Maximum PC - USA (2022-03)

LAB NOTES

Guess who’s got two thumbs

and offered to help their

girlfriend’s dad set up a Sonos

system this month? That’s

right, I’m the poor schmuck

who volunteered to play

custom installer and furnish

a new home theater room

with some sweet-sounding

kit. The kit in question was

the Sonos Arc soundbar and

Sonos Sub, so I hooked up

the Arc to the TV. This was as

simple as we’d been promised

by the company’s blurb, and it

sounded gorgeous to boot.

My issue was with the

Wi-Fi that the Sonos system

uses to make everything so

supposedly seamless. What

I hadn’t bargained for was

that my extended family

had used a Wi-Fi extender

to beam the internet to the

room in question. During

setup, the Sub had connected

to the main router, while the

Arc soundbar was using the

extender. Cue two hours of

head-scratching over why the

two were refusing to talk to

each other.

As will be familiar to

anyone used to setting up

tech products, by that point on

Sunday evening, tiredness and

stress had set in and, out of

frustration, I decided to start

from scratch. I turned off the

extender, factory reset both

products, removed them from

the app, and finally sorted it.

The immersion from the

Sonos system was enough to

keep me awake a little longer

enjoying the fruits of my labor,

but from now on, I’m sticking

to wired sound systems.

SAM LEWIS

Staff writer

GUY COCKER, EDITOR

EVEN BEFORE JOINING this esteemed

publication, I considered myself a hardcore

PC gamer. I waited patiently for God of War

and Horizon Zero Dawn to make their way to

the PC so I could unleash my RTX 3090 on

them for true 4K resolution and unlocked

frame rates. Suck it up, PlayStation 5.

I started out as a console gamer though,

in particular, on a handheld from the 1990s

called the Game Gear. So when I heard

friends in my Discord group talking about

the Analogue Pocket, which recreates

handheld consoles of this era from the likes

of Sega and Nintendo, my ears pricked up.

I convinced one of them to let me come

over and play on their new console, just as I

did with my teenage friends all those years

ago. I marveled at the Analogue Pocket’s

craftsmanship, particularly the LCD

screen that can either slavishly recreate

the original console’s display, or give it a

modern overhaul with

brighter colors and

better contrast.

The Analogue

Pocket plays the

original games, warts

and all. I needed to blow

the dust away from

some of the cartridges

before inserting, and

then spend the boot-up

time praying for it to load. The nostalgia

hit immediately took me back to being a

10-year-old, when I might only get a couple

of games per year, but would play them to

death, good or bad.

I’d forgotten how enjoyable it is to play

games on a dedicated console again.

Sure, I can play Forza Horizon 5 and Halo

Infinite anywhere on my Lenovo Legion 5

Pro laptop, but I’ll also have to ignore the

barrage of work emails, Steam messages,

and other social updates. As a result, I end

up playing 30-minute gaming sessions

on my PC before I’m distracted. With the

Analogue Pocket, the hours melted away.

So there you have it. My trusty RTX 3090

is gathering dust, I’m on eBay bidding to

win games from 30 years ago, and I’ve

subscribed to our sister publication, Retro

Gamer. Well done, Analogue Pocket.

A blast from the past and lots of nostalgia

PC gamer goes

Analogue

Game Gear cartridges from the attic given a new lease of life.

72 MAXIMU MPC MAR 2022

tested. reviewed. verdictized.
in the lab

72