OpenFPGA

PixelCrib Giveaway – Win an Analogue Pocket!

August 18, 2025 By ausretrogamer

Another PixelCrib Giveaway – you could win the OpenFPGA beauty, the Analogue Pocket!

After their incredible response to last month’s Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle giveaway, we knew PixelCrib would keep the good vibes rolling. For this month, PixleCrib is giving away something truly special: the Analogue Pocket!

🕹️ Why the Analogue Pocket?
Because it’s a retro gaming dream come true! This sleek handheld plays Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges (and many, many more!) with pixel-perfect accuracy thanks to its powerful FPGA hardware. If you’re a fan of classic gaming, this is the ultimate collector’s piece. The Analogue Pocket is indeed the best thing since sliced bread!

📦 How to Enter:
From 16–31 August 2025, every order of an in-stock item gets you an automatic entry into the draw.
✅ Shop online or visit PixelCrib in-store
✅ Each order = one entry (yep, multiple orders = multiple chances!)
🚫 Pre-orders aren’t eligible, so make sure your item is ready to ship!

🌍 This giveaway is open to everyone — whether you’re in Australia or anywhere else in the world!

Have we told you how much we love our Analogue Pockets?!

📅 Winner Announcement:
PixelCrib will randomly draw the winner on Monday, 1 September 2025 and reach out via email or phone.

🎮 Ready to win the ultimate retro handheld?
Head to PixelCrib.com.au, grab something awesome, and you’re in the running. Good luck, gamers — may the pixels be ever in your favour!

The Analogue Pocket OpenFPGA Adapters Are Awesome!

March 7, 2024 By ausretrogamer

No Emulation.

It may have taken 18 months for them to arrive, but the new Adapters for the Analogue Pocket have been well worth the wait!

Having an extensive library of Atari Lynx, PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and Neo Geo Pocket Colour game carts, it is always with trepidation when playing these on their corresponding original hardware, which may result in the systems breaking down in some way or shape (Ed: Oi capacitors, we are looking at you!). To solve this problem, we obtained a couple of Analogue Pockets and the three pack adapters to be able to play our library of Lynx, NGPC and PC-Engine carts safely, in conjunction with playing our Game Boy, Game Boy Colour and GBA carts too. The Anlogue Pocket is a versatile little beast! It also helps that the Pocket has an absolutely amazing screen!

Based on openFPGA, we can report that playing these game carts on the new adapters is like playing them on their original systems, but better! The better part being that the Pocket is an ergonomically perfect system, with a great D-pad, fire buttons and of course, the stunningly sharp 3.5″ backlit 1600×1440 resolution LTPS LCD display. Having put the carts through their paces, we are quite chuffed at the versatility that the Pocket affords us.

We can finally put the original systems to rest!

They are finally here!

The Atari Lynx II can now be retired!

Of course the first Lynx game was going to be California Games

As Good As James – if you know, you know 😉

Now to plugin the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 adapter to try out a few HuCards…

Playing these PC-Engine games on the Pocket are darn awesome! Our PC-Engine GT can be spared abuse.

Hey Analogue, Forget The N64 3D FPGA Console, Just Get Our Old Orders To Us!

October 18, 2023 By ausretrogamer

With yesterday’s news about their next console, the Analogue 3D (a Nintendo 64 FPGA system), Analogue is once again betting that its customers will jump on board and will remain silent while waiting for their future promised system to be delivered at some indeterminate date – and there in lies the rub! No longer can we be excited about an Analogue system we have no idea when it will arrive!

Considering we have been loyal customers of Analogue, we do have to speak out about the length of time it takes to fulfill orders and their almost non-existent (or seldom) updates as you wait months (or years) for your paid-in-full order to be fulfilled. We speak from experience where our Analogue Pocket took 11 months from ordering to actually receiving it. Worse still, we ordered the Pocket (3 x) cartridge adapters pack last October (2022) and we are still waiting and have no idea if and when we will receive it – maybe Christmas, if we are lucky?!

We love our Analogue Pocket, but the wait for it was waaaaay to long!

Some will argue that Analogue only states rough timelines, like “shipping in Q3” or “coming in 2024”, however the issue we have is the lack of communication leading up to the point when they decide to actually ship items. As a customer, the expectation is that the retailer/supplier will keep you informed with regular updates, even if the items are late (due to whatever reason), we just want to know what is going on! The worst thing a company can do is remain silent and leave their customers in the dark – which Analogue does very well, unfortunately.

So, if you are in the market to order the Analogue 3D N64 system, be prepared for a long wait with absolute radio silence. Proceed with caution!

PS: We admit their products are great, but come on Analogue, please lift up your comms game (pun fully intended)!
PPS: Analogue does offer the buyer to cancel their order and get a refund, so that’s one positive, we guess.

Unfortunately, our Pocket Cartridge Adapter Pack is yet arrive 🙁
image source: Analogue

Analogue Pocket – Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

September 4, 2023 By ausretrogamer

Analogue Pocket – is the best thing since sliced bread!

It may have taken 11 months from ordering to receiving the Analogue Pocket, and let us tell you all, it has totally been worth the wait!

With multiple handhelds on the market that emulate classic systems from yesteryear, we honestly didn’t know what we were missing out on till the Analogue Pocket arrived! The FPGA (OpenFPGA) based system is like playing on the original hardware, and this is where the Pocket shines – rising well above the myriad of handhelds on the market which use software emulation to play our beloved old video games. Comparing FPGA to software emulation is like comparing a Formula 1 race car to a Totoya Camry racing at Monaco – both will get you to the finish line, but one will get you there far far quicker (and in style).

By now you would have worked out that we are fans of our new gadget from Analogue. Yeah, the wait was excruciating at times, but we are glad we hung in there, as this has now become our choice for handheld gaming. We were very impressed with the quality and premium feel of the Pocket (and it’s packaging), being on par with Apple Inc. – yep, it’s that good!

The Analogue Pocket looks and feels like a premium piece of electronics – which it is, but it’s components are what makes it impressive. The Pocket is designed around a 3.5”, 615 ppi, LCD, which is a first-in-class. With a 1600 x 1440 resolution, the Pocket has 10x the resolution of an original Game Boy. The display is even made from Gorilla® Glass, with pro level colour accuracy, dynamic range, and brightness. We’d argue that the Analogue Pocket is the best piece of handheld hardware to play video games, bar none.

But wait, there is more to this amazing piece of kit! Not only does this Analogue product play games, it’s for making music too! The Pocket has a digital audio workstation built in called Nanoloop. It’s a synthesizer and a sequencer. Designed for music creation and live performance. Shape, stretch and morph sounds. Capture music or play and sculpt live – you too can be a chiptune maestro! You can also connect the Pocket to your Mac, PC or other hardware with MIDI & Sync cables.

Remember how we said to wait as there is more? Well, there is more to this device, that’s what makes it impressive. If you like to tinker in game development, then you’d be pleased to know that you can bring your gaming ideas to reality with zero programming knowledge with GB Studio! GB Studio is an easy-to-use drag and drop retro game creator, allowing you to generate proprietary .pocket files and then run them off your SD card.

The Dock is a must-get accessory for the Analogue Pocket!

The pièce de résistance of the Pocket is that it’s designed for FPGA development. Analogue added a second dedicated FPGA just for developers to develop and port their own cores. With access to Analogue’s proprietary hardware and scalers, it opens up the platform for developers to create amazing feats on the system.

At the time of writing, there have been quite a few cores created specifically for the Pocket, from classic gaming consoles like the Atari 2600/7800 and the Odyssey 2, to the Master System, NES, SNES, Mega Drive and everything in between. Getting these cores and setting them up has never been easier – we used RetroDriven’s Pocket Updater to do all the fiddly stuff like finding the right cores, downloading and configuring them. If you are a masochist, you can go and find the individual cores and set them up, or you could make things easier for yourself by bookmarking the OpenFPGA Cores Inventory site.

Welcome to the family

Setting up the cores on the Pocket is a cinch with RetroDriven’s Pocket Updater tool

The flexibility, power and premium componentry is what sets the Analogue Pocket apart from other handheld systems. The fact that it is FPGA based is a total game changer – pun fully intended. With a thriving development community, we are starting to see what this machine is capable of. The future does look quite bright for the Pocket, and that’s us saying that while we await our PC-Engine, Neo Geo Pocket and Atari Lynx adapters to arrive! Coupled with the Dock, the Analogue Pocket is truly the best thing since sliced bread in the video gaming world.

Tech Specs – Pocket:

Compatible with Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance game cartridges (and Game Gear, PC-Engine, Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket via separate adapters)
3.5″ LCD. 1600×1440 resolution. 615ppi
360° display rotation (tate mode)
Variable refresh display
Rechargeable lithium ion 4300mAh battery (6-10 hour gameplay time & 10+ hour sleep time)
All buttons mappable/reconfigurable
Stereo speakers
micro SD card slot
USB-C charging
Original-style link port (woohoo, link action!)
3.5mm headphone output