Attention ’90s kids who remember happy, simpler times spent hunched over a chunky black-and-white Game Boy original: You can now attempt to recreate the fleeting contentment of youth with the SmartBoy, a new product from tech company Hyperkin. Step one: Run to your nearest Apple store without making a Genius appointment and drop a couple hundred dollars to get the iPhone 6 Plus. Step two: Dig through the painful memories in your childhood closet and blow the dust out of your old Game Boy cartridges. Step three: Spend more money to purchase the SmartBoy, a product with an unspecified price or release date, which turns your new iPhone 6 Plus into a Game Boy. Step four: Play a game you haven’t played in 20 years, remember a time before your parents divorced, and shed a bitter tear for the child you once were.
Hyperkin product developer Chris Gallizzi told BuzzFeed News that the SmartBoy started off as an April Fools’ joke on Reddit, where people very seriously responded they wanted the product to be real. BuzzFeed noted that Nintendo recently shut down an HD remake of Super Mario 64 and could likewise put the kibosh on the SmartBoy. “That shows the mindset of the company,” Gallizzi told BuzzFeed. “They obviously are not letting fans express their admiration for their masterpieces.” According to BuzzFeed, though, Gallizzi said “he doubts Nintendo will do the same to SmartBoy, but if it does, so be it.”
Remember how free of resentment you were when you last played this?