For that reason, the console exclusively plays cartridge games, just like its progenitor. There are no digital downloads, though game makers can issue bug fixes or updates if connected to the internet. Accessories for the Chromatic include rechargeable battery packs, cables, and a headset range in cost from $15-$50. You can also buy a dedicated modification kit which lets you take apart the device and alter it as you see fit.
On the library front, the Chromatic has launched with 15 games you can buy, and a special version of Tetris created by ModRetro comes packaged with the device. ModRetro has teased future partnerships for games made with industry stalwarts like Ubisoft, Atari, and Argonaut Games. Otherwise, if you want to play a game, you’ll have to find a second-hand Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridge somewhere. The Chromatic is backwards compatible, so old Game Boy games should work, assuming you’ve blown on the cartridge enough to get the dust out, of course.
Courtesy of ModRetro
Despite the retro-focus, the Chromatic has a few new tricks wired into it as well. A USB-C port can be used for charging or for piping live video directly from the Chromatic to streaming services via Mac, PC, and Discord. That means you can stream directly from the device, which Luckey says will likely delight speedrunners eager to break records on Game Boy games without having to use external cameras to record the feats. (The software that enables streaming capabilities is backwards compatible, meaning it will be work of first-edition Chromatics as well.)
“The goal of Chromatic in a non-technical sense is not to replicate the experience of actually playing a Game Boy or Game Boy Color, it’s to replicate the way that you felt playing it when you were younger,” Luckey says. “You want it to be authentic but also to live up to that rose-tinted recollection of how you remember it.”
Aside from all that nostalgia, ModRetro is also trying to make a push to reinforce the concept of ownership. Though the timing isn’t deliberate, Herndon points to recent efforts like Stop Killing Games, a movement of game advocates calling for the preservation of digital and online games so they can’t just be taken down by the provider.
“That is one of the most upsetting things about being a modern gamer,” Herndon says. “The true ownership experience back then is something has really gone by the wayside today, and we wanted to recapture that feeling.”
Ultimately, Luckey hopes the Chromatic isn’t the last stop in ModRetro’s efforts. He has his eyes set on recreating the Game Boy Advance and other retro platforms like the Nintendo 64. Eventually, he hopes the process, drawn out though it can be, will help preserve other aging technologies.
“This all sounds a lot more ridiculous and self masturbatory when you’re just making a Game Boy thing,” Luckey says. “But I’m hoping that at some point people will see ModRetro as a portal into the past that is going to live on forever. And then what I’m saying maybe won’t seem quite as crazy.”
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