CEN TERFOLD
Centerfold
48 MAXIMU MPC MAR 2022
PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BAREAH, RETRO HANDHELD GAMING. It’s a medium many
have fond memories of, including the Maximum PC team.
Back in the 1990s, long before we had smartphones
capable of streaming games direct from our home rigs,
portable gaming was the domain of companies such as
Nintendo and Sega, with the vastly successful Game Boy
being the handheld console of choice for many gamers.
Naturally, those consoles had a vast selection of
games, with everything from classics like Pokemon to
cult hits like Golden Sun. Of course, playing these games
today isn’t easy. Functioning handhelds from over two
decades ago are a rare find and ROM emulation is an
option but means a shift to ill-suited hardware.
Luckily, the good folks over at Seattle-based retro
game hardware company Analogue Inc have a finely
designed solution. The Analogue Pocket might look like
a knock-off handheld emulator but it’s a sophisticated
piece of hardware. Rather than merely emulating retro
games, it uses a nifty field-programmable gate array
(FPGA) to replicate the original hardware of handhelds
such as the Game Boy and Neo Geo Pocket.
Analogue wanted to appeal to budding developers
too, so a secondary FPGA exists to allow for the creation
and porting of new cores, opening up avenues for
development and even hardware adaptation. Analogue
has also partnered with retro game creation software
GB Studio, allowing creatives to make their own games
without any programming knowledge.
The physical design is excellent, too. Though it is
visibly inspired by the Game Boy, it has been expanded to
four face buttons and wrapped up in a sleeker but sturdy
plastic shell. Connectivity is vital here, with a headphone
jack, microSD card slot, and USB-C port. An additional
HDMI port on the base allows the Pocket to be connected
to a display via a dock, like a Nintendo Switch developed
in the 1990s. –CHRISTIAN GUYTONAnalogue