Pocket Sprite

I spent my childhood with a Game Boy that felt like a brick—heavy, gray, never fit right in a pocket no matter how you crammed it. Now there’s the PocketSprite: 55 by 32 millimeters, 14 millimeters thick. Small enough that you could actually carry it anywhere.

It plays the old games—Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Master System, Gamegear, whatever you load into it via ROM files. There’s a color screen, sturdy buttons, save states, a rechargeable battery, WiFi and Bluetooth, tiny speakers. It fits in your actual pocket.

There’s something about the physicality of it that changes how you play. It’s not an app you fit into dead time. It’s a complete device that means you sat down to actually play something, with intention.

I can’t explain the appeal of something this small and basic when my phone could do everything it does and more. But there’s something about it—the buttons, the size, the fact that everything here serves one purpose—that makes sense in a way I can’t articulate. I never got over the Game Boy, I guess.