GameShell Looks Like A Game Boy, But Offers So Much More

Neat

If only mobile phones had real buttons.

Because if they had... this would be DOA.

I take it that's the original DOOM, right? It was impressive enough the 2016 one runs on Switch - a Raspberry Pi would be flat-out miraculous.

@dystome Of course we're talking about the original Doom here.

C'mon mah boiiii

One to keep an eye on.

... hey, where are the L and R buttons!?

Is that promo video a joke???

So this is basically a portable Ouya then? If I remember correctly the Ouya was also open source and was a dev kit device as well. I will definitely check this out if it ever launch but I'm still puzzled as how you would play multiplayer with this thing. Will it have link cable support, wireless ad-hoc or online play? It's just more questions that needs answer, the fact that it can't play triple A games like the Smach Z kinda makes me lose interest though. If I want to play small indie games or old school PC games I already had it on the GBA, PSP, 3DS, PS Vita, and Nintendo Switch.

I need a good portable version of my raspberry pii

@GC-161 They do have buttons, look:

@Mart1ndo I don't see how Nintendo would go on to sue them as they are not infringing on any patent or trademark that Nintendo currently owns, also the Game Boy patent expired a long time ago. Not only that even when Game Boy was around, there's other competitors that used similar design to the Game Boy such as these ones:

Could be interesting, but I'm not interested in programming, at ALL, and I also don't care about it being modular. The more separate parts a system consists of, the more easier it will become for one of them to break down or malfunction at some point.

Besides, I'm more of a "gaming at home" kind of guy, and I would like more options for emulation than 8 and 16 bit systems, so this little beauty is much more interesting to me:
http://www.starforcepi.com/overview.html

And that is also going to start a Kickstarter campaign pretty soon, so...
My bad: the Kickstarter has already been and gone, and fell short of the goal, as described on the site, but they will be for sale directly from the main site.

@retro_player_22 A lot of answers can be found (or you can ask questions) on the Kickstarter page. The article has a link to that page at the end.

Ummm okay, I think i’ll just stick to my switch but thanks

It looks interesting, but it feels like there's something missing...can't put my finger on it.

I would rather just carry a Gameboy Advance with a FlashCart.

@Bunkerneath Ewwwwwww!

Where did you dig up that fossil?

@GC-161 That is the best mobile phone ever! The battery lasts at least a week, you can drop it, even run it over and it still does what it is supposed to do, you know...phone people and text people, that's what a mobile phone was invented for!
Hate smart phones.

No match for GPD XD. Miss my Xperia Play...

@retro_player_22 god that game child had me rolling xD

I am very interested. I am in
(I am pledged 110 $)

The build quality's everything with something like this. If the D-pad's wonky, it's a deal breaker. If the button placement's off and you end up palming too much chunky plastic, it's a deal breaker. So on and so forth. I'd have to physically play with one before I would ever make a decision to support it.

Nice pirate machine basically. For the 90s.

@Prof_Yoshtonics: That is the good thing. You can use your own buttons, if you want to

@Shiryu lack of shoulder buttons is a dealbreaker for Snes and Gba games

@Bunkerneath And the original GameBoy brick could even survive a war.

That doesn't mean its ideal to use one at present. Unless you want to be permanently stuck in the early 90's.

Hmm, I've always wanted a device to play the Japan-only Fire Emblem games on (translations, of course) and even though they can be played on smartphones, I need buttons!

This looks fantastic. I’d buy one!

Filler instead of news on whether or not Sega 3D Classics Collection Final is still coming to the US/Europe? There was that Miiverse page named 3D Classics Collection 2 and then nothing since, not even at E3.

All this thing needs is L/R buttons and this is perfect!

Right. So this thing won't have a whole lot of games to play, because there aren't a whole lot of commercial games that
A) Are optimised for the power something like a Pi 2/3 provides
B) have ARM builds

Effectively the only games you'll be playing here are FOSS games, and you can play those on most other devices you own already. Playability of other games will also depend on the input API used for the buttons here.

Same goes for the emulators. You already have devices that run those emulators. This one doesn't even seem to have shoulder buttons, so say goodbye to SNES and GBA.

And that isn't even going the fact that this is a small company that has no experience putting things like this on the market.

Just pick up a 3DS for a bit more money, put Luma on it, and presto, you have a nice portable machine of decent build quality that plays DS/3DS games and allows you to use emulators while also having shoulder buttons.

It's a fun little idea, but I don't see the point.

@ollietaro
Just use something like SD2SNES? (Or a cheaper device, SD2SNES is the premium model obviously)

Pass....I think my old PSP already does a fine job with emulating the 8bit/16bit games. And the button placement is perfect.

I laughed so hard when he said he was making a prequel to tetris
lol

@Oat

What do you think it'll be called?
-Monotris
-Ditris
-Tritris

@Oat Nice sense of humor in the otherwise matter-of-fact presentation of the product.

@TheGameSquid They can pick up an original 2DS dirt cheap these days.

I like the look of this and they are using a decent battery. But my GBA AGS-101 and everdrive GBA X5 can do most of these things. Sure not SNES, that's a plus for this little gadget.

Definitely interests me

As cool as the Game Boy was back in the day, it really hasn't aged all that well in the ergonomy front. Likewise, this looks like it won't be that comfortable to play in when we have handheld designs such as the Switch or the Vita.

Wish this site was formatted for iPad...

Nostalgia is fine, but this isn't really interesting to me. Basically anything for portable gaming today needs to be comparable to Switch or Vita. (3DS is only still running on its fading momentum and large install base). It would need to be wide screen, at least 720p and have a larger screen.

Otherwise someone will finally make a proper gaming smart phone with buttons like a real controller.

@GC-161 You sure about this? Poeple have been trying very hard to remove the physical keypad from the phone and you want to put it back?

How is it going to emulate SNES games without L and R buttons?

@chtan69 I don't want to go back to that. But as mobile phones become more powerful, eventually buttons to play games will be added exclusively for that function.

@TheGameSquid Thanks for the suggestion but I have no intention of buying a Super Nintendo in order to purchase the SD2SNES. I can already play emulators on my Wii but I don't have a TV for it atm. I was hoping for a handheld option to play the Japan-only Fire Emblems (Even tried to get emulation to work on my DS to unsatisfying results ie. none at all LOL).

It's all fine and good to make homage consoles for original games. The moment you start rubbing into unlicensed emulation territory you're at risk of lawsuit or worse, criminal prosecution.

@th3r3ds0x It is really easy to make it iPad compatible too. I could do it in a day, the CSS for it looks simple enough.

I would like to have a nice raspberry pi like portable. I don't really care too much about the emulation capabilities. But, its support for various coding languages does interest me.

I backed the Retro Dreamcade which offers more gaming options in addition to running anything a PC can, but I dig this idea. Were the screen larger, I'd definitely consider it, looks like a great little device!

Help me out here. The Gameshell looks like a portable tv from:

a) The 80s, or
b) The 90s

@ollietaro
maybe B. It looks a lot like something sony would have made in the 90s. Like the sony watchman.

So can it play games from roms? (yeah, we extracted them from official games sure).
The main problem is you pay 89$ now and official shipping day is April but in kickstarter projects there's always a delay. I don't want to pay for something i may get in 1-2 years.

And they already reached the goal. Great.

not going to back any kickstarter

nah.

I really don't see much appealing about this, I'm afraid. Looks gimmicky, the retro design compromises quality of experience, and more money to spend when I already have a huge wishlist of other gaming stuff I want to buy.

The modular part is the coolest thing, couldn't care less about it's purpose though. Emulation won't be 1:1

Looks neat. I’d buy one.

@samuelvictor Who said anything about signing up? Just don't buy new gadgets and keep rocking those old 90's phones while using AOL to log in to Nintendolife.

It's simple, Fred!

I've seen enough of these to say BE WARY!

They don't always pull through even if they get funded, just make your own, it'll be less of a hassle and heartbreak.