With the addition of PCEngine CD support I grabbed a 256 or 512 gig card (forget off hand ). Probably overkill but I like having lots of extra space.
I think more than 128GB is a bit overkill for the Pocket unless a miraculous PS1 core shows up somehow.
You'll be lucky if you get a response in under 3 weeks. They clearly don't have many people working support.
You'll be lucky if you get a response in under 3 weeks. They clearly don't have many people working support.
Okay, well I might as well just go for a 512 I guess, just saw that it was like a 10 dollar difference anyway so I might as well get the extra space.
OP
OP
Just recently there was this. Haven't really bothered to dig into their stuff as I'll just wait for the core drop in a couple weeks.
Beat the The Really Final Chapter in Wario Land 2. It really tests a dpad and I finished in under 10 minutes first try, in over a decade, so I think my Pocket's dpad is adequate.
OpenFPGA State of the Union
Here's where I see the current state of openFPGA development.
agg23, as we all know retired from development earlier this year. But, even so, he's still incredibly active on the FPGA discord and always helps out other developers there when they have questions. Boogerman is also always there answering dev questions, too. There are two prominent cases of this.
First, more recently, there's a guy budude2 who is working on Commodore 64. Almost daily he has questions for them, and he makes more and more progress getting things working on the core.
Up until a month ago, mcc was on there, too, with daily questions about getting things working. Mcc is apparently pretty renowned in the retro space or the hacker space or the dev space in general? I'm sorry but I don't really know who they are... Additionally, everything they were talking about in dev was beyond me, too. Not just details of implementation, but the overall purpose. I think they were making a python compiler for openFPGA.
In addition to these new names in the Pocket space, we have atrac17, who is one of the more prominent figures for Mister (and the spearhead for the Mars project). As mentioned earlier, they will be porting their cores to the Pocket starting October 31st. pram0d is part of this, too.
Another dev, Shane Lynch has been working on a Sega Pico core, but he's been working on that for Mister for years.
https://twitter.com/iequalshane/status/1712908588685865263
Coming back to the names that we know.
Mazamars, aka UltraFP64, announced a while ago that he was working on Star Wars Arcade. He also mentioned working on Vectrex and that he mapped out a core for Virtual Boy. He has been silent for around 2 months now. I think Analogue hired him to help work on their N64.
Boogerman has been sitting on his massive treasure trove of arcade game ports for months and months. Over a year ago was when he put up that Product page on OpenGateware's github and before summer he reorganized everything in what seemed like a final effort to start releasing things. He said July/August, but it's October now. I think that he wants everything to be perfect before release, but I'm not sure what the roadblock is.
Anton Gale made some great cores, and he mentioned months ago that he was working on a core for TARG. I haven't seen any updates on that.
nullobject made the Tecmo core very early on, and it seemed like he was working on porting his Cave core over, but he has gone completely silent for almost a year now.
But, we also have Jotego. But my count, he has released 43 cores on the Pocket making him the most prolific Pocket dev by far. Their current project is Namco System 1, which includes Splatterhouse, Pacmania, and Dragon Spirit, among others, currently slated for beta release next wekeend. Also, he has been working on Neo Geo Pocket but has come across problem after problem.
Next is Spirtualized. With the release of Pocket Adapters, I think it's safe to expect a core release for each of those systems. Neo Geo Pocket and Color cores would be amazing. Although, I wonder if that contributes to Jotego's frustration on their core.
Lastly, another dev terminator2k2 has been making updates on a few cores. He released an update for Neo Geo so it'll play a few more games. He released a Super Nintendo update so it'll play that Star Fox rom hack and all of kandowontu's FastRom hacks. He's almost done getting BSX games running on it, too.
-----
I think that's everything.
OP
OP
Nice Post.
I'll use this as my semi-regular reminder:
SUPPORT DEVS!
You can find the authors of any core in the Core List. Many often have donation or patreon details in their github or social media. Many also base their work on other devs from FPGA projects to software emulation and anything around or in between. If you want to go the extra mile seek these people and projects out as well and support them! They are often named in credits or special thanks. (example)
Also don't forgot the updater projects. Can be easy to overlook convenience tools like these. Buy a coffee. Send a github sponsorship (in short, their version of patreon) Send a nice message if not able to support monetarily. Support devs.
Last edited:
That's a fantastic roundup; thank you! Seems like there's at least some cause for optimism on a couple of these.
I'm very excited about Namco System 1. Lots of good stuff there including one of my favorite arcade games Galaga 88. I've been playing the PCE version a lot on Pocket so it'll be nice to have the actual arcade one.
OP
OP
Follow up two. Decided to go with covering the center and covered some of the pads as I wanted to go the overkill route. Used some basic craft vinyl.
This caused a notable and obvious difference. It is not as strict as a Game Boy Color, you rock enough and you can get some "false" diagonals to trigger, where the GBC will flat out not hit a diagonal unless you press the other cardinal. I plan to switch between this modded pocket and my new pocket each session and see how much I notice it in regular play.
If you are of the sort that sensitive diagonals are harshing your good time something like this will probably be more than enough to clean up your inputs from my preliminary testing.
This caused a notable and obvious difference. It is not as strict as a Game Boy Color, you rock enough and you can get some "false" diagonals to trigger, where the GBC will flat out not hit a diagonal unless you press the other cardinal. I plan to switch between this modded pocket and my new pocket each session and see how much I notice it in regular play.
If you are of the sort that sensitive diagonals are harshing your good time something like this will probably be more than enough to clean up your inputs from my preliminary testing.
Follow up to the below post. I did the donut mod on my launch unit and my official review is.... it made no appreciable difference. At all. None. Zero. Nothing. Literally identical to before the mod in every way that I can tell.
Granted maybe people used thicker, larger, or multiple donuts, but as advised from the original post to just grab whatever at your local office supply store does not prove true for me, and it appears to only use one each.
Last edited:
It's funny, I decided to do an unboxing video of it and as I am sitting here editing it, when I held it up to the light next to the blue gba sp, they almost look identical, but then I noticed as it was laying closer to the desk it looked more purple next to it. Makes me think it's just the dark coming through the transparent maybe causing it to look that way?
I will link to my video when I finish and post it.
I just kinda want to get a regular one for normal use as ultimate protection X_X
I'd be more afraid of it getting stolen and it being too difficult/expensive to get a replacement. 😩
Took mine I'm for a long trip but in the end I didn't play it lol just used 3DS pouch and if not super snug, it works as intended (threw a couple of GBA carts in it too for the sake of it). But indeed I know that it's the only piece of tech I wouldn't really be able to replace
Nah, it's a toy meant to be used.
But I also don't freak out if my phone gets a scratch, my car gets a small ding, or my Rolex looks worn. End of the day, I don't wanna miss out on any potential enjoyment.
I regularly use it on my commutes. But I did buy one of those adhesive phone rings (the ones where you're supposed to put one of your fingers through), put that on the back of the pocket and fixed a wristband on that. Saved me at least once from accidentally dropping it when a kid bumped into me while changing trains.
I think handhelds need to bring back those loops where you can attach a wrist strap. PSP/Vita had those and it was a lifesaver. It's genuinely very handy to have and only requires a really minor design compromise.
100%. I know that one of the DS designs had a small nut where a proprietary wrist strap could be attached (kind of mad in itself), but other than that the PSP/Vita are afaik the only handhelds with those loops. One of the reasons why I still consider the Vita to be the best handheld ever (no offense to the Pocket).
I think I'm interested in giving it a try. What diameter is that circle?Follow up two. Decided to go with covering the center and covered some of the pads as I wanted to go the overkill route. Used some basic craft vinyl.
This caused a notable and obvious difference. It is not as strict as a Game Boy Color, you rock enough and you can get some "false" diagonals to trigger, where the GBC will flat out not hit a diagonal unless you press the other cardinal. I plan to switch between this modded pocket and my new pocket each session and see how much I notice it in regular play.
If you are of the sort that sensitive diagonals are harshing your good time something like this will probably be more than enough to clean up your inputs from my preliminary testing.
I got a hard case for like $15 on Amazon since I throw my portable stuff in a backpack a lot. Was tagged for the Analogue Pocket and seems nice so far. https://a.co/d/2mwNkJN
I bought an orange Vita from Japan back in the day. Upon charging it for the first time, I carried it upstairs to show my wife and promptly dropped it on the kitchen floor.
It's rivaled only by my TurboExpress that toppled off a second floor apartment balcony years ago.
Finally got a battery replacement on my Pokemon Silver!
Now I need a link cable and I'm just going to get all the Pokémon.
OP
OP
0.7 in.
Played a session on it last night and I did notice the cardinals can drop input occasionally if I don't press firmly enough. Maybe the pad overlap is a bad call or maybe it needs some break in time but keeping an eye on it.
If we indeed finally get the firmware update with openFPGA display modes support by the end of this year and a certain benevolent benefactor bestows us with Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx cores shortly thereafter, that would be wonderful.
At that point I feel like the only major seemingly feasible core we'd be missing on Pocket is Sega CD. With agg23 taking a break/retiring from actively developing new cores himself--which is understandable, he already put in a ton of time and effort to provide us a bunch of great cores which is highly appreciated--I dunno if anyone else will try to take on that task. Maybe one day, though I don't expect it for a long time (if ever).
At that point I feel like the only major seemingly feasible core we'd be missing on Pocket is Sega CD. With agg23 taking a break/retiring from actively developing new cores himself--which is understandable, he already put in a ton of time and effort to provide us a bunch of great cores which is highly appreciated--I dunno if anyone else will try to take on that task. Maybe one day, though I don't expect it for a long time (if ever).
I use a hard case made for a 2DS XL. Fits great and it's super cheap. Basically like this. Used it last time I went abroad.
Any reason for such a large card? I believe you could hold the entire library of every system that Pocket supports (inc Open FPGA) and not get anywhere near filling 512gb.
Just as a show of hands, who here is having trouble with savestates on GBC and GBA games? About half the savestates I create are corrupt and cannot be loaded. I have similar issues with the sleep feature.
The really cool thing is how the system doesn't know the file is corrupt until you actually try to load the savestate. Similarly, there's no way to be certain if sleep mode will actually work or if it will reset the game when I wake the system.
My SD card was fine when it was in a MiSTer FPGA so I don't think that's the problem.
The really cool thing is how the system doesn't know the file is corrupt until you actually try to load the savestate. Similarly, there's no way to be certain if sleep mode will actually work or if it will reset the game when I wake the system.
My SD card was fine when it was in a MiSTer FPGA so I don't think that's the problem.
The only spare SD card I had is 512 GB!
ive had my pocket for like a year but haven't had a chance to mess with it. i bought some gameboy games yesterday and im having such a hard time getting them to boot without errors but they work fine in a legit gba and gba-sp.
i also pulled the plastic off the section where the games go and it left a bunch of residue…
really unimpressed with this thing (on top of openFPGA still not having filters)
i also pulled the plastic off the section where the games go and it left a bunch of residue…
really unimpressed with this thing (on top of openFPGA still not having filters)
My understanding is this is true of Analogue's other devices, though I don't have any other than the Pocket myself, but they're apparently extremely sensitive to the cartridge's contacts having any imperfections. Significantly more so than original hardware was for the systems.
If you have the supplies necessary to do so, it might be worth giving them a proper cleaning to get them running more reliably on the thing.
i've mentioned it before in this thread… but yeah. my orange model fails around 30% of the time when loading save states on GB/C. it's a shame. i've stopped using it for that reason.
i don't know how save states could be affected by hardware, but i am not sure why else this specific model is having issues when my other pockets are not.
Well I finished my (first) unboxing video of the Transparent Blue if anyone wants to see me fumble around with it. I also show the hard case I talked about towards the end of it. This thing is really awesome so far, still need to really sit down and learn the ins and outs of it though, but so far I am super impressed. I also have a 512GB memory card I plan to load up eventually but I have enough real games for now to mess with before creating a scenario where I am bouncing around a couple thousand games and never really spending time on one.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG-VBe-CVp8
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG-VBe-CVp8
All the analogue systems are incredibly sensitive to dirty carts contacts. It's really not worth the headache of trying to use physical carts with them if someone isn't willing to open the carts and give them a thorough cleaning. Also rubbing alcohol is really only effective at helping to remove dirt and grime. Ideally some kind of contact cleaner is used because a solvent is needed to remove the oxidation build up on the contacts after so many years.
I'm more than willing to maintain them (I need to replace the batteries anyway). After my post I opened it and used an eraser and that helped a bit. I'll probably pick up some more specific cleaner.
I just find it very frustrating that filters are still not out, yet the way they want you to use it seems very picky about the carts. I really like the screen, but unfortunately I'll probably just mod some real Gameboys.
Has anyone updated the SN30 firmware via Mac for the dock? Getting
fcopyfile failed: Operation not permitted errors
fcopyfile failed: Operation not permitted errors
If you want to play GB and GBC games with filters I'd recommend using GB Studio. That's how I play all my GB/GBC games at the moment. Never had any issues with save states through GB Studio either. The only thing it doesn't work well with is Pokemon games, but that's the same with the cores anyway.
To use GB Studio, go to this website, add a rom you want and then download the patched gbstudio file. Drop the file in the GBStudio (might be GB Studio) folder on your SD. Done.
Last edited:
Just like having a lot of space in general, but as a previous poster mentioned:
And the price difference between a 256 and a 512 was like 9 bucks so so I said why not. I plan on exploring a lot of things with the hardware anyways as well (Music and GB studio games) so I like to set it and forget it sort of when it comes to memory.