[Chad] has been messing around with emulators on his phone, but as anyone with a smart phone knows, even the most advanced touchscreen controls are terrible. Wanting something that pays tribute to the classic systems he was emulating, he decided to turn a classic old school brick Game Boy into an Android gamepad.
After gutting an old DMG-01, [Chad] set to work turning the D-pad and buttons in the Game Boy into something his Galaxy Nexus could understand. He chose a Bluetooth connection to provide input for his emulators, with the hardware generously donated from a Nintendo Wiimote.
The Game Boy PCB was cut up and a few leads attached to the Wiimote PCB. After modifying the case to include space for the Wiimote and a cell phone mount, [Chad] had a functional game pad, perfect for his adventures in emulation.
You can see [Chad]’s demo of his game pad after the break,
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIPLcj3y7gA&w=570]
Poor GameBoy!!!
+5
Fun and easy hack! Well done.
pretty cool.
i do have an old game boy (the original one, just like the one he used) and i just checked, a wiimote is about 12 € @ ebay (i think they are clones)
don’t worry, my gameboy is already kind of broken, screen is unreadable faint
i could do something similar (if i weren’t so lazy ;) )
You know there is a pot next to the screen to control the brightness?
of course i know that, but it doesn’t work.
just tried again, control buttons seem to be broken too.
sound works and screen ist faint at best,
so i can tell if something is happening, or not.
can’t select anything, or start the game, it’s just sitting in the menu and playing music.
however, i could try to repair ist before i rip it apart ;-)
Try replacing the capacitors, it’s saved a few of my original Game Boys. You can get a kit for around 5 USD online that includes all the capacitors in the original device.
Awesome!!
it would be kinda cool to use a gb as a wii mote. is there a way to simulate wiimote shakes with a button?
The wiimote inside the gameboy should still be fully functional, he just gave it a different form factor, so the accelerometer and such should still work fine. you’ll just need a hole for the accessory port at the bottom and probably a hole for the IR leds at the top.
IR camera, the LEDs are in the sensor bar. :)
Thats cool!
Do this with a first gen DS and get back to me when I can play SNES games properly. :)
Or just run an emulator on a ds,,
I wonder if this can this be done with the first generation GameBoy Advance? The one with the shoulder buttons and the non-backlit screen?
shut up and take my money
This one is up for sale on ebay now
I have been working on a similar project, to combine the GameBoy with a Raspberry Pi!
http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi/blog/2013/01/02/uxeboy–a-gameboy-based-interface-to-the-raspberry-pi
would using a Gameboy Advance work better or an SP
more buttons
The how to video can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j8nvF5QCUE