[HN Gopher] I turned the Lego Game Boy into a working Game Boy
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I turned the Lego Game Boy into a working Game Boy
Author : Timothee
Score : 187 points
Date : 2025-10-03 14:18 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.nataliethenerd.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.nataliethenerd.com)
| jjkaczor wrote:
| This is... very very nice, and why I love the internet, LEGO and
| maker/hacker type nerds...
| robotnikman wrote:
| I just built this set yesterday and was thinking to myself 'I
| wonder how hard it would be to turn this into a functioning
| gameboy?' Looks like I have my answer!
| ginko wrote:
| The Game Boy modding scene is fascinating. You can literally
| replace every single part of it other than the `DMG-CPU` main
| SoC.
|
| Well even that can be replaced, sorta:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EccVHo-pDGI
| jsheard wrote:
| There's a replacement motherboard which uses an FPGA in lieu of
| an original GB/GBC/SGB SoC, so you can in fact build a Gameboy
| of Theseus with _zero_ Nintendo parts.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cesh5OAL4uk
| icu wrote:
| This looks cool but that D-Pad is going to hurt after a few
| minutes of play.
| jama211 wrote:
| The kind of person who does this has many gameboys to play on,
| this is for art and concept only I imagine
| janci wrote:
| Did Nintendo lawyers already get in touch?
| dom96 wrote:
| I pre-ordered this set to do exactly this. Nice to see others
| have the same idea.
|
| Weirdly I only received mine today, I wonder why the difference
| in pre-order shipment times is so large.
| 10729287 wrote:
| Because some sellers don't respect sales embargo and/or some
| clients have some privileges.
| B-Con wrote:
| People in the USA have been picking them up for weeks from
| Costco. I got mine ~2 weeks ago.
| alias_neo wrote:
| I saw this set on the shelf in a big toy shop (Smyths) here
| in the UK a few days ago, didn't realise it was hot off the
| press.
|
| One can definitely go pick one up off the shelf here in the
| UK as of at least Wednesday (the day I saw them).
| ericzawo wrote:
| I was wondering how long it would take someone to do this.
| lowbloodsugar wrote:
| Was so disappointed when I realized it wasn't a real gameboy, but
| then I realized someone even more of a nerd than me would take
| care of that and I'd just have to be patient. Only took a few
| days!
| Liftyee wrote:
| I love projects like this where you have to work around
| constraints like the Lego form factor and the support electronics
| for the CPU. In terms of modern hardware, the PCB is surprisingly
| sparse - using modern surface-mount components really helps.
|
| The super detailed silkscreen on the Nintendo PCB does make me
| wish for the time when all products came with schematics and
| component specifications...
| layer8 wrote:
| The startup video doesn't feature the Game Boy startup sound (nor
| any other sound), so no sound?
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(page generated 2025-10-03 23:00 UTC)