If you loved the Lego Game Boy but couldn’t get yourself to buy it because it was only a display piece that couldn’t play actual Game Boy games, I’ve got great news for you: It’s no longer merely a clever block of bricks.
Substance Labs, a merry band of Lego and gaming lovers based in Switzerland, have created a kit that retrofits the official brick-perfect Lego set into an unofficial pixel-perfect playable Game Boy. The name of this wündertronics is BrickBoy. Yes, it’s a Kickstarter project, so the usual “may not deliver” caveats apply.
Substance Labs calls itself “a team of creators and engineers who grew up building with Lego and gaming on the classics [who have] spent the last years working across hardware, software, and product design, from open-source projects to custom electronics.” I need to believe they will deliver on their promise because I need to believe that dreams do come true sometimes. And apparently, given the more than $500,000 that they have collected so far from project supporters, many other people feel the same way.
Substance Labs says the prototypes are built and tested. “We have shipped a ‘naked kit’ to early testers, creators, and magazines,” the company says. “Now we are ready to move into the next phase together with you.”
The technical implementation of the BrickBoy kit is modular, allowing users to install the electronic core into the Lego chassis in under 10 minutes without soldering or coding. The hardware fits directly inside the assembled model, activating a functional display and speaker system that runs freeware, home-brew titles, and legally obtained ROMs. While the base unit relies on digital files, an optional third-party cartridge reader add-on allows the system to interface with physical Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges.
Kits start at $115 for the “essential” edition, which will make your Lego model play original Game Boy games. A $196 “collector’s kit” model plays every Game Boy title, including Classic, Color, and Advance, without any limitations. The Substance Labs designers say it has accelerable gameplay for faster sessions (so you can pace through long Pokémon games), a customizable backlight, Bluetooth audio, wireless game loading, and system updates. They have other versions, like the Gamer and Collector editions, which have additional features like Bluetooth audio and an “Exposition Mode” that keeps the unit powered and lit for display purposes.
I don’t care much about the display purposes myself. My home might be the closest thing to the Lego House—complete with a Lego brick minefield all over the floor, thanks to my son—so I welcome the idea of turning all these Lego nostalgia sets into functional gear. The Danish company has been milking the ’80s and ’90s with sets like Lego Atari and Lego Pac-Man, which are cool and all, but do nothing but sit on a shelf gathering dust.
The BrickBoy is a perfect example of how Lego could perhaps think of a way to make its sets actually usable objects. Not all of them would be possible to turn into a real thing, but models like the Game Boy, with its spot-on dimensions and proportions, are ideal.
I get it, though. There’s probably not enough business to justify the engineering effort to mass-produce something like this. So Lego will leave it to the obsessives. Now Substance Labs better Miyamoto the hell out of this thing and hurry up with the deliveries, because I really need to get it for my son this holiday season. He’s already a Mario junkie, and he will become a Tetris addict too, just like his dad.