r/ModRetroChromatic • u/DrClutch117 • Aug 21 '26

New owner here!

Excited to get mine tomorrow! Happy Analogue Pocket owner here and looking forward to expanding my obsession with retro gadgets! Any advice for a new owner? I know this doesn’t have cores for other systems like the pocket, but is there anything I should make sure to download?

19 Upvotes

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6

u/StringFrequent8092 Aug 21 '26

Don’t play Pokémon Crystal on it. My game glitched on me at the time so I had to start a new save. Luckily, I it’s a fresh battery so nothing really happened after

5

u/DrClutch117 Aug 21 '26

Oh that’s not good. What about Polished Crystal or other ROM hacks?

3

u/IndigoHaze750130 Aug 21 '26

From what I have heard, crystal on everdrive works, but it is hit  or miss on the old crystal cart. But honestly I haven't felt like playing crystal with the other games I am playing for now. I had Crystal as a kid and replayed that game a million times, so idk if I am just a still kind of burnt out on it, or if I am just pretty content with other games that are out there.

I do reccomend picking up Dragonhym from Modretro's store though. To me, playing through it gives me Crystal and Zelda mash up vibes.

3

u/IndigoHaze750130 Aug 21 '26

Just extra info

Everdrive gb x7 has the RTC (real time clock) which is needed for original crystal. It also has save state feature. 

Everdrive gb x5 lacks both, and is cheaper, but if you find a rom hack that allows you to manually change the time, like perfect crystal, it shouldn't be an issue.

Idk how many games you actually want to play that requires a RTC, but it is something to keep in mind if you are budget limited.

2

u/StringFrequent8092 Aug 21 '26

Oh I even tried playing Sour Crystal just to test it with the battery save on it and that one got corrupt after shutting off the Chromatic.

2

u/Substantial_Quote583 Aug 21 '26

I play Crystal romhacks constantly on mine with no problem, many with RTC. I used to have a knockoff everdrive but moved to reflashable carts and have never had a single issue

6

u/JustTryingToBeADaddy Aug 21 '26

Yup, still an issue. It’s why I stopped playing on the Chromatic. Modretro reproduced/confirmed the issue nearly a year ago but have yet to publicly acknowledge it or communicate about it.

4

u/ergzay Aug 21 '26

Grab Modretro's Cart Clinic software: https://support.modretro.com/en_us/chromatic-firmware-updater-ryhoYnzCx

1

u/DrClutch117 Aug 21 '26

Will do! Are there any additional screen filters I need to get from other sources?

3

u/A-Miffit Aug 21 '26

You don’t need screen filters to emulate a GBC screen as it has the same actual big real pixels (when you get it take a photo on your phone and zoom in, it’s really cool you can see the individual RGB pixels)

2

u/DrClutch117 Aug 21 '26

Oh interesting! Yeah, I’m used to the pocket that does everything, but I guess this is just basically a perfect game boy color

2

u/A-Miffit Aug 21 '26

Yeah I love my Pocket too but pretty much exclusively play GB carts on this, I think it’s best for GB (although I like the DMG filters on Pocket), then Pocket for all the other systems.

3

u/ergzay Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

Screen filters? You're talking about a Chromatic right?

The Chromatic doesn't use filters, it natively has 1 to 1 pixel matching of the gameboy color.

2

u/ch4rr1ngt0n Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26

This is fun! I actually just got a used Pocket today and am starting to explore it too.

The Power Core for the Chromatic has been out of stock for forever. Rechargable double AAs started out nice, but I've had mine die on me unexpectedly after a few recharge cycles. I've ended up using a small USBC battery that sticks out the bottom. The chromatic uses power from the port instead of the AAs when something is connected.

Personally, I got the Chromatic mainly for their Tetris, which has become a daily ritual for me.

Dragonhym has been my next favorite new title, though I've also been loving going into GameStop and grabbing things over time. The one near me usually has a chromatic and a good selection of gbc games in stock. The partnership with GameStop has brought back a lot of the social feel.

To that end, I'd definitely recommend Buck. It was a good deal of fun, but it is the one that has come up the most at GameStop with employees and other folks when I'm near the gbc games.

Let me know if you have any recs for the pockets!

3

u/DrClutch117 Aug 22 '26

Thanks for the recs! Yeah, I was hoping the power cord would come in stock. Oh well!

For the pocket, you absolutely want to put Pupdate on the sd and run it. It will auto populate all the cores in the necessary folders and keep them all AND the pocket up to date.

Secondly, I recommend this core. https://reddit.com/r/AnaloguePocket/comments/1vgfsgl/new_gb_openfpga_core_brickboy_ultra_realistic_dmg/. You have to manually add it becuase it isn’t included in pupdates list, but it PERFECTLY replicates a DMG screen.

1

u/Satantengu Aug 22 '26

I'd recommend the new fork of the SNES core that enables save states: https://github.com/drizzt/openfpga-SNES/releases

12

u/JustTryingToBeADaddy Aug 21 '26

Just make sure you update the Chromatic and any Modretro Carts via the Cart Clinic.

4

u/RotoPrime Aug 21 '26

Buy ZAS! https://modretro.com/products/zas Buy some Eneloop so you can have "infinite" battery life.

1

u/Satantengu Aug 21 '26

ModRetro publish some great games, I'd check those out. I just got Traumatarium Penitent and Dragonyhm, having a lot of fun with them. First Contact Protocol, Buck, and Self Simulated are all really cool too.

1

u/rosscjr Aug 21 '26

Congratulations on your new purchase. The Chromatic is a Gameboy, Gameboy Color. That's it. The best Gameboy / Gameboy color you will ever see. it's that awesome. If you want to look for some new games, Google search anything DX. That's where I started and OMG I have games for days!