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Analogue is responsible for some of the most accurate hardware clones money can buy, having already released systems that emulate the performance of the NES, SNES and Mega Drive at a hardware level, bringing reference-quality emulation to a burgeoning retro market.

Having created FPGA-based clones of the leading 16-bit consoles, many have been waiting expectantly to see what Analogue does next. A recent trademark filing may have given the game away; the company has filed trademarks for a handheld console called the Analogue Pocket, as well as another mystery system called the Analogue 8.

What these machines will run is anyone’s guess at the moment, but in the case of the Analogue Pocket, it’s highly likely that it will run Game Boy software, given the massive popularity of that particular line of portables. We could potentially see an FPGA-based handheld which runs Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, and perhaps even GBA games – a mouth-watering prospect, we’re sure you’ll agree.

As for the Analogue 8, it could be a system based on a popular 8-bit console, such as the PC Engine. Or, more outlandishly, it could cover all 8-bit consoles – something the incredibly expensive Analogue Nt Mini already does, thanks to a firmware update that adds support to multiple console cores. The difference with the Analogue 8 could be that it has cartridge slots for all supported systems.

We’ve reached out to Analogue for comment on these trademarks, and will update this story when we hear back. In the meantime, feel free to ponder just how amazing a FPGA-based Game Boy clone would be...