This Hand-Crampingly Tiny GBA Clone Has a 0.85-Inch Screen

How small can you shrink the Nintendo Game Boy Advance? TinyCircuits, a company known for its ultra-miniature tech products, has answered this question with the launch of the Thumby Color. This Game Boy Advance (GBA) clone is astonishingly small, measuring just two inches in size. Despite its diminutive form, it still manages to pack in a directional pad, shoulder buttons, a rumble motor, and a 16-bit color screen. Additionally, it offers the unique feature of linking two Thumby Color units together with a USB-C cable for multiplayer gaming.

However, unlike other GBA clones from companies like Anbernic, the Thumby Color is not an emulator. Its limited processing power and storage—powered by a 150MHz Raspberry Pi RP2350 processor paired with just 16MB of storage (yes, megabytes, not gigabytes)—make it impossible to play retro games. But that’s perhaps a good thing, given that the Thumby Color's tiny 0.85-inch square LCD screen has a resolution of just 128 x 128 pixels, which is less than half the resolution of the original GBA.

Instead of running classic games, the Thumby Color comes preloaded with six open-source titles programmed in MicroPython, including a first-person shooter called Monstra and a dungeon crawler named Thumbgeon 2. The device also includes all the monochromatic games that shipped with the original Thumby, released in 2021, which was a similarly tiny clone of the original Game Boy.

While the Thumby Color isn’t a handheld gaming device you’d want to use for hours on end, it’s perfect for a quick distraction in situations where more conspicuous devices like the Steam Deck would be less appropriate. Moreover, for those interested in learning to program, TinyCircuits offers free tutorials and guides on their website, making the Thumby Color a fun and educational gadget.

The Thumby Color is available in multiple colorways, including options with transparent cases. TinyCircuits has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring this miniature gaming device to consumers. The original Thumby is still available for approximately ₹3,444, while the new color screen version can be yours for around ₹4,018 if you pledge for the purple version, with shipping expected as early as November. For those wanting a Thumby Color with a clear or transparent purple housing, the price is around ₹4,510, while a Kickstarter-exclusive black version is priced at approximately ₹6,150.

As with any crowdfunded project, there’s always a risk that the final product might not deliver on all the features promised during the campaign. It could also face significant delays, or in a worst-case scenario, never be delivered at all without refunds. However, TinyCircuits has a history of successfully shipping several Kickstarter products, which mitigates some of the risks. Still, it’s important to remember that even with its funding goal already met, there's no absolute guarantee that the product will materialize as expected.