This hand-crampingly tiny GBA clone has a 0.85-inch screen

How mini tin you shrink nan Nintendo Game Boy Advance? That’s a mobility TinyCircuits is answering pinch nan Thumby Color, a GBA clone measuring conscionable 2 inches successful size that still manages to fresh a directional pad, enarthrosis buttons, a rumble motor, a 16-bit colour screen, and nan expertise to nexus 2 of them together pinch a USB-C cablegram for multiplayer gaming.

Unlike nan myriad Game Boy and GBA clones released by companies for illustration Anbernic, nan Thumby Color is not an emulator. It doesn’t person capable processing powerfulness to play retro games nor capable retention to clasp hundreds of ROM files.

It’s powered by a 150MHz Raspberry Pi RP2350 processor that’s paired pinch conscionable 16MB of retention — yes, that’s megabytes, not gigabytes. Not being capable to play existent GBA games connected nan Thumby Color is astir apt a bully point because its 0.85-inch quadrate LCD surface has a solution of conscionable 128 x 128 pixels, which is little than half nan solution of nan GBA.

Games are alternatively programmed successful MicroPython. The Thumby Color will travel pinch six open-source titles preinstalled, including a first-person shooter called Monstra and a dungeon crawler called Thumbgeon 2. It will besides travel pinch each nan monochromatic games that shipped pinch nan original Thumby backmost successful 2021, which was nan company’s ultra-tiny clone of nan original Game Boy.

The Thumby Color isn’t a handheld you’re going to want to play for hours connected end, but it is 1 you tin perchance sneak into immoderate mounting wherever you want a distraction — without trying to hide much conspicuous handhelds for illustration nan Steam Deck. It’s besides a bully excuse to study a programming language, arsenic TinyCircuits has created tutorials and guides available for free done its website.

TinyCircuits has opted for a Kickstarter crowdfunding run to bring nan Thumby Color to consumers. The original Thumby still sells for $42, but this caller colour surface type is disposable pinch a promise of $49 for a purple version, pinch shipping expected arsenic early arsenic November. If you want a Thumby Color pinch a clear aliases transparent purple housing, nan value jumps to $55, and if you want a Kickstarter-exclusive achromatic version, it’s $75.

Keep successful mind that there’s ever nan chance a crowdfunded merchandise will not present each nan features promised astatine nan clip of nan campaign. It could besides beryllium importantly delayed, aliases ne'er delivered astatine all, without refunds. TinyCircuits has successfully shipped respective Kickstarter products before, truthful there’s somewhat little consequence here, but there’s nary guarantee nan merchandise will materialize, moreover pinch its backing extremity already being met.