Not long ago, Amazon showed us how to build an Amazon Echo Smart AI-assisted speaker system with the versatile Raspberry Pi but this beauty of a modding project is a bit of old school goodness that just warms our geek hearts. What do you get when you cross a classic portable gaming system like the original Game Boy with more modern internals from one of the most popular DIY single board computer systems around? Thanks to one rather inventive modder, we now have what is probably the coolest Game Boy on the planet — one that is capable of playing Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NES SNES and Sega Genesis titles in full color.

The modder, who goes by the name of Wermy, started with a circa 1989 Game Boy, and added two holes in the front casing of the machine to accommodate two additional buttons (X/Y). The concave buttons were nabbed from a donor NES controller and feature internal button pads made out copper tape. But Wermy didn’t stop there with the controller mods; he also removed two of the screw posts on the back of the Game Boy to make room for two “shoulder triggers” which is quite ingenious.



Inside the actual shell of the Game Boy you’ll find a Raspberry Pi board running Emulation Station, a lithium-ion battery (which saves you from having to swap out the original’s four AA batteries after intense gaming sessions) and USB charging. Also include is a full color display, which replaces the original’s 2-bit, gray-scale reflective STN LCD. And just in case you want to hook up this reinvigorated Game Boy to your big screen TV, there’s an added mini HDMI port as well.







Related: If you like this Raspberry Pi project, be sure to check out our Hot Raspberry Pi DIY Mini PC Build complete with chassis and integrated LCD.

Now you may ask, how exactly do you load games onto the Game Boy? Well, we’re glad you asked. Wermy cracked open an original Game Boy cartridge and installed a microSD to SD adapter, which is soldered onto the original traces of the internal circuit board. So when it is inserted into the Franken-Game Boy, the Raspberry Pi board reads the game files off the microSD card.



The end result is quite a sight to behold and should bring back plenty of memories for those that grew up with not only the original Game Boy, but also NES and SNES consoles. Wermy, we salute you!