Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
In what was (thankfully) a rare case of a new product announced on April Fool’s Day actually being legitimate, the folks at Retron5 game console manufacturer Hyperkin have come up with a new device that will turn your iPhone into an honest-to-God Game Boy.
The product, known as the Smart Boy, apparently did start out like as a April 1 prank, but soon became a “full-fledged project,” Hyperkin’s Chris Gallizzi said according to Gizmodo. The unit snaps over your smartphone and uses real, physical cartridges from Nintendo’s old handheld.
A prank becomes real due to popular demand
The Smart Boy design concept was posted on Reddit on Wednesday as a way to essentially test the waters and see if there was enough demand for the then-fake product. Based on the reaction they received, Hyperkin plans to actually produce the device for Apple’s smartphone, as well as “an open side-panel version” that will work for Android devices, Gallizzi said.
Smart Boy uses a mixture of emulation and physical cartridges to function, but as Gizmodo said, this is not exactly new territory for the company. It’s Retron5 game console, which allows users to play games from their favorite legacy systems (including the NES, the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis) in high definition and with improved sound using similar technology.
So how does this thing work, anyway?
Based on the design schematics posted by Hyperkin, it looks as though the Smart Boy acts like a case that slides over the iPhone (or the phone slides into the case, whichever you prefer). There’s a place in the back where you slide in the Game Boy cartridge – which, sadly, you actually need to own in order to play. It won’t work with ROMS you download off the Internet.
On Tumblr, the company said that it will work with both original monochrome Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. Smart Boy will also feature and eight-way directional pad and a pair of action buttons, plus a start and select button, just like Nintendo’s old handheld. The included battery can be charged through the phone itself and is good for up to five hours of play.
“Hyperkin hasn’t gone into any more details beyond that, including when we might see an actual version of this hit shelves and what kind of price tag consumers should be expecting,” SlashGear said. The relative silence on the matter has led some to wonder if it isn’t actually just an April Fool’s Day prank after all, or if its real, whether or not it will suffer the same delays that plagued the Retron5. Stay tuned!
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