Palmer Luckey’s Chromatic is back better than ever

Last December we tackled the ModRetro Chromatic, a handheld gaming system that plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.

The brainchild of tech billionaire and founder of Anduril Industries Palmer Luckey, the Chromatic offered enhanced display and functionality, with the ability to pop in Pokemon games of the past. It came only with Tetris as a bundled launch title, with other games available for separate purchase.

Now, a full rerelease of the ModRetro is finally here, and it is beautiful.

‘We have a generation growing up having never had any need to touch physical media.’

Apart from the original sapphire screen cover, purposefully clicky buttons, and enhanced lighting one typically gets from a modified Game Boy, the Chromatic now comes with even more games and a slew of accessories, which are very exciting.

Let’s say the leaf-green Chromatic is your go-to ($199.99). You’re going to want to pick up the matching Koss Porta Pro headphones ($49) because they absolutely stole the show.

Yes, stole. Originally released in 1984, these retro-style headphones will shock you with their quality. They feel natively louder, especially when compared to different types of headphones. Tested with the new game Self Simulated ($39.99) — a platformer starring a R.O.B.-esque robot — the Porta Pros outshined a 2020 pair of JBL Live 400BT on-ear wireless headphones, Sony WF-C700N wireless ear buds from 2023, and Sony’s 2025 MDREX15AP/B, which are newer but old-school wired headphones.

Be warned: Sliding these retro headphones on will certainly induce flashbacks to the back of your family’s station wagon.

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Photo by Blaze News

Gamers will be surprised by the rerelease of Sabrina: Zapped! ($39.99), which originally came out for the Game Boy Color in 2000. Why? Because it shows ModRetro is indeed interested in reviving old feelings for different demographics.

The Mod Kit ($14.99) is also available for budding engineers (a nice nod from Luckey that I couldn’t get my hands on). It offers replacement parts and buttons to style to a user’s liking but does not require any complex maneuvering — just a pointy device and desire for change.

Replace the directional pad, A, B, or start and select buttons, among others.

What the Chromatic offers that no other old handheld can do is streaming. The device can now stream gameplay natively to Discord, Mac, and PC, with no extra hardware required.

Return asked Torin Herndon, CEO at ModRetro, why this was such an important feature to include this time around.

“So many devices require an intermediate dock for streaming video, which drastically reduces the possible convenient use cases,” Herndon explained. “We felt that it was essential to open up streaming Game Boy games, simply while using a handheld console with proper button layout.”

What Herndon and ModRetro did not know, though, is that Return had a secret weapon up its sleeve: a Game Boy Camera.

Not only does the Game Boy Camera work on the Chromatic for taking offensively bad pictures that range in color from light green to black, but by simply connecting the Chromatic to a PC via USB-C, gamers worldwide can livestream in sparkling low-res quality through the device.

Not many will take up this offer, but this crossover of retro tech was an incredibly satisfying discovery.

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Photo taken by Blaze News via Game Boy Camera on the Chromatic

Gamers can also marry a Chromatic to an old Game Boy Color through the Link Cable ($14.99). This can revive decades-old Pokemon trades and rivalries or provide head-to-head match-ups on Mario Golf, for example. (The link will not work with the original Game Boy, alas.)

The rechargeable battery pack ($29.99) that 90s babies wished they had as a kid provides about 16 hours of gameplay after charging by USB-C for a few hours. This means you can save those official ModRetro-branded batteries if you are insane about your collecting, which is totally normal.

Photo by Blaze News

According to Herndon, Return was far from being the only group of gamers excited about the product. The success of the Chromatic is what sparked a second release, with the new games, kit, and even a firmware updater tool.

“Last year, we had no idea if we would strike a chord with a wider audience or if this device would only appeal to a handful of weirdos like us at ModRetro,” Herndon joked. “Since it ended up having broader interest, we wanted to make the experience available to as many people as possible.”

Why is retro gaming coming back, and how did the company come to realize that not everything has to be frontier-level tech to be desired and important?

Herndon replied reflectively. “A lot of frontier tech never stops to ask itself ‘why?’ At the most basic level, people oscillate between being productive and being entertained. Increased technology can sometimes be correlated with increased entertainment, but generally it is not,” he went on. “This is why there are probably games with tens of millions of dollars of development that have fewer play hours than Chromatic Tetris in 160×144 pixels. At ModRetro, we like to think about distilling entertainment into simple forms.”

The CEO added that if physical media is going to make a comeback, it is going to be through a new generation yearning for it.

“We have a generation growing up having never had any need to touch physical media. I think it was inevitable that they would become curious about the romance of the physical form of various media formats from their parents’ generation.”

After plugging in that Game Boy Camera, we totally agree.

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