Have you ever wanted to play Game Boy Classic games in full HD on your TV? Ever wanted to perfect your Donkey Kong score? An exciting project currently in Kickstarter has you covered. Josh, 24 and Zane, 35 are brothers who live in the South of The Netherlands. They have been actively working on a module which will allow you to play original (1989) Game Boy games on your TV through a simple ten-minute process.
'hdmyboy' is a module which you need to insert at the back of your original Game Boy Classic (Model DMG-01) and voila! You can play Game Boy Classic games on your TV in full HD. Here's how the developer describes the process:
No Game Boys will be harmed when installing the upgrade! It takes under 10 minutes. Just take 6 screws out of your Game Boy with the special screwdriver we send you. Disconnect cable, insert hdmyboy between the front and back half of your game boy, reconnect cables and voila: full hd game boy sandwich!
The developers guarantee that if a game works on your Game Boy, it will also be playable on your TV. Both 1080p and 720p are supported in two modes; Scale, which is the same ratio as the Game Boy screen and Stretch, which is a full screen mode which redraws the graphics slightly wider.
As there are also almost 17 million colors available for HD, you will also be able to swap out the original color of the Game Boy with a variety of color palettes shown off below.
The developers have also emphasized that this project is not theoretical, but has been tested for a full three months practically to ensure that it is the final product they'll be marketing if the project hopefully achieves its Kickstarter goal. Here's how they describe the process of marketing this product:
[Now] it's time for production and we need your help to order high volumes of the custom circuit boards and components at low prices. Plus, to deliver a high quality precision product, we need to invest in an injection mould for the shell of the hdmyboy.
After that we will invest more in refining the software, higher quality materials, better packaging and outsourcing some of the work.
First we will complete testing by sending out the Protobacker pledges to get more people testing with even more games and televisions in different countries. With their feedback and your requests we will improve the design.
We will go through a number of design cycles to improve the design of the circuit board. With the final dimensions we start producing the physical shell and the required packaging design. After which final assembly will happen in batches.
Once we are complete we will start sending the product out in batches to ensure that any difficulties that may have slipped through our Quality Assurance can be caught early on.
The development team seeks $65,000 in their Kickstarter campaign with pledges ranging from €1 (which will grant you a 'high five') to €1000 which will guarantee you Game Boy Crystal with pre-installed hdmyboy, ten classic games including Tetris, Zelda: Link's awakening, Metroid, Donkey Kong etc. You will also receive a local power adapter, an authentic NES controller and 'superbacker' screen saver credits. Don't have an original Game Boy? Don't worry because pledging €350 or more will also guarantee you the retro handheld console.
With 24 days to go until the Kickstarter ends, 136 backers and less than €50,000 to be pledged as we write, there seems to be a quite strong possibility that the campaign will achieve its goal. You can head over to the Kickstarter by hitting up the source link.
Source: Kickstarter |Images via Kickstarter
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