The Game Boy is back at CES 2017 as the Super Retro Boy
The Super Retro Boy is a portable game console that lets you play your favorite Game Boy cartridges.
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If you have a bunch of old Game Boy games gathering dust, the company Retro-Bit has something for you. It's the Super Retro Boy -- a 2017 take on Nintendo's Game Boy. And at CES in Las Vegas, there was a working prototype that was so fun to play that it left a directional pad indent in my thumb.
The Super Retro Boy is not a Game Boy clone. Rather the hardware has captured the soul of the Game Boy while making some improvements, like a 10-hour internal battery and a backlit display. It can play all the games for the original Game Boy as well as the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance -- you just need the cartridges.
At CES, I got to play a prototype of the Super Retro Boy -- and it was fun.
A spokesperson for Retro-Bit explained how the Super Retro Boy came about. He said it's all about video game console licensing. More importantly when those licenses expire. This allowed Retro-Bit to work on its own portable console that could play Game Boy games. The project took about a year.
The Super Retro Boy comes in black or white and will cost $80 (which converts to £65 and AU$110). Retro-Bit is projected to ship it in August 2017.