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

 

[Alkéryn]

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

 

[DinohScene]

Holy fuck.
That looks exactly like the mint condition GBPocket I have!

 

[grossaffe]

The Gameboy Color didn't even cost $100 when it was released twenty years ago.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

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

 

[BlueFox gui]

boi
i would get this thing, my first gameboy would be THAT XD
it looks nice with aluminum

 

[sarkwalvein]

The Gameboy Color didn't even cost $100 when it was released twenty years ago.

The price has been adjusted due to inflation. /s

 

[senkunmusashi]

The Gameboy Color didn't even cost $100 when it was released twenty years ago.

In 1989, the original gameboy cost $89 at launch. Factoring in inflation and discounting the need for original r&d/platform dev/library/etc.. , this repro with an aluminium chassis at $100 today sounds fair.

 

[chartube12]

it will be a day one purchase!

 

[sion_zaphod]

Absolutely pointless without a slot for removable storage for rom play. Like the design but that could be imitated to house a rpi nano with screen and controls but with rom support too.

 

[senkunmusashi]

Absolutely pointless without a slot for removable storage for rom play. Like the design but that could be imitated to house a rpi nano with screen and controls but with rom support too.

Just one word, everdrive.

 

[eriols]

is this a software based emulation? or a reproduction of the original hardware? wouldn't be surprised if this is just a dumbed down android machine

 

[BORTZ]

That thing looks great! I hope they do a good job. It really looks like my gameboy pocket.

 

[senkunmusashi]

is this a software based emulation? or a reproduction of the original hardware? wouldn't be surprised if this is just a dumbed down android machine

Agreed. If the innards are reproed with the same degree of care shown with the chassis, it's a buy for me. But if it's just all pretty cosmetics with a dumbed down android machine like all the rest, then pass.

 

[grossaffe]

In 1989, the original gameboy cost $89 at launch. Factoring in inflation and discounting the need for original r&d/platform dev/library/etc.. , this repro with an aluminium chassis at $100 today sounds fair.

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

 

[senkunmusashi]

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

See post above.

 

[grossaffe]

See post above.

Read it. Don't see the value. Now if it had some on-board memory or microSD drive and could dump the carts you put in it, then I could start to see some value added. Not $100, but some value.

 

[sarkwalvein]

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

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

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

is this a software based emulation? or a reproduction of the original hardware? wouldn't be surprised if this is just a dumbed down android machine

Their other products generally used an "on-a-chip" design, where the hardware would directly emulate the target system's hardware with no other OS overhead to go through, a bit like how those plug and play consoles that have NES or SNES games work.

Assuming this is anything like their other products, it's likely the same thing, so no actual OS is running. It's kind of like a combination of hardware clone and software emulation, without technically being one or the other. This generally means compatibility is pretty good, but it's probably not 100%, more like 98% or so.

As to the news, it's a nice price for a backlit GB Pocket I suppose, but I dunno if I'd buy one.

 

[linuxares]

Oh that looks pretty nice actually. I kind of hope where would be some kind of skin or something because I don't really like holding bare metal for a longtime.