Analogue Pocket Thoughts

Last year, there was an announcement made for the Analogue Pocket. What this is, intention wise, is to give people a modern handheld that plays the Game Boy line of portables. With it is the original, Color, and Advance. They sport big libraries and interesting releases, but most, especially the original and Color, suffered from no backlit screen. There is a delay for it and it won't come out for another year.

I do remember some disappointment about no additional portables from the get go. However, there is plans for three additional ones. Adapters will be set for the Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket Color. This will be nice since there are audiences for them. The Game Gear has an interesting library that has quite a bit of Sonic games, early arcade and Master System ports, and a fair share of original releases and Genesis ports. With the Lynx, it had original titles mixed with Atari's arcade ports. Both systems suffered from bad battery life. The Neo Geo Pocket was bad timing with money issues, Game Boy popularity, an acquisition and no care for the gaming market. Discontinued in less than a year in America. Two years in Japan. But it is home to many SNK ports, one of the more notable Sonic games, and a few other third party games including Pac-Man and Puzzle Bobble (Bust A Move in America). There is also a feature for music and letting it be played on a television.

At 200 dollars, it isn't that unreasonable. Three libraries and I would assume no region locking, which is what the pre-DSi line of Nintendo handhelds had. The same should apply to the Game Gear and probably the other two. It gives people a reason to look at the Nintendo competitors of the 90s. Getting into a handheld in general is not easy, but the ones you don't hear often is even harder. Unless you go to eBay, the likelihood of Game Gear, Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket games is very rare in my experience. Even yard sales. Analogue has a good track record with giving a modern experience on the NES, SNES, and Genesis. They know how to tap into nostalgia while making it accessible for modern TV's and ones looking for a fix that doesn't require CRT televisions and hoping the front loading NES still works.

You hope that things get better by next May, which is when it is slated to come out. Portable 90s systems deserve their chance in the spotlight. Honoring the Game Boy line and the Nintendo competitors is a nice way to get interest into these six systems.