After selling out all of its limited stock of First Edition handhelds last year, ModRetro has announced that its Chromatic Game Boy is now permanently back in stock. The company is also introducing a new white-and-purple cloud color option, new game cartridges, and a collection of accessories that includes a rechargeable battery.
The Chromatic is now once again available for purchase through ModRetro’s online store in seven different colors: cloud, midnight, wave, inferno, bubblegum, volt, and leaf. Functionality is exactly the same as the First Edition versions of the Chromatic, and the handheld is still made with a durable magnesium alloy case and a pixel-perfect IPS screen that’s color-matched to the original Game Boy’s and Game Boy Color’s displays.
Pricing now starts at $199.99 and includes a modernized copy of Tetris that adds new gameplay features, but that’s for a version of the Chromatic featuring a screen protected by Gorilla Glass. The original First Edition version of the Chromatic featured more durable sapphire glass, and if you want that same level of screen protection it will now cost you $299.99.
The Chromatic can still be powered by three AA batteries that, based on our testing, provide around seven or eight hours of gameplay with the handheld’s screen brightness reduced to 50 percent. If you don’t want to provide your own rechargeable AAs, ModRetro is also introducing a $29.99 rechargeable battery pack offering up to 16 hours of gameplay. Other new accessories include a $14.99 link cable for connecting two Chromatic handhelds for multiplayer, and a $14.99 Mod Kit letting you customize your Chromatic with swappable parts.
ModRetro is also expanding its games collection today with five new cartridges featuring titles like Sabrina: The Animated Series – Zapped!, Wicked Plague, and a puzzle platformer called Gravitorque where you manipulate gravity instead of jumping (you can try it in your browser here).
When the Chromatic originally debuted, the handheld’s creator, Palmer Luckey, told The Verge’s Sean Hollister that quantities would be limited and he wasn’t sure if he’d make more than what was needed to fulfill preorders. Today’s announcement is welcome news both for those who missed out on getting a Chromatic during its initial run last year and those who did get one, because this will help grow the Chromatic community and potentially encourage other companies to make new games and accessories for the handheld.
What hasn’t changed is that the Chromatic is still tied to a controversial figure. Although the Chromatic reflects Luckey’s past as a Game Boy modder before he created the Oculus Rift VR headset, he was an early Donald Trump supporter, and after selling Oculus to Facebook he was fired following controversial political donations. Luckey went on to found Anduril, a defense contractor that makes military tech, including lethal weaponized drones.
The Chromatic may be one of the best ways to play classic Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, but if you feel that your enjoyment of retro gaming could be hampered by the handheld’s associations, the Analogue Pocket offers comparable performance and cartridge support without any controversy.