In late 2023 I launched a Kickstarter, I had been working on replacing the original electronics in a GameBoy Colour with a custom PCB that took a Raspberry Pi, so that you could use the classic enclosure as a shell for a modern computer.
I did everything myself, designed the product, made the video, built the kickstarter page and dabbled in marketing. The Kickstarter raised almost £30,000
I m not really sure why, but I am a little bit obsessed with the original Game Boys. its probably a large part nostalgia with a sprinkling of appreciation for the classic industrial design.
I decided to produce the ReBoi in a DIY kit format, this made it affordable, i just needed to produce and source the raw components, and make a website with some instructions.
The ReBoi combines two Raspberry Pi devices, the Raspberry Pi Zero, an entire computer that bolts onto a motherboard. And an RP2040 microcontroller. soldered to the motherboard itself. the inclusion of an RP2040 is somewhat novel and its primary use is to act as a keyboard emulator, turning the GameBoys buttons into USB keypresses.
