock. Hopefully I'll get one eventually. I kind of wish they didn't announce when they were going to go live because my guess is that a bunch of scalpers picked up orders. Would be easier to miss out if I knew a bunch of people that would enjoy the device had gotten in there orders.

I was hovering over the preorder button, even got as far as putting my details in, but then closed the window. I've been interested in this since I saw an article on it in Edge last year, but I'm on the fence about how much I'd actually end up using it. I'd also like to have read some reviews of the final build before parting with my cash and wasn't sure when they took the money for this machine that doesn't come put till next year, and as some people have suggested it comes out right away, I'm glad I didn't bite.

Well, by the time they get their act together Nintendo will have their own gameboy remake.

@kuliddar

The AGS-101 screen is no doubt better for just GBA games. The only real benefit then is for GB and GBC games, as the GBA screen is average for these games.

I was able to grab a black Analogue Pocket this morning, but hesitated on the dock, so I didn't get one. The price seems fair, but as a premium way of playing some old GB, GBC, and GBA games I'm looking forward to it. It's also just too bad that I had to pay now and wait 10 months (minimum) for it to ship. The extras all seemed a bit pricey and I didn't grab the Game Gear attachment as I don't have much worth playing on it. Still excited, but... now the wait begins...

It's also nice that there is nothing Nintendo Switch related on the horizon otherwise I likely couldn't have afforded this. If things keep going this way I may have to grab the Analogue Super Nt for my SNES collection.

@Thunderbee That would be great, and I'd grab one. But similar to the differences between the Super Nintendo Classic and the Analogue Super Nt, they are very different systems. Still a GameBoy Classic and Nintendo 64 Classic would be a day one purchase for me.

@jwfurness what was the mod? I love the sp form factor and have the original in silver.

@KIRO It has the guts of the AGS-101, but a new case/buttons. The case is an icy white and the buttons are glacier blue. So, not a mod to functionality but to aesthetics.

Sound gorgeous! A project for another day....I need to catch up on my first

I love these niche handhelds, but where are the quality software cartridges being sold? The only retro handheld games I can find online are ancient cartridges that could die out at any time.

@Ulysses There's no moving parts, so there's not much risk of a cartridge dying - aside from the save battery if there is one - which is a relatively simple fix. Don't think anything in my collection has failed yet. I don't think a single cartridge in my collection have failed me yet, dating back to the NES.

@roadrunner343
Ah, I see. As someone who doesn't have any tools or confidence in DIY electronic repair, I used to regard my cartridges with dead save/time batteries as useless. It's good to know that it's a simple fix. I suppose I imagined even chipsets without moving parts as something that would eventually burn out after so many years, like every form of physical media.

@mattmanvsuperman To my knowledge, no. But, I think there are flash carts that do and the possibility of custom cores adding it in the future.

@Ulysses Not saying they'll last forever, but should be a good long time =) Regarding the battery, I spoke to toon - GBC carts did have the battery soldered in place, which I had forgotten about. Soldering is not as tricky as people think though, so it's still a fairly simple process if you have the equipment. Being interested in retro-gaming kind of necessitates it, long term - I've recapped I don't know how many handheld systems, replaced LCDs, speakers, etc...

Sold out in minutes. Seems like a marketing trick to me. It looks kinda cool but it cost as much as a Switch Lite so why don't get the later and soft-mod it