Over a year ago, I wrote this post about a tiny DIY Game Boy that could fit on a keychain, saying that I would like to buy it.
It took some time, but here we are now with the PocketSprite, a polished, commercial version of the original keychain Game Boy.
This is a collaboration between the original’s creator, Jeroen Domburg (Sprite_tm), and manufactuer Steve K. The PocketSprite is looking for funding over at crowdfunding site Crowd Supply.
All of those make this vastly more powerful than the original Game Boy, with its 4.19 MHz processor and 16 KB of memory.
With built-in emulators, the PocketSprite can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Sega Master System, and Game Gear games, but the device is also open source, so you can in theory load on whatever you want, assuming you’ve got the coding skills to make it work.
There’s a slew of competitors, including the PocketStar (which is also crowdfunding on Kickstarter), the Arduino-based 8-bit Arduboy, and the NES-copying BittBoy Mini handheld.
The PocketSprite is being sold in two versions: a fully-assembled model and a DIY kit that you can assemble yourself. »