
Update: Good news! Analogue Pocket pre-orders will begin shipping on December 13th:
Original Story [Sat 11th Sep, 2021 16:55 BST]: The Analogue Pocket - a portable FPGA-based device compatible with the entire Game Boy library and other systems via adapters - has been delayed yet again.
Following on from its delay at the start of April, which pushed it back to an October release, Analogue has now shifted the shipping date to December. "New Covid restrictions" are to blame, according to the official website - and the company understands how "frustrating" this update likely is for anyone looking forward to getting their hands on this device:
"Pocket pre-orders will be shipping at the latest in December. Unfortunately, due to new Covid restrictions with our assembly partners, their capacity to deliver within our agreed timeframe has been affected. This has created a domino effect of delays beyond our control in what would otherwise be a seamless process."
"We understand how frustrating this is. It’s very frustrating for us, too. We are excited to get these amazing devices in your hands as soon as possible."
The same message also noted how the Pocket and all of its accessories would be restocked and immediately shipped after the holiday season. If you are interested, it'll set you back $199.99 USD and comes in black or white.
You can learn more about the Analogue Pocket in our previous posts and over on the official website.
[source support.analogue.co, via twitter.com, polygon.com]
Comments 70
Great. Gives me some months to save up 😏
Take your time, I'm still recovering from my Nt Mini, Super Nt order. How about some Analogue Duo info in the meantime?
Would love one, but not at the cost of prowling their stock like a scalper, so probably won’t ever get it
Good more time for me to save up. At least it'll be out before the Amico and the Steam Deck. If this one sell well I hope they make a horizontal oriented model like the Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket Color, and base Game Boy Advance.
For it's price, I rather have it be the best product it can be than rushed out. I'd rather they take their time.
Still looking forward to it.
FPGA consoles - the next step towards retro gaming perfection! Minimal latency, more accurate than software emulation, HDMI out, great physical looks, designed by seriously talented engineers. As good as original hardware plus CRT? Never has been, never will be.
With the exception of handheld devices - this looks beautiful.
I want one but didn't get a pre-order in on time so will wait and see if they become available.
Was looking forward to playing th Analogue in october, although I had a feeling another delay was likely. Still not convinced I'm holding this thing in my hands come Christmas, but I'm crossing my fingers.
No buy. I was excited, but all these delays tempered my feelings.
Planning to get on when they restock - I was really impressed with the Super NT and think the Pocket will be great too
oh didn't know about this, how neat. anyone else take better care storing their old games than the consoles that play them?
I gave up on trying to get any analogue product long ago.
Guess my GBA box remains in the cupboard a little longer.
I'll get it when it's available. Gives me time to go thru my rom library too.
@Steel76 I don't think this counts as a reason not to preorder. The preorders already taken will still be shipped long before the next batch of orders go out (which will probably be well into next year) so those preorders do still have value for those who want it as soon as it is possible.
EDIT: Apologies. I see it does say that the pocket will be available immediately after the holidays so maybe the preorders won't be going out so much earlier than regular orders. I'd missed that as it is not typical for analogue.
who cares anymore, i have a modded gba sp with a ips v2 display shrugs it can stay in limbo for all i care 🙄
for the same kind of money you can jailbreak a switch lite. Is analogue pocket better?
It's an OVER priced game boy buy a DS it can play GB,GBC & GBA 200$ for something Nintendo already has a device for you are STUPID
Aw, shucks. I was hoping to get one!
I'm still surprised people are so rabid for this thing, and I love my Analogue products. The Super NT and Mega SG are amazing pieces of hardware for those who want to play with original carts & controllers. But the most important aspect of a portable console is the form factor and control. When you buy a Super NT you know the controls will be great because you're using a Super NES (or similar) pad. No one has held an Analogue Pocket, no one can speak if the buttons are good, the unit is comfortable to hold, etc. I'll stick with an og GBA with an ips mod until the Pocket has been thoroughly played and reviewed in the wild.
Excatly there is so many options to play GB, GBC and GBA games on Android and Windows pc or retro goodness on original hardware, this is just a waste of time and space, no one has time for it
If you want to outperform that then good for you, no one will care about this retro goodness if you cannot perform!
@IronMan30 no one cares anymore....
@Twice4Life excatly my point, or just go on eBay and find so many amazing gbas with backlight displays for extra fun without the nonsense! I'm glad I did instead of waiting for this limbo to happen when nothing did!
@Twice4Life the ds actually can't play gameboy cartridges, just gba
Meanwhile, PC users have been enjoying emulation for the past two decades...
@huyi you can get GBA's on Amazon as well if you have a GameCube the Adapter can play gbs & gbas
@ancientlii thanks I forgot that
❌FORGET this device and get a 'BittBoy: Pocket-Go'.
No surprise- everything gaming related gets delayed at least several times these days. Doesn't matter if it's a bare minimum port (Sonic Colors Ultimate- in the case of Europe anyways) or a project like this. <shrug>
This definitely looks like it’ll be worth the wait…
@huyi I never did. Lol
Everything releasing nowadays comes with the same attached comment: "steam deck is better"
Surprised that nobody talked about that here yet.
@andykara2003 actually with their DAC you can output the Super Nt, Mega Sg and Pocket to a CRT via RGB or component, so there's that! I did that today on my Nt, it gives equivalent output to a 1-CHIP SNES via RGB SCART.
@Curbie we'll be getting reviews soon. And, you can use a controller with the Pocket while using the Dock. I have a pretty strong feeling the Pocket controls themselves will be just fine.
I do want one, but it's looking less and less like I will actually be able to get one.
@Twice4Life A DS can't play GB or GBC games.
Even though I have plenty of GBA hardware, that tiny-*** GC/GBA D-Pad doesn't work well for me.
Sad my OG DS is basically RIP as it was the only one with a D-Pad good for my big fingers.
I plan to get one eventually, to play my turbo grafx collection on the go. But with all the delays I’m actually kind of happy that I didn’t get one of the initial preorders, because folks paid in full over a year ago. I hope that the supplies and stock make these easy to get in 2022. It’s been nice to see the super NT and mega SG consistently in stock on their website.
@Scarthcaroth Reviews incoming doesn't mean anything until there's actually any critical analysis of it. And like I said, primary concern is the controls of the unit itself, obviously docked external controllers aren't a concern unless there's input lag, which again we don't know because no reviews. Much as I like their consoles they aren't flawless pieces of hardware, and they've never made a portable console or a controller. They're totally unproven in this realm. I hope it's great and I'll buy one if so, it's just surprising how many people threw their money at it and go to bat for the pocket with these things in mind.
@Steel76 but you may have to rely on THE SECRETS OF THE BLACK ARTS in order to get one at all 😂
@KingMike Read comment #29
These are a dime a dozen. Get a play.date instead.
@Ironcore Oh yes the PlayDate looks awesome and unique.
Looks cool, but the price is not realistic for me.
I’m still gonna try and get one, plus a game gear adapter. Having a handheld that would play my gb, gbc, gba and my gamegear cartridges would be amazing
I do want one so I can retire my ds (I just want the tv play).
@Curbie you can use 8bitdo controllers to play on the TV with the dock. it also upscales to 1080p so yeah if you want to play gb,gba,gbc on a tv this will be the best way. Not to mention it'll also play NGPC,GG, and TG16. so I'd say its still worth it.
that being said you have a point about the control as far as handheld use.
@BloodNinja its not emulation. I have every single gameboy game on my phone and a high quality controller to play them, but I still ordered this.
@Twice4Life DS doesn't play on a TV at 1080p. this device also plays game gear, Neo geo pocket color and TG16.
@Ratmasterd21 What’s not emulation?
@BloodNinja the analog pocket. You mentioned that you can just emulate these gems on PC, which is completely true. I was just trying to say that the whole point of this is that it ISN'T emulation.
Just to be clear I'm not saying there is anything wrong with emulation as I also use emulation on my phone and PC, I'm just the kind of guy who wants to play things the best way possible and this is more then likely the case for this product.
@Ratmasterd21 Oh, I thought the Analogue used emulation. Is it FPGA?
@BloodNinja yes it's FPGA. and the chip they are using is powerful enough to play GBA perfectly, so I assume if it's hacked it can do the same for just about anything retro (as in 2D retro, not PS1 or above) I know that at very least GB,GBC, GBA,GG, NGPC, and TG16 are supported out if the box (with adapters for carts that you have to pay extra for)
@Ratmasterd21 Neat! I'll stick with emulation. I've done side-by-side comparisons on my CR-TV and my emulators, and I don't see the difference.
@BloodNinja that's honestly perfectly fine. The fact that we have choices is the best thing about new retro gaming items.
Got my email. Wow! Here we go!
@Ratmasterd21 or if the point is to have a portable device to play all these?
Got my email this morning. They are stating that systems will be delivered between December 14 and December 30 with an option for people to hold off until January 3 to have theirs ship if they will be gone during the initial delivery window.
@rockodoodle yup all these retro portable devices in 1080p on the go using FPGA. It honestly sounds to good to be true. I guess I'll find out when I get mine. I just got the email today saying it's shipping the 14th.
If I can ever got one, I will impressive machine. Hopefully they will restock sometime next year.
@Ratmasterd21 let us know how it goes! I’m curious myself. For the price of a modded game boy, it’s a great value considering all the systems it supports.
@arrmixer sure thing. If it's great or of it's crap (or somewhere in between) I'll post my view here.
But will there be another 5 minute preorder window???
I don't get why everyone is so sure it will be great when we don't got any actually footage of the final product. And we're just few weeks away and still no hands-on. When you hear of many cherries, hold a small basket
It seems cool but at this point it might just be better to get a RG351mp
@dimi
Well, maybe that’s because Analogue has a track record of delivering great products.
I’m a firm believer in the concept of being a fan of a product, not it’s brand.
That being said, I own a lot of Analogue‘s products and so far none of them has been disappointing.
Pocket may very well be the first one. So far, Analogue has never made an original controller or screen, so we’ll have to wait and see. But if their past build quality is any indication, I’m optimistic.
Original cartridges are expensive and hard to find. I'm sticking to emulation or flashcart on original or modded hardware. I have an ips screen, custom shell and microusb on one of my GBAsps, that's my got to.
The DS can play GB/GBC games “via other means”.
Hell, I even have a DOS emulator on mine, though it’s a little awkward due to the disparity in screen proportions, and you’re quite limited in terms of what games can be played (286 compatible games are usually a safe bet).
Screw Analogue! I bought the Mega SG from them & they canceled My order saying it was a high-risk order & didn't tell me this in till 3 weeks later when I finally messaged them about it. I'll never buy from them again.
I got my confirmation email that my pocket ships on the 13th! Cant wait. This will be the best way to play GB, GBC, GBA GG, Neo pocket games due to the high quality screen and dock. Emulation is terrible when you try and realise how much better FPGA is, the input lag created by software emulation is real and makes many games very difficult. Further, the gamecube player is just a terrible way to upscale GBA to a big screen. The mister does a great job and it will be interesting to see how well analogues solution performs in comparison. I'm willing to bet its at least as good as Mister.
Low input latency, high def output retro gaming for multiple systems for a cost comparable to hard modding hdmi or rgb into just one of these old consoles (gamecube with GBA player for instance, and turbografx), its really a great product on paper.
I’m not that bothered about the Pocket. I really want the Duo instead, and no Duo is making me cranky.
Analogue also needs to re-issue the white Mega Sg console.
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