This is not a drill; new images of a possible Retroid Pocket vertical handheld have just hit the internet.
These images come from user Roland on the Retro Handhelds discord channel. Which is pretty much where we all flock to daily hoping for news about our emulators.
Tough to say if this is a real design from GoRetroid, since it does not come from them, and it shares no similarities to their previous consoles.
But, as usual with these kinds of internet leaks, it’s tough not to start to pick apart the details and wonder all of the what-ifs.
So let’s do it people, let’s break down this potential vertical handheld from GoRetroid and decide if we are messin’ with it or not.
Retroid Pocket Vertical
Anybody familiar with an original Game Boy Color will see quite a lot of similarities here. That was very obviously the inspiration for the design.
It’s got the same overall shape and the same butt, which was made to accommodate batteries and added some comfort in the grip.
Even the start and select have the same shape and look to them. But relocated to the top.
There’s also some major differences, because this new emulation handheld would be made to play much more than just Game Boy titles.
We see four action buttons, four triggers, and two hideous joysticks. These are the low profile digital joysticks, like what was used on the Retroid Pocket 2+.
These joysticks were also seen in the leaked Clamshell Handheld concept images.
Tough to say what the intention with this design is. We know for sure that they wanted to make a vertical handheld that looked as similar to a Game Boy Color as possible.
But it’s not a clone, like that new Funnyplaying Game Boy Clone.
They even placed what looks like an IR port at the top, but because there is no power button present in the design, I believe this is the actual power button.
And those triggers… our favorite handheld companies are really having trouble figuring out good triggers on verticals, aren’t they?
Other details we can see: It’s got micro HDMI out, one SD slot, and two usb-C ports.
Retroid Pocket Vertical Power (estimations)
So what should we expect from this thing in terms of power?
We have four action buttons, four triggers, and two joysticks. So we know for sure this would be intended to at least play things in the 64 bit era.
That’s PSP, Dreamcast, N64, Playstation 1.
What we cannot predict is just how powerful they would try to go in a vertical that looks like a Game Boy.
Would they make a device like this to run Android and be able to play stuff like Game Cube and PS2?
In 2023, we shouldn’t really expect much less than that in a device with these kinds of button configurations.
We already have plenty of vertical handhelds that can play up to PS1 and Dreamcast. So if you’re not gonna’ give us something that plays more than that, we wouldn’t need the two joysticks.
And this new prototype has a top and rear ventilation grill. So should we anticipate this thing getting pretty hot? That would typically be tied to more powerful devices.
The one SD card slot suggests Android only. Which the Retroid Pockets are known for. So no surprise there.
Early Impressions
Obviously, we don’t know anything about this thing yet.
We don’t even know if it’s real. But there’s been a few times I’ve said “we don’t even know if this is real”, and I really hoped it wasn’t… and BAM – it’s real.
So at the very least, we should accept that GoRetroid might be playing with the idea of a vertical.
And I would not be mad at that at all.
I would just hope that they are listening to people’s responses on discord and see that they have made some poor design choices and might wanna rethink a few details.
So if you’re listening… definitely make a vertical. But fix those triggers and joysticks.
Oh… and make it in metal. Obviously.
Anthony has been a video game lover ever since he can remember. He became a fulltime nomad in 2018, living throughout most of Asia. He focused his passion in retro gaming and began creating a game for the Game Boy Color while living in Nara, Japan during the 2020 pandemic. He is now in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he spends most of his time gaming, going on long walks and meeting as many stray dogs as possible.
