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Turn your smartphone into a Game Boy with Hyperkin’s Smartboy
The first of April has long been a day for practical jokes and silly pranks -- and there's no escape from April fools on the internet. Companies like ThinkGeek regularly announce fake products on April 1st, only to have customer demand push those jokes into production. It didn't take long for companies to start using the prankster's holiday as a soft test bed for silly ideas. That's how Hyperkin announced the SmartBoy -- a gamepad case that lets your smartphone play real Nintendo Game Boy cartridges. Two years later and Hyperkin's ridiculous April Fool's gag is actually a real product -- and, believe it or not, it's actually pretty cool.
Add-on brings Game Boy cartridges to your Android phone
Hyperkin toyed with gamers last year when it teased a peripheral that would play real Game Boy cartridges on your phone, but it wasn't just kidding around -- it's making good on its word. The company is now taking pre-orders for a Smart Boy Development Kit that lets your Android smartphone play Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. The $60 peripheral isn't meant for everyday use -- Hyperkin is hoping you'll improve the open source code yourself. Nonetheless, it's likely the closest you'll get to reviving your childhood short of dragging the original hardware out of storage. Just be ready to wait until December 1st to get yours... and while Hyperkin originally talked about an iPhone version, Apple handset users are out of luck so far. [Thanks, Kristy]
