Analogue is the American company that imposed a simple idea: playing real cartridges again on modern hardware, without software emulation, thanks to FPGA chips that recreate the original consoles at circuit level. Its Pocket has become the benchmark retro handheld — and one of the hardest to buy. Updated in August 2026.
Founded in Seattle by Christopher Taber, Analogue first made its name in the 2010s with high-end home consoles: Nt and Nt mini for the NES, Super Nt (2018) for the Super Nintendo, Mega Sg (2019) for the Mega Drive. The principle never varies: no software emulation, but an FPGA — a reprogrammable chip — configured to behave like the processor, the video and the sound of the machine of the time. The result: original cartridges work natively, with no display lag and no approximations.
The mainstream turning point came with the Analogue Pocket, announced in October 2019 and launched in December 2021 at $219.99 after delays linked to the component shortage. Praised for its design (Red Dot Award 2022), it has spent a good part of its life out of stock.
The Pocket is a cartridge handheld: Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance natively, plus Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx or TurboGrafx-16 via adapters sold separately. Its 3.5-inch 1600×1440 screen displays an exact multiple of the original resolutions, with filters that mimic the panels of the era. Two on-board FPGAs (Altera Cyclone V and Cyclone 10) run the whole thing, and a Dock ($99.99) lets you play on a television.
Since the openFPGA update of July 2022, third-party developers have been publishing their own “cores” for the machine. An important detail: Analogue sells its consoles without games or ROMs — the intended use is your own cartridges.
On the home console side, the Analogue Duo (PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16) came out in late 2023, and the Analogue 3D, compatible with Nintendo 64 cartridges in 4K (Intel Cyclone 10GX FPGA, four original N64 controller ports), was delivered from 18 November 2025 after several postponements, at $249.99 on pre-order and then $269.99 on restock.
All these prices are the ones observed on the official US store, excluding taxes and import fees, and Analogue's drops fluctuate: a product that is “available” on a Tuesday can be sold out that same evening.
Analogue sells directly, in waves of pre-orders and restocks (“drops”), with no French distributor. For a buyer in France, that means: watching out for announcements, paying in dollars, adding VAT and customs fees on import, and accepting a possible transatlantic after-sales process. The second-hand market often charges prices higher than new, precisely because of this organised scarcity.
Fun-Esports is preparing to open its premium and FPGA console section, where Analogue fully belongs. Rather than promising stock that nobody can guarantee with this kind of brand, we are publishing the real state of the section and this reference page in the meantime: when units become available, they will appear here, with a price in euros including all taxes.
An emulator is software that imitates a console, with a margin of approximation and latency. An FPGA is a chip that is configured to reproduce the circuits of the original console: the cartridge talks to “real” recreated hardware. In practice: cycle-accurate behaviour, minimal latency, and native compatibility with cartridges and accessories of the era.
It is designed for original cartridges and sold without any game. The openFPGA platform allows third-party developers to add systems, but it is up to the user to stay within the legal framework: play with your cartridges or with backups of games you own.
Analogue produces in batches and sells in drops: pre-orders, then occasional restocks announced on its official channels. The limited editions go within hours. It is not an accident, it is the brand's business model — hence the importance of following the announcements rather than buying at a high price on the resale market.
$239.99 on the official store since March 2026, excluding adapters, excluding the Dock ($99.99), excluding taxes and import fees to France. That price has already moved twice under the effect of customs duties: always check the price of the day before buying.
To go further: discover our Premium & FPGA consoles section, which is being opened, and place the Pocket against the other retro handhelds with our comparison tool.