The Analogue Pocket: A Year Long Beta Test

[@SuperNicktendo]

Does the Analogue Pocket screen make up for its form factor?

[@kaipography]

Yes it does. I have been watching just about every Analogue Pocket video waiting for mine to arrive, and my expectations were lowered hearing the negative reactions on a lot of KZbin videos. But once I had it in my hands, just a few weeks ago, I was blown away. I just love it

[@chappymcchapster6130]

Yes, i think so, I played through Double Dragon II last night and I jacked up the brightness and it was amazing. I agree I would have liked a GBA form factor but the screen is beautiful.

[@asylum1166]

My expectations were high from the gate! I saw that I didn’t need to get a modded gameboy although I’ve seen some very nice ones out there with that nice IPS black light screen upgraded speakers etc and that true retro feel of a actual gameboy is nice with all the upgrades but this is so different this met my expectations regardless of the pros vs cons! The only con to me is the placement of the back button I wish they found a better way to make it more ideal but I don’t use them anyway because I only use it for gameboy/gameboy color games so I won’t need them gba games I have a modded gba for that.. unless I jailbrake it

[@PKInTheUniverse]

It’s just nuts to me that People sold their analog pocket because it couldn’t be jailbroken right out of the gate. The whole point of the console is to play actual old physical games. The cores should be thought of as an added bonus.

[@Canadian_Gamer]

The form factor is a huge screw up as far as I'm concerned. What a giant missed opportunity...

[@piratestation69]

Reason people sold it was to scalp it.. people are so impatient about things... i was but na.. it might be worth something in 20 years or so.

[@SuperNicktendo]

yeah especially with the MiSTer readily available with it's more robust library.

[@StariusPrime]

I’m still waiting for my Analogue Pocket to arrive 1 year later… when it finally does, you can bet I’ll never let it go.

[@Canadian_Gamer]

@@StariusPrime lol

[@Lela_Dax]

I really appreciate detailed analysis like this, subscribed

[@dscott9770]

I’ve put a good 50 hours into my pocket since it arrived last month, and I must say, the form factor takes some getting used to, but I’m glad it’s possible to get used to it. I’ve learned to tolerate it and was pleased to find wasn’t a deal breaker. I do hope in the future, Analogue considers a Pocket 2 with GBA form factor, a cover for the cartridges, and no need for adapters. Great video

[@SuperNicktendo]

yeah I really enjoy the screen and that makes up for the formfactor. I do want to consider getting a grip but the 3D printed ones make it look even weirder.

[@DunstonCheckin]

Just got mine and I love it. I have a steam deck and those systems work very well together ❤️ 👌 👍!

[@SuperNicktendo]

Steam Deck is one thing I'll wait on. It's a pretty cool device!

[@fryke]

Reviews like these and comments like "form factor takes some getting used to" merely show, that you're probably not in the demographic this is for. If you grew up with a GB or GBP, this definitely hits the spot. If you prefer the original GBA form factor, then a modded GBA might be more for you than this, which is definitely primarily aimed at GB, GBP and GBC enjoyers who have no problem whatsoever with the vertical form factor. (Heck, even GBA SP enjoyers basically have _this_ form factor when the thing is opened for play.)

[@SuperNicktendo]

I grew up with the DMG and I find the GBA more comfortable. I did get a 3D printed grip for the Pocket which helps a ton. It's a comfort issue as the corners dig into my palm. If I was younger or had smaller hands it wouldn't be an issue but as an adult with adult hands, the wider form factor would be ideal. It has nothing to do with what I grew up with.

[@theseriousaccount]

Im pretty sick of the form factor meme as well. The form factor is a huge selling point for me and it’s absolutely great. It’s also a more mature and understated device for use on the go (such as a plane).

[@JebberGamingJaws]

I've got one preordered which I was honestly thrilled about. In spite of the expense, it was still significantly cheaper than ebay, which I was afraid would likely be my only option... I did not order a lot of the peripherals, which I may live to regret, but I will have a ton of fun playing my Gameboy and GBA carts, and the likelihood I would use the otger adapters very often isn't high. I completely agree that the GBA form factor would have been much better.

[@SuperNicktendo]

The rate things go you'll probably get it sooner than later. They pushed up the previous preorder waves.

[@kaipography]

I think the Pocket 2 will be a GBA form factor, and accept Genesis and SNES carts with adapters 😏

[@bennahum9642]

Great review. Thanks.

[@KD-bk7gd]

I guess I’m alone in thinking the GBC layout is awesome ergonomically. I feel like it’s just different from what is common now and people hate change. It’s objectively not bad if you put your bias aside.

[@SuperNicktendo]

the GBC has a hump on the back and has smooth edges. The Pocket is closer to the Gameboy Pocket and has sharper edges. If the Pocket had a hump or some form of grip that extends out, I'd be ok with it.

[@iankester-haney3315]

I bought the Pocket with screen protector to replace a Gameboy Pocket. Easily worth the money, especially now that the OpenFPGA is out. Really enjoying a few of them.

[@VUVURECORDS]

it would be great you meet jotego in your channel for an interview to discuss the limits of fgpa as emulation. I watched some interviews in spanish channels and you always learn very interesting things from him about the meaning of fgpa as hardware preservation, which I understand It means to recreate hardware as close as possible to the original. he says that you always can go ahead in that process, but in the end, once you get some amount of work, to keep building details doesn´t add significant parts according to the level of electronic technology of the arcade circuits in the 80s, so the accuracy of the original hardware you get with fgpa programming is basically completed. I mean, in the end is a physical reproduction of the original hardware 1:1. anyway, an interview in your channel to jotego would be great.

[@SuperNicktendo]

that would be cool to speak with him. I've been a patron of his work for over a year and it's amazing to see what he cooks up.

[@Lost_Kappa]

Original GBA design would have been the go here…

[@SuperNicktendo]

most definitely

[@johnmc3862]

They couldn't copy nintendos design.

[@IAmNotAFunguy]

Is that thing compatible with GBA cartridges that have special features like WarioWare Twisted?

[@dscott9770]

Yes

[@Ozkar1989]

Got mine two weeks ago and haven’t been able to put it down!

[@GuaridaVirtual]

Vamos julio

[@lomaxionpeerixonez2022]

i cant wait to play a shit ton of gba roms and dicing knight on this thing

[@theboy181]

The biggest suck is that you cant use kevtirs cores, and are forced to use openfpga if you want to use your roms.

[@Demoncorpse4800]

Hoping for a ds and 3ds analogue pocket

[@Demoncorpse4800]

@@hamoodhabibi8254 true

[@SuperNicktendo]

yeah we'll have to wait for the FPGA tech to get cheaper. Right now it maxes out at Saturn/Jaguar. Bigger FPGAs exist but they're like 10k

[@Demoncorpse4800]

@@SuperNicktendo dang well guess we got a wait

[@alanrobertson6668]

Do you know why Lynx is available on OpenFPGA?

[@SuperNicktendo]

Why it's not? I'm not entirely sure. I don't know too much about what goes into coding a core but since the MiSTer Lynx core is only 2 years old I would assume that the developer has no interest in openfpga or just doesn't have the resources (you need a dev kit) so someone has to start from scratch if they want to port it.

[@georgeexpiated9624]

I bought my unit on eBay not so far and I love it. But, despite that, I totally agree that GBA layout would have been the best solution and pocket's shoulder buttons are simply bad.

[@lomaxionpeerixonez2022]

plan on buying it with my tax refund

[@genericname872]

I need your advice. I’m ready to reduce my collection to make room. However, I want to backup my collection beforehand. I am not tech and not interested in learning how to setup an emulation machine. For this reason, I am kin of interested in the polymega. It is stupidly expensive but the larger issue is it is not readily available. That is too much money to have on the line for that long and hope it shows up within a couple years. Not to mention I don’t want to wait that long to make room and lighten collection. I have a retro freak, which I can’t recommend enough but it is somewhat limited on systems it covers. It does not play nes or n64 (which is coming to polymega soon). But the games I want to lighten the most are disc games because they will all wind up with disk rot eventually. I’ve considered buying a Chinese preloaded emulation box but I my understanding is they all have problems (do you know of one you recommend?) What is your opinion of polymega? And do you recommend any other solutions/have other ideas?

[@SuperNicktendo]

Really depends on your collection to be honest. If you have retro stuff up to the PlayStation 1, Saturn and Jaguar, I suggest spending the money you would have spent on a Polymega and getting into the MiSTer project. I have a video on it if you're just starting out but it is an all digital solution. As far as backups go - unless it's something super rare like a prototype, most of the games are archived to just download. (I unfortunately can't be more specific due to TOS, but if you google for an archive, you'll usually find what you're looking for) CD based games are easy to backup yourself if you have a dvd drive and some ISO cd ripping software. It's a good way to backup and also validate the data on the disc (it won't rip if there's data missing) Hope that at least helps a bit. I'm not very well versed in the emulation scene as some people, but the MiSTer is the most premium option available.

[@genericname872]

Thank you for replying. My collection has just a few miscellaneous games from some systems : jaguar, saga cd, Saturn, turbografx 16, lynx. But a fairly extensive collection for other retro systems: GameCube, Dreamcast, Xbox, ps1, ps2, nes, snes, n64, master system, genesis, gameboy, gbc, gba, gamegear. I am totally cool with all digital. I am just don’t think I’m capable of setting one up. I’m not too worried about fpga vs other emulators.

[@genericname872]

Do you not like the steam deck as an emulator?

[@genericname872]

I would have same problem in that I don’t know how to get it setup and don’t think I’m capable

[@SuperNicktendo]

@@genericname872 i don't own a steam deck but from what people say it's a pretty impressive device. ETA Prime has a lot of videos on what devices can emulate. As far as set up, I'm sure you can find a tutorial or two. Nowadays it's just one program that installs everything you need.

[@davidknoll]

Some of those criticisms sound like buying a boat and wanting something that flies.

[@theseriousaccount]

This

[@onlypinkytube]

Six weeks! Jeez i I’m not doing something right!

[@piratestation69]

Love my pocket but the dock sucks.. im scared to death of breaking the usb-c connector on it. You're screwed if you do. Bluetooth controllers add so much lag especially the snes switch controller. The best is the 3bitdo wired sega controller. Only problem is you have to remap everything. Other than that it works to a point and most of my games i play work well. Everdrives work so thats a huge plus.

[@mddifilippo89]

I have had the dock for about a year and havent had any worries.

[@theseriousaccount]

The dock is fine. If you think it’s hard to find the connector then just put it in corner first.

[@user-vp3sf7vj3s]

I had it and sold it. Form factor is seriously bad. Its also quite heavy. Screen and resolution is too big. The games were meant to be played in much smaller resolution. Pixels are too big. I cant explain technically why the screen is bad but it is. I played GB and GBA games. I would recommend playing those games on an enhanced GBA.

[@Anthony-cn8ll]

Gameboy Advance SP shoulder buttons actually use a different mechanism than the Pocket and feel much butter in my opinion. Also, I disagree that the MiSTer is a viable alternative to the Pocket. Sure, it has a larger FPGA chip at 110k logic elements vs the 49k on the Pocket, but it doesn’t have a handheld form factor and I haven’t seen any attempts to make it so. MiSTer also has a number of quality of life issues, such as controller latency, which I won’t get into here. Regarding whether we call the Pocket an “emulator”, your viewpoint follows linguistic prescriptivism. That is, established rules should inform the preferred usage of a language. I think that’s perfectly valid and logical but I’m also highly critical to that viewpoint. I much prefer descriptive linguistics which doesn’t have preconceived notions about what the language ought to be, it simply observes the language as it is. So, in light of this, does Analogue Pocket use emulation? Well maybe or maybe not, we’ll have to follow the diachronic lexicology to see how it evolves with the lay person over time. I think it’s plausible that Analogue Pocket marketing will prevail though since what you prescriptively call hardware and software emulation are quite distinct. Software emulation mimics the hardware, but an FPGA configuration (aka core) is specified by an HDL to BE the hardware. If the implementation of a core is lacking due to a lack of chip documentation or reverse engineering capability then it’s not-quite-the-hardware. Software emulation as it is now has trouble replicating authentic hardware. You could say that you could just build a cycle accurate emulator but this will ironically reduce the authenticity of the hardware due to variable input lag. Even so, cycle accuracy isn’t 100%, for that you need chip accuracy in order to accurately simulate the hardware 100%. Moore’s law has collapsed in recent years, so we can’t simply wait for better computer power either. Simply put, software emulation is designed from the get-go to mimic hardware and most use HLE to reinterpret the original hardware instructions so as to be performant on consumer hardware. FPGA configurations are hardware authentic and I personally see it as a disservice to hold it in the same light as software emulation. I don’t disagree with your prescriptive definitions, but I nevertheless think it’s less useful for consumers.

[@SIPEROTH]

It's hardware emulation instead of software emulation. Emulation yes, but not the emulation we know.

[@piratestation69]

One of the best things about the pocket IT EXISTS! Unlike the Bullshit scam as the Amico... Analogue sucks as a company...

[@Mister_Phafanapolis]

Vertical / Gameboy layout has _always_ been dogshit. Nintendo was the original anti-consumer corporation

[@Mister_Phafanapolis]

@Falcon-um7vo Maybe those people are children, maybe they have small hands and narrow shoulders, maybe they just have awful taste. Some people like getting pee’d on, not all preferences are equal. 🤷‍♂️ Also, weebs will defend anything Nintendo does, no matter how bad.

[@ZerothAmendment]

I’m 6”1 with large hands and find the GBC form factor fine, but I also grew up in 80s and 90s so I’m used to those form factors.

[@theseriousaccount]

You’re insane dude.

[@Mister_Phafanapolis]

@@theseriousaccount …says the guy with a Sonichu avatar picture. Now who’s insane?!

[@theseriousaccount]

@@Mister_Phafanapolis Sonichu? Are you blind or insane?