The Analogue Pocket is a Game Boy from an alternate universe that plays games and creates music

It looks like a Game Boy. It plays Game Boy titles, along with Game Boy Color, GBA, Sega’s Game Gear, SNK’s Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Atari’s Lynx, giving you an absolute buffet of nostalgia. It also has its own DAW or Digital Audio Workstation called Nanoloop that lets you create your own electro 8-bit soundtracks. It’s called the Analogue Pocket and it is everything a retro gamer dreams about.

With a shape, size, and form that gamers have fallen love with for decades, the Analogue Pocket could be called a Game Boy clone, but that would take away from exactly how much better the Pocket is. Built on Analogue’s FPGA hardware, the Pocket can run practically every 90’s handheld console game on its own, without an emulator. When you’re tired of playing the thousands of games you previously owned (but couldn’t play because of obsolete hardware), Pocket has a digital audio workstation built in called Nanoloop. It’s a synthesizer and a sequencer that’s designed for music creation and live performance, letting you create those wonderfully glitchy 8-bit electronic tracks to take you back to the old days. It also has a 3.5″ LCD screen with a resolution of 1600×1440, mappable buttons, a MicroSD card slot, USB-C charging, an HDMI output, 2 USB inputs for wired controllers, Bluetooth for wireless controllers, and the best feature yet… the ability to save progress in your games. Hallelujah, it’s the glorious 1990s again, but slightly better! The Analogue Pocket will launch in 2020.

Designer: Analogue

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Guy Restores Crusty Old Game Boy to Factory Condition

Video game systems and computers from the 1980s had a bad habit of coming in light-colored plastics which all aged quite horribly. Even just sitting out turned many of them yellow, and usage just made it worse. Take for example this grubby Nintendo Game Boy that Odd Tinkering put his hands on.


He bought the Game Boy online after it had already had a very full life, with all of the wear and tear that goes along with it. Not only was it in terrible cosmetic shape, the display was faded and had lots of vertical lines in it. His mission was to turn it into a factory fresh model and restore its sexiness. Return them to their prime. Give them a face-lift. Resurrect it like a zombie, then shoot it in the screen when it craves your brains. To accomplish this, he had to first disassemble all of the electronic bits, then managed to repair the vertical lines using a trick that heats the connectors with a soldering iron. The case needed extensive cleaning, and got a new bezel too.

You can check out the full restoration process in the video below:

I have to admit, this dude did a great job. Hey, send me your number, I have like five Game Boys and an old Atari handheld that look like they’ve been to war. I probably shouldn’t throw them every time I lose. Now he can play Tetris in style and pretend that this technology is brand spanking new. Besides, someone has to help keep the AA battery companies in business. They can’t depend on Walkmans anymore.

[via Geekologie]

Make Your Own Game Boy Games with GB Studio

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Game Boy’s release in Japan. The old portable brings back memories for many of us, even if we’ve come a long way since then. In fact, these days we can even create our own Game Boy games.

Developer Chris Maltby has released the code for GB Studio, a free tool for building real Game Boy ROMs. You can experience all the creation of fun games without any of the pay from big game companies.

GB Studio lets you create games without writing code. Game levels, sprites, and logic can be programmed using a simple visual editor. Design your graphics in any editor that creates PNG files, and music comes from GBT Player. When you’re done creating your game, just export it as a ROM file that can be played on Windows, Mac and Linux.

You can build an HTML5 version that works on mobile too and if you have a USB cart, you could even play your games on your 30-year-old Game Boy. That’s pretty damn cool. So check it out and build your very own game that can frustrate and delight others. Maybe you will become a star of the Game Boy gaming world.

[via PC Gamer via Engadget]

GB Studio lets anyone create a Game Boy game

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Custom Cartridge Turns Game Boy Into a Wireless Controller

These days, we play a lot of retro games on modern consoles, so naturally classic controllers have become popular. You can buy these remade controllers from several third-party manufacturers to provide a more authentic retro gaming experience. But how about playing those old games by using a Game Boy as a controller? It doesn’t get more retro than that.

This homebrew cartridge turns the original Game Boy into a wireless gamepad so that you can do just that. Playing Tetris with this controller is a must. This hack from Alex Iannuzzi of insideGadgets makes it possible. You don’t even have to modify or upgrade the original Game Boy or GBA hardware at all. That’s because Alex has designed and built a game cartridge that turns these handhelds into wireless controllers that you can use with other consoles and computers.

The cartridge works with Game Boy, GBP, GBC, GBA, and GBA SP handhelds, and can work with any device that accepts a USB HID input (i.e. a PC or Raspberry Pi), using a USB receiver module. There are also modules available for the Gamecube or Super Nintendo.

Want to make one yourself? You can check out the design and engineering of this custom cartridge on his website, where you can find links to the code he developed, and the schematics of the hardware. But if you don’t have all of Alex’s skills, he also sells pre-assembled versions. Just plug the cartridge in and get playing.

[via Hackaday via Gizmodo]

Game Boy Air Jordans: Nintenshoes

Take note, sneaker collectors. Game Boy Air Jordans are here. They may not have a cartridge slot, but these kicks look great. Johnny Barry’s Freaker Sneaks produces super-small runs of custom sneakers and fans can’t get enough of them. Their retro Air Jordans IV’s include NES versions and now there’s a Game Boy pair that looks amazing.

The shoe backs have the handheld’s d-pad and two face buttons embedded on them, while the front flaps have Super Mario Land’s box art and an image from the Game Boy’s green-tinted LCD screen.

One nice bonus is that the buttons are press-able and they include a Game Boy cartridge as a hang tag. So sneaker fans who are also Game Boy fans can only drool over these bad boys. One interesting fact that collectors should know is that both the Air Jordan IVs and the handheld were released in 1989, making this a perfect pop culture mashup.

Just be prepared to pay up. They’re $1,350 a pair, and only 10 pairs will be made. Sadly, that means that most of us mere mortals will never hold them in our hands, let alone put them on our feet. I’m jealous, but congrats to those lucky 10 buyers. Now you’re playing with power.

[via Attract Mode via Kotaku]

Someone Put a Zoom Lens on a Game Boy Camera

It’s been 20 years since the strange little Game Boy Camera came on the scene, giving us terrible, low-res, black and white images. Still, kids liked it. It was a $50 digital camera, and it was fun. People still play with it – like designer Bastiaan Ekeler, who recently hacked together a Canon EF lens mount adapter for the camera.

He designed and 3D printed the 1.4x adapter/extender, but it required a bit of trimming and filing to get it to properly attach to the disassembled GBC, but eventually, he accomplished this feat and has made the Game Boy Camera much more capable. Now, you probably wouldn’t want to try and tote this with you to snap vacation photos. It’s way too awkward, even if you love the results.

128 x 112-pixel monochrome images have never looked better. Kids 20 years ago could only dream of doing this with their Game Boy Camera. I’m tempted to try my hand at this so I can take some cool Game Boy photos too.

[via Reddit via Gizmodo]