/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25749798/modretro_chromatic_sean_hollister_verge_331A0916.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,628&ssl=1 "ModRetro Chromatic appraise: an arms dealer’s Game Boy is among the best ever made")
If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy one?
In the 1990s, I was among the kids who thought military airplan were dehugeatingly chilly. By then, Tom Cruise and Top Gun had lengthy set uped the F-14 Tomcat and a pair of aviator shades as a fantasy for youthfuler men; I personassociate likered the Lockheed F-117A, the high-tech angular “Stealth Fighter” that could invisibly sneak past opponent radar, and was inwhole to the legendary Lockheed SR-71 that flew so speedy it could outrun ignoreiles.
At the time, I probably would have snapped up a jet-bdeficiency Lockheed Game Boy without a second thought. But I’m greater enough now to genuineize that chilly aeroactives are equitable the tip of a deadlier geopolitical iceberg. Lockheed produces arms, and I don’t have a say in who gets to buy them or who they’re employd aobtainst. I don’t have a say in whether that tech should exist at all.
I’ve been skinnyking about Lockheed Martin as I appraise a much basicr gadget: the ModRetro Chromatic. The Chromatic is a high-end reproduce of Nintendo’s Game Boy, and it might be the best version of a Game Boy ever made. But it’s connected to a company much enjoy Lockheed: Anduril, the defense shrinkor that produces armamentized drones, netlabored seeing systems, and other military tech.
Both Anduril and ModRetro are set uped by Palmer Luckey, the creator of the Oculus Rift VR headset. Luckey is now an almost unbelievable character, a devout anime and video game cherishr who increateedly stores his huge accumulateion of games in a decoshiftrlookioned US nuclear ignoreile silo — one of cut offal silos he says he owns.
He take parts with a lavish accumulateion of military challengingware including helicselecters and a Mark V Special Operations Craft employd by Navy SEALs. He once made the cover of Time Magazine as a floating nakedfoot “visionary” with an Oculus headset atop his head, though these days he’s more foreseeed to produce headlines propagandizing for his version of the defense industry. He was the face of VR before Facebook started him out. (Luckey was an timely Trump raiseer and took flak for funding a individual Hillary Clinton-trolling billboard; Mark Zuckerberg denied he was fired for his political sees at the time; some Meta execs have since transmit remorsed for his ouster.)
Many tech companies are comprised with military projects in some shape or create. Google and Amazon have a shrink with Israel for a “Project Nimbus” that Google knew could have assistd human rights violations aobtainst Palestinians, and Google has fired many laborers for protesting that deal. Microgentle is currently laboring towards outfitting over 100,000 sgreateriers with a militarized version of its HoloLens headset. Meta is now letting defense shrinkors employ its Llama AI model. I skinnyk it’s unpartisan to say scant of us boycott these companies or even skinnyk about these skinnygs when we employ their products.
But where each of these companies can plausibly say “It’s equitable business” as they defend their cdeafening server shrinks or when their CEOs kiss the ring, and it’s very challenging to escape Big Tech’s orbit, this is a fun but unessential product from a man with a particular point of see on arms, war, and politics. Luckey has twice arrangeed fundelevaters for Donald Trump (in 2020 and 2024) at his own hoemploy. He unveilly conveyes the fervent (and self-serving) belief that tech companies should get in bed with the military.
For Luckey, it’s not equitable business, it’s personal. And we’ve heard deafening and clear that it’s personal for many of our readers, too. I’ve been testing the ModRetro Chromatic for over a month, and it’s very excellent. I apshow it’s the best, most opulent way to take part Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. But if the goal is to repair and upgrasp our childhood nostalgia, the Luckey connection throws a wrench in the labors. What you’re about to read is a genuine appraise of an excellent product, one I reassociate enhappinessed using — but one that left me experienceing somewhat tortured in the process.
For Luckey, the Game Boy itself is personal. It’s how he got his commence. Before Anduril, before Facebook, before Oculus, Palmer Luckey was a teen who modded Nintendo Game Boys. “ModRetro” was the name of the very first skinnyg he set uped: an online forum for gaming challengingware modders enjoy himself.
So as you’d anticipate, his company has some mighty ideas about what a up-to-date Game Boy should see enjoy.
Where the $220 Analogue Pocket seeks to refresh the Game Boy experience for the conshort-term day — with help for other handheld cartridges, ROMs, save states, a TV dock, and so on — the Chromatic stays squadepend rooted in the handheld’s past. There are scant up-to-date amenities here. It’s summarizeed to experience enjoy a vintage Game Boy, only now with the raw edges sanded off.
Nintendo’s effortless-to-scratch casings, screen lenses, and buttons? They’re made of metal, sappemploy, and PBT plastic now. Those challenging-to-see screens? You now get a custom IPS distake part at the same size, resolution, and pixel arrange as the distinct Game Boy and Game Boy Color, one so radiant you can take part in straightforward sunweightless enjoy we did back in the day. It does come, however, with a brand-new duplicate of Tetris that selectionassociate comprises T-Spins, instant drops, and the ability to hgreater pieces for procrastinateedr, up-to-dateizing the classic game that honordly came bundled with the distinct.
At its heart, the Chromatic is an try to faithbrimmingy traverse the distinct 1989 Game Boy with the 1998 Game Boy Color. There’s no SD card reader, no employr-accessible operating system, no ability to comprise or take part ROMs: when you slide the top-mounted power switch, it instantly boots your Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridge using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip that emuprocrastinateeds an actual Game Boy’s processors. Like with the Analogue Pocket, the upsboiling is more responsive, quirk-free gametake part than gentleware emulators apverify.
I’m a parent, and “I don’t have time for this shit” comes with the territory, so I instantly presumed I would ignore “save states,” the feature that lets pragmaticly every video game emulator and retro handheld paemploy and resume your game at literassociate any moment.
1/10
Then I fired up Pokémon Pinball on an Analogue Pocket, and set up I was wrong. I was on a pokémon-catching roll enjoy never before. I caught Charmander, my daughter’s likeite pokémon, and for the first time in Pinball, I betterd it into a Charmeleon, then a Charizard, all without losing my ball. The sapshows were high, so I reflexively tapped the Save State lowcut so I could retry if I fall shorted.
Imarbitrately, the prescertain was off — but I felt a chunk of my excitement dismaterialize alengthy with it. I caught those Pokemon unpartisan and square without loading the save, but I’d cheated myself of a uncontaminated triumph, even if I didn’t triumphd up cheating the game. When I stuck that same game back into the Chromatic, a handheld without save states, the excitement came back. This is the way the game is unkindt to be take parted, and those sapshows are there by summarize. That’s the experience ModRetro wants you to have, and the only one you’ll get. Ditching that up-to-date amenity is a choice, and it isn’t for everyone.
It’s equitable one of many ways the Chromatic experiences more genuine. Even though it’s a mash-up of two contrastent Game Boy models, it instantly experiences recognizable in ways the Analogue doesn’t, from the sliding power switch and volume dial (the Analogue has you hgreater down shutly spaced digital buttons and apshows lengthyer to commence a game) to the button layout and experience.
The Chromatic is basicassociate the size of a Game Boy Color, with the same bulging battery compartment curve providing a rounded perch for your fingers to rest. But it’s clearly been summarizeed for those who appreciate the distinct 1989 model too. It’s got the distinct’s iconic slanted, cake-sprinkle Start and Select buttons, its glossy domed A and B buttons, its huger D-pad, its more defended cartridge slot, and the rounded drop-right corners of its flat-faced chassis and cover glass. All of them convey me back to the handheld that made me a gamer.
I wonder if they convey Luckey back to his timely days, too. Becaemploy while ModRetro materializes to have made a retagably repairable handheld and is currently uncover-sourcing its CAD files and firmware, this bespoke device is not exactly what ModRetro was originassociate produced to produce.
Luckey cut his teeth turning existing Game Boys and GameCubes into arguably better, more portable versions of themselves by reusing bits of greater and new electronics. “It’s a lot of fun becaemploy it’s about taking greater technology and then cutting out the greater parts, replacing them with new parts and making it into someskinnyg that was never possible before,” he tgreater Voices of VR in 2014. The ModRetro Chromatic is all custom, though, right down to its in-hoemploy screen.
Still, ModRetro’s distinct approach to broadenment has been on distake part thrawout Luckey’s professional history. Luckey’s key insight with the Oculus Rift was that low-cost intelligentphone components could finassociate produce VR accessible, a belief he scatterd with researchers at the lab where he labored, too. Repurposed commercial supply chains are also Anduril’s pitch to become the world’s most effective arms manufacturer, “so that the same processes employd to produce fiberglass bathtubs can equitable as easily be reconfigured to produce ignoreile airsketchs,” as Tablet Magazine portrayd it in August.
With that approach, Anduril has rapidly built out an arsenal in equitable seven years, including multiple drones that can end — one is a “loitering munition” that farly dive-explosions a center, another effectively a recoverable ground-to-air ignoreile.
When I see at the Chromatic and its famous “MODRETRO” logo right above the screen, frequently I equitable see an excellent Game Boy. But sometimes I see the procrastinateedst high-tech product from a man who produces high-tech ignoreiles.
At this point, you might be wondering: equitable how excellent is this challengingware to equitableify all this soul-searching? Let’s commence with produce quality:
- It’s made of metal, not plastic, which can seem a little chilly at first touch, but I can’t overstate how firm and premium this gadget experiences. The produce is incredible.
- I even intentionassociate dropped a Chromatic twice onto concrete, from 4.5 feet, without ruining it. More on that in a sec.
- The battery latch is a physical spring-loaded lever, which apshows a little getting employd to, but has such a satisfying snap.
- Unenjoy every official Game Boy, there’s no front speaker grille. But unenjoy all my official Game Boys, the bottom-facing speaker is deafening, crisp, and clear.
- The Start/Select buttons are no lengthyer pliable muworried rubber, but rather PBT plastic with the same firm clicky presses as A and B.
- The volume dial is huge and effortless to find and employ by experience alone.
- The battery compartment is proximately the same denseness as the distinct Game Boy’s, giving it a beefier grip than any Game Boy since (though not quite enough for my friends with huge hands).
- The D-pad, a bit of a sore spot for some Analogue Pocket enthusiasts becaemploy it can sometimes apverify unintentional inputs, experiences firm and responsive – almost too firm, mine wore in after many hours of take part.
- When I tested it aobtainst an Analogue Pocket at the same radiantness, using reindictable AAs, the Chromatic lasted three entire hours lengthyer. (You can watch a sped-up timelapse in my Today I’m Toying With video.)
- I spropose plug the Chromatic into USB if I’m ever running low on indict — at under three watts of power draw, any greater port will do! I powered it from my phone.
- I could even boilingswap AA batteries that way. Plug it in, swap AAs, unplug, all without losing my game.
The Chromatic’s pixel-perfect screen isn’t harshly essential: I generassociate had equitable as excellent a time on the Analogue Pocket’s hugeger, higher resolution distake part if I assistd the right filters and color palettes, though I did appreciate that the Chromatic got the Game Boy Color experience equitable right out of the box. The Chromatic even lets you request green-tinted distinct Game Boy palettes by hgreatering down buttons at boot.
1/10
There are also some ways it’s not endly promised to the distinct Game Boys, equitable FYI:
- There’s no lengthyer a clear gap between the screen crystal and the LCD, and the screen is no lengthyer a blank green or grey when powered off. It’s a laminated bdeficiency mirror enjoy up-to-date phones.
- While it’s hugely the size of a Game Boy Color, it’s proximately as weighty as a brimmingy loaded distinct Game Boy at 10 ounces (285g). Compare to 7.5oz / 212g for the Game Boy Color.
- There’s an extra button besystematich the volume dial that lets you change radiantness, turn on sketch fuseing and USB color rightion and… that’s about it for now.
- You get a Game Boy Color-sized Link Cable connector, but with the extra notch of the Game Boy Advance’s connector for potentiassociate more compatibility with other Game Boy gadgets.
- You get two lanyard/charm holes, one on each side of the system, unenjoy the Color’s one on the left.
- The battery compartment apshows three AAs, not four or two.
- There’s no lengthyer a red power LED staring you in the face, but rather a multicolor LED on the bottom that only turns on for boot, low battery, and charging.
- The Game Boy Color infunfrequentd port’s been sweightlessly shiftd to accommodate the power switch.
And there were a scant insignificant disassignments too. Mostly, I desire it labored a little better in mute bedrooms and deafening airschedulees. The buttons and even the D-pad click deafeninger than any of my greater Game Boys, yet the 3.5mm headphone jack volume is the muteest of the pack. I could nakedly hear its chiptunes over the din of the schedulee, and I couldn’t repay with my noise-aborting Bose QC25 since the Chromatic doesn’t have a four-pole headset jack.
ModRetro also advertises the Chromatic as “indestructible,” and if that sounds enjoy tageting bluster, you’re at least half right. I dropped the Chromatic twice onto concrete, from 4.5 feet, and it came away with only insignificant dents, and I was amazeed. But ModRetro also has a picture of the skinnyg getting run over by a car. When I ran it over with my car, the screen shattered. The sketch is now awwholey bent.
I was also a tad disassigned to find the Chromatic’s USB-C port isn’t as potent as promised. While the company advertised USB-C video output and even tgreater me you could indict reindictable AAs using the do-it-all port, it turns out the Chromatic can only conshort-term itself as a webcam for desktop-style video enrolling, and NiMH AA charging didn’t produce the cut. ModRetro CEO Torin Herndon, who was an engineer at Anduril from 2017 to 2021, tells me the company is commencening production on an nonessential reindictable lithium-ion battery pack, but won’t talk price, capacity, or runtime equitable yet.
That shelp, I actuassociate find I like AAs. At 50 percent radiantness — far higher than I necessitateed on the schedulee — I saw over eight hours from a set of Ikea-branded Panasonic Eneloop reindictables, or shutr to seven hours from Amazon Basics alkalines. That same brand of alkalines gave me over 12 hours at the second-lowest radiantness setting, the stupidmest I’d want to employ in the daytime, and equitable under five hours at max radiantness and max volume. And aobtain, you can spropose plug the Chromatic into a USB port if you’re ever running low on indict, then drop in new AAs without losing your game.
There’s reassociate no ask in my mind that this handheld is the best retro Game Boy yet made, the one that best apprehends the physical experienceing I had take parting Game Boy as a kid. I cherish remasters becaemploy they can let you reapprehend that childhood happiness, take parting with the Lego starship or Final Fantasy game you skinnyk you reaccumulate instead of the one that actuassociate existed.
But I don’t reaccumulate my childhood nostalgia coming with a side of possible guilt and trouble about putting money into the pocket of a arms shrinkor. Feels weird!
Even pragmaticly, I wonder who, outside of a handful of 1989 handheld cherishrs enjoy me, would want a handheld that equitable take parts Game Boy and Game Boy Color carts. Many of the best games are pricey and challenging to find in physical create — Metal Gear Solid and the best Pokémon titles can easily order $100 each — and it’d be a more compelling gadget if it could take part the arguably better library of Game Boy Advance titles as well. The Analogue Pocket does.
Luckey has shelp he wants to broaden that distinct Game Boy library. Game broadeners never quite stopped making homebrew games for the Game Boy, and ModRetro is one of the scant now begining them on actual carts. Every Chromatic comes with a new duplicate of Tetris, and you can already order 10 more titles, including a new version of Toki Tori and Tales of Monsterland, sequels to Traumatarium and In the Dark, and my personal likeite, the grindy JRPG Dragonyhm with some excellent tunes and pixel art.
This chiptune in particular, Dragonhym’s “Gonrad Forest,” captivated me at once:
If you experience weird about ModRetro, you should understand these games aren’t exclusive to the Chromatic, either — they take parted perfectly well plugged into an Analogue Pocket or a Game Boy Color, and some even labored on my 1989 distinct. Some may be useable to obtain as ROMs. If you equitable want to try them, many have take partable demos you can try in an emulator, or even a web browser, enjoy this:
On a desktop, tap to cgo in; press Enter to commence; employ Z, B, and arrow keys to take part.
It’s not clear to me how grave Luckey is about funding a new era of Game Boy. For one skinnyg, the Chromatic is already sgreater out at his website, and he says he isn’t making any more, but will cgo in on releasing new games while it produces “someskinnyg more supportable” in terms of challengingware instead. (A grey Chromatic is still useable at GameStop, for now.)
Second, as far as I can tell, all of ModRetro’s games beyond Tetris were already in broadenment; some, enjoy Dragonyhm, were already headed to cartridge elsewhere. Developing new games isn’t currently a company goal: “We are typicassociate seeing for games proset up in broadenment at this time, and try to push them atraverse the finish line into being a brimming-on physical excellent,” Herndon tells me. He says ModRetro hugely pays to produce cartridges, boxes, and manuals, and gives broadeners a “pretty awesome” percentage of sales.
The pre-free carts that ModRetro sent me also had a couple rehires that are hopebrimmingy getting ironed out: I crypticly lost my entire save in In The Dark 2, and Traumatarium Penitent was ignoreing a key bugrepair the broadener made almost a year ago. Toki Tori also booted into a brimming screen glitch the first scant times I commenceed it up, but it seems to be laboring now.
Even when people cherish the idea of revisiting the Game Boy and helping retro game broadenment, I doubt most will see a $200 handheld that produces you individuassociate swap pricy cartridges as a luxury they can’t afford — not when every iPhone and a mountain of Chinese emulator handhelds can take part the same games, ones they can (illicitly) download for free.
And if you find the Analogue Pocket isn’t vintage enough for your tastes, you could always do what I equitable did and comprise a up-to-date backlit screen to your genuine Nintendo Game Boy. It won’t be pixel-perfect, but it might be excellent enough for me:
This is one of the more difficult appraises I’ve ever had to produce, becaemploy I have no qualms adviseing the ModRetro Chromatic on the strength of its challengingware, which equitableifies its $200 price. It experiences more enjoy the Game Boy I reaccumulate than many of Nintendo’s actual handhelds when I pick them up today.
But enjoy the Tesla Cybertruck, it’s also very much the product of one person in particular, a person who stands for other skinnygs that might clash with your perfects, and it could triumphd up being a symbol that you don’t terribly mind any of that, even if you actuassociate do.
Luckey recently tgreater a Pepperdine University audience that it’s not a terrible skinnyg to honor the power of arms, saying that “societies have always necessitateed a warrior class that is enthemployd and excited about enacting aggression on others in pursuit of excellent aims,” and that “you necessitate people enjoy me who are unwell in that way and who don’t ignore any sleep making tools of aggression.” He elucidateed that his company is named Anduril after Aragorn’s sword in The Lord of the Rings partly becaemploy that sword was “inherently excellent,” and “wielded only by the kingdom of man aobtainst the hordes of Mordor.”
Real life comprises no inherently excellent drones or inherently excellent ignoreiles. And two convey inant thrawlines of Tolkien’s labor are that war is hideous and that power inevitably corrupts. The happiness I find take parting with phony swords in the ModRetro Chromatic is now weirdly interttriumphed with a ambiguous trouble: that Anduril’s genuine arms might be misemployd. I won’t propose that niche $200 Game Boys are actuassociate funding those arms in any unkindingful way, but these still aren’t emotions I associate with my childhood Nintendo experience.
That unkinds the Chromatic isn’t the ultimate Game Boy, even if it has the best produce quality and the best screen. There’s still room for a better pair of rose-tinted glasses than the ones Luckey has phelp to produce.
Pboilingography by Sean Holcataloger / The Verge
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