Video game preservation is often an afterthought in the current gaming landscape. While in the modern age, the idea of a scarce digital product is niche. While most video games are mass-produced in tens of millions of quantities daily, older hardware has been out of production for a long time. Considering how hard older GameBoy and GameBoy Advance titles are to find, many cling to them in an effort of preservation. Yet, many like Analogue asked the question if there was a way to do it better. After many successful retro console redesigns, the company finally produced its very first handheld. Named the Analogue Pocket, the device can play classic GameBoy titles and even make them. After a delay last year, the device finally landed in fans’ hands earlier this year. Featuring a whole studio allowing creators and developers alike to make music or graphics. Now, the team is finally ready to unveil their very first software update. Announced on Twitter, Analogue Pocket v1.1 beta launches today with save states and a new FPGA development core.

We have three announcements today:

  1. openFPGA: Analogue’s Developer program – the future of video game preservation 02. Spacewar! on openFPGA: the worlds first video game, preserved on openFPGA 03. OS v1.1 beta: lite versions of Library and Memories with many other updates pic.twitter.com/6niTu0GAsu

— Analogue (@analogue) July 29, 2022

How Will Save States and Open FPGA Improve The Analogue Pocket?

While the details are interesting, many will instantly look to the new features available for games. Introducing a library and save state feature, the Analogue Pocket is becoming a much more capable device to play original GameBoy hardware on. The device is even supporting more Bluetooth controllers like the PS5 DualSense. Yet, developing those games can be difficult, which is why Analogue is going open source with their tools. Giving developers the chance to use their open FPGA core, the possibilities of what games could release on the Analogue Pocket are endless. While the initial release does come with the first ever video game created, Spacewar!, more developers will make games. Now thanks to a third-party developer, the earliest video game has been reconstructed to run on the Analogue Pocket. Yet, the disclaimer Analogue includes at the end states they intend for these releases to be for video game preservation. While it’s unknown when the full release will be, Analogue Pocket users can download the beta and try out the new features now.