Picking up a video game and taking it wherever you go was one of the biggest selling points of the original Game Boy back in the early 90’s. Long car journeys and boring family get-togethers were a bit more bearable thanks to the trusty handheld and its compact size.
Much like phone sizes, handheld games kept getting more compact, until larger screens became a priority. With that in mind, one YouTuber decided that they wanted a larger version of the retro console. Grumpy Modeler is a designer and inventor who built a Game Boy that’s roughly four times the size of the original, and called it the Game Man.
The Game Man is essentially a bigger version of the Game Boy, with bigger buttons, d-pad, outer shell, and screen. The only difference is that it says Game Man where the Game Boy branding was originally placed. The problem with this scaled up version is that as cool as it looks, it’s a bit too bulky for continuous gameplay. In the video, Grumpy Modeler mentions that it plays pretty well, but pressing the A and B buttons at the same time is difficult. “It's completely impractical and pointless,” in their own words.
However, the YouTuber has added some of their own twists to the Game Man. For instance, the original headphone jack port has been turned into an AV port that can be connected to a TV. This switches off the Game Man’s onboard screen and turns the console into a giant controller. Grumpy Modeler also made some changes to the console’s charging port by using a 9v power supply.
Additionally, the Game Man can run NES and Famicom games but in the building instructions, the YouTuber said that it could play almost any retro console game by using a Raspberry Pi system in the overall build. The YouTuber has also put down a list of e-commerce links for many of the parts you’d need to build your own Game Man.
Another home-brew Game Boy build you can check out is a line of do-it-yourself kits for the Game Boy Advance SP that turn the handheld into a mini arcade machine.