Technologies

ModRetro Chromatic Review: The Perfect Game Boy Restomod

ModRetro went in a dramatically different direction with this Game Boy re-creation, and it succeeds in capturing the original’s charm.

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Written by Imad Khan

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ModRetro Chromatic Review

Pros

Beautiful screen
Sturdy construction
Vibrant design and colors

Cons

Batteries
Delicate paint job
Price
Mono sound

Lots of brands attempt to market nostalgia, but few succeed in capturing its warm essence. From hot pink flip phones to guitar amp-inspired Bluetooth speakers, these retro callbacks have the sheen of decades prior but are nothing more than reskinned modern tech. The ModRetro Chromatic, a modern Game Boy from Oculus Rift inventor and co-founder of defense company Anduril Industries Palmer Luckey, however, makes deliberate old-school compromises. Mainly, it uses less pixel-dense LCD displays to elicit emotions from yesteryear. It’s these forced compromises that help the Chromatic stand out even if, on paper, it doesn’t have all the most cutting-edge tech.

The result is a super-premium, slightly hindered Game Boy clone that feels like what Nintendo would have made if cost weren’t an issue. It even includes a copy of Tetris, like the original Game Boy did in 1989, a nice touch by ModRetro. The Chromatic’s high-end materials and features do come at a high price, though: $200, which is substantially higher than the Game Boy Color’s MSRP of $80 back in 1998 — about $160 adjusted for inflation. For the gamer who appreciates high-quality bespoke hardware and a commitment to authenticity, however, the price is well worth it.

Big chunky pixels

The most standout feature on the ModRetro Chromatic is its screen. It’s a 160×144, 2.56-inch IPS LCD display. If that resolution and size seem small, that’s because they are. Unlike modern displays, which have resolutions so high that you can’t even make out the individual blocks, ModRetro keeps things chunky.

This choice allows ModRetro to re-create that original Game Boy experience. Back then, cheap consumer displays weren’t as advanced and had pixels that were simply larger and more visible. For games that used sprites, like Pokemon or Wario Land 3, the pixel layout was a perfect grid to lay art assets on. It was a limitation of the time that game creators used as a canvas.

Modern emulation devices, including emulator apps you can install on your phone, can simply upscale all the in-game assets to make the image look super sharp. This is an approach that 2021’s Analogue Pocket used. When I heard that ModRetro was going to produce a device with big, blocky pixels, I was left perplexed. I believed that Analogue’s approach was the most sound. But after using the Chromatic, I realized there’s a charm to keeping things old school.

In my roughly 20 hours of Pokemon Crystal and Tetris gameplay over the past few months, I was slowly won over to the charms of the Chromatic’s screen. The lower resolution is what Pokemon was meant to look like. Sure, the Analogue Pocket, as well as a whole host of other emulation devices, can mimic the retro grid of the original Game Boy using filters, but it’s not the same. You can tell it’s software making the pixels look chunky.

In terms of colors, the IPS display ModRetro has sourced for the Chromatic is excellent. Visuals pop, and the overall presentation is clean without any smearing. The only way it could have been better is if ModRetro had opted for an OLED display. The glass atop the display is also of remarkable quality, using Sapphire crystal glass. Sapphire is a high-quality and expensive material known for its durability and transparency. It’s most often found on the faces of high-end watches and camera lenses.

The Chromatic captures in my mind the rose-tinted memories I had of playing my Game Boy Color on long road trips back when I was in elementary school. It’s something that the Analogue Pocket couldn’t do. Although the Pocket does have a Nintendo Switch-like dock and lets me play games on my giant television, a novelty I very much enjoy.

The Chromatic feels substantial

There’s been a long-running meme about the indestructible nature of the Nokia 3310, a beloved classic cellphone from the year 2000. It was made with chunky plastic and could survive just about any drop. The original Game Boy and Game Boy Color had that same design philosophy in mind, with one even surviving the Gulf War. The minimalist iPhone style hadn’t yet entered mass-market electronic design.

The ModRetro Chromatic adopts the ’80s and ’90s chunky design philosophy and opts for magnesium alloy instead of plastic, which offers both durability and heft. The three AA batteries inside also add to the weight and feel, but bring back ’90s handheld annoyances. A set of AA batteries lasts about 6 to 8 hours, depending on the screen’s brightness. As someone who loves the Game Boy Color, one thing I don’t miss is looking under seat cushions for batteries.

After some delay, the rechargeable battery pack is now available for $30.

Despite the shortcomings of AA batteries, as I mentioned previously, the Chromatic feels like what Nintendo would have made if costs weren’t a concern. It’s something I love about it. So rarely do we see electronics leaning into absurdity with little worry about cost. The expenditure in developing the display is something Luckey spoke of on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

It is.I spent a ton of money developing a custom display that is accurate all the way to the subpixel level, which is critical given how subpixel-aware good art of the time had to be.The panel isn’t even standard RGB, we used custom color filters to mimick the GBC LCD.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) June 5, 2024

Even though there’s a good heft to the Chromatic, there didn’t seem to be any room for stereo speakers. Regrettably, there’s just a single speaker at the bottom of the device. A large part of the Game Boy library actually does support stereo sound, so headphones will be required to get the full sonic experience. There’s no Bluetooth either, so you’ll need to stick to wired cans.

Vibrant but delicate paint job

The ModRetro Chromatic is almost the antithesis of the Analogue Pocket. It opts for metals over plastics. It sports a lower-res screen over one that’s literally 14 times more dense. And instead of black or white, it gives consumers a wide range of color options, all with wonderful flourishes to give each unit a distinct identity. A few weeks back, all colors, except the muted GameStop-exclusive gray were sold out. Now, all colors are back in stock, including a new cloud colorway, which is white with purple accents.

(Note: Analogue has done limited edition re-releases of the Pocket in a wide range of colors, including ones inspired by the original Game Boy Color and Game Boy Pocket lineups, as well as a $500 aluminum variant.)

Our first-edition review unit in yellow, which ModRetro calls Volt, has red face buttons and brown and beige accents in the corners, reminding me of the earth tones present in homes from the 1970s. The ModRetro Chromatic is as much a plaything as it is a display piece.

Unfortunately, ModRetro didn’t spray a clear coat over the Chromatic’s luscious paint job. Sure, it gives the Chromatic a satisfying matte texture, but it makes the paint very delicate. Even with my careful use, I’ve already marred it with two small nicks, revealing the bare metal underneath. It makes me scared to take the Chromatic out of my house, which defeats the purpose of handheld gaming.

A worthy Game Boy revival at a high price

The ModRetro Chromatic’s gorgeous screen, magnesium build, stand-out paint job and sapphire crystal come at a $200 price. Well, at the time of this review, it was $200. Now, if you want a Chromatic with sapphire crystal, it’ll cost $300. Thankfully, there’s still a $200 option fitted with Gorilla Glass, meaning it’s not as strong but is luckily still scratch resistant. Either way, that’s a lot to pay for an electronic that can only play games from the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s. Well, ModRetro is publishing newer Game Boy games, and companies like Incube8 Games, Bitmap Soft, and Mega Cat Studios are also releasing newer as well as homebrew titles on classic cartridges.

For $200, you could get a Nintendo Switch Lite and gain access to a massive library of modern titles as well as older games via the Nintendo Switch Online service. There’s also a slew of emulation devices filling up Amazon, AliExpress and TikTok Shop that offer thousands of old-school preloaded Game Boy titles of legally dubious origin for less than $50.

Here’s the thing: Emulation can’t beat the original. Even on the newly released Nintendo Switch 2, game emulation of older content still introduces input lag, which is the amount of time it takes for a button press to show up on screen. For hard-core gamers, this is suboptimal. Only when the original code is running through real circuits and transistors does it deliver an authentic experience.

If you’re the type that doesn’t care about authenticity and a true-to-form gaming experience, well, you likely aren’t reading this review. For this person, one of those emulation handhelds will suffice. There are dedicated sites that review the sea of retro gaming handhelds coming out of China, seemingly on a bi-weekly basis.

But if you’re the person who wants the satisfying snap of docking in an old-school Game Boy cartridge and sinking into the corner cushions of your couch with a pouch of Capri Sun resting on your chest, there really isn’t a much better experience than what the ModRetro Chromatic offers.

Technologies

TMR vs. Hall Effect Controllers: Battle of the Magnetic Sensing Tech

The magic of magnets tucked into your joysticks can put an end to drift. But which technology is superior?

Competitive gamers look for every advantage they can get, and that drive has spawned some of the zaniest gaming peripherals under the sun. There are plenty of hardware components that actually offer meaningful edges when implemented properly. Hall effect and TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance or tunneling magnetoresistance) sensors are two such technologies. Hall effect sensors have found their way into a wide variety of devices, including keyboards and gaming controllers, including some of our favorites like the GameSir Super Nova.

More recently, TMR sensors have started to appear in these devices as well. Is it a better technology for gaming? With multiple options vying for your lunch money, it’s worth understanding the differences to decide which is more worthy of living inside your next game controller or keyboard.

How Hall effect joysticks work

We’ve previously broken down the difference between Hall effect tech and traditional potentiometers in controller joysticks, but here’s a quick rundown on how Hall effect sensors work. A Hall effect joystick moves a magnet over a sensor circuit, and the magnetic field affects the circuit’s voltage. The sensor in the circuit measures these voltage shifts and maps them to controller inputs. Element14 has a lovely visual explanation of this effect here.

The advantage this tech has over potentiometer-based joysticks used in controllers for decades is that the magnet and sensor don’t need to make physical contact. There’s no rubbing action to slowly wear away and degrade the sensor. So, in theory, Hall effect joysticks should remain accurate for the long haul.

How TMR joysticks work

While TMR works differently, it’s a similar concept to Hall effect devices. When you move a TMR joystick, it moves a magnet in the vicinity of the sensor. So far, it’s the same, right? Except with TMR, this shifting magnetic field changes the resistance in the sensor instead of the voltage.

There’s a useful demonstration of a sensor in action here. Just like Hall effect joysticks, TMR joysticks don’t rely on physical contact to register inputs and therefore won’t suffer the wear and drift that affects potentiometer-based joysticks.

Which is better, Hall effect or TMR?

There’s no hard and fast answer to which technology is better. After all, the actual implementation of the technology and the hardware it’s built into can be just as important, if not more so. Both technologies can provide accurate sensing, and neither requires physical contact with the sensing chip, so both can be used for precise controls that won’t encounter stick drift. That said, there are some potential advantages to TMR.

According to Coto Technology, who, in fairness, make TMR sensors, they can be more sensitive, allowing for either greater precision or the use of smaller magnets. Since the Hall effect is subtler, it relies on amplification and ultimately requires extra power. While power requirements vary from sensor to sensor, GameSir claims its TMR joysticks use about one-tenth the power of mainstream Hall effect joysticks. Cherry is another brand highlighting the lower power consumption of TMR sensors, albeit in the brand’s keyboard switches.

The greater precision is an opportunity for TMR joysticks to come out ahead, but that will depend more on the controller itself than the technology. Strange response curves, a big dead zone (which shouldn’t be needed), or low polling rates could prevent a perfectly good TMR sensor from beating a comparable Hall effect sensor in a better optimized controller.

The power savings will likely be the advantage most of us really feel. While it won’t matter for wired controllers, power savings can go a long way for wireless ones. Take the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, for instance, a Hall effect controller offering 20 hours of battery life from a 4.5-watt-hour battery with support for a 1,000Hz polling rate on a wireless connection. Razer also offers the Wolverine V3 Pro 8K PC, a near-identical controller with the same battery offering TMR sensors. They claim the TMR version can go for 36 hours on a charge, though that’s presumably before cranking it up to an 8,000Hz polling rate — something Razer possibly left off the Hall effect model because of power usage.

The disadvantage of the TMR sensor would be its cost, but it appears that it’s negligible when factored into the entire price of a controller. Both versions of the aforementioned Razer controller are $199. Both 8BitDo and GameSir have managed to stick them into reasonably priced controllers like the 8BitDo Ultimate 2, GameSir G7 Pro and GameSir Cyclone 2.

So which wins?

It seems TMR joysticks have all the advantages of Hall effect joysticks and then some, bringing better power efficiency that can help in wireless applications. The one big downside might be price, but from what we’ve seen right now, that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. You can even find both technologies in controllers that cost less than some potentiometer models, like the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

Caveats to consider

For all the hype, neither Hall effect nor TMR joysticks are perfect. One of their key selling points is that they won’t experience stick drift, but there are still elements of the joystick that can wear down. The ring around the joystick can lose its smoothness. The stick material can wear down (ever tried to use a controller with the rubber worn off its joystick? It’s not pleasant). The linkages that hold the joystick upright and the springs that keep it stiff can loosen, degrade and fill with dust. All of these can impact the continued use of the joystick, even if the Hall effect or TMR sensor itself is in perfect operating order.

So you might not get stick drift from a bad sensor, but you could get stick drift from a stick that simply doesn’t return to its original resting position. That’s when having a controller that’s serviceable or has swappable parts, like the PDP Victrix Pro BFG, could matter just as much as having one with Hall effect or TMR joysticks.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 18, #513

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 18, No. 513.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has a fun yellow category that might just start you singing. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: I don’t care if I never get back.

Green group hint: Get that gold medal.

Blue group hint: Hoops superstar.

Purple group hint: Not front, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.»

Green group: Olympic snowboarding events.

Blue group: Vince Carter, informally.

Purple group: ____ back.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.» The four answers are Cracker Jack, home team, old ball game and peanuts.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Olympic snowboarding events. The four answers are big air, giant slalom, halfpipe and slopestyle.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Vince Carter, informally. The four answers are Air Canada, Half-Man, Half-Amazing, VC and Vinsanity.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ back. The four answers are diamond, drop, quarter and razor.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Feb. 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 18.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is a fun one, and it’s not terribly tough. It helps if you know a certain Olympian. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.