Hyperkin's SmartBoy Gains Official Samsung Licence, Coming To Retail Later This Year

Tsk...

This is one of those things I would definitely buy if I could walk in to a store and pick one up, but in reality, I will never lay eyes upon one. Shame.

I would be interested in this, if I had a Samsung phone and no 3DS.

I have a decent collection of GB/GBC titles, a Galaxy S8+, and prior to the Switch I carried a GBC in my bag while flying. Seems like this would be a passable replacement, but knowing Hyperkin I fear there'd be some kind of ridiculous software patch process to get it working, and it'd hold on to my 20+ year old cartridges with the force of a hydraulic press. I think I'll wait on some reviews.

Maybe if it worked on micro USB and dotny require a Samsung phone...

Do the actual buttons work as buttons or does it "touch" the phone screen?

@aaronsullivan Since they are calling this "Smartboy" I may have to go back to "SwitchBoy". You think if you plugged that phone into a Switch Dock it would output to TV? Should at least charge it though.

Here's hoping Nexus 5x and the Pixel work... they have USB-C

The GameBoy cartridge aspect is nifty! I actually still have a bunch of carts With emulators though, I imagine this is a novelty at best.

Samsung are shameful in copying other companies ideas and designs...

Add two more facial buttons, two shoulder buttons and I'm in.

Ugh, my phone is barely this side of too small (mine's a 5" screen...nor is it a Samsung). Still, great to see this project hitting market really soon.

not sure i get what this is. is it just so you can carry a game boy cartridge and play it on a better screen?

Sounds like samsung said "yeah we'll sponsor this, but only if you help us save face from the Note 7 debacle by making it only compatible with S8!" Lost a customer here, I'm not buying a new phone and replacing all chargers and junk just for an accessory that should be compatible with more than just USB-C.

I was so looking forward to this, but if they make it usb-c exclusive, then I'm giving up. I've had no reasons so far to update my S7 and this is not the thing that'll make me change to an S8, even if I find the idea really cool. Pass.

Well, I could have started playing Dr. Wily's Revenge without it ruining my GBA I guess. Why do I need a phone for it?

@chiefeagle02

Yeah, mine isn't a Samsung either.

I really wish this was a GBA based device where you can hold the phone sideways like the classic GBA instead and could then handle GBA, GBC, and GB games. Also I have a Galaxy S7 device which still used micro-USB instead of USB-C. Does that mean that even though i have a Samsung device thats only a year or so old that I wouldn't even be able to use this? That's pretty crummy.

I'd be interested once a developer confirms GBA support. I have a lot of GBA carts but only a few DMG and GBC games. Like others, I fear that Hyperkin isn't up to the task of creating a high-quality device, though.

There are no such things as NTSC or PAL on Game Boy...
Amateurs!

Let's be real, nobody will buy them unless it plays illegal ROMS. Gameboy (or GBA games) uses battery saves which would be depleted by now (you can tinker with them by soldering a new battery but not everyone can do that).

"sign" erm... uh... meh?

They should just morph it into a gamepad for android games that features zero lag (a downside of bluetooth joypads).

Jesus, you guys are killjoys. I think this looks awesome.

And it's not Samsung-exclusive, it just says it's only compatible with USB-C phones.

This is a good idea, if it works as advertised.

@BornInNorway81 There's no regions at all on Game Boy (well, technically the ROMs do have an indicator for Japanese or non-Japanese but I don't think that has ever been used for anything).

And Samsung was formerly the Korean distributor of Sega consoles, why are they approving of a Nintendo-related device?

So only Samsung devices or all Android usb-c? Huawei Nova Plus...

Please help me to understand how this can be sold without the permission of Nintendo?

@BornInNorway81 WHAT IS THIS AMATUER HOUR!?!? lol

Please, understand - it`s completly pointless and looks like a toy that will break in a second...

@jdedene

In the United States, patents, such as those for video game consoles, eventually expire and become public domain. This is why many clone consoles exist.

This should have been left as an April fools day joke. I'm not one to advocate buying digital games but in this case I'd say just buying the gameboy games from the eShop and playing them on the 3ds is infinitely better and ultimately more practical than this ridiculous contraption.

Meh. Interesting but I'm not
Going to pursue it. I'm more than happy with my MICRO for retro stuff.

Although that said I'd love
To play Turrican again !

I have an iPhone. Rip.

@rjejr Yes, the buttons are actually buttons.

Meh I don't have a Samsung phone, nor will I ever buy one, all of them I have had were garbage. My phone is USB C though, I still don't think I'm to interested in this.

@techdude all the Gameboy/GBC/GBA games I own still have working batteries. Still though, they are not hard at all to replace.

My GBC is still in working order, and I have the 3DS VC besides. This would be cool to try out, but I don't think it would warrant a purchase in my situation.

@firstnesfan It's for all type c phones - buttons do not touch the screen - sends inputs via type c connector

I do not understand the point of this device, it can be used with only some phone models made by Samsung, is not much smaller than a normal Game Boy and the phone acts as just the screen. And it uses the cartridges to play games.
Why not just use a regular Game Boy?

@MegaSuperab Thank you.

Just get a real Gameboy one bay for around that price, don't see a point of this

Or heck even a better idea is buy a 2ds like me and buy the Gameboy games you want on Eshop

@techdude I'm that one guy that doesn't like roms in general but I would buy it then get a physical copy of pokeman pinball red/blue and silver/gold

I would like to know if this thing can store save files from physical copies so I wouldn't have to replace the cartridge battery

They made a version for iPhone, here's hoping apple says yes. I would love to get one for my iPhone.

Don't Nintendo have some sort of copyright claim on that d-pad though?

This looks pretty cool but think I'll stick with my gba sp , micro or ds lite if i need a gameboy fix 😎