The Analogue Pocket remains one of the most sought-after devices capable of playing your old Game Boy cartridges. The little handheld is perpetually out of stock, and every new edition or occasional restock sells out almost immediately. So, if you have $500 burning a hole in your wallet along with a keen desire to revisit your childhood handheld, you’ll have to be quick on the draw to order a new aluminum chassis Analogue Pocket.
Analogue shared some images and a few details about its latest limited version of its popular handheld Friday. All the chassis are made from anodized aluminum that should hopefully keep your fingerprints from sticking around after a couple minutes or hours of intense play. Other than that, it comes in four colors: light gray, dark gray, black, and indigo. The buttons are still the same unadorned controls as the previous, non-aluminum handhelds.
It’s also $280 more expensive than the regular Pocket MSRP with no other major changes than the all-metal shell. The device doesn’t have Bluetooth or online connectivity, though the company claims its sticking to its guns. In an email, Analogue founder Christopher Taber told Gizmodo “These are not some bullshit, overpriced, slapped together gimmick.” He said the company spent six months engineering and re-manufacturing the new shell, mechanics, and assembly.
“Analogue makes every product at all price points with absolute intention,” Taber said. “Naturally these are significantly more expensive and complicated to produce and assemble even than our past aluminum products, the Analogue Nt [the company’s NES player]… Both are/were sold for the same price.”
Will that steep price deter the ravenous hoards from jumping on the buy button as soon as its available? Probably not. The device will be going on sale July 15 at 11 a.m. ET in “very limited quantities.” It’s best to set your mind to buy one before the product goes on sale, as you probably won’t have much room for an impulse purchase later on.
And if that $500 price tag is giving you pause, there are other options if you’re fine with settling for emulation. There’s plenty of other handhelds around such as the $60 Miyoo Mini (another device that’s notoriously hard to find in stock).
If all you want is to play your old cartridge collection with a few more modern amenities, there’s a bit more of a struggle. Now, there’s also the ModRetro Chromatic, a $200 device capable of doing Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges as well as its own, proprietary Chromatic cartridges. The device is currently on preorder with sales set to start around the holidays, but before you jump on it just remember the company’s headed up by Palmer Luckey, the original founder of Oculus who is now CEO of a U.S. military contractor.
Meanwhile, those of us waiting for some kind of Game Boy Advance or Game Boy SP analogue will just here tapping our foot in anticipation.