Love being able to emulate classic games on your phone but aren’t yet sold on the often clumsy control schemes? Well, if you’ve got some technical know-how, a couple of free hours, and a spare Game Boy from your misspent youth that you don’t mind sacrificing on the altar of progress, you can turn that old portable system into a convenient — and dare we say stylish — mount for your Android phone that also serves as a controller for all your favorite classic games. Really! There’s a video that proves it below.
Being able to emulate classic old school games in the palm of your hand is one of the great triumphs of the smartphone, and, we’re prepared to say, of modern technology in general. Frankly, I don’t even remember what my life was like before I could play Final Fantasy 3 on my morning commute. It must have been hideous, and I don’t want to contemplate it. The controls on the games, though, generally leave something to be desired.
That’s where Instructable user alpinedelta comes in with this mod. Combining the case of an old Game Boy and the guts of a Wiimote gets you a phone mount you can be proud of and a Bluetooth game controller that feels as natural as if you’ve been using it for 20 years, because in many cases, you have.
There are some limitations to the controller, sure — good luck setting up anything more complicated than a two-button scheme — but we’re pretty big fans of this hack just on the grounds giving a well-loved gadget that has fallen into disuse a new lease on life. You can learn more about the project on its Instructables page if you feel like building your own this weekend.
(via Hack A Day)
- Real talk? This Game Boy swimsuit is totally working for us.
- A brief history of Nintendo consoles
- This iPod/Game Boy case mod is a great way to revamp that old iPod classic
