The Game Boy Pocket is known as probably the most difficult of the Game Boy systems to backlight. While it is true that most of the good kits for the Pocket require soldering, recently some ‘drop-in’ kits have become available from companies like Hispeedido. Drop-in kits are so much more convenient and basically mean that anyone can upgrade their Game Boy system.…
Category: Feature
Features are our catch-all for all things long-form, from overviews of important things relating to emulation and preservation, to list content.
Retron SQ – Hardware Review
The Retron SQ is a great looking system. The system is a budget console that lets you play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games on a HD TV. This compatibility is its main appeal yet it isn’t compatible with much of the Game Boy Advance library. A few years ago, I heard that the Retron SQ was on the market, and from day one I heard that it had compatibility issues.…
N64 Everdrive X5 Review
The N64 was home to some groundbreaking games that set the standard for games in their genre. Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 are two such titles. Those two games are probably the most influential games for 3D movement and level design of their generation. Arguably, the Playstation didn’t have as many great core titles as the N64, but it did have a great diversity of games available and had titles for every genre you could imagine.…
ExtremeRate GBA Shells – All that you need to make that ultimate build
The proliferation of many different kinds of emulation handhelds in recent years might have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that no major hardware manufacturer has a dedicated handheld on the market. Or, the fact that Nintendo (and other companies) has no cheap, utilitarian handheld on the market could be the main factor in why companies like Retroid, Anbernic, and Powkiddy are releasing iteration afer iteration of devices that have a primary function of using emulators to play, often pirated, ROMs from the former company’s back catalogues.…
D*Fuzed Review
Since Tetris was released alongside the original Nintendo Game Boy in 1989, handhelds (and later, mobile phones) have been associated with puzzle games. The daddy of the puzzle game, Tetris, has gone on to be one of the best-selling franchises in all of gaming. Others, like Bejeweled, Puzzle Bobble, and Candy Crush, have become popular with people who often don’t play puzzle games.…
Tales of Monsterland DX Review
The release of the ModRetro Chromatic has been a gift for fans of the Game Boy and its early iterations. Around twenty Game Boy games have already been released under the ModRetro branding in the past couple of years. It’s great for the community to have access to all this software, and even though these aren’t official releases, physical versions are also available.…
Wicked Plague Review
Wicked Plague was developed by LocusMotion and published by ModRetro. The game released on July 11th, 2025. It is exciting to be reviewing a title for the Game Boy Color that has just been released in the year 2025. Wicked Plague is a stylish 8-bit metroidvania with cool, grunge-style characters and satisfyingly difficult combat. The physical version of the game comes in a nice-looking compact box, with concept art and descriptive text on the back.…
Dragonhym Review
The homebrew and ‘post-life’ library for Game Boy and Game Boy Color seems to be getting new additions every month. While some of these go under the radar and are simple puzzle games, other titles are more ambitious. Dragonborne was originally released as a Game Boy title a few years ago (still in the Game Boy’s ‘post-life’ era).…
Master Everdrive X7 Review – Your Master System Collection on one Cart
The Sega Master System is an often underrated console with a huge library of games that sold more than it’s rival, the NES, in some regions, including Europe and South America. As someone from Europe, the Master System was a popular console choice for older generations, such as my brother and his school friends. Even today, the Master System seems to be looked back on more fondly than the NES, at least in my local area.…
Hyperkin Retron 1 HD Gaming System Review
I review a few flash carts and reproduction games (ROM hacks) on this site, and often I don’t use the original hardware to test the carts, but instead I use a ‘clone console’. There is some misunderstanding as to the quality and presentation of ‘clone consoles’. While it is true that older clones, such as the ‘Scorpion’ (a Sega Megadrive clone system from the 90’s) were trying to pass themselves off as the real deal, modern clones from companies such as Hyperkin, Analogue, and Retro-Bit differentiate themselves by presenting as unique, cool, and practical alternatives to original hardware.…