The race to make the Lego Recreation Boy play precise Recreation Boy video games ended earlier than it even started. The identical day Lego formally launched the set, Natalie the Nerd revealed she’d already remodeled it to play actual Recreation Boy cartridges on actual Recreation Boy chips.
Seems she’s not stopping there! Natalie is now engaged on full drop-in improve kits for the Lego Recreation Boy — no soldering required — and partnering with maker market Crowd Provide to deal with the logistics. She warns that this received’t be one thing you’ll wish to play every single day, however she’s nonetheless making it actual.
She’s calling her equipment the Construct A Boy, and she or he says the utterly pre-soldered model ought to really be “drop in and play.” It’s her custom-designed board with every little thing you must want past the bricks, together with:
Natalie confirms to The Verge that she’s planning to supply an elective glass lens for those who hate the plastic window that Lego makes use of to cowl the display screen — and she or he may even supply some type of video output so you’ll be able to play on a TV or different exterior display screen, although it’s not assured. She’s unsure how she’ll make video out occur but, although. “It might even be probably be over Wi-Fi if that doesn’t have an effect on efficiency,” she tells me.
Whereas the unique Recreation Boy supplied a 160 x 144 10:9 facet ratio show, Natalie says the 320 x 320 one will merely upscale the unique photos by 2x whereas holding their relative form and dimension the identical.
Natalie doesn’t plan to wire up a Hyperlink Cable port for multiplayer play — “I don’t personally take care of the hyperlink port ?
,” she tells me — however says she’ll “most likely” depart a pinout so modders can add their very own.
So far as harvesting the chips goes, Natalie says she’s managed to purchase broken Recreation Boy Pockets in bulk, as they’re the “unloved sibling” of the Recreation Boy household, however she doubts she’ll have sufficient to fulfill demand. In case you have a donor Recreation Boy Pocket your self, she’ll additionally promote a model that solely requires the CPU and RAM for round $60. She’ll additionally promote a totally DIY model for the “soldering iron execs” on the market. She’ll additionally nonetheless launch information without spending a dime.
It’s not clear what the whole drop-in equipment will price but, given Trump’s tariffs. “I’m aiming for $99 USD however y’know the way the world is in the intervening time,” she writes. She’s hoping to start out promoting them in early 2026, and says she ought to obtain the primary take a look at boards this very week.
Natalie’s equipment received’t be the one option to play a Lego Recreation Boy for actual.
Whereas it’s fairly a feat to shrink a complete precise working Recreation Boy all the way down to the scale of a Recreation Boy cartridge, others are coming shut — modder Hairo Satoh has been exhibiting off a wonderful Recreation Boy Colour model on Instagram that makes use of actual cartridges, although he tells me it required a number of modification to the Lego “shell” and he’s unsure he’ll launch a equipment himself. Usually, Satoh sells one-offs on fee.
In the meantime, the rival BrickBoy equipment may be the best and most sustainable option to energy a Lego Recreation Boy but. It performs ROMs on an emulator, not precise cartridges on precise chips, however no Recreation Boy Pockets shall be harmed within the making of that equipment. We’re nonetheless ready to share how a lot it’ll price, nevertheless — it’ll launch on Kickstarter on October twenty eighth.
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