This FPGA handheld can read Game Boy carts, is fully open-source, and hackable - Guilty Gamer
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Relish it, people, we are living in the age of the handheld. They are everywhere, from Android handhelds to PC handhelds to FPGA handhelds. It seems like everyone has their own twist on what a gaming handheld should be, and while I have my own personal favorites, few are as bold as the Game Bub. […]

First-time poster, long-time reader. I created a site that isn’t monetized to report on interesting tech and gaming, covering news and reviews, and wanted to share this post as I’m a huge fan of retro gaming and would love to see the Game Bub succeed. Rest assured, although this may appear to be self-promotion, I’m not earning anything from the site; it is completely ad-free.

Back to the subject at hand. We already have a few portrait handhelds that can play physical Game Boy carts, but we still don’t have one that plays landscape. There are rumors that Modretro will make a GBA handheld, but so far, there’s no news on that front. In comes the Game Bub, which is still in crowdfunding, but it does appear a manufacturer has been secured. Hopefully the project finds enough funding to get made, cause I would love to add the Game Bub to my collection.

Not only is it open source, it can play physical carts, which is a big deal to collectors like me, as I prefer single carts over flash carts. Of course, it has an SD slot, so you won’t even need a flash cart if you don’t want to use one.

I can’t be alone in wanting to see this funded, right? We absolutely need an FPGA handheld with a 3:2 screen for GBA.

    • Robin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      17 hours ago

      Can someone explain to me who the target group is tho? I understand FPGAs have a larger potential of emulating hardware fast. But it’s not like the chip designs for these old consoles are open source. So FPGAs are usually not cycle accurate either.

      • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.worldEnglish
        72·
        14 hours ago

        The same kind of pretentious person that says they can feel the difference of 1ms of input lag, or hear the difference between 320kbps audio and 1411kbps. You know, an elitist.

        More seriously, people can still use their physical copies on a console that can easily connect to modern display technology. But at the same time, that physical media will eventually deteriorate to an unusable degree and FPGA users will be right back to where they started. That is perhaps the singular benefit of going digital for retro emulation. As long as copies are made on new media, they cannot become unusable.