While most of this year I dedicated to Atari when it came to retro computing and retro gaming, the Game Boy (or rather its games) made a sudden reappearance at the end of the year, when I decided to treat myself to an Analogue Pocket for Christmas.

The Device

At first sight, the Analogue Pocket looks like yet another retro gaming emulator. But trust me: this thing is different. And if you are a fan of classic portable consoles like the Game Boy, you will love this device!

• First, it's not an emulator! It uses FPGA chips to run the cartridges on actual hardware. I really think this makes a huge difference. I played emulators before and none of these felt as snappy and authentic as this device.
• Second, it has a gorgeous screen, with a 1600x1440 resolution at 615ppi. I've mostly played original Game Boy cartridges so far, that don't even make use of the colors of the display, but even these look just fantastic.
  • The buttons could be a bit better to be honest, especially the small (start, select and extra "Analogue") buttons are quite fiddly, but overall the haptic experience is good.
• You can get all kind of extensions for it, so that you can also play Game Gear, Atari Lynx, ... games on it. Or you can even connect it to an external screen and gamepad using a docking station.

The Experience

I have a good collection of original Game Boy games (50+) and a couple of Game Boy consoles, but guess what: I never get to play with those. One of the reasons is that these old displays are just not great. They put quite the strain on my eyes that are spoilt by 4K+ displays now. Even worse, none of these devices have background lighting.

But the main reason is that I cannot afford to invest the time that these games usually demand. Compared to today's standards, the games of my childhood were just incredibly hard! It typically went on like this:

• You almost made it through this really tough level. Wait, there's this one difficult jump. Oh, you missed it? Well, back to the level's beginning. Rinse. Repeat.
• Now you made it to the end of the level? OK, here's this brutal boss enemy that has a single weak point you have to figure out for yourself. Of course, you fail on the first 50+ attempts ...
• You finally beat the level's final boss. OK: next level is even tougher and you die a few seconds in. So this was your last life? Sorry, this means back to the start of level 1.

No checkpoints, no safe games, ... that's how it was back in the days. Today this is completely unthinkable: I have neither the time nor the patience let alone the skill to master any of those games any more. But the Analogue Pocket lets me save wherever I want, which is the reason that I already made it though a couple of games that had frustrated the hell out of me as a kid.

In a sense, this feels like tying up loose ends.

Honestly, it's hard to describe what makes this devices so great, especially if you consider its price. But I guess you have to use try it out for yourself and find out if you agree with me. I think the Analogue Pocket just "feels right". Maybe you had to go through the experience of playing these games on the actual old consoles to really appreciate them, but for me this pushes all the right buttons. I have easily spent already 15+ hours on this device since Christmas and have no intention to change this any time soon.