Back in April, hardware maker Hyperkin posted what many people thought was an elaborate April Fool's joke. The "SmartBoy" was pitched as a bolt-on controller which allowed you to play your original Game Boy carts on your smartphone. A fantastic idea, but surely too bonkers to actually be true, right? Wrong!
It has since transpired that although the post was a bit of fun, Hyperkin actually used it as a test to see what kind of demand there would be for such a product - and it would now appear that it is going into full production.
The prototype was shown off at E3 2015, and as promised, allows you to play your dusty old carts on your phone. Some kind of Game Boy emulator is clearly used on the phone itself - many are already available on the Android Google Play store - and the SmartBoy "dumps" the ROM in the same way that Hyperkin's excellent RetroN 5 console does.
Is this a product you're keen to get your hands on, or do you still have your old Game Boy in good working order? Share your feelings by posting a comment below.
Comments (27)
It's a fun idea but wouldn't a gameboy advance be smaller/more portable? (and not drain your phone battery).
Much cooler than shoddy touch screen controls. Shame by GB collection of carts is long gone.
@nauticalCrimes I can see this being more aimed at people who will download the roms though. But obviously they won't plug that too much to stay on side with the legal nuts.
@KevTastic84 if it's anything like the retron5 (which I own and love) it won't support roms at all.
I'd be interested in that. The GBA screen was never too bright to begin with but mine is so old now it's practically unplayable.
@nauticalCrimes This may link to any emulator on the phone though. So may be different.
@KevTastic84 oh! so it's a generic controller than can also rip games, well that might be different then.
I could see myself owning one despite having two SP consoles.
Damn, I have an iPhone 6 regs. If they made it for that and it was reasonably priced, I'd get it in a heartbeat.
@NauticalCrimes I'm unsure. But like you said if it only allows carts then a GBA SP would be better suited.
Does it work through USB? If so, only a very limited amount of smartphones will support this device as most phones don't have USB OTG yet. If it's through bluetooth there will be latency between the device and phone that might be annoying. It's better just finding a good GBA, as those are smaller than this device by the looks of it.
I have an Xperia Play for that. No need for further peripherals.
Seems like useless and pointless as product, but I can understand why they are producing it, the nostalgia in that thing is so strong that can nullify any good sense in potential buyers.
I'll stick to playing GB games on my GBC (still works, yay) and my GBA SP. The original console is the best way to play them, in my opinion.
I'd love GBA compatibility however if this is at a decent (low) price and does what it should then I'd buy it!
Neat... but why wouldn't you just use the actual hardware (or a GBA)?
I'm not sure what the actual benefit of this hardware is...
Bet you can't fit a Galaxy Note in it.
What about a regular iPhone6? I don't have a Plus.
They need to make it compatible with Galaxy phones, and then my interest will be there.
@Quorthon I think the third picture is your answer. It'll probably have some grip or adjustability mode that'll allow several models to fit, so both Note and Galaxy Sxx series.
It's too bad the Android model is uglier, though. And apparently simply because of the phone's menu/start button placement. It looks less like a Game Boy now compared to the iOS one.
Probably cheaper to go get an actual Gameboy or one of its numerous compatible variants. I've still got all of my original hardware.
Would be neat, but I feel like it's kinda huge, especially for anyone with a nice, small Android phone, like the Sony Z3 Compact That and of course, VC sorta makes anything like this slightly less special
...
...want.
Man, just need a $800 phone to make use of it!
This will be cool to play GB games on.
...but I'll wait for the next version with GBA support
@rdrunner1178 where are you getting $800 phones?
mine cost $50 for an s4 last year or the year before around christmas... idr when.
but anywaym Can't use this on my back up phone: iPhone 6 PLUS PLUS PLUS. fml hyperkin!!!! whyyy
Wouldn't you need to jailbreak your phone to use this on iPhone 6 Plus...?
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