2024 has certainly been the year of the iPhone, at least when it comes to Retro Gaming fans. While it has been possible to get emulators on your iPhone through jailbreaking for a while now, the news of Apple opening up its App Store to emulators brought a smile to all of us who refuse to send green bubbles when it comes to messages and call video calling ‘FaceTime’.
There have been some incredible creations in a short space of time too; we recently interviewed Sean Fletcher on the Retrospect Podcast about his work creating skins for Delta and even creating an alternate logo for the app. The Delta Pocket is a beautiful piece of software in the style of the lesser-spotted Analogue Pocket, transforming your iPhone from something you text your mother on to a bona fide Retro Gaming handheld. And now, a company called Bitmo Lab has taken things one step further by creating a case for the iPhone 15 Pro Max & the upcoming 16 Pro Max that literally allows you to button-mash your way through all of your favourite games.
Bitmo Lab loves gaming with buttons. In fact, it’s the whole ethos behind the GAMEBABY. Writing on their website, they say that ‘Games are meant to be played with physical buttons. GAMEBABY is a phone case with built-in physical buttons that transforms your device into a retro gaming handheld. Carry it as a regular case, then flip the lower part to play. GAMEBABY lets you fully immerse yourself in the joy of retro gaming.’
Working without the need for Bluetooth, cables, or wireless integration, you simply slip the bottom part of the case off the back of your phone and slide it onto the bottom half of your screen. Then, when you press a button on your handheld pad, it will correspond with the touchscreen button underneath GB, GBC, GBA, and NES button layouts.
If you’re a regular iPhone gamer and have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, then this could well be worth a look. Obviously, if you’re prone to dropping your phone quite a lot while you game, then that’s something to consider. Still, if you’re pretty steady-handed and want a case that allows you to game on the go on your phone with a feel that you’ve become used to from playing the Game Boy and other vertical consoles your entire life, then BitmoLab could have the answer.
Priced at $19.99 for the Super Early Bird offer and with a regular price of $39.99, it’s definitely worth a try. We’ll be receiving one into the office soon for testing, so keep your eyes peeled for that dropping on our website (and hopefully not the floor) soon, and you can pre-order one from the Bitmo Lab website!
