Play GameBoy Games on Your NES

If you somehow have a working Nintendo NES clone—or an actual NES you don't want to turn into an HTPC, "bunnyboy" of the Nintendo Age forums has a proposition for you. Pay him $130 (inclusive of shipping), and he'll send you a custom-made NES cartridge that runs GameBoy cartridges.



Why you'd want to pay a significant sum despite (or perhaps because of) the retro-friendly tech is a mystery, but bunnyboy pulled out all the stops with the NES RetroVision. His "incredibly amazing custom board" reads the GB cartridge, converts all signals into NES format. To properly read information from the 1P NES controller, the process is reversed. The 2P controller becomes a configuration tool of sorts, allowing users to toggle through available colors for the screen border and the actual monochrome GameBoy graphics.



bunnyboy's creation even includes a link port, allowing multiplayer with another GameBoy—or even another RetroVision unit. For audio the options to plug in a set of earphones into RetroVision's headphone jack, or allowing the NES itself to handle the audio through some sort of unspecified modification on the gaming console.

Last but not least, the NES RetroVision has transparent casing. No doubt to help bunnyboy showcase his expert fabrication skills. While he's aware that his creation's use of an obsolete platform will limit sales, he's confident that developments that made RetroVision possible will be useful for future "secret" projects.

FS: NES RetroVision - $130

See Also: Back to the Future - 15 Retro Gadgets

TOPICS
Rico Mossesgeld
Contributing writer

Rico was a contributing writer at Tom's Guide. Based in the Philippines, Rico was plugged into the latest tech news to cover the latest future-gazing products and industry announcements. Rico no longer actively writes for Tom's Guide, and now works as a systems engineer. During his time at the site, he covered topics such as robotics, home office products and retro video games.

  • nforce4max
    Oh my but for me it may be about time for me to replace the lithium cells on my pokemon blue through crystal before I lose my saves. I have had a copy of pokemon gold for about 9 years now and counting.
    Reply
  • asdf634
    Yes, because the prospect of playing Gameboy on my HD alone is worth the price of admission!
    Reply
  • yay
    Thats actually kind of cool...
    Reply
  • requiemsallure
    nforce4maxOh my but for me it may be about time for me to replace the lithium cells on my pokemon blue through crystal before I lose my saves. I have had a copy of pokemon gold for about 9 years now and counting.
    indeed, my pokemon gold battery died, although blue is still running strong... for however much sense that makes. i have a mew on it too, its easier to get than you would expect.
    Reply
  • megamanx00
    Why? WHY!!!!????
    Reply
  • bv90andy
    1985 to 1989? this hack should have been on the market 20 years ago... and bunnyboy would be a rich man
    Reply
  • mavroxur
    nforce4maxOh my but for me it may be about time for me to replace the lithium cells on my pokemon blue through crystal before I lose my saves. I have had a copy of pokemon gold for about 9 years now and counting.

    Remove that battery, and you're going to lose your saves. You'll have to parallel a battery to the existing one with some leads while you remove the old one. I've done it before with old NES games, and it works good. Just solder some light leadwires temporarily to the board and attach them to a good battery (make sure polarity is correct). Unsolder the bad battery while making sure the temporary leads stay soldered. Solder in new battery, unsolder temp leads. Works like a champ.
    Reply
  • TunaSoda
    Cool for maybe $20~$30
    Reply
  • decepticon
    Super Gameboy anyone? This has been done...less the ports.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy
    Reply
  • mavroxur
    Neat, kinda. But i don't see why someone would pay $130 for this. It's kinda in the same ballpark as developing a token ring interface for an Atari 2600. If you want to play gameboy games on the big screen, either emulate, or get a Super Gameboy adapter (for like $10 on eBay) and slap it in a Super Nintendo (like $30 or less). Will do the same thing, and costs a hell of a lot less. I do give him credit for developing it, but it's not really a $130 item.
    Reply