Analogue Pocket announced; can play a variety of handheld systems' games through FPGA

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Analogue is a company that has been taking retro video game consoles, and adapting them to use in the modern day, by providing a system that can play oldschool 90's game cartridges in 1080p, without any emulation. Previously, they've created the Analogue Mega Sg and the Super NT, "perfected" variations of the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo, respectively. Now, Analogue is taking on a new front: handheld gaming, with the announcement of the Analogue Pocket. This new system will play nearly any handheld game you can throw at it, from Game Boy, to Color, to Advanced, or even Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket Color; over 2,780 different games are compatible through two FPGA chips.

The Pocket will feature a 3.5" screen in a case similar to that of a Game Boy Color. The LCD has a resolution of 1600x1440, and offfers a ppi of 615. It will also have a function for those who wish to create music using game's soundfonts through a built-in synthesizer called Nanoloop.

Addtionally, there will also be a dock sold seperately, which can allow you to place the Analogue Pocket onto it, and play your games on a TV through HDMI, much like the Nintendo Switch.

Analogue's Pocket will launch sometime next year, for $199.99.

:arrow: Source
 

FateForWindows

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Just to clarify, they aren't using their own custom FPGAs, though this should've been pretty clear already. The main FPGA is a Cyclone 10 while the secondary one is a Cyclone V.
 

LoggerMan

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Is this like cycle accurate hardware emilation, will it play games exactly like i remember it, glitches and all? The sprites will flicker at the exact same places they used to?
 

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Analogue is a company that has been taking retro video game consoles, and adapting them to use in the modern day, by providing a system that can play oldschool 90's game cartridges in 1080p, without any emulation. Previously, they've created the Analogue Mega Sg and the Super NT, "perfected" variations of the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo, respectively. Now, Analogue is taking on a new front: handheld gaming, with the announcement of the Analogue Pocket. This new system will play nearly any handheld game you can throw at it, from Game Boy, to Color, to Advanced, or even Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket Color; over 2,780 different games are compatible through two FPGA chips.

The Pocket will feature a 3.5" screen in a case similar to that of a Game Boy Color. The LCD has a resolution of 1600x1440, and offfers a ppi of 615. It will also have a function for those who wish to create music using game's soundfonts through a built-in synthesizer called Nanoloop.

Addtionally, there will also be a dock sold seperately, which can allow you to place the Analogue Pocket onto it, and play your games on a TV through HDMI, much like the Nintendo Switch.

Analogue's Pocket will launch sometime next year, for $199.99.

:arrow: Source
If paying $199 for another amazing product from Analogue is too much for you then you are a cheap ass. Of all the things that end up costing $199 or more in my life I would drop it on this in a heartbeat. Looks beautiful and will be 100% buying at least 2 of these day 1. I already have the Analogue NT and SuperNT and adore them both and have been dreaming that one day they would make something like this! CANNOT WAIT!!! :D
 
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There is certainly appeal to their home consoles (a painless way to have authentic gameplay with high video/audio quality on modern TV), but this product leaves me mildly puzzled - for authenticity, original handhelds are still sturdy as brick and cheap as dirt, and for all the convenience options, homebrew scene already provided us with close-to-perfect emulation on DS/3DS/PSP. I mean, I can see it as an option for those who don't want to mess around with AAA batteries, but not for $199. That screen resolution is also a needless overkill, considering the hardware it's aimed to imitate.
 
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Wait the *secondary* FPGA is the same one that powers the Super NT?

We're going to see 16-bit home consoles eventually, aren't we?
There is certainly appeal to their home consoles (a painless way to have close-to-perfect gameplay with high video/audio quality on modern TV), but this product leaves me mildly puzzled - for authentic experience, original handhelds are still sturdy as brick and cheap as dirt, and for all the convenience options, homebrew scene already provided us with great emulation on DS/3DS/PSP.

After a jailbreak this will be both at once. This is approaching a portable Mister.

When you start shelling out for screen mods on OG hardware you are already in this price range anyway. That alone is going to make this an appealing option for enthusiasts.
 
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rich333

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so if this is jail-broken and the secondary cyclone v fpga can be programed to run nes/snes and md/sms off sd this could be the ultimate retro gaming device as a home console with dock & portable....

could even use usb adapters to use original controllers via the usb ports on the dock. but the 8bitdo wireless are pretty good anyway
 

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Sorry if I sound dumb but if I understood well, there may be a possibility in the future that this device will be able to read roms from the sd card, correct?
Let's say that if I want to play Pokémon games (and roms hacks) on my sd card, do you think there will be RTC support? Like what we can have with an emulator on pc or smartphone?
 

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Sorry if I sound dumb but if I understood well, there may be a possibility in the future that this device will be able to read roms from the sd card, correct?
Let's say that if I want to play Pokémon games (and roms hacks) on my sd card, do you think there will be RTC support? Like what we can have with an emulator on pc or smartphone?

To your first question, I'd say the answer is somewhere between most likely and almost definitely. As for RTC support, I wouldn't know.
 

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The first jailbreak out of the gate probably won't support special cartridge chips like RTC, since the system is built around you having actual carts. But we would probably see it down the road, as the Mega SG and Super NT have had chip support added to their jailbreaks.
 

the_randomizer

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The first jailbreak out of the gate probably won't support special cartridge chips like RTC, since the system is built around you having actual carts. But we would probably see it down the road, as the Mega SG and Super NT have had chip support added to their jailbreaks.

Sadly, no SA-1 or Super FX support though
 

Rahkeesh

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Well yeah but, I don't think an RTC is too crazy. I think gyro's about as far as the gameboy family goes, but there probably won't be any gyro in the system to even use.
 

ParzivalWolfram

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Yeah, okay, this might be cool and all, but if you're gonna splurge on one of these you could either get a good flashcart for one of the real systems or get an N3DS or Switch (assuming they're under $200 for working hackable ones yet) and have way more benefits to it over the real thing or this thing like save states, fast forward and rewind, screen filters, other games and utilities...
 

NachoBlzzy

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I find it really hard to believe that it will emulate all of these devices perfectly but I am a sucker so will probably try it out
 

chaoskagami

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if you're gonna splurge on one of these you could either get a good flashcart for one of the real systems

This takes original cartridges. Do you see what I'm getting at here? A flashcart is a cartridge. The idea is that this replaces the gameboy, not the flashcart.

The first jailbreak out of the gate probably won't support special cartridge chips like RTC, since the system is built around you having actual carts. But we would probably see it down the road, as the Mega SG and Super NT have had chip support added to their jailbreaks.

I'm more interested in seeing RISC-V and a Linux kernel running on that second FPGA, personally. Yes, I'm probably weird.
 
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