FunnyPlaying, a Chinese company known for its Game Boy and GBA upgrade kits, has announced a new handheld that plays original Nintendo cartridges and ROMs. The FPGB Mini’s cartridge support is limited to the Game Boy and Game Boy Color so it isn’t as capable as the Analogue Pocket that’s also compatible with the GBA and Sega Game Gear. What still makes the FPGB Mini a tempting alternative is its extremely pocketable design resulting in a handheld only slightly wider than a Game Boy cartridge, and its cheaper price.
Following recent price hikes the Analogue Pocket is now $239.99 while the FPGB Mini is currently discounted from $89.99 to $69.99 for the first batch of just 20 units that quickly sold out. However, the company is potentially planning to release more following some hardware improvements, according to Retro Dodo who’s been testing the handheld for a few days and so far seems impressed with its design and capabilities.
Like the Pocket the FPGB Mini uses field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to play Game Boy and GBC games as accurately as Nintendo’s original hardware does. But the FPGB Mini brings improvements like a 2.98-inch, 800×720-pixel LCD display, an 1,800mAh rechargeable battery, and a microSD slot for storing game saves, screenshots, or ROMs that can be played through emulation. The handheld’s compact size does prevent cartridges with rumble motors or other hardware additions from being used, but otherwise the FPGB Mini looks to be about as small as the Game Boy is ever going to get.
