Flip Phones? How about we introduce an era of Flip Consoles!

Meet the Game Boy Flip, an audacious fan-made console concept that features a flip-type gadget with joy-cons. In its shut mode, you’ve got a handheld device that can be used to play Game Boy Advanced or Color games, but open the foldable and you’ve got a larger screen for a more immersive landscape-style game a la Nintendo Switch. I don’t see any cameras on this device but slap a couple and you quite literally have a flip phone that can be used for stuff other than just gaming… not bad, huh??

Designer: Abdelrahman Shaapan

The idea of a foldable gaming console seems like an absolute winner, truth be told. Flip phones are currently in a spot where they’re searching for a problem to solve – but the Game Boy Flip has no such problem. It’s a dedicated gaming device that takes its reputation seriously, offering multiple gaming modes ( we counted as many as three).

The first is just straight-up handheld touchscreen gaming. Use it in the closed mode for more retro old-school games, or open it up for a more expansive contemporary console experience. The dual touchscreens are perfect for immersing yourself in games, although there are arrow buttons on both the left and right side just in case you want some analog action.

If touchscreen gaming isn’t your jam (and a lot of bonafide gamers would feel so), the Game Boy Flip comes with snap-on Joy-Cons that let you play games with advanced controls, just like you would a GBA or Nintendo DS. The closed-display format offers the perfect size and aspect ratio for such games, making it perfect to relive old classics from years ago.

However, open the console up and you’re presented with a modern-day beast. The Joy-Cons snap to the open-screen device, now giving you a larger landscape display that’s perfect for newer games like the ones on the Switch. In fact, I’d go a step further and say the Game Boy Flip looks better than the Switch just given how slick and gorgeous that bezel-less screen is.

The only real difference is that the Joy-Cons don’t exist independently. They’re part of an armature that holds the phone in between (sort of like the Razer Kishi or the Backbone controller) with a USB-C jack plugging into the device to create a ‘wired’ connection, so you can’t detach the Joy-Cons and play with them independently the way you would on a Switch. However, that isn’t really what this concept is all about – it’s more about providing a novel template for the clamshell-style foldable phone, turning it into a Game Boy from the future that’s backward compatible, allowing you to play old classics on a small screen, and modern-day titles on the larger, landscape screen.

Now sure, this is just a fan-made concept of a Nintendo device that will probably never exist… but if anyone there can build a controller prototype for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 or even the Xiaomi Mix Flip, I’m sure there’s definitely a gamer market out there willing to rock a flip phone just for the experience of being able to play games on it effectively!

The post Foldable Game Boy console lets you go from Classic to Nintendo Switch-style Landscape gaming in seconds first appeared on Yanko Design.

Nintendo Game Boy is one of the bestselling consoles of all time, owing to its competitive pricing and gamer-friendly features. Right from the original version to the consequent variants released in the 90s, the handheld gaming console has been popular across generations and inspired similar designs all these years.

While Nintendo has no plans to release a Game Boy version in the future, a concept design puts the handheld right in the realms of ultra-advanced gaming accessories. The gaming handheld visualized here solves your gaming needs indoors and outdoors sans any restrictions on whether you prefer playing it on the native small screen or the bigger one.

Designer: LFD Official

That’s possible with an integrated mini projector that can be taken right off the back of the handheld and positioned to project on any room wall, outdoor tent, or anything with a plain surface. This detachable projector module seamlessly switches the gameplay output, so you can enjoy games on the big canvas anytime. The transparent aesthetics of the handheld are inspired by the clear transparent version dubbed Game Boy Bros. released in 1995.

The display is much bigger, using most of the screen real estate with minimal bezels. Right below it are the gamepad controls that are much bigger and more tactile for improved gameplay and ergonomics. The tiny hardware of the gadget is enclosed in a transparent polycarbonate housing protected by the gorilla glass layer. To make this modern Nintendo handheld stand out, the designer envisions it in cool color options – Flame Scarlet, Greenery, Ultra Violet and Blue Grotto.

The back panel of the handheld holds the detachable projector in place and adjacent is the speaker to enjoy multimedia content and favorite games on the go. The UI of the gadget is heavily influenced by the Game Boy cartridge and the pixelated Gill Sans font evokes the neo-retro feel.

The post Transparent Game Boy with detachable projector promises uninterrupted gaming on the big screen first appeared on Yanko Design.

Si vous pensiez tout connaître de la Game Boy, la console portable de Nintendo sortie en 1989, et bien, détrompez-vous ! Un développeur passionné vient de réaliser un exploit aussi impressionnant qu’inattendu : Reconstruire le gameplay de la Game Boy simplement en « observant » les données circulant sur son bus mémoire. Une prouesse technique qui date de l’année dernière (oui, je suis à la bourre ^^) qui ouvre de nouvelles perspectives fascinantes pour la préservation de cette console culte.

Mais comment diable est-ce possible ?

La réponse tient en deux mots : rétro-ingénierie et beaucoup de persévérance. Notre génie de la bidouille a conçu un petit adaptateur qui se branche entre la console et la cartouche de jeu qui est capable d’espionner en temps réel toutes les informations échangées sur le bus mémoire de la Game Boy.

En analysant méticuleusement ce flux de données a priori incompréhensible, notre bricoleur de génie est parvenu à reconstituer l’état de la mémoire de la console à chaque instant. Ensuite, il lui a « suffi » d’émuler le processeur graphique de la Game Boy pour recréer l’image affichée à l’écran. Résultat bluffant : on peut rejouer au jeu comme si de rien n’était !

Bon, en pratique, c’est évidemment un poil plus compliqué que ça. Il a fallu gérer de nombreux cas particuliers liés au fonctionnement interne de la Game Boy : Décoder les instructions du processeur, synchroniser le tout, gérer les fameux bugs de la console… Un vrai travail d’orfèvre.

L’adaptateur baptisé « GB Interceptor » se branche en USB et se comporte comme une webcam, permettant d’enregistrer ou diffuser le jeu sans aucun pilote spécifique. La capture se fait en 640×576 à 60 images/seconde, le tout dans un boîtier à peine plus grand qu’une cartouche. Bref, c’est beau et ça marche !

On peut donc désormais capturer des parties de jeu sur du matériel d’origine en toute simplicité. De quoi ravir les amateurs de speedrun et autres défis rétro.

Bien sûr, la méthode a ses limites : Pas d’audio, quelques glitches graphiques ici et là, et une incompatibilité avec certains jeux un peu exotiques mais nul doute que la technique sera affinée et étendue à d’autres plateformes rétro.

Et pour conclure, je vous laisse avec cette vidéo magnifique qui n’a rien à voir avec cette technique d’interception mis à part qu’elle traite du hardware de la Gameboy. Je l’ai trouvé très cool !

Retro gaming consoles and computers are still going strong, with many designs still left to be revived, resized, and retrofitted for modern times. Most of these products try to recreate the experience of those original machines, at least with the games they used to run on very limited hardware. That said, you can only go so far trying to recreate the past. Sooner or later, you will hit a wall, as demonstrated by the limited number of titles supported by many of these retro consoles. This reinterpretation of a Game Boy classic design, however, isn’t exactly a simple copy of the clamshell handheld. Instead, it takes the same spirit of portable adventure that the Game Boy Advance SP embodied and wraps it in a body that’s well-suited for modern gaming styles.

Designer: Anbernic

It’s honestly a bit of a gray legal area whenever third-party brands try to embrace a design so close to something from the annals of video gaming history. That hasn’t stopped the likes of Anbernic from taking obvious inspiration from those bygone designs but with enough modifications to skirt infringement accusations. Of course, Anbernic has its own original designs, but the ones that really grab your attention are those that pay homage to icons like the Nintendo Game Boy.

With the uninspiring name of Anbernic RG35XXSP, the prolific gaming handheld manufacturer is bringing the Game Boy Advance SP back to life, or at least the pocket-sized clamshell design that made it quite a hit. It’s just as blocky and thick as the original, but that’s also part of the device’s charm. For better or worse, however, that’s where the similarities end to the point that you can even say that the RG35XXSP was simply “inspired” by Nintendo’s handheld.

Deep inside, it uses the same guts as all the other iterations of the RG35XX, which means that it’s practically a mini computer that runs the Linux operating system. Specifically, it uses an emulation platform that can support a whole plethora of games from the likes of the Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1, PlayStation Portable, or even MS-DOS. And, yes, it can probably run Game Boy games as well, though you’re left to your own devices on how to make all these work.

What’s more important, however, is that the RG35XXSP doesn’t use the limited controls of the Game Boy Advance SP. Instead, it has enough buttons to support all those gaming platforms, though don’t expect any analog joystick here. The pocketable gaming handheld is also described to be equipped with modern technologies, like Wi-Fi and 5G for local multiplayer gaming, HDMI for TV output, and support for Bluetooth peripherals like controllers, keyboards, and mice. Shown off in four designs that give tribute to those consoles and handhelds of the past, launch details for the Anbernic RG35XXSP are unfortunately still unavailable at this moment.

The post Anbernic Game Boy Advance SP clone does more than just copy an old design first appeared on Yanko Design.