The LEGO Game Boy Launched This Week — And Someone's Already Modded it to Play Actual Games

LEGO's life-like Game Boy acceptable has already been modded to play existent Game Boy cartridges, aft going connected merchantability earlier this week (it's $59.99 and disposable astatine Amazon).

Talented modder Natalie the Nerd showcased her speedy enactment connected the task via her blog today, which really began earlier the acceptable arrived based connected LEGO's ain pre-launch photos.

No alien to tinkering with retro hardware, the modder said her enactment connected modifying the Game Boy's innards was comparatively straightforward, though it had to acceptable wrong "a precise abstraction conscious build", wrong the LEGO model.

"I incorporated the powerfulness circuit I usage for my Safer Charger boards, changed the powerfulness power to a brushed latching powerfulness button, added pin outs for the fastener matrix and audio," Natalie the Nerd wrote, explaining her process. To beryllium clear, this involves creating a customized Game Boy circuit committee to acceptable wrong the plan and besides usage the LEGO model's ain cartridge slot — truthful there's nary emulation going connected here.

"I didn't truly cognize what the buttons connected the LEGO would beryllium like, but the information that they could beryllium pressed was capable for maine to cognize I could instrumentality them. At the infinitesimal I person them wired up to customized 3D printed artifact ceramic parts. Same with the USB C."

The result? Already there's a moving build, though with somewhat much time, Natalie the Nerd says she'll beryllium refining the task earlier yet releasing her plans for others to effort themselves.

Launched this week, the LEGO Game Boy reproduces Nintendo's classical handheld and comes with respective LEGO crippled cartridges — including Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The wide acceptable is reasonably priced astatine $59.99, and you tin spell up and prime it up close now.

"At 421 pieces, the LEGO Game Boy is the smallest of the disposable video crippled console sets LEGO has issued implicit the years, but successful spite of a comparatively tiny ceramic count, its ratio of parts inactive makes for an exceptional whole," IGN wrote, putting the LEGO Game Boy acceptable together. "When it's afloat assembled, it looks everything the portion of the original, though it's conscionable a interaction smaller."

Image credit: Natalie The Nerd.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social