Hyperkin, a company reknown for making reproduction consoles like the Retron, have revealed their latest project; the Ultra GameBoy. Announced officially at CES 2018, the Ultra GameBoy sports an aluminum body, as opposed to the original GameBoy's plastic chassis, and most importantly, it has a backlit display.

Both original GameBoy and GameBoy Color cartridges will work with the system, and the handheld will include a lithium ion battery which can last up to six hours. That means no more having to deal with AA batteries! There will be a USB-C port as well, to charge the unit. Lastly, it'll feature stereo speakers on the unit, compared to the original GameBoy's mono speaker. Hyperkin claims that this is to allow chiptune musicians to use the system to create music.

The Ultra GameBoy is scheduled to release "later this summer", for a price of $100.

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Hyperkin official site

 

[senkunmusashi]

But the laser cut aluminium case that provides a superior tactile feeling, and... oh, wait, wrong product.

I'm pretty sure it's milled from a solid block and tumble finished, as far as the prototype pictures now show. Hopefully the production ones are the same. Even if I had a c&c mill, the cad/design and labor costs to just mill the shell far exceeds the $100 they're asking. But I digress.

Assuming this is anything like their other products, it's likely the same thing

Too bad if it is, but I see what you mean about them. Now if they designed it such that one could just drop in an original board, I'd still buy one.

 

[gudenau]

It would be interesting if someone made one of these that could save GB printer images on an SD card.

 

[Veho]

That's one smexy can.

I wish more portables were made in brushed metal

 

[the_randomizer]

Does it contain stolen non-commercially licensed RetroArch code in this too? All the same the design looks cool.

 

[gnmmarechal]

View attachment 110873​

Hyperkin, a company reknown for making reproduction consoles like the Retron, have revealed their latest project; the Ultra GameBoy. Announced officially at CES 2018, the Ultra GameBoy sports an aluminum body, as opposed to the original GameBoy's plastic chassis, and most importantly, it has a backlit display.

Both original GameBoy and GameBoy Color cartridges will work with the system, and the handheld will include a lithium ion battery which can last up to six hours. That means no more having to deal with AA batteries! There will be a USB-C port as well, to charge the unit. Lastly, it'll feature stereo speakers on the unit, compared to the original GameBoy's mono speaker. Hyperkin claims that this is to allow chiptune musicians to use the system to create music.

The Ultra GameBoy is scheduled to release "later this summer", for a price of $100.

View attachment 110874 View attachment 110875
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Hyperkin official site

Now this I want.

 

[SirNapkin1334]

The only thing that makes that not a waste of money for me is the Aluminum case and Li-ion batteries. I have a Gameboy. I can backlight and bivert it. Plus, in my opinion, backlights without biverts look awful on the original game boy. Though, if they're selling the Aluminum case on its own somewhere, I'd definitely pick that up.

 

[Pluupy]

I wish companies would stop riding these old 8bit and 16bit consoles and start making mobile N64s, PS2s, and Gamecubes.

 

[senkunmusashi]

The only thing that makes that not a waste of money for me is the Aluminum case and Li-ion batteries. I have a Gameboy. I can backlight and bivert it. Plus, in my opinion, backlights without biverts look awful on the original game boy. Though, if they're selling the Aluminum case on its own somewhere, I'd definitely pick that up.

Yep, if they were smart about this they'd make it such that it could also be sold separately as a drop in replacement shell for say 1/3 price. There's also a market out there for a nice aluminium shell to stuff pi zeros in... They'd recover their tooling costs in no time.

 

[dAVID_]

I really want one. I really want one.

Though it looks pretty useless if I have to use an EverDrive (very expensive).

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I wish companies would stop riding these old 8bit and 16bit consoles and start making mobile N64s, PS2s, and Gamecubes.

They stick with these old 8bit and 16bit consoles because cheap hardware isn't anywhere near powerful enough to emulate PS2s, and Gamecubes. Unless you're ok spending $300+ for one (in which case you're better off just buying a laptop), you'll be waiting a fair few years yet.

N64 is getting there, but emulation in general for it is awful anyways so you're probably better off just buying an N64 and making one yourself.

 

[weatMod]

that aluminum case is nice
i wonder if it will be possible to drill it out and add 2 more buttons and gut it and install an rpizero
reuse the the battery and possibly the charge circuit and type c port , maybe even the screen which is doubtful, looks low res

 

[MaverickWellington]

I can go to a yard sale and pick up a gameboy color for $5. I fail to see the value of this product.

Somehow smarmy comments like this from someone with a linux avatar don't surprise me.

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More on topic, I'm kinda kicking myself for having given away my copy of Pokemon Crystal now. Would've been fun as hell to get back into glitching that game again. Ah well.

 

[Kioku]

Okay, but why though? Collecting I guess? I'd have preferred a clam shell design akin to the SP. Off to the market I go!

 

[Osha]

Aren't Retron devices not only severely overpriced but also usually fairly inaccurate as far as emulation goes ?

 

[MaverickWellington]

Okay, but why though? Collecting I guess? I'd have preferred a clam shell design akin to the SP. Off to the market I go!

Nostalgia. That's the entire market for Hyperkin. In my experience with the Retron 3, and it's inaccuracies, input lag, and awful graphics, they don't go further than that.

 

[Kioku]

Nostalgia. That's the entire market for Hyperkin. In my experience with the Retron 3, and it's inaccuracies, input lag, and awful graphics, they don't go further than that.

Then I'd be better off buying the actual system. It's why I haven't bought ATGames Sega flashback..

 

[MaverickWellington]

Then I'd be better off buying the actual system. It's why I haven't bought ATGames Sega flashback..

Funnily enough I hear the ATGames Sega consoles aren't awful -- just flash/patch the audio and it's good to go. Friend of mine has one and it doesn't seem to have any issues with sound or graphics.

 

[Kioku]

Funnily enough I hear the ATGames Sega consoles aren't awful -- just flash/patch the audio and it's good to go. Friend of mine has one and it doesn't seem to have any issues with sound or graphics.

One of the newer ones? I know the ones from a couple of years ago had issues with the controllers and minor graphical glitches.

 

[MaverickWellington]

One of the newer ones? I know the ones from a couple of years ago had issues with the controllers and minor graphical glitches.

Not sure, the one he got was a portable one if that answers your question any.

 

[Kioku]

Not sure, the one he got was a portable one if that answers your question any.

Oh, I was talking about their home console.