Snap Together a LEGO Game Boy with the Build A Boy Kit
With Natalie the Nerd’s Build A Boy kit, you can turn the LEGO Game Boy into a real playable console.
Want to turn that LEGO Nintendo Game Boy replica into a real, completely functional and playable console? Now you can, with Natalie the Nerd’s Build A Boy kit.
We first told you about Natalie’s efforts back in October, when LEGO released their Game Boy kit. At the time, her efforts to cram real Game Boy hardware into the LEGO enclosure were mostly complete, but not quite at the point where she was ready to share the design with others. She said she would be sharing more soon and now that she’s back, the update is even better than we had hoped.
The news is good: Natalie the Nerd is launching a Crowd Supply campaign to sell kits that will let you Build a Boy! This is an evolution of that design we featured back in October, but streamlined for the masses. Buy the official LEGO Nintendo Game Boy replica and the Build A Boy kit, and you’ll be ready to assemble the ultimate console.
This will be compatible with all original Game Boy games and backwards-compatible Game Boy Color games. That is because it uses real Game Boy hardware (processors and memory) salved from original Game Boy units. Natalie put those components on a custom PCB designed specifically to fit in the LEGO enclosure.
And as a huge bonus, this kit features many of the upgrade mods that are popular in the Game Boy community. It has a nice 2.73” backlit display, an 800mAh lithium battery with USB-C charging, Panasonic tactile buttons, and options for a link port and display-out.
That is also all open source, which we love to see.
Natalie the Nerd is gearing up for the crowdfunding launch, so be sure to subscribe to updates on Crowd Supply so you get a notification as soon as it is available for backing.