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Considering cancelling my Pocket preorder

I'm considering cancelling my Pocket pre-order and wonder if anyone can poke me in either direction.

I only ordered at the start of this year, so I don't expect to get anything until at least the end of 2023 if not 2024. However, I went ahead and got a RG35XX since it was only £60 in these parts. And... I'm loving it. But I realise I'm especially enjoying the save states for SNES games (which the Pocket doesn't have). Since I have kids it's means I can just turn it off, deal with their shenanigans, and go back later.

I already have a MiSTer, MegaSG and SuperNT. I ordered the Pocket because I have a 30 or 40 GB and GBA carts. But you know, I have a few GBs, GBAs and GBCs. So maybe the Pocket is unnecessary.

Anyway, this are just rambling thoughts in my head. Convince me one way or another! 😁

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2 comments

  • Right, I guess I think it sounds like kind of a tough call in my opinion 😅 Especially since it sounds like you have a pretty good setup at the that you're happy with.

    I think if I can try to be as unbiased as possible, here are the primary Pocket benefits as I personally see them:

    • An amazing screen that offers both an extremely crisp and sharp modern display, and also an amazing throwback nostalgic display
    • Ability to dock/undock at any time for couch play or mobile play (so essentially a better and more flexible GameCube Gameboy Player if you have one of those)
    • Essentially a "mister lite" as there are tons of shared cores between the two devices
    • In my opinion, a very good cost for what you get, which is basically a perfect Gameboy replica

    I think for me, if these aspects don't really pull much weight for you, it might make sense to cancel. It's kind of an interesting sunk cost thing, where the longer you wait, in a way, it starts making less sense to cancel, as its arrival date should come closer and closer.

    I hate to actively encourage others to spend money though so I don't want to be too concrete in what I tell you.

    Also if space is an issue, the Pocket has an incredibly light footprint, as it requires no shelf space really or even a wall outlet as it just charges with USB-C.

    Let us know what you decide ☺️

    • Thanks for the input. All good points, and what your saying is pretty much where my brain is at at the moment. In terms of sunk cost, there is a slight complication because I'm in the UK, so I will have about £50 to pay in import tax when it does eventually arrive.

      I see the screen as being both a plus and a minus. The aspect ratio looks great for GB and GBC games, but less useful for GBA and 4:3 consoles like SNES and NES. The 4:3 screen of the Anbernic, despite being only 640x480, works create with those consoles and is a nice compromise for all platforms. Using the GarlicOS I can get nice interpolation on the GBA/SNES/NES and perfect integer scale on most others. The black bars seem more ugly on the Pocket to me... although that said, I just checked my order and I've ordered the black one, so I think the borders will be much less egregious than on the white.

      Realistically I use my MegaSG and SuperNT for playing carts, and the MiSTer for everything else. So what I imagine happening is that I will use the Pocket for GB and GBC carts, and probably continued to play GBA games on one my modded GBAs for the aspect ratio.

      I'll probably keep my order open for now, but if something else comes along I want to spend the money on, I may cancel it!

      Thanks!