Analogue, the makers of high-performance FPGA-based retro game systems, announced a transparent limited edition run of the Pocket. Not only was this exciting news as they’re notoriously difficult to acquire, but the color selection was welcome. It also gave the impression there would be a solid amount available for those waiting a long time to score one.
Quick note: Why the Pocket is relevant to mobile music makers, is that it comes with Nanoloop built in. It has stereo speakers, a micro-sd card slot, and a selection of available cords that can sync Nanoloop to a DAW or external machines. Check out the full details of the Pocket in our Gear Directory.
There were 7 colorways in total; Clear, Smoke, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, and Red. Nothing outside of this was changed. All of the colors look great, but to me, the muted editions look like they allow for more focus on the screen. The sentiment online was that smoke and purple were the standouts, but what was a bit off was how saturated the purple hue was in some photos and how desaturated it was in others (example below). Either way, many said it was “fire” and reminded them of the classic purple Gameboy and Gamecube.
Order Experience
The sale went live on Sept 29th at 8:00 AM PST. As you can imagine, the transparent editions sold out in minutes, which was expected and also seen with their recent glow-in-the-dark edition. Orders were limited to 2 Pockets at checkout, and it appears that the Analogue cart has a limit for all items, even if you’re grabbing extra cords, cases, or peripherals. The checkout uses a captcha—no doubt aimed to curb scalpers—and it’s one of those “draw the box around the cat” styles.
There was a lot of criticism after the sale had ended, but from what I’ve seen this is common when there’s a popular limited, timed-edition, or even raffle-based sale. Some of the more common points for this one were:
- The sales time was a bad choice and not ideal for folks in various timezones.
- The captcha was buggy or broken.
- The queue after the captcha took too long and resulted in dropped orders.
- Orders should have been limited to 1 per person.
This was my first experience attempting to buy a handheld such as this, but I had gone through many with limited edition art prints, collectibles, and tickets (as most of us have). I’ve also done some work consulting with artists and setting up many limited and timed-edition sales. It’s always a challenge to make sure these types of purchases run smoothly. For example, the sales time will often be good for some and bad for others. I imagine Analogue chose a time that reflected the timezone where most of their purchases come from.
Many of the posts I found mentioning the captcha being broken were for mobile phones, and that might have had something to do with it. Analogue used hCaptcha I believe, and this post shows how to use it more effectively (leave it to the sneaker collectors). The queue I’ll admit would be nice if it held onto your cart, but it stated it doesn’t. The limit I can see being placed in an attempt to curb scalping, however I think 2 was good. It allows folks to buy one for their friends or partners, and we’re heading into the gifting season.
I was lucky enough to get a Pocket this round, and it was surprising as I’m usually quite rubbish in these sorts of sales. I do hope Analogue comes out with some more stock soon, as there are a lot of folks wanting to get one of these and I don’t think it’s ok that their main source is some scalper on Ebay.
Look out for some upcoming posts on the Pocket, Nanoloop, and if you’re interested in one of these handhelds keep your eye on Analogue.co
