The Game Boy of my dreams is finally back in stock for good

The Game Boy was my very first gaming device, and it has always held a special place in my heart. My parents actually bought two classic DMG Game Boys (one for me and one for my older sister), but they both ended up in my collection once she developed a social life and I retreated deeper into my digital shell. I’d continue the trend of picking up two of every Game Boy before moving on to the Nintendo DS.

But since then, I’ve moved halfway across the world, and my Game Boy collection sits idly at my childhood home. Thankfully, emulation makes it easy to relive that era of my youth, but emulation can only get so close.

So when the ModRetro Chromatic landed on my desk after being sold out for the better part of a year, I couldn’t wait to dive in. After a few weeks with the device, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is the ultimate Game Boy experience.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to afford two for my collection, but it’s the first time in years I’ve felt the exact same spark of joy that started my gaming journey back in the early 90s.

And even better, it will be permanently back in stock starting today with a few extra goodies.

The most important thing to understand about the Chromatic is that it only plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. In other words, it’s an FPGA device that replicates the original hardware as closely as possible. It’s actually more cycle accurate than its competitors, most notably the Analogue Pocket, although you probably won’t notice the difference.

That made this review slightly complicated, since all of my original carts are thousands of miles away at my mother’s house. Thankfully, the device comes with an updated version of Tetris in the box, and I was able to borrow a few carts from some nerdy neighbors.

Of course, ModRetro itself also makes and sells cartridges with re-released and brand-new titles. They’re fairly expensive, but opening the box and reading through the manuals really took me back to a simpler time. That feeling was present the entire time I was testing the Chromatic in a way I didn’t entirely expect.

I’ve gotten so used to playing games on emulators that I had forgotten the thrill of playing without save states and rewinds to fall back on. At first, it was a little frustrating and, frankly, humbling for a 30-something-year-old me. But the act of popping in a cartridge, flipping the switch, and hopping directly into a game is so smooth, so seamless, that I was immediately taken back to my first years of handheld gaming.

Nostalgia-tinted glasses or not, it’s easy to see that the Chromatic is much, much better than the original hardware. Just taking it out of the box, the build quality is excessively premium, with a magnesium frame that feels built to survive the apocalypse.

In fact, ModRetro shows the Chromatic getting run over by a car in its marketing materials, although I wouldn’t dare test that myself. I introduced my six-year-old daughter to Tetris on this machine, and when it slipped out of her hands it made a terrifyingly loud noise when it hit the floor. In the end, it was just batteries popping out of the back, but I’m not sure the cheap emulation handhelds I usually play with would have survived unscathed.

Yes, this thing runs on three AA batteries, three of which are included in the box. There’s a battery indicator in the firmware that goes well beyond a red light to indicate a pending replacement, plus a new rechargeable battery pack, which I’ll get to in a moment.

The other major upgrade from the original hardware is the custom screen, which is the best possible mix of new and old. It’s a backlit LCD panel with enough brightness to play outside in the full summer sun, but it maintains the same resolution, pixel density, and color profile as the Game Boy Color. No fancy upscaling or shaders, just a pure retro experience.

The D-pad and buttons are also great, although I did notice that the face buttons are fairly loud. The start/select buttons also lose the rubbery finish of the originals, which is probably for the best. The mono speaker on the bottom of the device gets shockingly loud with the volume wheel maxed, but it still sounds great. There’s also a headphone jack on the bottom with stereo sound for the games that support it.

There’s one extra button the side, and it opens the console’s settings. The menu lets you change the screen brightness, turn on or off diagonals, check firmware, and more. It’s just enough to enhance the Game Boy experience without overpowering it.

When all is said and done, it’s clear that the Chromatic is the ultimate way to play Game Boy cartridges. It doesn’t have any modern emulation niceties like save states or fast forward, but with the training wheels removed you really get to play these games the way they were meant to be played.

The bad news is that the Chromatic has been sold out for more than six months, with only the worst colorway available from GameStop. Today, that changes.

ModRetro has now fully restocked every color of the Chromatic, and taken steps to ensure it stays in stock for the foreseeable future. All six of the original colorways — Inferno, Leaf, Bubblegum, V0lt, Wave, and Midnight — are back, with one more Cloud colorway added to the mix. There are also new accessories going on sale today:

• ModRetro Rechargeable Power Core ($29.99): A battery pack providing up to 16 hours of gameplay.
• ModRetro Link Cable ($14.99): A backwards-compatible link cable for multiplayer.
• ModRetro Mod Kit ($14.99): A kit with swappable parts and a one of a kind dual sided screwdriver.
• ModRetro Koss Porta Pro ($49.99): A color-matched retro headset.

For my money, the Rechargeable Power Core is the most interesting, since it can charge while you play. Standard rechargeable AA batteries work just fine, but there’s no passthrough charging. You’ll need to remove them to recharge, although you don’t have to turn the device off as long as you keep it plugged in.

There are also a few new games available, as well as a new feature called Cart Clinic that lets you update your Chromatic cartridges to add new features. Note that this isn’t the firmware on the device itself, but the actual cartridge. Saves might not be compabile between versions, but it’s a really cool way to add new gameplay features or fixes to physical carts.

While I absolutely love the ModRetro Chromatic, its price makes it hard to recommend for anyone but diehard Game Boy fans. As part of the permanent restock, the price has also been adjusted. The premium version with a Sapphire Glass screen has now been bumped up to $299, with a new Gorilla Glass version at the initial $199 price point.

That’s a lot of money, especially when you can get a Game Boy-like emulation handheld like the Retroid Pocket Classic ($129.99 at Manufacturer site) for significantly less. That device doesn’t feel as premium, but it can emulate not just Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and everything up to and including some PS2. For even less, you can pick up a Linux-based handheld like the TrimUI Brick ($84.99 at Amazon).

But there’s something truly special about playing games the way they were supposed to be played. It’s a frictionless experience that’s hard to emulate (no pun intended). It also plays your original carts without the need to dump them, which is a huge advantage for anyone with a sizeable collection. If you don’t have any carts, you’re obviously not going to get much out of the Chromatic without shelling out even more cash to build out your physical library.

When looking at other FPGA devices, the Analogue Pocket ($219.99 at Manufacturer site) is the obvious alternative. It looks more modern, but it’s less cycle accurate, and the 3.5-inch 1600 x 1440 display is less faithful to the original look of the games. The upside is that it can also play Game Boy Advance cartridges out of the box, as well as Neo Geo Pocket Color, Game Gear, and others, if you buy the optional adapters.

Another option is an FPGBC kit, which allows you to build a completely custom device that’s the spitting image of the original Game Boy Color. All of the parts will run you about half the price of the Chromatic, but you’ll have to put it together yourself and it won’t feel nearly as premium.

But if you want the ultimate Game Boy experience, it doesn’t get any better than the ModRetro Chromatic. Dedicated collectors can easily justify the expense (or any expense, to be honest), and although I wish it were made by a company owned by a less controversial figure, I’m absolutely delighted that this device exists at all.