The GameBoy You Never Knew Existed
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
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This is the Game Fighter. It is by far one of the rarest, most expensive and most desirable "GameBoy" I have ever had the pleasure of reviewing on my channel. Massive thank you to Joan for lending this to me!
#Nintendo #GameBoy #TheRetroFuture
Hi. I looked into this device 10 years ago now, in 2014. I did a teardown as well as dump and disassemble the boot ROM. This was not a video but just photos and a blog post. I can confirm that it's running at the correct speed unlike many clones, and that the ext port is just a link port with a special connector. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Are we still able to find your blog with all the details?
Oh, yep, you have a link to it on your channel. Cheers!
Does that Link Connector actually work with an original Gameboy through an adapted cable? That would be wild.
@@TheSushi739 I haven't tried actually building an adapter and trying it. But I've beeped out all the signals with a multimeter and it's all there so it should work.
Thank you for your servises my man
What a beauty. I don't think I've ever seen another clone that both nails the Nintendo aesthetic and adds its own high-quality design. Someone put a *lot* of time and effort into this.
This device looks like what I would expect an official Game Boy to look like if Nintendo had come out with one of these versus that other thing he showed with the burn in on the screen.
For a split second when I saw the thumbnail I thought this was going to be one of the mods where you remove the chips from an official Game Boy and put them on a horizontal circuit board.
I learned about the TacoBoy from AssemblerGames forums about 20ish years ago. And while it used to be affordable in the time, that's not the case for some decades now. Well done Elliot!
I thought that this video should be called "I made the Gameboy Horizontal for no reason" but oh it's a real product
That Game Boy Cartridge is indeed a real, official game cartridge, and is officially licensed by Nintendo.
It is called the 4 in 1 by Irem, and was officially released in 1995 in China, and I believe it is exclusive to China as well, specifically Hong Kong, judging by the information I've been looking at.
That game goes for like $160 loose, and $300-$400 USD in box on Ebay.
$160 loose!? I think I can get all four of those games for cheaper by getting the regular cartridges.
thanks boss lol i was hoping someone looked it up lol
and one of the games is called "元祖ヤンチャ丸" (Ganso Yancha Maru) in japanese
Ninja Spirit alone goes for the same price or more. Loose.
@@bland9876I don't think the actual content of the games is what makes it so desirable, it's probably just rarer
I saw one of these in a random shop in Malta back in the 90s and I really, really wanted it. Didn't get it but I've never seen another one until today and all these years I honestly thought I imagined it.
I remember being on a plane, to the UK IIRC, with my Gameboy and there was a girl on the flight about my age (maybe ten) and she had one of those Mavi multicarts. It was a 16 in one. She was from Hong Kong and it blew my mind that such a thing existed.
Did you bone her?
A really well built knockoff console is a refreshing sight.
8:34 Most definitely is a genuine cartridge. Hong Kong licensor MANI published several official Game Boy games in China in the late 90s, with this being a special Irem compilation cart.
Funny Playing should copy that case, and an alternate layout for the FPGA. They would make a killing. Maybe toss in a second speaker..
I've missed the gameboy content so much!
Me to
@@Retromicky82*too
Considering how expensive that "Gameboy" is I think it's very brave of the owner to let you pull it apart! 😮
back in the day a lot of the chinese companies making parts used to do a few for themselves on the sly using the same molds so its posible all the buttons and things are the same and the same quality pastic for the shell just a bit rejigged to try to get away with being cheeky
As cool as it is, I can’t help but notice that there is still only one speaker. It shouldn’t bother me, it really shouldn’t. It just does.
Yeah, but that's how all Game Boys were. Wasn't until the DS that they came with multiple speakers. Game Boys do output stereo through the headphone port though!
@@roflBeck Right. What I'm saying is that if you were going to go though all the trouble to make that thing, I feel certain that another speaker would have been possible. Nearly expected and necessary given the "landscape" orientation.
I'd have put another speaker in it, no question.
We need a project that basically recreates this exact aesthetic and feel with an IPS screen, asap. Would love a horizontal DMG
PLEASE make a dmg mod that just makes the buttons and dpad REALLY long like the gamefighter's start/select.
This looks really really good.. I think it's technically possible to make the same shell and use the OG DMG Parts.. next project, maybe?
Is that a Start Button, or is that Gameboy happy to see me?
😁
Bro I just said it in the way the song in the rookie was sang😭. Arrest me but make it sexy
Could you take a mold of this and make a new case? Maybe with a 3d printer? I love the fact that the pads and buttons all look official
the 4-in 1 is a legit cart released specifically for HK,Mani is the official distributor during that time.I have a taito version which features the same loader.
Thank you for a very interesting video. I’ve missed the GB videos.
So the artiffacts might be normal, my original dmg does the same thing, maybe it's because of age and wear or a cheaper chip they used later in the lifespan to cut costs
The design looks like they just used 2 gameboys and flipped it to the side so the screens are the closest, some glueing and cutting, putting the monster in resedue and made molds from that and reused some of the buttons switches, etc.
Just got my first gba sp after about 1 year of collecting dmgs/pockets. Thanks Elliot for getting me into this hobby!
They get better battery life compared to the DMG too, test it out for yourself!
I love the orientation, its the main reason why i ended up expanding my Zelda G&W flash to add GB/GBC games. Thanks to one of the previous videos i also added the headphone jack expansion
“WoUlD yA LooK aT tHaT?!”
favorite part of the video
20:08
The display on the DMG is so much clearer and that's not a high benchmark.
GREAT VIDEO ! ❤
I can confirm that the speed of the device is accurate to the speed of an original GB.
Very cool video Elliot! This looks like a combination of the Neo Geo pocket Color, and a Game Gear!
ROFL at the sponsor segment 🤣
It's 100% an original cartridge, and a rare one at that.
There is currently one on ebay listed for $2490 or best offer.
a horizontal dmg mod would be cool
id be happy with just a cheap and easy GBC in DMG shell mod..
Best bet would be an fpgbc in a dmg style gbc case for now.
Would be nice if the fpgbc came in alternate dmg and pocket pcbs like the mousebitelabs pcbs
Note: those are not "membranes" but rubber domes. The membrane that are in the keyboards are two very cheap plastic sheets with circuits separated by a third plastic sheet with holes where the contacts are.
the 4 in 1 is real and authentic.
Mani is the authorize dealer at Hong Kong
I'd expect this to be on the main channel but it looks like you haven't posted there in months...
7:28 These flashing line artifacts also appear on my original dmg when it's being turned off, so i don't think that's specific to hardware clones but just a sign that the hardware is old and worn off, mostly because my dmg has missing lines as well
When he was describing it before revealing it my mind was like “Did someone make a real life gearboy?” Hopefully others know what I’m referring to and where it’s from. 😂
I genuinely love this look, i never got the love for vertical handhelds like the GB, i started GBA era, a clone of this design with GBA compatibility would be amazing
hearing you go on about how beautiful and amazing it is was so great xD haha, I totally get it. I never knew about this device but I really do appreciate high quality knock off handhelds. Like, someone actually built that thing and got it to play games at the right speed and everything. impressive.
The gameboy SP/Advanced runs gameboy games faster than an original gameboy, just for future reference.
My friend in elementary school and I pretended that the black bar scrolling down the screen was a Mario-themed curse word.
I remember these, as a kid I noticed a lot of my friends had these and its variants. Its really popular in asian countries, and a least in asian countries, the seller often bundled it with multi game cartridges. Always wanted one of these, but my dad noticed how it eats up batteries and opted buying me a bootlegged nes instead.
I think it is running at the right speed too, it just feels quicker because the screen has worse ghosting than an actual DMG. Also, that's an interesting choice of connectors for the link port. Is it a PS/2 port or S-video? If it's S-video, the 2 people out there that both have a Game Fighter and know each other can link up using a standard cable that's readily available. It should also be able to link with a normal DMG if someone wired up the right custom cable.
Btw any chance of higher res photos of the main board? It'd be interesting to see what chips and other components are on it and how it compares to a DMG.
That Ext. Connector is literally just a PS2 port, like one you'd find on an older PC mouse or keyboard.
Tho that connector was used for many different things over the years. Used to have a PC speaker set where the desk remote (volume control, power & headphone jack) used this connector lol
I hope all is well and really enjoyed this video. 😀
Surprised this isn't on the other channel.
The screen in the knock-off is even worse than the DMG 😵
Gives me the shivers 🤣
Did you just say "crenellations?" Bravo good sir. Primitive me would just say grooves but I see someone has been using their word a day calendar 😄
hands down the best pcbway commercial i've ever seen
I like this thing. It looks like a real product Nintendo would've made in an alternate reality. Apart from the screen being much darker than the DMG I think I prefer this one. If you could make an IPS screen work with it, it could be the perfect Game Boy. But these are too expensive to mod like that, unless you find one with a faulty screen for much cheaper.
So surprised this isn't on the main channel
What retro gaming content I haven't seen.....it's beautiful
Glad you're back! Didn't know that existed, very cool!
Love this. What attention to detail... Its like a big-handed Chinese love letter for the DMG.
did you abandoned your other channel? its been 3 months since the last update
Before I looked closer at the thumbnail, I thought this video was going to be about that Wide DMG somebody made. Interesting find!
I keep seeing this on eBay for the “HOLY GRAIL” gameboy and was wondering what it was!!
Every time you said, 'completely smooth" I kept picturing that Marilyn Manson album cover for "Mechanical Animals". Can I recover? No.
9:27 this is a japanese game 元祖ヤンチャ丸 genso yanchamaru
For the average westerner:
Japanese=Chinese=Korean
For the average asian:
English=French=German
Someone needs to make a clone board for this we can put official GB chips on. Some 3D printed cases, maybe mod the board for rechargeable batteries and usb-c and the new backlit screens, woulf look pretty good.
This is the correct Gameboy form factor.
awesome video to see, thanks for sharing! Very well made clone.
No lie I've never seen a Game Boy like that That's awesome😳🤗🙂
Thats not a Gameboy, thats a GameMan
As an adult, with adult size hands, I would have loved a horizontal layout for the DMG.❤
Great video as ever, thanks Elliot! What's your take on rechargeable batteries for game boy? Do you have any recommendations pls?
Of course I've seen it.. I designed it as a kid and sent it to Nintendo in 90 or 91'. And they sent me a rejection letter. Funny to see my exact drawing get turned into a real device, other than the GBA.
I remember a kid who had diabetes in school who brought on of these in. The kid was horrible to everyone, so I couldn’t get a closer look, but yeah, definitely a Game Fighter.
It looks like the Gameboy and GameGear got drunk one night and this was the outcome lol
Played a lot of R-Type 2 on my gameboy color growing up, with R-Type DX and that sounds spot on to the original.
Makes me think of the Gear Boy from Sally Face. A Gameboy/Game Gear hybrid turned ghost detector. ^_^
I can quite literally hear the domestic violance, cigarettes and the fading bands of the 80s, playing in the 90s with their dying songs when i see this. Oh, and also beer, a lot of Bud back in the day. I'm happy this unit survived the amount of childhood trauma it had probably endured as the GB was too expensive so they resorted to this lol (parents)
"Hehe... start..." love it haha
Now, I'm just throwing ideas around here, but maybe get hold of more than one set of batteries.
Interesting! Did I see a DIN socket for a comm port? Sorry if you already explained that bit and I missed it.
Today I learned! We will promote this in our next retro gaming news roundup - thanks for the video! (Link in bio)
Is it not possible to own more than 4 double A Batteries at one time?
Aaaaah damn it now I want one
Game Fighter needs to have a successor called Game Fighter Color.
I want to brasso that screen so much to buff the scratches out.
Just imagine finding a box of these somewhere.
There's one on ebay atm that has an IPS mod and they are wanting £2k for it.
I wonder if anyone has an open source 3D printable wide shell like this, something that you could just stuff a DMG into. That would be an awesome way to play GB games.
You probably can swap the Polarizer on the screen of your horizontal gameboy knockoff.
I have seen the game fighter with LCD Displays. Im guessing, they use the same Display as the Gameboy DMG
Dang there's one of these listed on ebay for about $2500. Crazy
I wonder why they didn't release a GameBoy in that style. They could have charged like $50 more for the same hardware and people would have bought it just to have the coolest GameBoy
One of these with an OLED screen would be nice to have, nought beats the OGGB for Tetris.
Remember in 1996 see this game console, usually find more in Paraguay, but too other countries in southamerica in few quantities
Nice. It feels like it deserves to be 3D scanned and have a proper conversion kit for GameBoy and Gameboy Color... Perhaps even a GBA conversion with extra space for 4 AA or lithium batteries.
Have you abandoned your other channel?
I also was wondering this. Hmm.
I thought that also has this normally would have Been on that 🤔
Seems like it
What’s it called?
Wow! For a fake one this one looks soooo amazing!!! I can understand why every collector wants it! ❤
Hey eliot, are you concerned about the future of the dmg diaplays and the inevitable demise of them getting screenrot/cancer? Thw fact that noone makes a 1 to 1 exact replica replacement black and white non backlit stn display is upserting to me, as id like to keep the hardware as close to the original as possible, but with the screens being more than 30 now, its only a matter of time before they give out
This better not be a Gameboy with 12 screens or something - that winds me right up
Look Mom No Computer's GAMEBOY Mega Machine is that way ➡
I now kinda want a gb conversion kit to take a real gb and put it in a case like this
I had one of these as a kid, man, to know I had something so cool
That connector at the top looks like a super video connector, smart, because super video cables were pretty common in europe
It's not. It's a 6 pin mini DIN connector, often used for PS2 keyboards for example. Wrong number of pins, and the hole for the plastic alignment block is rotated 90 degrees compared to S video.
Ass video cables are common in europe
@@VideoGamer945 you certainly would know all about those, I'm sure...
Who let.the stray cat in?
That video out looks like the one used for the Model 2 Genesis. I think.
A close look at the output connector shows that it could be S-Video. S-Video came after the composite (the traditional Red, White, and Yellow cables) and before Component (the cable that had Red, Green, and Blue connectors for the Video) Also, it is a shame that the lens is scratched to hell.
It isn't. The connector is a link port with a different connector. The connector is not an S video video connector but the same connector used for PS2 keyboards/mice.
Horizontal handheld supremacy!
Awesome Video Elliot Coll🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂