The retro floodgates have opened over the past few years – and honestly, there’s never been a better time for older gamers. If you want to relive the glory days of your childhood, there are now plenty of options from a variety of companies – but this latest contender might be one of the most exciting yet.
I’ve seen some Game Boy-like games. Just a year ago, I reviewed the Super Pocket, a super cheap and simple product from the team behind Evercade. The gold standard in the form remains the Analogue Pocket, a feature-rich, luxurious device that keeps getting better with updates. The Chromatic joins this pantheon at the high end, rivaling the Pocket – although its approach is distinctly different in important ways.
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First of all, this is a Game Boy. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck… well, that’s it. It has the same familiar shape – B and A buttons, Select and Start, D-pad, power switch, volume rocker… everything is in a place you’ll remember. The form factor is surprisingly close to the Game Boy color, though different enough to be “legitimately distinguishable”. So, if we’re more specific, this is the Game Boy color.
This definition brings with it interesting pros, cons, and caveats, which we’ll delve into later in this article. But for now, let me start with some broad declarative praise – this is one of them best Handheld gaming hardware I’ve ever used.
A lot of that comes down to the casing—rather than using plastic like almost every other similar device, the Chromatic is made of magnesium alloy. Although it is still very light, it feels very bloody luxurious. It’s an oddly specific area, but when I first opened the battery case (which eschews the now-common rechargeable batteries for three traditional double-A’s, although there are rechargeable battery packs too) I was struck by how different How solid it feels and how sure it clicks into place.
It just feels like quality. I’m imagining these damn things from the title card scene of American Psycho. Someone flashed some Abernic Android handheld devices. Then came Analog Pocket; “OS supports OpenFPGA.” Then Chromatic was slammed on the table. “Metal”. It tastes substantial. Hell, it even has an infrared port…
The folks behind the Chromatic claim it’s also very, very sturdy – their website depicts a car driving on the device while it’s still h appily running Tetris. I don’t have a stone to test this with, but holding the device in my hands and feeling its natural weight, I trust them.
Build quality is good. The buttons are lovely; the D-pad has the right amount of softness. The speakers are surprisingly loud, and the output from the 3.5mm headphone jack is clear. Basically, it’s a nice device. Its IPS backlit LCD display is crisp and high-definition. Now is not the time to test sunlight – but using artificial light, I’m pretty sure it will perform well in natural glare. I like it very much.
But as always, the real test of this type of hardware comes in the games you’ll be playing – and that’s where the choice for the Chromatic gets interesting.
Frankly, it’s impossible to talk about Chromatic without talking about Analogue Pocket. At this stage I have to drop the pretense and address both of them because they are closely linked rivals and they have to be seen as a pair.
As I said before, this is the Game Boy Color. What I mean is: these are the games it plays. It uses the original cartridges and even has matching IR and link cable ports. Using these features, it can talk to the original Game Boys or Analogue Pockets.
When we put the Chromatic side-by-side with the Analogue, there’s no Game Boy Advance support, there’s no implicit OS support for other types of software, and there’s certainly no physical adapter for plugging into something like a Game Gear cart. This is the Game Boy color. It takes those old cartridges and plays them. Using FPGA technology, it performs extremely well and is nearly 100% accurate to the original hardware.
There is a sense of deliberate simplicity here. Chromatic does less, but its goal is to deliver something more impressive with less. For example, the USB-C port on the bottom can be used not only to charge the optional battery pack, but also to output video from the Chromatic’s screen directly to a PC. If you’re a streamer who wants to play Game Boy games on a device with the form and functionality of the original machine without using emulation, the Chromatic is now the way to go.
There’s also something to be said for crashing a cart into it, flipping the power switch…and off you go. This is obviously not for everyone. First of all, not everyone has a game library. Some people want to dump a bunch of ROMs from the original cart (I guess – don’t tell me how you got them, I don’t want to know) and load them from the SD card, thus getting rid of the need to carry around and swap carts. But there’s something about the chromatic scale that really conveys the raw experience, and I love that. Plus, if you really want to, Chromatic can indeed run Everdrive without any issues.
Combining the OG experience with a nice metal casing, sure, this feels like a toy – but it feels like a toy grown ups.
It also comes with an adult price tag. The Chromatic is priced at $200 (currently £161 in the UK) – it’s undoubtedly a premium product. Young gamers who are not very familiar with the hardware and don’t have a car collection are really not the target of this machine. Against this background, coupled with the extremely high quality, the price is very reasonable.
The Chromatic sells for $200, which is only $20 cheaper than the Analogue Pocket. This is where things get a little tricky – this machine is more compatible, runs just as well, and is only a little more expensive. However, Analogue’s product lacks a flashy casing, and some may find all the bells and whistles a bit distracting. The Analogue offers a larger screen, but the resulting overall footprint is larger, making it less pocket-friendly.
As the saying goes, swings and roundabouts. Ultimately, feature and price comparisons between analog and chromatic lead to not quite an issue. simple For sale – but I can totally see a market for both devices.
Plus, Chromatic has an ace up its sleeve. This could completely flip the script on this machine in the coming years. So, the X factor is: the Chromatic doesn’t just play Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges; it also plays color ink cartridge.
To be clear, these color cartridges are actually just the “new” Game Boy Color carts. The Chromatic comes with a new Tetris port created specifically for this machine, and if you put the cart in a GBC, analog pocket, or any other similar device, it will work. But what’s curious here is the promise that ModRetro will release more “new” games, licensed reprints of older games, or entirely new ports on these carts.
Ready-to-use modern ink cartridges support the concept of the machine as a simpler, traditional, physical media-driven device. We’ve seen great success with products like these from Evercade, and the company now offers an impressive range of classic products on many shopping carts. Will the same happen here? I hope so.
Ultimately, I think this is a lovely device. The price might be hard for some to swallow – but I think if you’re the kind of person who’s willing to get involved in this sort of thing, you’re probably ready to pay the premium. It’s one of the best devices I’ve ever used and one that I will continue to use, which is saying something considering how much I have access to.
The Chromatic is available to order now – it could be the perfect Christmas gift for the older, hardcore gamer in your life. Or, indeed, for yourself – if you too are getting closer to collecting your gaming pension.
