A new product has been released, during second half of last year a company called ModRetro released a newly designed FPGA Gameboy console called the Chromatic. I will say this straight away because it is quite controversial, the person behind the machine is Luckey Palmer the man behind Oculus the company who released the virtual reality headset the Oculus Rift. The man is well known but not for very good reasons, he is actually infamous for being a self described “radical zionist” and believes in using violence to achieve his goals. He owns a military weapons company Anduril Industries so essentially he profits from nations fighting, war and people killing other each other. He also happens to be a hardcore gaming enthusiast and apparently has one of the world’s most extensive video game collections which is stored in an underground military base. So now that I’ve gotten all that out of the way you can decide whether or not you are OK with financially supporting a product created by such a man. My personal view is that his video gaming has nothing to do with his military business practices. No-one is getting killed from purchasing a Gameboy, so I think it has nothing to do with it really. The man behind the idea of the Volkswagen Beetle was Adolf Hitler, yet I bet that no-one ever brings that up when they talk about purchasing a VW Beetle from a dealer or another person. I think it would actually be good to financially encourage the man to make a profit from video games instead of arms dealing. Just my opinion but everyone needs to decide for themselves.
The ModRetro Chromatic is quite an attractive looking version of the Gameboy. It uses real FPGA hardware and not emulation like so many, or pretty much all of the modern re-released consoles like the SNES mini, Atari 7800+ and so on. That is an excellent start straight off the bat which makes it very desirable for the video gaming enthusiast. It is also very well made, nothing like the cheap Chinese emulated knockoffs that the market is flooded with. It’s shell is made of a magnesium alloy, a metal instead of plastic, which is even better than the original Nintendo DMG Gameboy range. It makes it very solid and protects the delicate electronics inside from getting damaged when accidentally dropped. Being a portable device is very susceptible to being dropped and damaged so this is a major advantage over the original. It’s shaped very much like the Gameboy Color but with more sharper and streamlined curvature. The cartridge slot is exactly the same because it’s compatible with original Gameboy and Gameboy Color cartridges as well as it’s own range of ModRetro branded cartridges which were released alongside the console. The games released include some games which were cancelled or otherwise unreleased to the general gaming public. Though I haven’t played any of them yet I have seen videos and screenshots of gameplay and they look fantastic, especially the RPG’s Dragonyhm and Tales of Monsterland DX.
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The screen is made up of sapphire crystal glass used for watch faces because it’s strong and durable, PBT buttons and a pixel perfect IPS screen at the same size, resolution and pixel structure as the original Gameboy and Gameboy Color. Even regular Gameboys that have had modded screens installed are a higher resolution which is then digitally downscaled to match what the Gameboy is supposed to output. That is because in this day and age it is very difficult to find screens of that low resolution, so they really went out of their way here to make an authentic modern reproduction of the popular handheld we all love. The screen is backlit which I’m glad they went for this over the originals infamous non-backlit screen which made it nearly impossible to see in low light situations. As I mentioned earlier the internal hardware is all FPGA so it is genuine and not emulated. It takes three regular AA batteries instead of having a lithium ion battery pack that you recharge via USB so it won’t explode and again staying faithful to the design of the original. You can always use rechargeable AA batteries so you aren’t spending money buying disposable batteries all the time. There is a single speaker that outputs mono sound just like the original DMG and has a 3.5mm output jack for stereo sound. One modern feature that it has which the original didn’t is a USB C output for “lagless” video out meaning you can connect it to a larger screen such as a monitor to see the displayed picture in more detail. It is packaged in a funky and beautifully illustrated box that matches the spirit of the product perfectly and looks very nice displayed on a shelf alongside a retro gamer’s video game collection.
The Modretro launch included 6 unique games that were released alongside the portable handheld system. The games range from puzzle games, to RPGs to platformers and it also had it’s own version of Tetris released too, in homage to the original DMG Gameboy which the system came bundled with. You can buy the Chromatic First Edition bundled with Tetris in a range of beautifully bright color schemes for $321 AUD from the ModRetro website. Or at least you could until they sold out and now you can only get the ModRetro Chromatic GameStop Exclusive much blander grey model from GameStop for $199 USD (approximately $320 AUD). Unfortunately I didn’t learn about this earlier as Retro Game News didn’t exist yet so I wasn’t able to take advantage of the bright color range available at launch. However if I can’t find the original volt yellow version available anywhere for a reasonable price then I might have to settle for the GameStop version. I will leave links below where it can be purchased including the ModRetro link where the Chromatic First Edition was initially sold in the range of colors. If you were one of the lucky few who bought it at launch then consider yourself very blessed as the rest of us Johnny-Come-Lately’s will most likely have to settle for the bland grey GameStop Exclusive version. But that’s only if you have a United States address you can ship to, for instance you may know a friend or family member in the USA that could send it themselves to you as GameStop only services United States customers, which is a totally unfair by the way! The GameStop version is pictured below, it’s grey color is quite bland compared to the other colors in the rest of the range and it is not nearly as nice or eye-catching. But you can’t say that it doesn’t look good either. I personally like the yellow “volt” and blue “wave” color schemes the most, but they are all very aesthetically pleasing and I would love to own any one of them. Take note of the fact that it is called “First Edition”, this infers that there will be more editions released down the line otherwise it wouldn’t be the first edition it would be the only edition and so naming it the first would be pointless and misleading. So if you don’t have one and missed the first run, you can look forward for the second edition to come out which is likely to have some improvements over the first edition as the technology gets refined when they kill the bugs that player’s discover.
One thought on “New Aftermarket Gameboy Released – The ModRetro Chromatic”
Keep reading the rest of this comment for an exclusive tip for all Australian and Non-US readers of Retro Game News regarding purchasing of the ModRetro Chromatic. It’s no secret that people living in the United States get all the benefits of having access to everything new either first or exclusively. Just look at my previous post about the Nike Air Max 1 Low Poly “Nintendo 64 007 version” sneakers and for that matter the Tomb Raider and Donkey Kong versions too. They are only available at a sensible retail price to people in the States, through Nike’s SNKR app which is unavailable to Australians. So straight away we can’t get these sneakers and I assume most of the rest of the non-US world would also have a lot of trouble in locating a pair of the coveted sneakers for a reasonable price.
Well initially the ModRetro Chromatic First Edition was available for Australians to order via the ModRetro website but that didn’t last long as less than 4 or 5 months after the launch every single unit had been sold and is no longer available. The only Chromatic available is the GameStop exclusive model which is, yes you guessed it, only available through GameStop which only services the United States. They do not ship internationally at all. I know it’s super unfair that United States citizens get everything, I guess that is why it’s called Land of the Free. While down under in the Land of the Blazingly Hot Scorching Sun we are left to sizzle in the hot summer sun without a ModRetro Chromatic, unless you were one of the few early birds quick enough to secure a unit while they were still on sale. Well here is the secret tip available to everyone who is reading this comment, which is an official addendum to my post. I have found a shop that lets you pre-order a ModRetro Chromatic First Edition and Tetris bundle. Also they ship internationally including to Australia, happy days!
The price is €200.84 which isn’t cheap but it will be worth the investment, as this thing is built so solid that a truck could run over it and it still would work properly (probably, maybe… but please don’t try it). Here is a URL to the Dragonbox Shop to pre-order the ModRetro Chromatic First Edition. Considering this is a pre-order after the first edition has already been released, I speculate that ModRetro is soon releasing another run of Chromatic’s including to some chosen retailers like this shop. If you go to the ModRetro website and go to the FAQ link and lookup the question “Will you be selling more Chromatic’s in the future?” their answer is “While we can’t comment on this directly, if you are based in the U.S., GameStop still has inventory of first-edition Chromatics for now.”. So I suspect they are planning on releasing another run of units but they don’t want to effect the market demand for the bland looking GameStop Exclusive version which is why their answer isn’t no but “we can’t comment on this directly”.
Keep reading the rest of this comment for an exclusive tip for all Australian and Non-US readers of Retro Game News regarding purchasing of the ModRetro Chromatic. It’s no secret that people living in the United States get all the benefits of having access to everything new either first or exclusively. Just look at my previous post about the Nike Air Max 1 Low Poly “Nintendo 64 007 version” sneakers and for that matter the Tomb Raider and Donkey Kong versions too. They are only available at a sensible retail price to people in the States, through Nike’s SNKR app which is unavailable to Australians. So straight away we can’t get these sneakers and I assume most of the rest of the non-US world would also have a lot of trouble in locating a pair of the coveted sneakers for a reasonable price.
Well initially the ModRetro Chromatic First Edition was available for Australians to order via the ModRetro website but that didn’t last long as less than 4 or 5 months after the launch every single unit had been sold and is no longer available. The only Chromatic available is the GameStop exclusive model which is, yes you guessed it, only available through GameStop which only services the United States. They do not ship internationally at all. I know it’s super unfair that United States citizens get everything, I guess that is why it’s called Land of the Free. While down under in the Land of the Blazingly Hot Scorching Sun we are left to sizzle in the hot summer sun without a ModRetro Chromatic, unless you were one of the few early birds quick enough to secure a unit while they were still on sale. Well here is the secret tip available to everyone who is reading this comment, which is an official addendum to my post. I have found a shop that lets you pre-order a ModRetro Chromatic First Edition and Tetris bundle. Also they ship internationally including to Australia, happy days!
The price is €200.84 which isn’t cheap but it will be worth the investment, as this thing is built so solid that a truck could run over it and it still would work properly (probably, maybe… but please don’t try it). Here is a URL to the Dragonbox Shop to pre-order the ModRetro Chromatic First Edition. Considering this is a pre-order after the first edition has already been released, I speculate that ModRetro is soon releasing another run of Chromatic’s including to some chosen retailers like this shop. If you go to the ModRetro website and go to the FAQ link and lookup the question “Will you be selling more Chromatic’s in the future?” their answer is “While we can’t comment on this directly, if you are based in the U.S., GameStop still has inventory of first-edition Chromatics for now.”. So I suspect they are planning on releasing another run of units but they don’t want to effect the market demand for the bland looking GameStop Exclusive version which is why their answer isn’t no but “we can’t comment on this directly”.