First-time poster, long-time reader. I created a site that isn't monetized to report on interesting tech and gaming, covering news and reviews, and wanted to share this post as I'm a huge fan of retro gaming and would love to see the Game Bub succeed. Rest assured, although this may appear to be self-promotion, I'm not earning anything from the site; it is completely ad-free.
Back to the subject at hand. We already have a few portrait handhelds that can play physical Game Boy carts, but we still don't have one that plays landscape. There are rumors that Modretro will make a GBA handheld, but so far, there's no news on that front. In comes the Game Bub, which is still in crowdfunding, but it does appear a manufacturer has been secured. Hopefully the project finds enough funding to get made, cause I would love to add the Game Bub to my collection.
Not only is it open source, it can play physical carts, which is a big deal to collectors like me, as I prefer single carts over flash carts. Of course, it has an SD slot, so you won't even need a flash cart if you don't want to use one.
I can't be alone in wanting to see this funded, right? We absolutely need an FPGA handheld with a 3:2 screen for GBA.
Why not use a Raspberry Pi Zero?
Because that's emulation. This is a FPGA. Like the Analogue Pocket
If the outcome is the exact same, who cares?
This is like golden audio cables but for retro gamers.
The outcome isn't the same; FPGA devices can read the physical carts. And if the core is made well, it can be indistinguishable from OG hardware, though it's not like we don't have some good emus out there as well. For me, it's like asking why anyone buys imported beer when Coors exists. Sometimes I want something that's made to be a higher grade, and FPGA devices tend to be on the higher end. I'm a collector of games and devices, and the last thing I'm looking for is yet another cheap emulation device. Those are a dime a dozen that market is served. Right now, what the market doesn't offer is an FPGA handheld with a 3:2 screen that can read physical GBA carts, and I'd love to get one as soon as someone makes one.
A computer/microcontroller can read physical cards just as well and if the specs of the hardware are well known enough for someone to write vhdl/verilog, they can also write c/rust.
If someone offered you a molecularly identical beer, would you complain that it's not the original.
You just named a bunch of things that don't actually exist in one package that fits in my hand, hardly identical whatsoever. Gimme a call when it is. Or don't, I'm not here to argue semantics of nonexistent things.
Emulation of an ARM console on an ARM computer? And a FPGA is also kind of an emulation but on a lower level, IIRC.
And if the "no emulation" part is about the SM83, the APU or the PPU then maybe just an add-on card for the RPi can work. And cheaper.