I’ve spent the last month researching the subtle differences between different Game Boy production runs, watching dark blurry YouTube videos, learning to solder, and spending more time crawling through Reddit and forum posts than I care to remember. If you don’t want to wait around for Nintendo to start re-releasing old portables, the good news is that there’s a vibrant repair and modding scene out there for anyone who wants to make their old Game Boy hardware as good as (or even better than) new.
But Hyperkin’s backlit Game Boy clone and the (heretofore totally unsubstantiated) rumors about a Game Boy Classic Edition suggest that people want to relive their long childhood car trips just like they want to relive hours in the basement parked in front of a TV and an NES. Nintendo’s retro revival has so far focused mostly on the classic boxes that you hooked to a TV, ignoring the portables that buoyed Nintendo when home consoles like the GameCube and Wii U faltered. Further Reading Hyperkin plans to release a new (old) Game Boy in 2018
