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Original Game Boy gets the Advance treatment courtesy of retro-loving modder
The original Game Boy will forever hold a special place in our hearts, but spend a few minutes squinting at an original model and you'll quickly realize that even nostalgia can't make up for that horrible green screen. That's been banished in this custom version, courtesy of modder CRTdrone, which features GBA SP internals housed in an original GB chassis. This gives it compatibility with Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and of course GBA games, along with a rechargeable battery and even working shoulder buttons inserted into the sides. All we have to go on at the moment is this picture plus a few comments from the man himself, but CRTdrone is promising full details of the mod are to come, which entails "just removing parts and re-wiring basically." They always make it sound so simple.
Goozex now accepts SNES, Genesis and other retro game trades
The increasingly popular game-trading service Goozex is expanding its capabilities to encompass the game platforms of yesteryear. New to the site is an option to trade NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Genesis, Sega CD, and Atari 2600 amongst the site's growing user base. Sadly, there's still no support for our precious Virtual Boy. Now we'll never be able to get our hands on that copy of Teleroboxer we've always dreamed of owning. There's already a ton of games from each platform up for trading on Goozex right now. Like, good games. Not the nine pathetic copies of WCW Mayhem which comprise your local used games store's N64 selection.
Nintendo DSi XL review
Since Nintendo first asserted sole domination over the handheld gaming market with the release of the paperback-sized Game Boy in 1989, the company has striven time and again to make its pocket systems smaller, meeting fantastic financial success along the way. Nintendo did it with the Game Boy Pocket, the Advance SP, the Micro, the DS Lite and again ever so slightly with the DSi -- the last even at the expense of backwards compatibility and battery life. Now, for the first time in the company's history, it's made an existing platform bigger, with questionable reasons as to why. Does the Nintendo DSi XL squash its predecessors flat? Or is Nintendo compensating for something? Find out inside. %Gallery-89058%
Buy this steampunk Game Boy for us on eBay
Despite what you may assume, we're not the sort of people who'd buy ourselves a steampunk Game Boy like the Thretris-created model you see above (see it in action after the break). We are, however, the sort of people who'd use our popular internet website to politely request that our readers buy said Game Boy from eBay and send it to us for a holiday of their choice. It probably seems a little ethically dicey to the layman, but ethics are really complicated (they have whole college courses about them!) so you shouldn't feel too bad about yourself for not understanding. Hey, speaking of things you should or shouldn't do, did you bid on that steampunk Game Boy yet? [Via GoNintendo]
Mega Man 10 special stages bring back obscure bosses
Click to Enker the galleryCapcom will make downloadable Special Stages available in Mega Man 10 throughout April, for one dollar each. Should you make it to the end of each stage, you'll meet some musically-named bosses that will only be recognizable if you're a huge Mega Man nerd! The three stages feature the return of the Mega Man Killers, a group of bosses from the Game Boy Mega Man games. Special Stage 1, available the week of April 5, features Enker from the first portable Mega Man game, a robot with the ability to absorb and reflect shots. Special Stage 2 features Mega Man III's Punk, who uses a large spinning weapon called the Screw Crusher, and Special Stage 3 includes Ballade from Mega Man IV, who uses the explosive Ballade Cracker. Both Special Stage 2 and 3 will be released the week of April 26. %Gallery-88808%
VisualBoyAdvance turns your Palm Pre into a Game Boy emulator
A certain UK bank operates a delightfully dorky advertising campaign whose slogan is "we give you extra." Well, in the case of mobile software communities, that's exactly the case. From jailbroken iPhones to PS One-emulating HD2s to multitouch-enabled browsing on the Nexus One, the one group of people we know we can truly rely on are other geeks. So let's salute those heroes once more, in recognition of the VisualBoyAdvance -- a webOS-based emulator for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. The former two categories are said to play smooth as you like, whereas the Advance stuff suffers from slight slowdown at present. We've only seen it playing on a Pre, but there should be no reason why your Pixi wouldn't be allowed in on this party. A quick video demo awaits after the break, and the source link has all the installation details you'll need.
Wii sales surpass NES; DS Nintendo's best-selling hardware ever
In addition to revealing its latest financial figures, Nintendo has released some interesting facts about its two star performers, the Wii and DS. As revealed in the financials, the Wii has sold over 67 million units since its launch in 2006. Putting that in context, Nintendo reveals that the original Nintendo Entertainment System sold 61.91 million units in its lifetime, which now makes the Wii the company's most successful console of all time. As for the DS, it has now sold 125.13 million units, surpassing Game Boy and Game Boy Color lifetime sales of 118.69 million units. That makes the DS Nintendo's most successful piece of hardware ever. It's important to point out that Nintendo counts all four iterations of the DS in its life-to-date sales numbers. Considering each version has a number of improvements over previous versions, we're sure there's plenty of overlap among consumers. Still, there's no denying that Nintendo's latest hardware lineup has been incredibly successful, even if it was slightly less successful in 2009. [Via Shacknews]
Game Boy inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame
Nintendo's most iconic foray into the handheld gaming market is finally being recognized as "an innovator" that "changed the way people play electronic games" by being inducted into Strong National Museum of Play's Toy Hall of Fame. Among twelve finalists, the Game Boy joins the Big Wheel and the ball to be added to the list of important cultural toys. Yes, the ball is just now being inducted into the hall of fame, meaning Nintendo's handheld made the cut in two decades, while the ball had been clawing for a spot since the days of Ancient Egypt. In your face, Ozymandias. [Via Go Nintendo]
ESRB rates Castlevania the Adventure ReBirth for Wii
It's been over a year since we last heard rumors of a re-Vamped Castlevania installment on the WiiWare service -- now, a new ESRB listing has rekindled the flames of conjecture. The board recently gave a Teen rating to Castlevania the Adventure ReBirth for the Wii -- as you may have noticed, it shares the suffix applied to the similarly renovated Gradius ReBirth and Contra ReBirth, both of which surfaced on Nintendo's download platform this year. According to the ESRB rating, the game will finally deliver the "side-scrolling action" which classic 'Vania fans have been clamoring for. If it's based off the Game Boy title of the same name, our only request is that they smooth out the game's unscalable difficulty curve. To this day, we're not sure that game has a second level.
Original Game Boy repurposed as external hard drive
Okay, so maybe this here mod isn't nearly as extreme as shoving an entire PC into the case of a classic Game Boy, but it's still pretty fantastic in its own right. Completed at some point during the dog days of summer, the 80GB Game Boy had its innards stripped and replaced with parts that enable a 2.5-inch 80GB SATA HDD to operate beautifully as a standard USB hard drive. The display you see here is (unfortunately) an illusion, as it's simply a professional-looking still insert that merely gives the impression of it paying Game Boy titles while offloading spreadsheets. Now, if someone could figure out how to make it pull double duty... [Via technabob]
iPhone 3GS PlayStation, Game Boy Advance emulators demoed on video
A final iPhone 3GS jailbreak hasn't been released yet, but that isn't stopping enterprising hackers from trying to get at all that extra horsepower, and some of the first notable hacks we've seen are these updated PlayStation 1 and Game Boy Advance emulator ports, which run way faster than the versions for the original and 3G. The revved up hardware in Apple's latest is apparently capable of running either of these at 150 - 225fps with zero frameskipping, which is pretty impressive. Of course, we'll be way more impressed when the Dev Team releases a 3GS jailbreak and we can hit these up ourselves, but in the meantime there are plenty of videos to with which to while away the time at the read links.Read - Emulator videosRead - ZoTTD blog post with more info
Nintendo's Game Boy turns 20
In case you hadn't heard, Nintendo's trend-setting handheld, the Game Boy, just had its 20th birthday -- and that's no small thing for a game console. We won't bore you with stories from our childhood about wasted time and missed opportunities spent chasing the dragon that was Tetris, but we will entertain the hell out of you with this vintage ad touting the system's launch from way back in the totally excellent year of 1989. We know what you're thinking: does the robot create the kid or just warp him there? And if he does create him, does that mean he's some kind of metallic god? And does that mean that the kid kills god? And... why is the robot dancing? Hey -- now you're playing with power.
Game Boy iPhone case instantly becomes best of all time
Sadly, there's a good chance you already own an iPhone 3G case if you're the proud owner of an iPhone 3G. That said, there's still nothing stopping you from hopping a flight to Tokyo and replacing your current one with the best case in the history of cases. Sadly, the lad that snapped this shot isn't sure where exactly this thing is sold, but if you're savvy on the details, be sure to holler in comments below.[Via PMPToday]
DSi project leader reveals unreleased Nintendo handhelds
Man, the folks over at this year's Game Developer's Conference are having all the fun -- and now the Joystiq crew just got a rare look at two Game Boy models that never made it to production, unveiled during a talk by the project leader for the development of the DSi, Masato Kuwahara. The first, developed around 1995, was labeled "Game Boy Advance Predecessor," and was based on a 32-bit ARM RISC processor. The project stalled in development due to poor graphics performance. The second device was essentially a touch-screen Game Boy Advance SP, with a clamshell case thrown in for good measure. Apparently, this one didn't make the cut due to its lack of a backlit display. We've got a picture of that one for you too -- and it does look somewhat familiar. Check it after the break.
DSiWare to include Game Boy and Game Boy Advance downloads?
We really would like to think this is inevitable, but it's just been sourced from Nintendo itself (albeit at a GameStop meetup) that the DSi might be getting Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles as downloadable DSiWare -- in addition to previously announced apps like browsers and calculators. This was heard second-hand from a Club Nintendo member, and Nintendo has pointed out to the folks at Kombo that reported it that so far such functionality has only been announced for Japan, but didn't go on the deny it outright. If it does come true we're supposed to expect some first party titles out of the gate, with all games being region locked and ranging from $5 to $8. There were also mumblings of playing downloaded titles off of SD cards, which Nintendo shot down as well, but hopefully we'll at least be able to make backups -- we're still waiting on similar functionality for the Wii.[Via Joystiq]
Rumor: Downloadable Game Boy and GBA games as DSiWare
According to a secondhand report from one of last night's GameStop Club Nintendo DSi preview events, Nintendo is planning to release Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games as downloads in the DSi Shop. According to Kombo's "man on the scene," only first-party Nintendo titles will be offered at first.Other details from the event: Apparently, North American DSiWare includes three pricing levels: free, 500 Points, and 800 Points, which differs from the Japanese model in that there's no 200 Point category. The event seemingly confirms the Mario and Animal Crossing calculators for North America as well, though both of those are in the 200 Point category in Japan.Of course, like all news that comes from something heard at GameStop, take this with as much salt as you can find.%Gallery-33263%
Game Boy Pocket mod lets the games continue after dark
Michael "Bibin" Moffitt had a dream. He imagined a world where a man could enjoy Tetris on his Game Boy Pocket in a dark room, without the need for odd peripheral add-on devices or, uh, a lamp. As you can see above, Michael decided to mod his Game Boy Pocket with a backlit screen. It's not the most impressive mod in the world, but we have to give the man credit where it's due. He set his mind to something, and he did it. Almost makes us want to get back to that stamp collection we've neglected for years.%Gallery-25220%[Via Engadget]
Game Boy Pocket fitted with backlit screen, one man's life now complete
You know what they say -- if you can't buy it, mod it. Michael "Bibin" Moffitt's backlighting job on this Game Boy Pocket is a case in point. Unwilling to shell out the dough for a Game Boy Light on eBay (but more than willing to destroy two old LCDs in pursuit of his mad dream), this guy removed the reflective layer and adhesive behind the handheld's display ("almost as hard as reasoning with a rabid PlayStation 3 fan," he writes) and built a backlight out of an LED, some perspex, and a diffusive layer. That's it -- now our man is playing Donkey Kong, in the dark, in all its monochromatic glory, and with no noticeable change in battery life. Hit the read link for plenty of naked GBP pics. Update: The pictured device belongs to Palmer Luckey, who worked alongside Moffitt to mod a pair of devices.
The DS Life: Phosphorescence
Even as a kid (or perhaps especially as a kid), artist David Gibbons had a fascination for all things glow-in-the-dark. Really, though, what's there to not like about glow-in-the-dark junk? David covered his bedroom walls with every glow-in-the-dark decoration he could find -- posters, stickers, and stars. He even wore glow-in-the-dark pajamas and braces! While we never went that far, we happen to have a glow-in-the-dark rosary hanging off our car's rearview mirror (It's a Filipino thing! Also, it makes it easier for us to pick out our car in the mall parking lot at night.).Anyway, David used his childhood glow-in-the-dark obsession as inspiration to create the art piece we've featured a today, an illustration depicting all of the Christmas toys he wished for as a kid while laying awake at night, gazing at all their glow-in-the-dark incarnations blue-tacked to his walls and ceiling.
DS shipments surpass Game Boy Advance
The DS has been quite the success for Nintendo since it released. So successful, in fact, that shipments for the handheld worldwide have bested that of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, as the DS has shipped 84.33 million units by the end of September 2008 (GBA lifetime shipments come in at 81.36 million units). Impressive, sure, but there's still higher places the handheld can climb on Mt. Awesome Accomplishments. While besting the GBA record is noteworthy, the record still goes to the original Game Boy, which has done 118.69 million units. This figure includes the Game Boy Color, as well.
