If you have $60 to spare, 5 months to wait and an Android phone, stop whatever you’re doing and go pre-order a Smart Boy Developer Kit from Hyperkin Lab, right bleeping now.
The Smartboy attaches itself to Android phones, converting them into a Game Boy by replicating the bottom half of the device. iOS gamers are out of luck on this one, but Android users can just slip their phone in the top and tada: one Game Boy-Android-Frankenstein.
The Smartboy will be compatible with both Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, as well as both NTSC/PAL cartridges, and before you ask why don’t you just use an emulator, well, I bet you use vegetable oil instead of olive oil to cook.
The Smartboy kit currently available for pre-order is the development kit, and comes with the open source serial app and firmware. If you can improve the firmware or serial app, Hyperkin Lab is willing to share a royalty percentage of all the retail-ready Smartboy units they manage to sell.
- A phone between five and six inches in size
- 4.4.4 Android KitKat or later
Hyperkin Labs won’t charge you until the Smartboy kit actually ships, Dec. 1, 2016.
