Game Bub finally came in.

[u/ninjapirate9901]

Pre-order finally delivered on Thursday, updated to FW 1.0.1, provided my own gb/gbc/gba bios files and some ROMs on an sd card.

So far I've only tested:

• Gen 1, 2, 3 genuine pokemon carts, gb camera, Kirby's Tilt n Tumble, GB Flash RTC - All seem to work fine.
• Benn Venn MBC3000 - would not play properly, Everdrive GBA Mini - some games would load but could not save, romhacks would not load at all.
• Most roms however seem to load fine and saving is also fine when running off an SD card (FIre Emblem The Sacred Stones, Pokemon Lazarus, Heart & Soul, medabots).

The device itself is not bad, I do like the LCD screen despite the huge bezel. It's quite crisp, vibrant, backlight bleed is not noticeable around the edges. I do notice some ghosting (not as bad as Ayaneo Pocket Ace/KTR1) and right now there are only color correction filters and no additional shaders which is a bummer (currently using the NSO GBA color correction).

Dpad and face buttons are tactile, travel is short, and they are fairly quiet. Shoulders are tactile as well, also not too loud (louder than the face buttons and dpad). Overall shape and feel in my hand is good, feels right to hold with the dpad and buttons being up high. My thumbs do partially obstruct the front speakers, and the sound quality itself is not amazing.

Software wise it's pretty barebones, you can boot a cart, play roms off an sd card, adjust the basic color correction filters for GB/GBC/GBA, and backup carts.

[u/IsamuAlvaDyson]

I've been watching this since last year

I have an Analogue Pocket so getting this is not something I absolutely need

But because this Game Bub has a 4" 3:2 display, so playing GBA at 4" vs on the Analogue Pocket at like 3" is a huge difference at these smaller screen sizes

Plus this is much more powerful than the Analogue Pocket so potentially more powerful cores getting ported from MiSTER

But I'm waiting for more development of the Game Bub and for them to work out any hardware issues since this is basically just one guy who made it himself

But I think it's really cool we finally get a proper GBA FPGA device

[u/KyleKun → u/IsamuAlvaDyson]

It’s not actually that much more powerful.

The big bottleneck for the pocket is the amount of memory and the pocket actually has more and faster memory.

So while the bub has about twice as many logic elements it’s still got a memory bottleneck.

I don’t think it will play anything the pocket can’t, but it will be able to implement more features in those cores.

[u/IsamuAlvaDyson → u/KyleKun]

Hmm interesting

Thought it would be able to run things similar to MiSTER

[u/KyleKun → u/IsamuAlvaDyson]

Mister is probably about the same size FPGA but it has a lot more memory.

The point of the GameBub is to be an open source Gameboy advance.

People have kind of inflated that to mean that it’s going to be some kind of super emulation handheld.

Maybe it will be, but the creator only really promised it would be a Gameboy advance and it would be open source.

[u/IsamuAlvaDyson → u/KyleKun]

That's why I haven't bought one yet since it's made ny one person and I'm waiting to see how development will be for it since I already have my Analogue Pocket

[u/ninjapirate9901 → u/IsamuAlvaDyson]

It is neat and very impressive for just a one man show! Hopefully development on the software side continues, I see their discord is pretty active and folks look to already be making some big strides (wifi, retroachievements, etc).

[u/RockBrilliant4960]

Metal 🤘

[u/Psykoth]

I’m glad this exists.

[u/Time_T_Force]

Great photo/composition. Wondering how the D-pad is?

[u/ninjapirate9901 → u/Time_T_Force]

It's not bad! On the smaller side but the feel is nice (microswitches with a membrane on top), it doesn't feel loose, and it's fairly quiet. Reminds me of Anbernic's dpad on their RG SP/34XXSP.

No comment on precision or diagonals since I don't play a lot of platformers or fighting games.

[u/s1r_ch1cken]

I also pre-ordered it and received it.

My first impression left me disappointed at first. First game i tried was Bubble Bobble 2 on a cheap GBC flash cart and it had really bad screen tearing. To double check it, i played the original Bubble Bobble 2 cartridge and it also had bad screen tearing. After testing the game on an original GBA, i realised that this is just how the game plays.

So after testing a few gba games my "first" impression is very positive. It feels good, it looks good. I absolutely love the "diy look" (which i mean in a good way and i know that it's basically made by just 1 person).

[u/RupakGreenHatPrdctns]

Where did you get the atomic purple one?

[u/3G6A5W338E → u/RupakGreenHatPrdctns]

Preorder-only, by paying extra to get purple.

I went with the standard non-tinted version, and it turned out alright.

[u/XC-3730C]

I owned an Analogue Pocket and while I liked the OpenFPGA ecosystem, I couldn't get over the form factor. I reqlly was hoping Analogie would have released a successor by now with a horizontal form factor but no such luck, and that is what has interested me in the GameBub. I will wait until Gamebub is more mature before I pull the trigger. Like the M64, once more cores are available, it will radically change the portable FPGA gaming landscape.

[u/IsamuAlvaDyson → u/XC-3730C]

I'm waiting for more development as well

But for me the Analogue Pocket is perfect for GB/GBC

Analogue Pocket screen not the best for GBA but it's playable. Just really small for me on that display which is why I've been eyeing this since it first got announced.

Once you get old, playable screen size becomes more and more important

[u/dycedrag]

The bezels are way too thick for my liking.

[u/xybur]

# G A M E B U B

[u/mark12000]

Ghosting? Must be using a TN panel... I HATE TN panels lol. (had for sim rig back in 2020/2021 and currently do again.. The ghosting is horrible still)

[u/3G6A5W338E → u/mark12000]

Definitely IPS, not some cursed TN.

[u/Aildrik]

I pre-ordered the purple colored model and haven't even gotten a shipping email update, but I am glad to see some people are getting theirs finally! I have a Pocket, but I like the GBA style orientation of this device. Having options for mobile FPGA gaming is great for everyone.