Many of us have fond memories of playing games on the original Nintendo Game Boy; and judging by the number of emulators going around online people are not yet ready to give up their classic games so easily. Hobbyist site Adafruit has provided a series of instructions for rebuilding a home made version of the Game Boy, using a Raspberry Pi, a TFT display, and an old Nintendo controller. Just in case you want an authentic experience in reliving your childhood.
These instructions come as America will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Game Boy and it is not a project for the faint of heart. While the electronics parts are simple enough thanks to the usage of the Raspberry Pi Linux computer and the accompanying PiTFT Mini Kit which was specially made to provide the Raspberry Pi with a display. Of course, the only thing not commercially available for this particular project happens to be the outer shell. Fortunately, Adafruit has also provided the blueprints for users to 3D print their own DIY Game Boy casing.
Of course, this project will not allow you to play Game Boy cartridges as the necessary hardware is incredibly difficult to find. Instead, this home designed hack runs off an SD card; which also means having to track down all those ROMs of questionable legality for you to play anything. That being said, it can also be loaded up with almost any other emulator, in case you’re done with your favourite Nintendo games and want to try something else.
