Summary
I’ve very fond memories of my Game Boy. It was one of the chunky original ones, and despite being the horrible mustard yellow colour that I detested, I adored the console. It went wherever I went, and I played it as long as the batteries would last, which was always less time than I had hoped.
Have you ever seen the memes about trying to play a Game Boy in a car at night? Surviving on the glimpses of illumination from passing streetlights to have just one more precious second of your favourite game? That was very real. It also meant playing at night when I was meant to be asleep was impossible. Well, until I bought the hideous magnifying glass light combo accessory that was super unwieldy, but at least lit up the screen.
And so began an obsession that would continue over the years. I upgraded to new and shinier Game Boys when I could afford to, eventually switching to the DS and its newer iterations. I still have much of my Game Boy collection, though they now sit in piles gathering dust. Some of the cartridges have stopped working. Some work but the internal batteries are dead. And I discovered some must have been borrowed by my brothers during childhood, who had lovingly restarted my Pokemon save, wiping months of work, only to rename Red as “Tw*t” and do nothing more.
So imagine my delight when I heard about theChromatichandheld by ModRetro, which in its own words is, “designed with modern tech, but with retro soul.” I picked three of my favourite Game Boy games and took them to Gamescom to check out the Chromatic in action.
As soon as I had it in my hands, I fell in love. The Chromatic has a beastly weight to it, one that makes itfeelgood while you’re holding it. It seems nearly indestructible. The reason it has such heft to it is that it’s made with a magnesium alloy shell, which is crush-proof and made to last forever. Apparently, one person at the booth had accidentally dropped one of the consoles and there wasn’t a single mark on it.
The screen is made using a sapphire crystal display cover, the most scratch-proof display available, and delivers vibrant, high-quality images like you’d never dreamed of for your old battered Game Boy games, all backlit to avoid that age-old problem. I cycled through my cartridges watching their opening cutscenes in awe of the quality and just simply enjoying having a piece of my childhood back in my hands.
I’m told the screen is the world’s only 160x144 pixel sunlight readable display.
It works with all Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, and old peripherals like Link Cables, the printer, and the camera — you name it, you can use it. It features the Infrared Blaster from the GameBoy Color, and can be powered using AA batteries or a rechargeable pack, but for a little modern spice, it has a video out over USB so you can record or stream live while playing your Chromatic.
But the Chromatic isn’t just about preserving old retro titles. Sure, they all work on it, and ModRetro is even remastering a few classics for the Chromatic, but it’s going one step further and creatinga whole new range of cartridge games for the Chromatic. It’s incredible to seebrand new games for GameBoy in 2024, and I can’t help feeling nostalgic after seeing the love and attention going into the pixel art for some of these.
I want the Chromatic to succeed. Not only is it everything I love about preserving gaming history, it’s also looking forward to the future, and getting more brand-new cartridge games is so tantalising. While Nintendo would never release a new Pokemon for the GameBoy, there’s a much-loved void there waiting for someone to come and fill it with a Pokemon-like. And if we’re pushing the boat out, include link cable functionality, too!
TheChromatic will launch in time for Christmas in six different colourways, seven if we include the retail exclusive, and yes, I’ve already chosen my favourite. It’s not the yellow one.
