Convert Your Old Game Boy Into a Drone Controller

If you grew up in the ’90s, chances are you had a Game Boy. Fast forward a couple of decades, it’s now probably inside some forgotten drawer collecting dust at your parents’ house. After recently coming across his old handheld console, Gautier Hattenberger couldn’t help but wonder, “Can I fly a drone with this?”

And so, he decided to transform the classic device into a remote for his quadcopter. To accomplish this, Hattenberger modified the Game Boy’s Game Link port with an Arduino Nano and an FTDI chip, which allowed him to convert the Game Link signals to USB. Using a small software program on his laptop, he was able to control his Parrot ARDrone 2.0 via the iconic buttons— A and B for up or down, and the directional arrows for steering.

Not only has he shared his project online, Hattenberger has also made the code available on GitHub.