Chris Fletcher's ArcadeBoy Converts an Original Nintendo Game Boy Into a Stylish Arcade Cabinet

Maker and hardware engineer Chris Fletcher, also known as DIY Chris, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a kit designed to scale-up the classic Nintendo Game Boy handheld console — turning it into a 3D-printed desktop arcade cabinet, yet still boasting full compatibility with original cartridges.

"For some time now I’ve been wanting to mod my original Game Boy to provide VGA out so I can play on a big screen," Fletcher writes of the project's origins. "I could just use the Super Game Boy for the SNES but it somehow doesn't feel right to me. It feels like I'm cheating somehow. So I started looking around and it seems there are a few products out there that allow you to easily mod a Game Boy for VGA output, but why use someone else's product when I can make my own? This happened to be just around the time I started getting into FPGAs and I felt like this would be the perfect project to undertake to build experience with FPGAs and Verilog in particular."

The project which would become the ArcadeBoy started back in mid-2019 with a proof-of-concept prototype, with a breadboarded prototype using a Terasic DE0-Nano FPGA development board for the logic required to interface an original Nintendo Game Boy mainboard with external displays and controllers. A cartridge slot on a breakout board completed the overall concept, allowing original game cartridges to be used — and there's no emulator in sight, with the game code itself running entirely on the original Game Boy mainboard.

"The current firmware on the FPGA takes the input pixel data from the Game Boy and passes it along to the LCD panel while performing a 1:1 3× upscale," Fletcher explains of the current state of the project, which he moved away from analog VGA video output to a direct digital interface to a modern LCD panel. "This means that the output from the Game Boy remains unaltered and is perfectly scaled and centered on an LCD panel at an 800×600 resolution. Why 800×600? Well, because much like the original Game Boy Kiosk I wanted a Game Boy bezel around the screen output so I needed space."

The hardware is housed in a 3D-printed arcade cabinet with an arcade-style but NES-themed joystick and button control panel, above which is a slot for the cartridge. There are stereo speakers, a connector for an optional handheld NES controller or compatible equivalent, and a 12.1" LCD panel plus arcade-style glowing marquee sign. The conversion process is also entirely reversible: the display hardware connects to the original LCD port on the mainboard, meaning that there's no soldering or permanent modification required to adapt an original Game Boy handheld into an arcade cabinet.

Fletcher is funding an initial production run on Kickstarter, with physical rewards starting at $189 for an adapter board only and rising to $499 for "early bird" pricing on a full cabinet kit — just add an original Game Boy or compatible. For those who prefer something ready-to-run Fletcher is offering fully-built cabinets starting at "early bird" pricing of $699, but you'll still need to supply your own Game Boy mainboard.

All rewards are expected to ship in May to March 2026, with more information on the project available on Fletcher's website.