Experience the Realism of a Virtual Game Boy Color, But Can You Play the Games?

Game news This virtual replica of the Game Boy Color is so realistic… that the games are unplayable!

Nintendo in your pocket

You probably know the story of the Game Boy, the small Nintendo console that left its mark on generations of gamers. It was during a trip on the train that Gunpei Yokoi, an inventor from Nintendo, had the idea of ​​designing electronic devices allowing games to be played anywhere. The Game & Watch appeared. This philosophy of not needing to be attached to the screen of a television for gamers then pushes the Japanese company to think bigger. Rather than developing electronic games that accommodate only one game per device, why not manufacture a real portable games console where it would be possible to insert different cartridges to have fun with various titles ? The Game Boy project was born. A machine with a non-backlit monochrome screen mocked by the competition, the Nintendo laptop born in 1989 ultimately swept away everything in its path.

When the Game Boy Color arrived in 1998, it relied on all the strengths of the old model with its good autonomy and its small size, but added a major novelty, at least for a Nintendo-branded portable console: a screen color that can display up to 56 colors simultaneously on the screen! But in order to function for hours like its big sister, it skipped an option that was in demand at the time: backlighting.. Those who have had a Game Boy and/or a Game Boy Color know that you had to chase light sources in order to see the screen clearly. Enough to remind us in an amused way how we oriented ourselves in relation to the windows to play in acceptable conditions. Developer Daniel Lever transformed this nostalgia for the Game Boy Color into a project.

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We don't see anything but we have fun

For several days, Daniel Lever has been publishing on X/Twitter what he describes as “a new side project“, to know “a replica of the Gameboy Color playable on a browser”. On the videos broadcast, we can see a perfectly modeled Game Boy Color Who “fleet” in different places, from the dining room to the streets of a city.

A mouse click allows you to turn on the machine, while it is possible to orient it as the user wishes. What is immediately obvious is that, like the console was at the time, it is difficult to see what is displayed on the screen. Finding the right orientation is essential to discerning something. “7.8/10, the screen is not scratched to the point of being barely visible” a user likes to respond. The creator then brings a new update making everything ever more realistic… and therefore even less readable: “ha ha, try again” he replies

On X/Twitter, users send him videos of the machine turned on, filmed from different angles, to help him have new reference images. To the fateful question of the release date of this funny program, Daniel Lever answers: “I'd like to implement some things first and then I'll put it all online. In a few weeks, I think”. The appointment is made!