Palmer Luckey, the man who took a career crafting VR headsets and turned it into a company that sells weapons of war to the U.S. military, also makes a Game Boy-like handheld. The ModRetro Chromatic, designed to play old Game Boy cartridges, has proved incredibly popular.
Now, the handheld, in all its original colorways, is back after a year of unavailability, but with a few changes. First, there’s an all-new gray and purple colorway that’s giving SNES vibes. Second, while the Chromatic still starts at $200, which gets you the same magnesium alloy shell and a special copy of Tetris, the screen cover is now Gorilla Glass instead of the more durable, scratch-resistant sapphire glass that all original Chromatics had. If you want the version with the sapphire screen, that now costs $300 (also bundled with Tetris). Whether or not the Chromatic is worth it depends on how much you loved your old Game Boy Color and how much you can stomach Luckey’s ongoing love affair with the military-industrial complex.
The Chromatic is a kind of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) emulation device. That means it doesn’t merely recreate Nintendo’s original handheld as software, like most typical emulators do; it effectively replicates the hardware and chip logic. As such, it can play original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges alongside ModRetro’s own “Chromatic” cartridges.
ModRetro, a company cofounded by Luckey and fellow Anduril lead Torin Herndon, started promoting the Chromatic almost a year ago alongside a few homebrew games designed for the device. There are a few more ModRetro-specific games to go alongside the handheld re-release. The selection now includes Sabrina: The Animated Series – Zapped!, First Contact Protocol, Wicked Plague, Self Simulated, and Gravitorque DX. The last of those is a gravity-manipulating indie platformer akin to lo-fi darling VVVVVV from back in 2010. ModRetro is also selling a few more accessories, including a rechargeable battery to replace the old AAs, a mod kit to swap its buttons and D-pad, and a link cable to trade Pokémon with friends the old-fashioned way.
I am pleased to annouce our latest game!
Gravitorque DX is a puzzle platformer where you control gravity instead of jumping, solving mind-bending levels across four distinct worlds.
Get it now on a REAL cart: https://t.co/94qOCZBbV5@modretro #modretro #GameBoy #gamedev pic.twitter.com/35Ob3LBYXx
— Nikita Kurylev (@NikitaKurylev) July 10, 2025
The Chromatic is currently the most accurate way to replay Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, with the added benefit of a backlit IPS LCD screen and other modern amenities like video out via USB-C. That IPS screen replicates the colors found on Nintendo’s original handheld. While there are other FPGA mod kits available for DIY enthusiasts like this one from FunnyPlaying, your only other option for a similar complete system to play your old Game Boy cartridges is the $220 Analogue Pocket. It’s a fellow FPGA emulation device with a four-button layout that is also compatible with Game Boy Advance titles and other non-Nintendo games like Sega Game Gear with additional add-ons. While Analogue has done several limited edition colorways before, it’s currently only available in black or white. In the last few months, Analogue seemingly managed to overcome chronic stock issues, so at least for now, buyers have a choice.
Grabbing your stash of Game Boy games from the attic sounds enticing, until you consider who you’re buying the Chromatic from. With one hand, Luckey promotes his retro gaming venture—a continuation of his early days as a handheld modder. With the other, he’s turning his military weapons maker, Anduril, into one of the government’s de facto suppliers of cutting-edge military technology. Lately, Anduril took Microsoft’s place making XR goggles for troops on the ground, and he even partnered up with once-friend, then-enemy, now-friend again Mark Zuckerberg to craft the XR device for the U.S. military’s future soldiers. Beyond his overtures to his nerdy past, Luckey sees the world in stark lines. He has said in past interviews his goal is to supply enough weapons to act as a kind of deterrent against aggression toward U.S. interests. This kind of “game theory” isn’t what most gamers love most about their pastime, but it’s intrinsic to how Luckey views his other, non-Game Boy-related business interests.
How to compartmentalize Luckey’s businesses is up to each individual buyer, but I personally can’t advocate supporting the arms dealer no matter how innocent this venture seems. You already have an incredible number of software emulation-focused devices available—including sub-$100 handhelds like the Anbernic RG34XXSP or TrimUI Brick—so buyers are not starved for options. Luckey has suggested he’ll launch a Game Boy Advance-like device and Nintendo 64 emulator in the future, but when those hit the scene, we’ll still have the same reservations, all to do with Luckey himself.
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