Random: You Can Now Fly A Drone Using Your Game Boy, If You So Wish

Pocket power

by Damien McFerran Mon 29th Aug 2016

Not so long ago we reported that one industrious individual had turned the Nintendo Power Glove into a device which could control a drone. Now, Gautier Hattenberger has gone one better by turning his dusty old Game Boy into a remote control for his Parrot AR.Drone 2.0.

Hattenberger - who is Assistant Professor of Flight Mechanics and UAV Systems at France's ENAC school of Civil Aviation - recounts the thought process behind the venture:

Some time ago, I found my old Game Boy at my parents' house. So the first thing that came to my mind was: can I fly a drone with this?

While that's not the first thing most people would have thought of (we would have been looking for a copy of Super Mario Land, personally), the end result is pretty impressive and Hattenberger has posted the code required on GitHub, should you feel tempted to try this out.

[source blog.paparazziuav.org, via trustedreviews.com]

Damien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media's sites from an editorial perspective. He's also the editor of Time Extension, the network's newest site, which – paradoxically – is all about gaming's past glories.

1
SLIGEACH_EIRE
Mon 29th Aug 2016

Cool, though not as cool as the Powerglove.

2
Bunkerneath
Mon 29th Aug 2016

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Agree completely

Thing is he would have had to put in some game that uses the link cable, so what game? The screen is not showing anything so I'm guessing its a custom cartridge. Or its just like plugging in the Gameboy as just a controller to the PC, which is not using it to control the drone, its the PC doing the controlling

3
ThanosReXXX
Mon 29th Aug 2016

"So the first thing that came to my mind was: can I fly a drone with this?"
Obviously, because that is of course the first thought in anyone's mind when they find an old Game Boy at their parent's house. Just play the damn thing and enjoy some childhood memories. Nerd...

4
SLIGEACH_EIRE
Mon 29th Aug 2016

Man have Nintendo of Europe been quiet this morning. Still no download PR for the week or even so much as a Tweet on the UK/Eire site. There's not a single bit of activity.

5
HappyMaskedGuy
Mon 29th Aug 2016

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Perhaps they are slowing down to begin their pupation stage.

6
SLIGEACH_EIRE
Mon 29th Aug 2016

Calling it, there'll be a Direct on Wednesday or Thursday. Don't think it'll be to do with NX though.

7
StarDust4Ever
Mon 29th Aug 2016

It appears you need a GB flash cart and a link cable and an Ardruino. Still pretty cool. I just wish most drones they sell now came with dedicated remotes as option instead of smart phones or tablets.

8
AmplifyMJ
Mon 29th Aug 2016

@SLIGEACH_EIRE it's a bank holiday, though I don't know who all gets this one. I'm off, but only because I was at a Wedding yesterday and I booked it off lol

9
shani
Mon 29th Aug 2016

That's really pointless since he's not really flying the drone with the Gameboy. The Gameboy is connected to the laptop and just sends commands to the Laptop. It's the laptop that's actually giving the steering commands to the drone. As I wrote, pretty pointless.

Now if he had attached some small wireless signal adapter to the Gameboy, without any Laptop or other device interfering, that would be amazing. But it isn't.