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Discussion Reviews for the Analogue pocket are coming out (Spoiler: Very solid)

VHS

VHS

Be kind, rewind.
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All of the reviews that I've seen:







Seems that reviewers/retro enthusiast channels got Analogue Pockets this week so lots of info is being disseminated. I will let the videos speak for themselves but so far seems very positive and the white model is surprisingly the better looking to my eye.


Preorders go live tomorrow, December 14 at 8am:

www.analogue.co

Pocket Preorders December 14th 8am PST

www.analogue.co www.analogue.co
Pocket will be available to purchase on December 14th at 8am PST.

Due to industry wide component price increases, the price of Pocket is now $219. All other Pocket accessories will remain the same price.

There are three fulfillment groups which have the following estimated ship dates. Everyone who wants a Pocket will be able to secure an order.

Group A: Q1 2022
Group B: Q4 2022
Group C: 2023

Fulfillment groups will be assigned on a first-come first-serve basis. Your order status will be updated a few days after you place your order to reflect what fulfillment group you are in.

The limit per customer is 2 Pockets.
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I'm going to try to get one tomorrow, I've actually been revisiting my GBC and GBA library more than I expected lately.
 
Managed to gett one in the first round of pre-orders last year. Cannot wait to get my hands on it later this month. GBA was my childhood. Will play some of the newever Pokémon ROM hacks on it among other things.

Tip to those who are pre-ordering tommorow: For whatever reason the shipping calculator they used (which was under stress due to all the pre-orders in a short time) loaded much quicker on Edge than Firefox. I barely got in at the last minute or so but I wouldn't have got the order in if I had waited for Firefox to load the shipping instead of switching browser and trying to complete on Edge.
 
I want one real bad, but I also want to see what changes they make over the run, especially new colors. I have a Vita 1000 and switch so I am not dying in need, this is more of a want item, so I can wait and see if a translucent model comes out.
 
Was going to pick one up, but they don’t take PayPal and my Credit Card is through PayPal and it’s not a physical card. Mind boggling choice this day and age.
 
VHS said:
I want one real bad, but I also want to see what changes they make over the run, especially new colors. I have a Vita 1000 and switch so I am not dying in need, this is more of a want item, so I can wait and see if a translucent model comes out.
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I am in the same boat, but I just can’t justify it. I would buy it just to marvel at the beauty. My PSVita will be my gamegear and gameboy machine still.
 
Clix said:
Was going to pick one up, but they don’t take PayPal and my Credit Card is through PayPal and it’s not a physical card. Mind boggling choice this day and age.
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tbf to them PayPal do not officially accept orders that cannot be shipped within 30 days, at least that is according to panic, who are doing Playdate.
 
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crepuscule said:
Managed to gett one in the first round of pre-orders last year. Cannot wait to get my hands on it later this month. GBA was my childhood. Will play some of the newever Pokémon ROM hacks on it among other things.

Tip to those who are pre-ordering tommorow: For whatever reason the shipping calculator they used (which was under stress due to all the pre-orders in a short time) loaded much quicker on Edge than Firefox. I barely got in at the last minute or so but I wouldn't have got the order in if I had waited for Firefox to load the shipping instead of switching browser and trying to complete on Edge.
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From what I understood from their page you are unable to play digital backups, how would you play Pokemon rom hacks? Is there still a way?
 
Yavga said:
From what I understood from their page you are unable to play digital backups, how would you play Pokemon rom hacks? Is there still a way?
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1. From what I've heard all previous Analogue consoles have had jailbreaks very quickly, so I'm expecting the same here
2. Flash carts if 1. doesn't happen
 
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I really want one but realize I only have 13 carts that would work with it. Then one gamegear game and 6 ngpc games…hard to justify. Where did all my GBA games go??
 
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I keep talking myself in and out of this. I'm worried about the L and R placement being so close to the cartridge and the fact that several videos have mentioned the carts being easy to knock loose--this will result in your game corrupting or freezing.

Wulff Den also mentioned scratches and oil residue on his already. I appreciate him looking at this device a little more critically than an IGN or other YouTubers.
 
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Which color is everyone going with? I’m leaning black but honestly torn.

Last time the website would not load the shipping so I was unable to pre-order. Hopefully it works this time and I can get one before year end next year.
 
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Got a black unit at 11:08 PST.

Order in the 91000's. Got a few accessories ten minutes later and the order number already was like 116K lol!
 
I'm wondering how easy it would be to get one of these but mod it into a GBA shell, with 4 buttons cut out too.
 
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Well tried to do a work around since all my credit and debit is tied to PayPal. No luck :(

Oh well
 
Quoted by: VHS
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mine should be getting here tomorrow night. i'm so damn excited. i've been thirsting for this ever since the announcement two years ago.
 
Clix said:
Well tried to do a work around since all my credit and debit is tied to PayPal. No luck :(

Oh well
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whenever I decide to order, if you arent able to get one I was going to buy 2 anyway and I can send you the other for paypal.
 
Mine arrives tommorow. Has anyone got a customs bill for this in the UK yet? When I last looked into it I estimated it would be around £80-90 taxes, duties, and fees all-in-all for the console, dock, link cable, and screen protector iirc. I really hope it isn't more than that.
 
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Screen is amazing, buttons are bad. I wish they just had a big A and a big B instead of tiny misplaced SNES, playing Mario Land feels off. Screen and the thing itself are too big as well, feels like a 3DS XL at times.

Nintendo could easily do better with NSO peripherals if they wanted tbh

I would say you're better off just ordering a custom backlit GBC/GBA tbh. Would probably be cheaper at this point.
 
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For those who want to know what it costs to buy a Pocket, Dock, Screen Protector, and Link Cable from the UK:

Black Analogue Pocket $199.99
Dock $99.99
Link Cable $15.99
Screen Protector $15.99

Total (Products): $331.96 = £255.29
Postage $34.99 = £26.91

03/08/2020 Paid to Analogue: $366.95 = £282.20

05/08/2020 Non-GBP Purchase fee (Bank): £0.50 (flat fee)
05/08/2020 Non-GBP Transfer fee (Bank): £8.43 (3% fee on Paid to Analogue)
20/12/21 Import VAT (Tax): £49.39 (20% Tax on Total (Products) at a different exchange rate to the one I paid)
20/12/21 Other Customs Taxes and duties (Tax): £0.23 (Suprisingly low, thank god)
20/12/21 Customs Handling fee (Courier): £12.75 (flat fee)

Total (Postage, fees and taxes): £98.21 (38.5% of Total (Products))

GRAND TOTAL: £353.50
 
crepuscule said:
For those who want to know what it costs to buy a Pocket, Dock, Screen Protector, and Link Cable from the UK:

Black Analogue Pocket $199.99
Dock $99.99
Link Cable $15.99
Screen Protector $15.99

Total (Products): $331.96 = £255.29
Postage $34.99 = £26.91

03/08/2020 Paid to Analogue: $366.95 = £282.20

05/08/2020 Non-GBP Purchase fee (Bank): £0.50 (flat fee)
05/08/2020 Non-GBP Transfer fee (Bank): £8.43 (3% fee on Paid to Analogue)
20/12/21 Import VAT (Tax): £49.39 (20% Tax on Total (Products) at a different exchange rate to the one I paid)
20/12/21 Other Customs Taxes and duties (Tax): £0.23 (Suprisingly low, thank god)
20/12/21 Customs Handling fee (Courier): £12.75 (flat fee)

Total (Postage, fees and taxes): £98.21 (38.5% of Total (Products))

GRAND TOTAL: £353.50
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Thanks for such a detailed breakdown. It's just a little too much for me right now after not long purchasing an OLED.

For anyone else considering, just a card that doesn't charge you to pay in non-Sterling currencies, like a Starling debit card. Of course, you may wish to purchase using a credit card for that additional protection... Don't know of any fee free cards off the top of my head.
 
Pineapple Pizza said:
Thanks for such a detailed breakdown. It's just a little too much for me right now after not long purchasing an OLED.

For anyone else considering, just a card that doesn't charge you to pay in non-Sterling currencies, like a Starling debit card. Of course, you may wish to purchase using a credit card for that additional protection... Don't know of any fee free cards off the top of my head.
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Yeah I meant to pay with a Starling card but I had switched away from them for a £130 bank switching offer and I didn't know they don't let you open a new account until over a year after the last one closed.
 
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Got my black unit and dock but I'm waiting on that jailbreak as all my old carts are packed up at my parents in FL. Hopefully by Christmas I can play my backups.
 
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Manage to finally preorder one. Boss gave me a big Christmas bonus this year so I was able to get around the PayPal issue.

I’m Group C: 2023 lol

My only concern and I may cancel it down the line, is that now I’m hearing everdrive carts aren’t working well? If that’s the case, that is an oversight and it will be useless to me since I have very little OG carts left and have all my games on everdrive carts.
 
Clix said:
Manage to finally preorder one. Boss gave me a big Christmas bonus this year so I was able to get around the PayPal issue.

I’m Group C: 2023 lol

My only concern and I may cancel it down the line, is that now I’m hearing everdrive carts aren’t working well? If that’s the case, that is an oversight and it will be useless to me since I have very little OG carts left and have all my games on everdrive carts.
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do they charge now and you can cancel at any time, or how does it work?
 
VHS said:
do they charge now and you can cancel at any time, or how does it work?
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Yeah and thank god because if the everdrive issue doesn’t resolve I will just buy a GBA with the better screen and back life mod.
 
I got mine last week and have been loving it. The screen on this thing is amazing! The dock is definitely lacking right now but I have faith that with firmware updates it'll get the settings and options it needs.
Clix said:
My only concern and I may cancel it down the line, is that now I’m hearing everdrive carts aren’t working well? If that’s the case, that is an oversight and it will be useless to me since I have very little OG carts left and have all my games on everdrive carts.
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Some people are having issues and a lot of people aren't. I have a GBEverdrive X7, and a GBA Everdrive X5 mini and both work flawlessly with mine. That said I did see on discord that Kevtris (the main engineer behind Analogue's fpga systems) thinks he has the issue narrowed down and is working on it. Should just be a firmware update.
 
Got a white one on my own and a black for Christmas. Loving the Pocket, hands down the best way to play handheld games. I have modded GBC/GBAs around and also had a PiBoy DMG. Haven't had one of those cheap chinese knock-offs, but I can't imagine the experience is that great. I didn't care for the Retro Pie experience on a handheld. I prefer the physical cart experience as I have a ton of carts from my childhood and pick-ups as an adult.

The pocket is a thing of beauty.

qir3NYP.jpg
 
I think it's interesting that people take photos of their pocket with the default mode, which basically never looks good because that's not how these games were meant to look. Apparently there are issues with the dock too where things can freeze, and some Pockets corrupt the save games for cartridges if you jostle them while playing, corrupting the game.
 
Brock Reiher said:
I think it's interesting that people take photos of their pocket with the default mode, which basically never looks good because that's not how these games were meant to look. Apparently there are issues with the dock too where things can freeze, and some Pockets corrupt the save games for cartridges if you jostle them while playing, corrupting the game.
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If you want to throw shade, next time just quote me. I think the insane quality of the Analogue mode is a great way to play these games. I don't need a grid filter to enjoy them, I love the chunky hard edge pixel look on everything retro, including when playing on TV. I never try to smooth things out or replicate the scanlines. There are filter options and people can play them however they like. I think people who are elitist about filters and modes are silly.

I haven't had any issues with the dock or the Pocket corrupting saves personally, but you know, some of these games are over 20 years old, so I assume the batteries on a lot of these haven't been replaced. The 1.1 firmware is going to bring over save states, so that will help with those problems. I do know that some people are using sleep mode and a combination of the single save state, which apparently causes the last save to revert. I haven't replicated it though.
 
A. G. Cook said:
If you want to throw shade, next time just quote me. I think the insane quality of the Analogue mode is a great way to play these games. I don't need a grid filter to enjoy them, I love the chunky hard edge pixel look on everything retro, including when playing on TV. I never try to smooth things out or replicate the scanlines. There are filter options and people can play them however they like. I think people who are elitist about filters and modes are silly.

I haven't had any issues with the dock or the Pocket corrupting saves personally, but you know, some of these games are over 20 years old, so I assume the batteries on a lot of these haven't been replaced. The 1.1 firmware is going to bring over save states, so that will help with those problems. I do know that some people are using sleep mode and a combination of the single save state, which apparently causes the last save to revert. I haven't replicated it though.
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I’m kinda the same way too. I never had a broadcast monitor, but always had a quality CRT with S Video, which means everything looked crisp and you could only really see the scanlines if you glued your eyes two inches away from the TV set.
 
Clix said:
I’m kinda the same way too. I never had a broadcast monitor, but always had a quality CRT with S Video, which means everything looked crisp and you could only really see the scanlines if you glued your eyes two inches away from the TV set.
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Yep. Even with PS1 emulators, there are so many options to smooth things out but I love that crisp, hard look. The retro filters are neat, and on the Pocket they do look good... but they darken the image to replicate it. It's fun for a nostalgia game of Tetris, but nothing I can see myself using for an extended period of time.

I saw someone at the other place bring up the idea of stretching the GBA mode on the Pocket to fill up the screen instead of having black bars, and people screamed bloody murder. It actually got borderline insulting. People just need to relax about display options.
 
A. G. Cook said:
Yep. Even with PS1 emulators, there are so many options to smooth things out but I love that crisp, hard look. The retro filters are neat, and on the Pocket they do look good... but they darken the image to replicate it. It's fun for a nostalgia game of Tetris, but nothing I can see myself using for an extended period of time.

I saw someone at the other place bring up the idea of stretching the GBA mode on the Pocket to fill up the screen instead of having black bars, and people screamed bloody murder. It actually got borderline insulting. People just need to relax about display options.
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Especially when those same people complain when they re release a classic game in HD but don’t make it widescreen lol forgetting that just like movie aspect ratios, the images on those games were designed for 4:3, which includes the visual design and framing.

It’s actually better to stretch the image to fit in that case over just deciding to make something widescreen if you want to have it fill everything up.
 
For example Altered Beast Guardian of the Realms is an interesting situation that really highlights how The Pocket is inadequate. It is a game that simply doesn't work with the Pocket (the Pocket is unable to load a save file for the game for whatever reason), but the game was made for the GBA screen so it looks like neon vomit in the normal pocket mode or on a traditional emulator. I don't know why they would highlight the thing that looks the worst when basically the only reason to own a pocket, which ergonomically is pretty bad, is for those screen filters.

Of course the Pocket is actually not fully functional with certain games, which is another issue. Hopefully they fix that with updates but it's shocking it's still there, so I guess there will always be some major issues. I really recommend people buy a backlit gba or use an emulator with filters instead.
 
Brock Reiher said:
Of course the Pocket is actually not fully functional with certain games, which is another issue. Hopefully they fix that with updates but it's shocking it's still there, so I guess there will always be some major issues. I really recommend people buy a backlit gba or use an emulator with filters instead.
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It's not shocking at all; programmers deliberately use weird edge cases in the console hardware to make it do unintended stuff. If the FPGA (or emulator model) is even slightly off it'll break the effect. From Analogue's previous history, Kevtris will certainly fix it.

I'll say it here; the current batch of Chinese emulator handhelds are really good, and for most people they'll more than suffice. They're no match for the Pocket though, the screen alone is infinitely better than anything from Anbernic or PowKiddy. That's without talking about lag, or accuracy. It's really silly to point to the one (?) game the Pocket struggles with, and ignore the much less perfect emulation elsewhere.

I have an RG351V and modded Game Boys and happily accept that the Pocket is better than all of them.
 
Phantoon said:
I have an RG351V and modded Game Boys and happily accept that the Pocket is better than all of them.
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I don't understand this argument at all. The only edge it has over modded original hardware is the filters-- the ergonomics are worse, the buttons are worse, it straight up can't play certain games and certain individual Pockets have been found to corrupt and make unplayable others. The filters are pretty nice (you can play Fusion on the go looking the way it was meant to without that embarrassing fan translation) but I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone wait a year or pay scalping prices for them. And like I said, it's funny that people like to highlight the system in a way that hides its only worthwhile feature 😂

I guess in theory it's an acceptable budget friendly option, but right now it's more expensive or will take way too long to the point where even that isn't an advantage.
 
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This is literally the first thing I've heard of buttons being worse. The ergonomics won't be worse than anything other than possibly a Game Boy Advance. And modded screens (while a huge improvement over original screens) are hugely worse than the screens here. Mod screens are ultimately not designed for Game Boys and have perceptible display errors.

The errors with the Pocket will be fixed (the power of FPGA). I don't get why you're so against this. It's a great product, and if people can afford it and they want it then they should feel confident getting one. Personally I won't, I have all of the previously mentioned stuff and a MiSTer. But "get an Anbernic" or "mod a Game Boy" is nuts if people want the best possible option with minimum faff.
 
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