riddle me this if a doy VR nerd turned
controversial arms dealer were to make a game console what game console would he
make Wonder no more for I have the answer inside this basic Jan Sport
backpack it is the mod retoch chromatic from Palmer lucky perhaps best known for
his role in the creation of the Oculus Rift its features include enjoying a
family of newly created games on chromatic cartridges as well as
remastered versions of your favorite classics it is compatible with original
Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges
and it has a bright enough screen that you can use it yes my friends outside
but before we get to this I want to have a look at this Lisa Frank esque tiger
folio oh wow that's their review guide
Lisa Frank that's that brand that made the super bright colored stationer back
in the 90s is that correct yeah okay hi
there we hope this feels like Christmas morning when you were a kid how old is
Palmer lucky is he even old enough to have had a Game Boy as a kid the history
of gaming grade level 6th to e8th grade this is a very cute reviewer guide they
don't really expect me to do all this work though do they all right is there
anything else in here does it come with this backpack is that part of the whole like first edition
thing okay well we're not sure let's
have a look at this thing it's bundled with chromatic Tetris which is apparently a recreation of the original
Tetris and it comes with a sapphire glass display cover I mean that does
feel markedly higher quality than the scuff plastic that was on the original
Game Boy wow the chassis ooh it is
amazing how the material Choice affects the feel of a device okay so you go from
cheap devices which use plastic and are kind of down here to like oh premium
devices which use stainless steel or aluminum and feel like this to more
exotic metals that feel more like plastic it uses a magnesium alloy
chassis that makes it I wouldn't say
light because anytime you've got three ablea
batteries and something it's not going to be especially light but it feels
lightish and it's not cold to the touch you've got a USBC port at the bottom as
well as a headphone jack this USBC Port apparently supports video out and
speaking of video one of the most special things about the device is that
the resolution of the display matches the original Game Boy meaning that
you're not going to get any approximations of the original pixel art
it should be absolutely perfect we've got support for the Link cable which is
possible because they're using an fpga Recreation of the original processor
we've got a couple of wrist strap Loops here depending on whether you prefer to apply it on the left or the right hand
side we've got a volume button there's a menu button on the side right here your
traditional AB select start and d-pad
d-pad feels pretty good up at the top we got our power switch as well as an IR
transceiver so it's kind of a mashup of original Game Boy features and Game Boy
Color features so if you want to trade your Pokemon it'll I guess depend on
what generation of gain you're using oh there is one thing I didn't mention
under the battery cover these are rechargeable batteries oh they're not it
comes with alkaline battery really at this price it comes with alkaline
batteries it's funny Palmer says that
this was a passion project he's losing money on this thing but at 220 bucks I
don't know anyway appar if you replace these with nickel metal hydrides they
can charge inside the device using the USBC Port which is actually kind of a
nice feature oh that's a really nice rubber battery retention thing it does
feel very premium the issue is that it also cost premium we've got some
comparison devices we're going to be looking at in a moment here anyway
inside we've got chromatic Tetris which looks an awful lot like a Tetris cart
made in Mexico as well as a cute little Tetris um complication isn't that what
Apple calls the like cute little uh things yeah charms
charms that's the word I'm looking for Charming oh look at that there's a quick
start guide there let's fire it up and let's also meet the
contenders after the segue to our sponsor hem their portable I steady V3
gimbal makes filming on your phone a whole lot easier with Nifty features
like using AI to ensure you have consistently centered shots and a fill
light with three three different color temperatures to keep things clear even
in low light and of course since it's a gimbal you can use it handheld with the
extension Rod or you can set it up in tripod mode and control it with a
detachable remote plus the Hem Joy app offers tailored recommendations for
camera movement and techniques based on popular scenes so check it out at the
link in the video description all right what do we got here we got the original
game boy boy does it ever look bulky compared to well everything else we've
got a Game Boy Pocket okay oh it's a little bigger than the pocket uh We've
also got the analog pocket I can't tell you who's going to win but uh it's going
to be the pocket and then we've got uh oh what was this thing called again
funny playing game boy this was that one that we built here on ShortCircuit with
the little kit all right what do we start with I mean I guess we got to
start with their included Tetris game let's give a shot all right apparently
they worked with cost on color matched headphones but I don't have those so
we're going to use the built-in speaker
well the speaker is a lot better than the original game boy I'll tell you that much already without even listening to
them side by side I don't even know what the different modes mean to be honest
with you I was never into Tetris which is about to become super
apparent up yeah so up does that yeah I
uh don't even really know the controls so there's that uh how do I oh yeah
there we go uh yeah sure um oh yeah
sorry button F yeah yeah button F button feel seems
good uh oh that was not a good move
Please Don't Judge Me too harshly I need yes yes I need the stick hey there we go
I'm sorry am I supposed to be making a video Zero complaints nice and
tactile say what you will about Palmer lucky
um if he built the device for himself he
cared about it oops I might have created
another dependency but I got got it I got it right away I can't wait for the
comment section on this video to just be like is L St a gamer the answer is no uh
oh my God they come so fast I need the stick yes I got the stick it's too
hard that's the best I could do great
button feel um the sound even though I
had it turned down is awesome compared to the original Game Boy dude very very
playable let's try their weird Recreation cartridge in another console
okay what are the odds this works cuz clearly if it's an fpga device
it should be basically functionally a Game Boy but it also clearly isn't
functionally a Game Boy it's got the menu button it's got the IR thing and
stuff so remember when I said the speaker was
better on the mod retro you can kind of make it out I
don't remember the game boy being this bad I think our game boy is uh has seen
better days which is honestly part of the reason that devices like this are so
popular because even if you wanted the original experience it's degraded so
much in some cases that that original experience might not really exist um
it's shocking to me how much better the speakers can sound firing down into your
palm as opposed to toward your face but
really can really really can okay so
that's the Game Boy um that's clearly not winning our challenge today um why
don't we try this guy all right funny
playing you're up all other things being equal I would absolutely take the
chromatic but all other things are not equal and the chromatic is uh over
double the price if I just wanted to Tool around and play Game Boy games
because I think I think that's something that we have to kind of be honest with
ourselves are we going to sit down and
like play this game like the way we used
to when we were kids where we're going to play it for hours every week
no probably not some people yes
obviously there's people that are still very very into Tetris but most people
this is a this is a novelty purchase you know what I mean the screen is another
drawback to this device it's definitely not as bright it's not as vibrant
however once again is it vibranter and
brighter enough that I'd be willing to pay
double for the chromatic that's
tough oh my God yep block out okay you
know what I want to see the chromatic at Max brightness real quick
here dude one of the design goals was
apparently to make it playable outside which is something that the original
Game Boy really struggled with man I'm
usually kind of a just emulate guy but I
got to say the resolution matched display really does make the old pixel
art look better I was not expecting to notice that big of a difference again
whether we're talking brightness or button feel or whatever double the price
that's a tall order but it is better let's go for something a little more
different it looks like it's like artificially smoothed or something you
know yeah it really does not look as good now I could fix a lot of what looks
kind of nasty about this filters but
it's not the same it's never going to be quite the same let's try some filters on
this display it's high enough resolution that theoretically that should more
closely approximate the original console the buttons also still aren't as good
that's something that the mod retro team absolutely nailed the buttons they are
really really good with that said am I
actually having any less fun right now
no yeah so far man there's no real
question for me at this price I would
just get an analog pocket because then I can play more than just Game Boy and
Game Boy Color games did I mention that this thing only plays Game Boy and Game
Boy Color games and then you know some re-releases they say there's some new
releases coming games that were like cancelled toward the end of the life of
the original game boy okay how about the original
pocket man that sound it is cool that these work in the original consoles
which I guess is pretty cool for someone who wants to buy the re-releases and
then actually play them in a Game Boy man it really doesn't help that it's a
little chilly in the studio you can see when I move it down it's like the poor
LCD is like let's try a different game
what do we want to play what should I play all right Super Mario Land let's
go that's a it's not a very good interface it says 3 to
one as the opposite of whatever it is that you like you you can't tell if
you're three to oneing anything
wow you can see it actually like slows down a little bit sometimes just like
the original Hardware would authentic leg whatever I got this
easy and I'm
dead time for a Game Boy Color game oh
man this uh this little nubbin on the back I understand why they had to do it
because this is made of metal so you can't just have a little like flexible tab but that sits like right where I
want my finger or my pinky I mean I could work around it I could work around
it but it's not not my
favorite looks real good I'm not really sure what else there
is to say about it at this point if what you want is a machine that does
absolutely nothing but play Game Boy games and Game Boy Color games with much
greater Fidelity than the original game boy or Game Boy Color then that's pretty
cool you can get one of these it's as true to the original consoles while also
being better than the original consoles as you can get thanks to that display
however if you're willing to compromise on a few things and you like getting
benefits for that the analog pocket really is a way more compelling option I
mean it's got a bigger screen it's also very bright even if it's not quite as
bright it's got compatibility for way more game systems including original
cartridge compatibility which is one of the things that's nice about the mod
retro and if you want to spend half as much this is a very compelling option
too from funny playing like I'd play on this does it really matter
not to me to you it might subscribe to ShortCircuit