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

 

[the_randomizer]

So, how is this better than having a GBA SP?

Nostalgia purposes maybe?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

It sure looks the part. I hope it's using real hardware and not emulation, they're not normally known for using real hardware.

 

[DigitalDeviant]

That's what Hyperkin claims and I see no reason to doubt it, backlit screens are cheapo to produce these days.

You can get backlight mods for the GBC/Pocket as well, though they're a bit more expensive than your average frontlight mod kit.

Do those backlit GB/GBC mods still use a gutted SP 101 backlit screen?

edit: gotta be honest that image doesn't look backlit to me, maybe the highlights at the bottom of the screen are leading me to believe its a front light, lol

 

[grossaffe]

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

I fail to see how my comment is smarmy. It is a fact that I have seen on multiple occasions Gameboy Colors at yard sales for $5. This device performs the exact same function in the same form-factor except that it has a backlight.

I also fail to see what Linux has to do with anything.

 

[Jayro]

So I assume it's a 1:1 hardware clone, or close to it?

 

[BEACHBUM]

I liked the gba sp
That one is my childhood console
even if i did had a gameboy, i have much more memories with my gba

tbh it kinda looks like its able to fit a gba sp game. I would like if they added it

 

[cvskid]

$100 seems high considering it has no link cable support.

 

[Shadow#1]

GB Boy Colour(by kong feng) is a fraction of the price and does the same thing? There are various versions of it, some with built in battery, link cable support, built in games, great build quality etc

Wrong the screen ratio is not correct its squashed horizontally

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Wrong the screen ratio is not correct its squashed horizontally

But that's also a hardware clone with link cable support.

 

[Argonitious]

This is neat... but expensive. It also has fewer features than you would expect for the price. You can even find GBA clones that play games off of memory cards for that kind of money!

With that said, the aluminum body is a nice touch. I've never seen a clone console made with aluminum. Great... now I kinda have myself wanting one.

 

[Sakitoshi]

looks cool but for that price you can get an authentic gameboy light.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Give the original GBA with backlit display, lithium rechargable battery, USB-C port for charging and perhaps I'll consider a purchase.
GB and GBC games alone are not worth it for me xD

 

[Catsinabucket]

The closest we'll have to a western release of the Game Boy Light

 

[XDarkLord92X]

Not worth the 100 bucks. It looks nice but thats it.I would rather buy an used one for 30 if i ever need my nostalgia fix. Also getting gbc games that still have a working battery can be risky.

 

[pedro702]

Not worth the 100 bucks. It looks nice but thats it.I would rather buy an used one for 30 if i ever need my nostalgia fix. Also getting gbc games that still have a working battery can be risky.

you mean impossible right? xD by this time all baterys are dead, i know all my gb games have dead baterys :S

 

[XDarkLord92X]

you mean impossible right? xD by this time all baterys are dead, i know all my gb games have dead baterys :S

Well my old pokemon saphire has a dead battery for 5 years now and thats a game boy advance game so yeah you are probably right. I just really don't see a point to this 100 bucks game boy.

 

[cearp]

It's far from fair. You can get a GB Boy Colour for like $30-40 which also has link cable support. I wouldn't pay an extra $60 just for aluminum casing.

Gb boy has the wrong screen aspect ratio, that kills it for me! Apart from that, yeah it's cheap and ok.
This new one is a high end item, that will hopefully be great.

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Do those backlit GB/GBC mods still use a gutted SP 101 backlit screen?

gbc can only be really backlight when you put in a sp screen yeah, the adaptor cable alone is like $30 or $40 lol. Plus the screen size is a little smaller, but it still looks really good.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

you mean impossible right? xD by this time all baterys are dead, i know all my gb games have dead baterys :S

Well my old pokemon saphire has a dead battery for 5 years now and thats a game boy advance game so yeah you are probably right. I just really don't see a point to this 100 bucks game boy.

I mean...you can just...replace the batteries? They're incredibly cheap and incredibly easy to replace, just pop the cartridge open, pull the dead battery carefully from the tab, place new battery in and done. At worst you might have to solder the tab that holds the battery in place back on if you break it, but otherwise it's not like it's the hardest thing in the world.

 

[cearp]

I mean...you can just...replace the batteries? They're incredibly cheap and incredibly easy to replace, just pop the cartridge open, pull the dead battery carefully from the tab, place new battery in and done. At worst you might have to solder the tab that holds the battery in place back on if you break it, but otherwise it's not like it's the hardest thing in the world.

Please solder and replace them properly and don't just use tape!
get tabbed batteries

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Please solder and replace them properly and don't just use tape!

Electrical tape works fine enough if you're a newbie or never soldered anything before, I've got 4 or so GBC games with battery replacements that I did 3 or 4 years ago that use tape and they still work just fine. Soldering is more secure, of course, and probably the better option, but electrical tape is fine too.