As the video says, it doesn’t provide all the functionality that the Analogue Pocket has, but it’s a very good alternative for a decent price!
Oh for sure, I just reshelled and revamped my Dreamcast, I’m in the mood for the gameboy. Waiting for another limited release from analogue is just frustrating for me
Yeah, I hate that Analogue releases are limited. If you miss the window, you either missed it forever or are willing to pay obscene prices on eBay 😞
The article poising this as an analogue competitor seems naive.
It doesn’t have any of the things people buy an analogue pocket for. If you want to say, “This is an analogue pocket but cheaper and without any of the features,” sure. But so is a regular gameboy with an lcd mod.
Which is really what this competes with. It competes with mods of original gameboys.
Honestly the 1600x1440 screen on the Analogue Pocket and the ability to drive it is what you’re paying for when you buy it.
There’s not going to be a device that can drive all those pixels at less than the Analogue Pocket’s price for some time yet. Sure, none of the Game Boy systems used anywhere near that many pixels, but the fact that the Analogue Pocket screen is so ridiculously pixel dense it can emulate the original attributes of the OG screens from the devices that their FPGA is mimicking means you’re going to pay a premium for that (or any) device doing full hardware replication at that level.
Honestly seeing the Analogue Pocket emulate the way that the original DMG GameBoy screen pixels seemed to slightly hover over the background (slightly casting a shadow) was mind-blowing. You can’t get that unless your screen actually has those original pixel attributes or you’ve built a display with enough resolution to emulate what those characteristics looked like. See: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PXL_20211213_155424062.jpg (Seriously, zoom in and notice the mimicry of the shadows under darker pixels, it’s just crazy to see in person.)
The article poising this as an analogue competitor seems naive.
If you upload a video to YouTube, it has to have a clickbait title 😒
That stupid click bait title.
I like the Analogue Pocket, I think this FPGBA sounds like a fun project but man they are very different products. The way I see it, the more FPGA emulators out there then the more likely more/better cores get created.
It’s a dumb title but there seems to be plenty of people buying Analogue just to play cartridges. This is a low cost alternative to AP and modded Gameboy.
Sure! I can see a bit of overlap there. I imagine it’s more an alternative to the modded GB side just due to cost similarities, compatibility, etc. But like I said, I’m just glad more people are releasing products
It looks like $103 +shipping for the kit plus case (some assembly required), not bad.
I have a Pocket in my draw but the screen got wrecked by the sun and now I don’t know what to do about it.
I “built” a Game Boy SP from parts found on eBay. If you can take your Pocket apart enough to get a part number, try googling for a replacement, should be a simple as plugging in a ribbon cable.
Replace the screen or upgrade it with an lcd
Okay but does the FPGA scratch your cartridges? Don’t see so. Analogue wins again.
The new device is called FP-GBC, not FPGA.
FPGA (field-programmable gate array) is a technology where the chip contains all kinds of circuits, which can be programmatically “rewired” in specific ways to make it into a fast device-specific circuit, such as an emulator of the Game Boy GPU that can drive a modern LCD without needing to interrupt a CPU. Its function can be exactly the same as the original but way cheaper than manufacturing a new silicon die for the small production. More complex FPGAs could also emulate the CPU, sound and everything else from a GameBoy, or even handle intensive tasks like crypto mining with relatively good power efficiency. Both the Analogue and FunnyPlaying GB replicas use FPGAs.
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At the time it came out, not really. There wasn’t really anything else to compete with it. If I’m not mistaken, it was the first handheld FPGA console.
But will it have support?
There’s a million cheaper raspberry Pis clones out there, but without the support they get nowhere near the popularity of the Pi.
I think you’re misunderstanding, this isn’t a raspberry Pi type emulation device, this is a hardware clone of the chips in a real GBC, it even plays the original cartridges, and also flashcarts (well mostly, there’s a few kinks there because it’s new).
I’m talking about software, not hardware. The pocket is magic because it’s open an developers can do whatever they want to it, and there’s a bunch of devs supporting it. This device is open source, but is just a fancy GBC, and the review pointed out that it’s a bit rough around the edges still.
