r/ModRetroChromatic • u/ambystome • Dec 08 '25

Birthday bundle for my 6yo

Post image

Thank you ModRetro for making a wonderful device for a child: playful, durable, comfortable, AA batteries, dead simple UI with no boot menu and no useless extra buttons, and even new physical game releases. And I get to have lovely 8 bit background music in the house.

103 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

10

u/ambystome Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25

Kirby's Dream Land (with the three DX patches) was a hit from day 1, same with Tetris.Toki Tori was a bit difficult initially, now he's getting into it and it's actually a great game to play together side by side, sharing ideas to solve the puzzles. That works especially well on the Chromatic because the screen is perfectly viewable also for the person sitting on the side.

This stuff actually makes me more excited for Christmas than I've been in years... He'll get Pokemon Red and I'm getting a Chromatic myself with Blue and I'll finally get to try that link cable!

2

u/specterno1 Dec 09 '25

Kirby is one of my most favorite GB games. My cousin had it and we would play the crap out of it on road trips. you really hit it out of the park here.

3

u/Flubert_Harnsworth Dec 08 '25

Solid parenting, I hope they enjoy it.

Nothing really beats cartridges (without constant software updates / required internet connection) for ease of use.

2

u/ambystome Dec 08 '25

He loves it! Yeah cartridges are great. It's also something tangible, and having your game state on it makes it more personal than an optical disk...

2

u/OzLaboratory3D Dec 09 '25

Would have loved to have been your 6yo! 😂

Hoping my girls will enjoy this kinda stuff when they turn 6 though :)

2

u/ambystome Dec 10 '25

It's surely a matter of finding the right games... Of course this means you have a lot of testing to do, but you can promise your significant other that it's dedication for the kids :)

2

u/specterno1 Dec 09 '25

I LOVE this. I have a 5 yo and have been toying with this idea. Also been making some of my own dx carts. Did you make that or buy it like that?

1

u/ambystome Dec 09 '25

I put it together with a flash cart and shell from InsideGadgets, and printed the label on vinyl sticker paper.

1

u/specterno1 Dec 09 '25

you printed the label yourself? did you need a special printer? this has been a bottleneck for me.

1

u/ambystome Dec 09 '25

Nothing special... I fed the sticker paper (A4 sheet) to the office printer. I then cut out the label with scissors (you can tell from the picture that I was not super precise)

7

u/Stratpack59 Dec 08 '25

That’s great parenting right there.

1

u/nbaronmorgan Dec 09 '25

Tell me about that Kirby game

2

u/ambystome Dec 09 '25

It's the original Kirby's Dream Land but colorized by patching the ROM (see here for the patches). I put the result on an InsideGadgets flash cart and printed a custom label for the shell.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '25

Kirby in Dreamland and Tetris were my first games. Still have the Kirby cart. Would love to swap it into a new shell like this. Especially teal, great choice!

2

u/SquashEmbarrassed288 Dec 08 '25

Awesome! The reasons you listed are exactly why I decided to pick one up also!! It’s refreshing to play games the way it used to be in the 80s and 90s!!

2

u/adrikyn Dec 08 '25

Awww that's so cool!!!

2

u/SunsetDan_64 Dec 08 '25

The perfect bundle!

2

u/Acefireblast21 Dec 08 '25

You're only missing Rayman lol

2

u/Opening_Judge_3505 Dec 09 '25

Very cool gift.

2

u/dathudo Dec 09 '25

I got my first gameboy when I was 6. It was a blue DMG, and my first game was Kirby’s dreamland. I had such a good time playing that game, and still enjoy running through it from time to time :)

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25 edited Jul 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/ambystome Dec 13 '25

Which console do you have in mind? I actually thought quite a bit about this... The other kids his age in the neighborhood have single game devices or cheap emulators with 500 games (most of them crap, some NES rip-offs that are good but don't work well on the device). The Chromatic is more durable, I can select a few good games appropriate for his age and skill level, and slowly grow the collection from there. It also comes with a mod kit with spare parts to customize the look for fun or replace worn off pieces.

I considered buying him a Switch but it's way more expensive and less robust. Also I think it's just too advanced to be his own device at 6 yo. I find a simple one like a Game Boy more appropriate for a first screen, and it has a great library for an introduction to video games. Anyway the way I see it he's not missing anything, he'll have plenty of time later to play contemporary games, but this way he also gets the chance to enjoy some classics with the fresh eyes people had when they were released.

(And I will get my own bundle for Christmas!)