
At 30, Game Boys live on in unexpected ways - pseudolus
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-nintendo-game-boy-anniversary-20190421-story.html
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huffmsa
I find it quite fascinating how long tailed single use technologies last. It's
been 24 years, but if you encounter a N64, it's still safe to assume that you
can flip the switch and be playing.

Whereas the multipurpose OG iPhone isn't even a good paperweight because it
has dated styling.

And it's not just electronics. The Browning M2 is still in service. It's one
job is to deliver reliable .50cal rounds. Versus the m16/4 or m246, which are
constantly under scrutiny because they promised multirole capability.

Aviation, B-52 is projected for 100 years of service.

~~~
patrickk
The iPod classics are also wonderful single purpose devices that last a long
time, and are quite upgradable. The software is much simpler than an iOS
device, and can be changed to the open source Rockbox. You can replace nearly
all the older components with cheap Chinese parts eg shiny new outer case,
higher capacity battery. Then add a new circuit board so the iPod can use high
capacity micro SD cards instead of the original hard drive. The result is all
the advantages of the original iPod, with more storage capacity and insanely
good battery life.

~~~
justinplouffe
I’m in the middle of a project exactly like this one. I purchased a used 5th
generation iPod video from eBay and I’m in the process of replacing every
external facing part on it. The hard drive is also getting swapped for an sd
card and the battery upgraded to a ridiculous 3000mAh which is supposed to
give it 150+ hours of music playback on a charge. The aftermarket parts are so
good that you can get a back case with 128/256/512gb engraved on it instead of
the original sizes.

~~~
Answerawake
Can you give me some more info on where to find these parts or more info on
what I can mod? I have an iPod Classic 4th gen. I have replaced the hdd with
an aftermarket adapter. I also got a new battery from ifixit and it barely
holds a charge for 5 hours. Also the case is pretty scuffed up so i'd like to
replace that as well. Do you know when I can find a super battery for this as
well as replacement case parts? Are there any upgrades I can do to the screen?

~~~
patrickk
Check out the resources I posted in another comment. I got all the replacement
parts from Aliexpress, takes ages but worked just fine. Message the sellers to
make sure you get the correct parts for your 4th gen.

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chrismaltby
I actually just released an open source React/Electron app for making Game Boy
games on Windows, Mac and Linux a few days ago!

[https://github.com/chrismaltby/gb-studio](https://github.com/chrismaltby/gb-
studio)

Still getting lots of use out of my childhood Game Boy.

~~~
zeta0134
... wow, this looks polished as all heck, and it produces real ROMs? That's
amazing! Kudos, I'll be checking this out this week for sure.

~~~
chrismaltby
Thanks! Yeah it uses GBDK to make real ROMs. It can only make a very specific
kind of game right now but it’s early days.

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douglaswlance
This is almost a beat-for-beat rip off of MKBHD's well produced Game Boy
"Retro Tech" special:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8zSYKkczI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8zSYKkczI)

~~~
vanderZwan
I did not realize just how much nostalgia I have for that original Game Boy
start-up sound.

Also, I honestly would love if more modern mobile hardware was built as
solidly as the Game Boy was.

The last thing I owned like it that felt kinda similar to it was my netbook,
an Asus Eee 1005HA-P. I have an absolute powerhouse of a laptop now (Lenovo
P51) and I'm extremely happy with it - it basically feels like I own the power
of a desktop PC but in portable form, but I have to say, that little laptop
served me really well for many years (especially after I put Lubuntu on it).
It had an unbeatable battery life, and trying to squeeze as much performance
as possible out of that little machine was weirdly addictive. I'm considering
pre-ordering a Dragonbox Pyra to see if it will have a similar feeling, or I'm
just being nostalgic but _really_ prefer this big beast of a laptop these
days.

[0] [https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/](https://pyra-
handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/)

~~~
rtpg
One huuuge difficulty is that a lot of computer stuff is dependent on the era
you’re using it in.

If you take a computer now, you’ll end up using modern websites, stuff like
Slack, etc, which will not mech well with older form factors or software.

Meanwhile my grandparents had a computer with XP, Diablo 2, and ....
codeBlocks? The C/++ IDE.

Many years beyond a lot of this software, the computer experience is still
pretty excellent. Especially when i can turn on a radio next to it to close
off the last piece (having some music to listen to)

It’s been many years since I’ve used that machine , but it was great because I
wasn’t trying to use the machine to watch YouTube or use Twitter

~~~
scarface74
Long after Apple stopped supporting my 32 bit Core Duo 1.66Ghz circa 2006 Mac
Mini with 1.5Gb RAM, I was able to install Windows 7 and my mom still uses it
occasionally with the latest version of Chrome, iTunes and Office 2010 as a
secondary computer.

Her main computer is my old Sony Vaio 1.66Ghz Core Duo (bought used from Woot
in 2007) all in one desktop with 2Gb RAM and a 1600x900 17” monitor. It’s
running Windows 7.

Neither feels slow.

My Plex server until earlier this year was a 2009 Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz Dell
business laptop with 8Gb RAM, gigabit Ethernet and one of the last great
1920x1200 displays.

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dontbenebby
I miss the gameboy. My old Gameboy Color got something like 35 hours on a
couple of AAs.[1]

I kept that thing around for a _long_ time, because it was great for flights
and road trips.

Nowadays I stick to podcasts (an iPhone can run a long time with wifi off just
playing audio) but I wish more manufacturers would focus on battery life
instead of folding up phones like a wallet.

[1] going by this source I dug up since memory is fuzzy:
[https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/09/ever_wondered_how_...](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/09/ever_wondered_how_your_3ds_battery_life_compares_to_the_original_game_boy)

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hettygreen
My favourite use of the Gameboy is the album cover of Neil Young's "Silver &
Gold". It was a picture shot by his son using a gameboy camera, and reproduced
in full pixely goodness on a 12" x 12" sleeve.

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everdrive
I still play gameboy on a regular basis. At this point, all the games have
"aged" as much as they're ever going to.

Some people enjoy the modern features or graphics of a game above all else.
(and so from this perspective, there would be no real reason to return to
Borderlands 1 after you have Borderlands 2) But at this point, those people
would have left gameboy behind at least 15 to 20 years ago. A gameboy was
already incredibly simplistic next to a PS2 in 2001, and was therefor limited
to much simpler games, graphics, and music.

~~~
PopeDotNinja
My favorite Tetris port is the Gameboy version. I haven't played that in a
long time!

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trollied
My favourite Gameboy fiddler is Look Mum No Computer. He makes modular synth
stuff out of random things (Furbys, for example).

[https://www.lookmumnocomputer.com/projects#/gameboy-
megamach...](https://www.lookmumnocomputer.com/projects#/gameboy-megamachine)

His youtube channel is good fun.
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw)
Top entertainment.

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tyingq
I wasn't aware the Sharp CPU was a sort of hybrid 8080/Z80. Interesting series
of blog posts here: [https://realboyemulator.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/the-
nintend...](https://realboyemulator.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/the-nintendo-
game-boy-1/)

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tlrobinson
> Game Boys have infinite lives

Unfortunately not if you store one with poor quality batteries that leak and
destroy it :(

~~~
jdhn
In my case, the poor quality batteries exploded while I was playing it. The
best part is that it keep chugging along even with only 3 working batteries
until later that day when I took the battery cover off for some reason and
found the gruesome remains.

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azhenley
I’d love to teach a university course where the students just build a gameboy
or NES emulator as group projects.

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nfriedly
There have also been some cool Game Boy Zero mods where folks replaced the
insides with a Raspberry Pie and a color screen, added more buttons, and
installed a bunch of emulators and retro games.

~~~
pushpop
I really wish people wouldn’t mod old hardware that can never be replaced with
new hardware that will have a significantly shorter shelf life. Particularly
given how affordable 3D printing has become where you could render your own
retro looking case without destroying any existing hardware.

I mean I have no issue with back light mods which takes the original and
improves it subtly and without taking any essence away from the original
hardware design. But I’ve seen so many people rip perfectly serviceable
innards of retro systems just to shove a Raspberry Pi in its shell. Then 6
months after the mod when the hacker is bored with his or her creation, the
bastardised console ends up in the junk heap because nobody wants it anymore.
Meanwhile the stockpile for original parts becomes evermore scarce.

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mewse-hn
If you're a gameboy color fan, google the freckle shack kit. It's a backlit
lcd with a custom pcb that doesn't require any soldering. New design by
BennVenn who has been on the scene for a while.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbHfXdoiW-Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbHfXdoiW-Q)

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ipnon
I saw a man wearing a Game Boy Advance with Pokemon Yellow as the pendant of a
big chain around his neck a few days ago while riding the train.

I couldn't imagine doing that when I got one. It was so precious to me then,
but now the GBA is practically worthless except to archivists and the
sentimental.

It makes me wonder if someone will be doing wearing a necklace made of an
iPhone in a couple of decades.

~~~
jagger27
The Pokemon Yellow cartridge is probably more valuable than the GBA.

~~~
pushpop
It isn’t. At least not unless it’s boxed with manual and in mind condition.
But then that’s not really a fair comparison because if the GBA was boxed then
that would be worth more too.

Gameboy games are the one area of retro consoles that hasn’t ballooned in
price during the last few years plus Pokemon Yellow is a pretty common game
too.

That said, GBAs aren’t exactly commanding a high price tag either. So there
isn’t actually that much between the two price wise.

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kilbuz
The same number of years passed (15) between the Game Boy (1989) and Nintendo
DS (2004) as from the DS until now (2019). That surprised me, as the DS does
not feel like the 'half way point'. Probably a lot to do with my age during
these time periods, (10 years old is 1989) and how that affects the passage of
time.

~~~
amibang
The Game Boy came out around the same time as the Atari Lynx, which was much
more advanced graphically but had a terrible battery life. Advances in battery
tech are very important for handhelds.

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alinani10
Incredible how certain tech seems to live on.

~~~
ChrisSD
Art is ageless. Metaphorically speaking.

~~~
agumonkey
And there was a tiny amount of beauty in this era. The constraint and spirit
of the day was more interesting. Today things have too much ambition in a way.

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xlance
My friend had a Scooter that could be tuned with a Gameboy (In Norway bikes
are capped at 45 km/h for 16 year olds.)

~~~
johnchristopher
Could you tell us more ? [https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-
b-d&q=norway+tu...](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-
b-d&q=norway+tuned+scooter+with+gameboy) first result is your very comment at
the moment :).

~~~
scblzn
It looks like Aprilia scooters ECU reprogramming through a Gameboy:

[https://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?101978-DI...](https://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?101978-DITECH-
gameboy-cartridge)

[https://youtu.be/XXK8NHum4Zw](https://youtu.be/XXK8NHum4Zw)

~~~
rjsw
One version of diagnostic system for Ford cars used the same LCD panel as the
Gameboy.

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johnchristopher
I was wondering about that as a colleague of mine got a gig with our national
broadcast tv for producing a podcast set up i the future and based around
geeks looking after a gameboy.

I had a Gameboy as a young boy. It was cool. But we got way better tech and
stories now.

This all feels like the 60-70-80 and now 90's marketing cycle to me.

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usahatecrime
Google Trey Frey, incredible chiptune using Gameboys and LSDj (a gameboy DAW)

