Game News Game Boy: These 10 crazy accessories really existed
Published on 07/23/2022 at 09:45
The Game Boy rocked the childhood of many gamers. From Pokémon to Tetris, via Super Mario Land and Zelda, Nintendo’s portable console has scored with its games, but not only. Many accessories have also made the heyday of the Game Boy. Today we are not going to talk regarding the Light Boy or the Game Link, but regarding other lesser known accessories that you may have forgotten. A look back at the 10 most unlikely Game Boy accessories.
Le BarCode Boy
If today we know the amiibo, these figurines that allow you to obtain new characters in game on Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch, know that the experiments of the genre date from much longer ago. Indeed, at the time of the Game Boy, Namco offered us the BarCode Boy. This small peripheral attached to your console allowed you to scan special cards in order to obtain more in-game content. As you can imagine, some Namco titles fully exploited this accessory, such as Monster Maker: Barcode Saga. This strategy game was released in Japan only in 1993. As you can imagine, few games were compatible with the BarCode Boy and they were even fewer to set foot in Western lands, which prevented the BarCode Boy from obtaining great fame. .
Le Boom Box Boy
At the very beginning of the 2000s, a new accessory burst onto the market: the Boom Box Boy. En plugging this little device into your Game Boy Pocket or Game Boy Color, along with a special pair of headphones, you might listen to the radio. A small gadget allowing young people who do not have a radio to obtain one at a lower cost… at least in theory. Because in practice the Boom Box Boy is not the most functional. Very fragile, it offers few features for many constraints. Suffice to say that the device quickly loses interest, especially as the era of walkmans and CDs arrives, sweeping in its path this small portable radio.
Le Booster Boy/Handy Boy
The whole point of a portable console lies in the fact that you can easily take it wherever you want. But that often rhymes with the need to compromise on the performance of its console and it was obviously the case of the Game Boy. Different companies have sought to remedy this problem, such as Saitek who launched one of the most imposing unofficial accessories: the Booster Boy. This big machine boosting (slightly) the capacities of your Game Boy took away its main asset: its portability. Despite the very paradoxical side of this accessory, Nintendo was seduced by the idea and granted its famous Licensed by Nintendo stamp to another peripheral of its kind: the STD Handy Boy.
La Game Boy Camera (et sa Game Boy Printer)
Who said taking selfies and other souvenir photos was a recent fad? Certainly, 30 years ago we didn’t have Instagram and consorts, but who, at the time, didn’t have the right to a small disposable camera to immortalize their most beautiful holidays? And for the lucky ones, all you had to do was bring your Game Boy and your little camera. Known as the Pocket Camera in Japan, the Game Boy Camera began to be marketed in 1998. Its purpose? Boost the sales of a console that is gradually reaching the end of its life. In what way ? By allowing you to take and store 40 photos. And if you had the Game Boy Printer extension, you might even print them like on a Polaroid!
Le Game Boy Pocket Sonar
Playing on your console in the middle of a fishing session while waiting for a fish to bite the hook is a fairly standard use. But using your console to fish is still quite unlikely. And yet this was indeed possible on Game Boy. No, the console did not serve as bait or fishing rod, but allowed, thanks to the Game Boy Pocket Sonar, to detect fish swimming around. Thanks to an ultrasonic sensor and the mini sonar connected to your console, your Game Boy might therefore ensure you a most fruitful fishing session. Note that Bandai has marketed the same kind of accessory for its Wonderswan.
Le Glucoboy
You may have already heard of games aimed at the little ones and trying to make them enjoy brushing their teeth or taking medicine. But do you know the Glucoboy? If not, its name may put you on the right track, since it looks like the glucometer, this blood sugar meter used mainly by diabetics. You are no doubt beginning to understand where we are taking you. The Glucoboy is indeed a Game Boy gadget allowing children to control their blood sugar using their favorite console. The idea comes from a father, Paul Wessel, who one day made an ingenious observation: if his diabetic son often lost his glucometer, he never let go of his Game Boy. Thus was born the Glucoboy, a glucometer allowing you to unlock mini-games on your Game Boy Advance if your blood sugar level was good.
Le PediSedate
We go back to the health side with the PediSedate, a really very special accessory. If you are a lover of etymology, you no doubt see where we are heading. The PediSedate is indeed an accessory for children (pedi) and allowing them to be sedated (sedate). If said like this, it may seem strange, the accessory was intended for purely medical and controlled use. In order not to panic a child in the process of having surgery or tampering with his jaw, we let him play his favorite game on Game Boy while wearing a pretty little colorful helmet… who administers anesthetic gas to him as if nothing had happened. Despite renewed interest at the end of the 2000s, the PediSedate has nevertheless failed to become more popular.
La Singer Izek
This accessory is so improbable that it has probably become one of the best known: the Singer Izek, which is nothing more than a sewing machine. The result of a partnership between the Singer company and Nintendo, this large accessory allowed you to do some sewing with your Game Boy Color. By inserting it into the machine, you might indeed control it using the keys on your console. The Singer Izek allowed you to sew predefined patterns as well as to imagine your own creations. Surprisingly, the machine received some success pushing Singer to release 3 versions: two Japanese (the Jaguar JN-2000 and the Jaguar JN-100) and one American (the IZEK 1500). As for games, at least five of them were compatible, including a certain Jaguar Mishin Sashi Senyou Soft: Mario Family that allowed you to sew your favorite characters from the Mario universe.
The Solar Pack
Do you know the Naki company? If today ecology takes more and more place (great cause of the next Zevent in particular), this company already made it its hobbyhorse in the 90s. Its goal was indeed to sensitize the players to a more ecological. With its batteries and all its little components, the Game Boy was not exactly an example in terms of carbon emissions. To limit the breakage a little, Naki has therefore released a somewhat special battery to attach to his Game Boy. To recharge it, you don’t need electricity, just the power of the sun. Small inconvenience, and not the least, far from this source of energy, the battery lasted only seven short hours.
Le WorkBoy
We end with a somewhat special accessory since it has never been marketed. It was in 2020 that video game historian Liam Robertson discovered a strange keyboard whose usefulness he had trouble understanding. But the man perseveres and goes so far as to meet the creators of this strange WorkBoy. They then explain to him that the WorkBoy had been designed to connect to a Game Boy (via the Game Link) and allow it to run office applications such as a calendar or an address book. Fruit of the collaboration between the company Fabtek and Nintendo, it had notably been shown at CES 1992. But then, following that, we no longer hear regarding this accessory. In question, manufacturing costs that are far too high in particular. The WorkBoy therefore never saw the light of day and only two prototypes exist today.
