Modretro Chromatic Review: An Arms Dealer’s Game Boy Is Among The Best Ever Made

If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you bargain one?

In nan 1990s, I was among nan kids who thought taxable trade were devastatingly cool. By then, Tom Cruise and Top Gun had agelong established nan F-14 Tomcat and a brace of aviator shades arsenic a imagination for young men; I personally preferred nan Lockheed F-117A, nan high-tech angular “Stealth Fighter” that could invisibly sneak past unit radar, and was partial to nan legendary Lockheed SR-71 that flew truthful accelerated it could outrun missiles.

At nan time, I astir apt would personification snapped up a jet-black Lockheed Game Boy without a 2nd thought. But I’m aged tin now to admit that cool aerodynamics are conscionable nan extremity of a deadlier geopolitical iceberg. Lockheed makes weapons, and I don’t personification a opportunity successful who gets to bargain them aliases who they’re utilized against. I don’t personification a opportunity successful whether that tech should beryllium astatine all.

I’ve been reasoning astir Lockheed Martin arsenic I reappraisal a overmuch simpler gadget: nan ModRetro Chromatic. The Chromatic is simply a high-end remake of Nintendo’s Game Boy, and it mightiness beryllium nan champion type of a Game Boy ever made. But it’s connected to a institution overmuch for illustration Lockheed: Anduril, nan defense contractor that makes weaponized drones, networked surveillance systems, and different taxable tech.

Both Anduril and ModRetro are founded by Palmer Luckey, the creator of nan Oculus Rift VR headset. Luckey is now an almost unbelievable character, a devout anime and video crippled personification who reportedly stores his immense postulation of games successful a decommissioned US atomic rocket silo — 1 of respective silos he says he owns. 

He plays pinch a lavish postulation of taxable hardware including helicopters and a Mark V Special Operations Craft utilized by Navy SEALs. He erstwhile made nan surface of Time Magazine arsenic a floating barefoot “visionary” pinch an Oculus headset atop his head, though these days he’s overmuch apt to make headlines propagandizing for his type of nan defense industry. He was nan look of VR earlier Facebook kicked him out. (Luckey was an early Trump booster and took flak for backing a azygous Hillary Clinton-trolling billboard; Mark Zuckerberg denied he was fired for his governmental views astatine nan time; immoderate Meta execs personification since apologized for his ouster.) 

Many tech companies are progressive pinch taxable projects successful immoderate style aliases form. Google and Amazon personification a connection pinch Israel for a “Project Nimbus” that Google knew could personification enabled value authorities violations against Palestinians, and Google has fired galore workers for protesting that deal. Microsoft is presently moving towards outfitting complete 100,000 soldiers pinch a militarized type of its HoloLens headset. Meta is now letting defense contractors usage its Llama AI model. I deliberation it’s adjacent to opportunity less of america boycott these companies aliases moreover deliberation astir these things erstwhile we usage their products.

But wherever each of these companies tin plausibly opportunity “It’s conscionable business” arsenic they return sides their unreality server contracts aliases erstwhile their CEOs buss nan ring, and it’s very difficult to formation Big Tech’s orbit, this is simply a nosy but unnecessary merchandise from a man pinch a circumstantial constituent of position connected weapons, war, and politics. Luckey has doubly hosted fundraisers for Donald Trump (in 2020 and 2024) astatine his ain house. He publically expresses nan fervent (and self-serving) belief that tech companies should get successful furnishings pinch nan military.

For Luckey, it’s not conscionable business, it’s personal. And we’ve heard ample and clear that it’s individual for galore of our readers, too. I’ve been testing nan ModRetro Chromatic for complete a month, and it’s very good. I judge it’s nan best, astir luxurious measurement to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. But if nan extremity is to reconstruct and sphere our puerility nostalgia, nan Luckey narration throws a wrench successful nan works. What you’re astir to publication is simply a existent reappraisal of an fantabulous product, 1 I genuinely enjoyed utilizing — but 1 that adjacent maine emotion somewhat tortured successful nan process.

For Luckey, nan Game Boy itself is personal. It’s really he sewage his start. Before Anduril, earlier Facebook, earlier Oculus, Palmer Luckey was a teen who modded Nintendo Game Boys. “ModRetro” was nan punishment of nan very first constituent he founded: an online forum for gaming hardware modders for illustration himself.

So arsenic you’d expect, his institution has immoderate beardown ideas astir what a modern Game Boy should look like.

Where nan $220 Analogue Pocket seeks to update nan Game Boy acquisition for nan coming clip — with support for different handheld cartridges, ROMs, prevention states, a TV dock, and truthful connected — the Chromatic stays squarely rooted successful nan handheld’s past. There are less modern amenities here. It’s designed to consciousness for illustration a vintage Game Boy, only now pinch nan unsmooth edges sanded off.

Nintendo’s easy-to-scratch casings, aboveground lenses, and buttons? They’re made of metal, sapphire, and PBT integrative now. Those hard-to-see screens? You now get a civilization IPS show astatine nan aforesaid size, resolution, and pixel building arsenic nan original Game Boy and Game Boy Color, 1 truthful agleam you tin play successful nonstop sunlight for illustration we did backmost successful nan day. It does come, however, pinch a brand-new transcript of Tetris that optionally adds T-Spins, instant drops, and nan expertise to clasp pieces for later, modernizing nan classical crippled that famously came bundled pinch nan original.

At its heart, nan Chromatic is an effort to faithfully transverse nan original 1989 Game Boy pinch nan 1998 Game Boy Color. There’s nary SD insubstantial reader, nary user-accessible operating system, nary expertise to adhd aliases play ROMs: erstwhile you descent nan top-mounted powerfulness switch, it instantly boots your Game Boy aliases Game Boy Color cartridge utilizing a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) spot that emulates an existent Game Boy’s processors. Like pinch nan Analogue Pocket, nan upshot is overmuch responsive, quirk-free gameplay than package emulators allow. 

I’m a parent, and “I don’t personification clip for this shit” comes pinch nan territory, truthful I instantly assumed I would miss “save states,” nan characteristic that lets practically each video crippled emulator and retro handheld region and resume your crippled astatine virtually immoderate moment.

Then I fired up Pokémon Pinball connected an Analogue Pocket, and recovered I was wrong. I was connected a pokémon-catching rotation for illustration ne'er before. I caught Charmander, my daughter’s favourite pokémon, and for nan first clip successful Pinball, I evolved it into a Charmeleon, past a Charizard, each without losing my ball. The stakes were high, truthful I reflexively tapped nan Save State shortcut truthful I could retry if I failed.

Immediately, nan portion was disconnected — but I felt a chunk of my excitement vanish connected pinch it. I caught those Pokemon adjacent and quadrate without loading nan save, but I’d cheated myself of a axenic victory, moreover if I didn’t upwind up cheating nan game. When I stuck that aforesaid crippled backmost into nan Chromatic, a handheld without prevention states, nan excitement came back. This is nan measurement nan crippled is meant to beryllium played, and those stakes are location by design. That’s nan acquisition ModRetro wants you to have, and nan only 1 you’ll get. Ditching that modern amenity is simply a choice, and it isn’t for everyone.

It’s conscionable 1 of galore ways nan Chromatic feels overmuch authentic. Even though it’s a mash-up of 2 different Game Boy models, it instantly feels acquainted successful ways nan Analogue doesn’t, from nan sliding powerfulness move and measurement dial (the Analogue has you clasp down intimately spaced integer buttons and takes longer to commencement a game) to nan fastener layout and feel.

The Chromatic is fundamentally nan size of a Game Boy Color, pinch nan aforesaid bulging artillery compartment curve providing a rounded perch for your fingers to rest. But it’s intelligibly been designed for those who admit nan original 1989 exemplary too. It’s sewage nan original’s iconic slanted, cake-sprinkle Start and Select buttons, its glossy domed A and B buttons, its larger D-pad, its overmuch protected cartridge slot, and nan rounded lower-right corners of its flat-faced chassis and surface glass. All of them bring maine backmost to nan handheld that made maine a gamer. 

I wonderment if they bring Luckey backmost to his early days, too. Because while ModRetro appears to personification made a remarkably repairable handheld and is presently open-sourcing its CAD files and firmware, this bespoke instrumentality is not precisely what ModRetro was primitively created to make. 

Luckey trim his teeth turning existing Game Boys and GameCubes into arguably better, overmuch portable versions of themselves by reusing bits of aged and caller electronics. “It’s a batch of nosy because it’s astir taking aged exertion and past cutting retired nan aged parts, replacing them pinch caller parts and making it into point that was ne'er imaginable before,” he told Voices of VR successful 2014. The ModRetro Chromatic is each custom, though, correct down to its in-house screen. 

Still, ModRetro’s original onslaught to betterment has been connected show passim Luckey’s maestro history. Luckey’s cardinal penetration pinch nan Oculus Rift was that low-cost smartphone components could yet make VR accessible, a belief he shared pinch researchers astatine nan laboratory wherever he worked, too. Repurposed commercialized proviso chains are too Anduril’s proscription to spell nan world’s astir businesslike weapons manufacturer, “so that nan aforesaid processes utilized to build fiberglass bathtubs tin conscionable arsenic easy beryllium reconfigured to build rocket airframes,” arsenic Tablet Magazine described it successful August.

With that approach, Anduril has quickly built retired an arsenal successful conscionable 7 years, including aggregate drones that tin termination — 1 is simply a “loitering munition” that remotely dive-bombs a target, different efficaciously a recoverable ground-to-air missile. 

When I look astatine nan Chromatic and its salient “MODRETRO” logo correct supra nan screen, often I conscionable spot an fantabulous Game Boy. But sometimes I spot nan latest high-tech merchandise from a man who makes high-tech missiles. 

At this point, you mightiness beryllium wondering: conscionable really fantabulous is this hardware to warrant each this soul-searching? Let’s commencement pinch build quality:

The Chromatic’s pixel-perfect aboveground isn’t strictly necessary: I mostly had conscionable arsenic bully a clip connected nan Analogue Pocket’s bigger, higher solution show if I enabled nan correct filters and colour palettes, though I did admit that nan Chromatic sewage nan Game Boy Color consciousness conscionable correct retired of nan box. The Chromatic moreover lets you summon green-tinted original Game Boy palettes by holding down buttons astatine boot.

There are too immoderate ways it’s not wholly belief to nan original Game Boys, conscionable FYI:

And location were a less insignificant disappointments too. Mostly, I wish it worked a mini amended successful quiet bedrooms and ample airplanes. The buttons and moreover nan D-pad click louder than immoderate of my aged Game Boys, yet nan 3.5mm headphone jack measurement is nan quietest of nan pack. I could hardly comprehend its chiptunes complete nan din of nan plane, and I couldn’t compensate pinch my noise-canceling Bose QC25 since nan Chromatic doesn’t personification a four-pole headset jack.

ModRetro too advertises nan Chromatic arsenic “indestructible,” and if that sounds for illustration trading bluster, you’re astatine slightest half right. I dropped nan Chromatic doubly onto concrete, from 4.5 feet, and it came distant pinch only insignificant dents, and I was impressed. But ModRetro too has a image of nan point getting tally complete by a car. When I ran it complete pinch my car, nan aboveground shattered. The model is now severely bent. 

I was too a tad disappointed to find nan Chromatic’s USB-C larboard isn’t arsenic potent arsenic promised. While nan institution advertised USB-C video output and moreover told maine you could title rechargeable AAs utilizing nan do-it-all port, it turns retired nan Chromatic tin only coming itself arsenic a webcam for desktop-style video recording, and NiMH AA charging didn’t make nan cut. ModRetro CEO Torin Herndon, who was an technologist astatine Anduril from 2017 to 2021, tells maine nan institution is opening accumulation connected an optional rechargeable lithium-ion artillery pack, but won’t talk price, capacity, aliases runtime conscionable yet.

That said, I really find I for illustration AAs. At 50 percent brightness — acold higher than I needed connected nan level — I saw complete 8 hours from a group of Ikea-branded Panasonic Eneloop rechargeables, aliases personification to 7 hours from Amazon Basics alkalines. That aforesaid marque of alkalines gave maine complete 12 hours astatine nan second-lowest brightness setting, nan dimmest I’d want to usage successful nan daytime, and conscionable nether 5 hours astatine max brightness and max volume. And again, you tin simply plug nan Chromatic into a USB larboard if you’re ever moving debased connected charge, past driblet successful caller AAs without losing your game.

There’s really nary mobility successful my mind that this handheld is nan champion retro Game Boy yet made, nan 1 that champion captures nan beingness emotion I had playing Game Boy arsenic a kid. I emotion remasters because they tin fto you recapture that puerility joy, playing pinch nan Lego starship aliases Final Fantasy crippled you deliberation you retrieve alternatively of nan 1 that really existed.

But I don’t retrieve my puerility nostalgia coming pinch a broadside of imaginable guilt and fearfulness astir putting money into nan pouch of a weapons contractor. Feels weird! 

Even practically, I wonderment who, extracurricular of a fistful of 1989 handheld lovers for illustration me, would want a handheld that conscionable plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color carts. Many of nan champion games are costly and difficult to find successful beingness style — Metal Gear Solid and nan champion Pokémon titles tin easy bid $100 each — and it’d beryllium a overmuch compelling gadget if it could play nan arguably amended room of Game Boy Advance titles arsenic well. The Analogue Pocket does.

Luckey has said he wants to turn that original Game Boy library. Game developers ne'er alternatively stopped making homebrew games for nan Game Boy, and ModRetro is 1 of nan less now publishing them connected existent carts. Every Chromatic comes pinch a caller transcript of Tetris, and you tin already bid 10 overmuch titles, including a caller type of Toki Tori and Tales of Monsterland, sequels to Traumatarium and In nan Dark, and my individual favorite, nan grindy JRPG Dragonyhm pinch immoderate fantabulous tunes and pixel art.

This chiptune successful particular, Dragonyhm’s “Gonrad Forest,” captivated maine astatine once:

If you consciousness weird astir ModRetro, you should cognize these games aren’t exclusive to nan Chromatic, either — they played perfectly bully plugged into an Analogue Pocket aliases a Game Boy Color, and immoderate moreover worked connected my 1989 original. Some whitethorn beryllium disposable to acquisition arsenic ROMs. If you conscionable want to effort them, galore personification playable demos you tin effort successful an emulator, aliases moreover a web browser, for illustration this:

On a desktop, pat to focus; spot Enter to start; usage Z, B, and arrow keys to play.

It’s not clear to maine really superior Luckey is astir backing a caller era of Game Boy. For 1 thing, nan Chromatic is already sold retired astatine his website, and he says he isn’t making immoderate more, but will attraction connected releasing caller games while it builds “something overmuch sustainable” successful position of hardware instead. (A grey Chromatic is still disposable astatine GameStop, for now.)

Second, arsenic acold arsenic I tin tell, each of ModRetro’s games beyond Tetris were already successful development; some, for illustration Dragonyhm, were already headed to cartridge elsewhere. Developing caller games isn’t presently a institution goal: “We are typically looking for games dense successful betterment astatine this time, and effort to push them crossed nan decorativeness connection into being a full-on beingness good,” Herndon tells me. He says ModRetro mostly pays to create cartridges, boxes, and manuals, and gives developers a “pretty awesome” percent of sales.

The pre-release carts that ModRetro sent maine too had a mates issues that are hopefully getting ironed out: I mysteriously mislaid my afloat prevention successful In The Dark 2, and Traumatarium Penitent was missing a cardinal bugfix nan developer made almost a twelvemonth ago. Toki Tori too booted into a afloat aboveground glitch nan first less times I started it up, but it seems to beryllium moving now.

Even erstwhile group emotion nan thought of revisiting nan Game Boy and supporting retro crippled development, I fishy astir will spot a $200 handheld that makes you individually move pricy cartridges arsenic a luxury they can’t walk — not erstwhile each iPhone and a upland of Chinese emulator handhelds tin play nan aforesaid games, ones they tin (illicitly) download for free. 

And if you find nan Analogue Pocket isn’t vintage tin for your tastes, you could ever do what I conscionable did and adhd a modern backlit aboveground to your genuine Nintendo Game Boy. It won’t beryllium pixel-perfect, but it mightiness beryllium bully tin for me:

This is 1 of nan overmuch difficult reviews I’ve ever had to write, because I personification nary qualms recommending nan ModRetro Chromatic connected nan spot of its hardware, which justifies its $200 price. It feels overmuch for illustration nan Game Boy I retrieve than galore of Nintendo’s existent handhelds erstwhile I premier them up today.

But for illustration nan Tesla Cybertruck, it’s too very overmuch nan merchandise of 1 personification successful particular, a personification who stands for different things that mightiness conflict pinch your ideals, and it could upwind up being a awesome that you don’t terribly mind immoderate of that, moreover if you really do.   

Luckey precocious told a Pepperdine University assemblage that it’s not a bad constituent to observe nan powerfulness of weapons, saying that “societies personification ever needed a warrior group that is enthused and excited astir enacting portion connected others successful pursuit of bully aims,” and that “you petition group for illustration maine who are sick successful that measurement and who don’t suffer immoderate slumber making devices of violence.” He explained that his institution is named Anduril aft Aragorn’s beard successful The Lord of nan Rings partially because that beard was “inherently good,” and “wielded only by nan kingdom of man against nan hordes of Mordor.”    

Real life contains nary inherently bully drones aliases inherently bully missiles. And 2 awesome throughlines of Tolkien’s activity are that warfare is hideous and that powerfulness inevitably corrupts. The joyousness I find playing pinch clone swords successful nan ModRetro Chromatic is now weirdly intertwined pinch a wide fear: that Anduril’s existent weapons mightiness beryllium misused. I won’t propose that niche $200 Game Boys are really backing those weapons successful immoderate meaningful way, but these still aren’t emotions I subordinate pinch my puerility Nintendo experience. 

That intends nan Chromatic isn’t nan eventual Game Boy, moreover if it has nan champion build worth and nan champion screen. There’s still room for a amended brace of rose-tinted glasses than nan ones Luckey has paid to create. 

Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge