This Gadget Enables Game Boy Online Multiplayer

From the launch of the original Game Boy, through to the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, Nintendo was thinking about multiplayer. The link port would let gamers connect their consoles with a simple cable to enable multiplayer features, like competitive gameplay and trading collectibles. But the world is very different today, which is why the GB-Link USB V2 brings that functionality online.

When you wanted to trade a Pokémon while playing Gold on your Game Boy Color back in middle school, you had easy access to other kids with their own Game Boy Color consoles. Some of them probably even had Silver! So, the physical cable constraint wasn’t a big deal. But today? Good luck finding a friend who lives in the same time zone and happens to share your retrogaming hobby.

The GB-Link USB V2 makes physical proximity irrelevant. It acts like a standard GB-Link cable (your console won’t know the difference), except it facilitates connections over the internet. You can link with other gamers around the globe to use those features as intended, or you can do new things, like “print” an image to a digital file or backup a GBA ROM.

This works with the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color, and the Game Boy Advance (as well as their FPGA-based modern clones). The GB-Link Launcher provides firmware updates for the different functions and you can set everything up through the web interface. The firmware, web client, and launcher are all open source, so you don’t have to worry about them disappearing and turning your hardware into a useless brick.

That hardware (also open source) is a custom PCB built around a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller. One side has a port for the link cable and the other side has a USB-C port. Connect a USB cable from that to your computer or Android smartphone and you’re ready to go. All communication works with WebSerial and WebUSB, so you don’t even need to install a driver.

If you’re sold on the concept, then you’ll want to sign up for updates over on Crowd Supply so you get a notification when the crowdfunding campaign for the GB-Link USB V2 goes live.