Turn Your Android Smartphone Into A Retrotastic Game Boy With This Sweet Smart Boy Mod

It should be a secret to no one at this point that if you own a mobile device, you can probably run a game emulator without issue. This is especially true on the Android side, thanks to its increased openness. There, you'd actually have a difficult time finding a game platform that wasn't supported through emulation. Even advanced consoles like the Sega Dreamcast are supported.

But what if you're one of those who loves classic gaming, but doesn't want to fiddle with emulation? Your best bet is to play the real cartridges, but who wants to lug around a dedicated device all day? Hyperkin is here to meet you half-way, with its 'Smart Boy', a simple device that you plug your smartphone into so that you can play real Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges.

As you can see in the shot below, the Smart Boy looks pretty similar to the original Game Boy, sans a screen. You simply slip your phone in, insert a game cartridge, and we presume open an app, and you'll be good to go.

At this point in time, the Smart Boy is still considered to be in very early development, with the company actually offering rewards to those who can help improve the product. Even though real cartridges are used, there still needs to be a lot of development done to make sure that they run as close to how they would on original hardware.

With thatl being said, Smart Boy isn't ready for prime time yet, so if you are a casual user, you'll want to skip over this - for now. Once the product transitions to be sold to regular consumers, we'll be sure to hear more about it. Unfortunately, that might take a while, as the Smart Boy developer kit isn't expected to ship until December of this year.

If you're a Game Boy fan, though, this is definitely one product to keep an eye on.