Analogue's stylish Pocket handheld is delayed until 2021

[Shawn Knight]

Editor's take: Analogue’s multi-purpose Pocket handheld won’t make it out in time for the holidays, the retro gaming specialist revealed on Monday. That's a bit of a bummer for anyone that was looking forward to some nostalgia-fueled retro gaming on the go later this year. As is increasingly becoming the norm, we can likely blame the ongoing Coronavirus for the delay.

In a series of tweets published earlier today on Twitter, Analogue said pre-orders for the stunning portable gaming system will launch on August 3 at 8 a.m. Pacific. There’s a limit of two units per order although the first batch isn’t scheduled to ship until May 2021.

When the handheld finally does ship, gamers will get a slightly refined system with home, start and select buttons that have been repositioned to the low-center for improved comfort. The Dock accessory, meanwhile, now has a recessed section for added stability.

Analogue further revealed that Pocket will have a variable refresh rate, user-controllable 360-degree display rotation, an Original Display Mode that mimics the unique look of systems like the Game Boy and Game Boy Color and a 4,300mAh battery that offers anywhere between six and 10 hours of play time.

The Analogue Pocket is able to play original Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges natively. Using an adapter (sold separately), gamers can also fire up and play Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx games on the handheld.

Pricing is set at $199.99 in your choice of black or white color schemes. Cartridge adapters will go for $29.99 each. A full complement of accessories can be found over on Analogue's website.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/86145-analogue-stylish-pocket-handheld-delayed-until-2021.html

 

[Squid Surprise]

My Gameboy still works.... think I’ll stick with that

 

[arrowflash]

I understand purists who want to play retro games on fully original hardware and cartridges, or people doing the opposite of this (I.e. buying an OG retro console and playing its games through a flash cart), but I'll never grok the reasoning behind buying a modern non original emulator device to play original cartridges...

 

[Lounds]

Way too expensive, just buy a PSP or a Vita

 

[Lew Zealand]

I understand purists who want to play retro games on fully original hardware and cartridges, or people doing the opposite of this (I.e. buying an OG retro console and playing its games through a flash cart), but I'll never grok the reasoning behind buying a modern non original emulator device to play original cartridges...

If your old hardware is defunct but want the convenience of using a console to play your old games (as opposed to an emulator on your PC), it works.

We have a Retron 77 for Atari VCS games because our vintage '78 VCS simply doesn't work properly now. The Retron plays all but 3 games perfectly, uses the original joysticks and paddles, hooks up directly to the TV through HDMI, and is powered by USB which is also available on our TV. This is way more convenient than an original VCS (w/video adapters) or a PC emulator.

 

[arrowflash]

If your old hardware is defunct but want the convenience of using a console to play your old games (as opposed to an emulator on your PC), it works.

We have a Retron 77 for Atari VCS games because our vintage '78 VCS simply doesn't work properly now. The Retron plays all but 3 games perfectly, uses the original joysticks and paddles, hooks up directly to the TV through HDMI, and is powered by USB which is also available on our TV. This is way more convenient than an original VCS (w/video adapters) or a PC emulator.

Compared to a HTPC running emulators I see no advantage at all to these devices, other than the price (though many of them are overpriced, and if someone's buying more than one of these, a PC emulation box will almost always end up cheaper), and being more convenient for technically illiterate people.

If using the original joysticks is a requirement HTPCs can cover that, there are cheap USB adapters for sale, or you can build your own for those who are into soldering.

Even for portable gaming, a hacked PSP, Vita or Switch, or one of those Chinese general purpose portable emulation consoles, make more sense...

 

[Lew Zealand]

It depends on who's playing and what they're using. My kids use the Retron more than I do and there's no way I'm going to let a 9 and 12 year old configure MAME/Stella, etc. and figure out how to swap paddles for joysticks to play Warlords and River Raid.

With the Retron it's easy. It's the right tool for the job.

 

[arrowflash]

It depends on who's playing and what they're using. My kids use the Retron more than I do and there's no way I'm going to let a 9 and 12 year old configure MAME/Stella, etc. and figure out how to swap paddles for joysticks to play Warlords and River Raid.

With the Retron it's easy. It's the right tool for the job.

Okay, I can understand giving one of these for little kids (up to 6 or 7 years old), though in this case I think a *mini console with preinstalled games would make more sense. Even though original retro cartridges have been designed to be handled by children and take some abuse, nowadays they are rare and expensive, so leaving them around kids doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

Looks like you underestimate the intelligence and resourcefulness of older children... I'm not usually around kids, but a few years back I spent a holiday with friends who carried along their then 8 and 10 year-old sons. We would be for a couple of weeks in a place without working internet and not much for kids to do especially during evenings, so I've picked up an old unused laptop running Windows 7 and put up a collection of several emulators and roms so these kids could have something to distract themselves with.

They had no problems learning how to use and navigate the emulators (even the 8 yo kid), and even figured out by themselves how to change some emulator settings more to their liking which I wasn't expecting. If this happened today it would be even simpler, I'd just install Retroarch.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Yeah, they do treat the carts well but I suppose having them handle 35-40 year old tech is questionable. We also have the NES Mini and I'm supposed to have a Genesis Mini but Bezosville has already "lost" one order and we'll see if the replacement ever shows up (I'm not betting on it).

I've definitely not let them completely loose to learn everything about using computers, but seeing as they navigate a NUC connected to our TV to watch their favorite shows via streaming or local Kodi, installing Retroarch or similar sounds like a good way to encourage them to learn more about actually using the machine.

Luckily I still have thousands of ROMs back from my collecting days 20+ years ago. Hopefully not too many have bit rot.

 

[Nintendont]

I like the sound of this but $200 is expensive, as well as the £50 shipping and customs if I want to get it here in the UK. I'll keep my GBA for now.

 

[Nintendont]

It depends on who's playing and what they're using. My kids use the Retron more than I do and there's no way I'm going to let a 9 and 12 year old configure MAME/Stella, etc. and figure out how to swap paddles for joysticks to play Warlords and River Raid.

With the Retron it's easy. It's the right tool for the job.

I'd go to a Raspberry Pi 4 with Retro pie since your child could learn a bit about how to make a PC.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I'd go to a Raspberry Pi 4 with Retro pie since your child could learn a bit about how to make a PC.

And I have an RPi 3, got the first I could find when it was released and used it as a primary PC for a few months as a test. It's mostly good enough, surprisingly, especially if you keep Chromium up to date.

RetroPi is a great use for this as I haven't used the 3 for over a year now and it has enough grunt for retrogaming. And as you said, it could be good motivator for them due to Raspian/Linux's accessiblilty.