The Analogue Pocket is back with even more variants. Today the company announced four new limited-edition retro handhelds encased in anodized aluminum. Theyâre beautiful and expensive, and Analogue is leaning into the FOMO with one-time-only pre-orders for â highly limited quantities [that] will never be sold again.â
The Analogue Pocket Aluminum Editions areâšprecision CNCâd, meaning they are cut from blocks of metal rather than, in the words of CEO Christopher Taber, being made from âcasted bullshit.â There are four colorsânatural, noir, black, and indigoâand each one will set you back $500. They go on sale on July 15 at 11:00 a.m. and begin shipping July 17. âThese are fucking nuts,â Taber wrote in an email.
Analogue Pocket â Aluminum Limited Editions.
Available in highly limited quantities.
Entirely CNC'd from aluminum. Every single piece.
$499.99
On sale: July 15, 8am PDT.
Shipping: July 17, 2024.See more info at: https://t.co/QrEZEq0631 pic.twitter.com/s23kMl2ANw
â Analogue (@analogue) July 12, 2024
If the Analogue Pocketâs past is anything to go off of, the PlayStation 5-sized price tag wonât scare collectors and retro enthusiasts away. The devices use field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips to run Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges exactly how you remember them. The latest in a series of console recreations from Analogue, the handhelds launched in 2021 and, due in part to supply chain issues resulting from the pandemic, remained perpetually sold out and incessantly hard to find, up until recently.
Last fall, the company announced Game Boy Color variants aimed at recapturing the pure joy of holding a device in your hands that pops with all the colors of the Zebra bubble gum rainbow. These aluminum models are instead channeling the brushed aluminum look of certain Game Boy SP editions when the brand was aiming to be a bit more reserved and refined. Personally, Iâm hoping Analogue comes back this Christmas with a mash-up of both bright colors and cold metal.
Somehow I suspect that whatever comes next, Analogueâs plans for more editions of the Pocket arenât done yet. The company is also currently working on a version of the Nintendo 64 called the Analogue 3D.