BrickBoy Arcade Edition Turns Your LEGO Game Boy Into a Tiny Cabinet

Substance Labs’ started the BrickBoy project with the aim of getting the official LEGO Game Boy set to actually play some games. That’s exactly what the basic kit delivers, with a tiny circuit board, a Raspberry Pi Zero to boot and a few ports to play original cartridges or the emulated versions. With over €500,000 pouring in from Kickstarter backers, along came the Arcade Edition: a rather snazzy €89 add-on that essentially turns the whole lot into a miniature arcade cabinet.

Pop the Arcade Edition bits onto the existing BrickBoy base which has the bonus of already being compatible with a LEGO chassis. The cabinet itself is quite sturdy, topped with the faux marquee and control panel you’d see on an 80s arcade machine, complete with lights. You get a clear transparent joystick with a nice click feel and four action buttons in primary colours – once you’re done building, the whole unit stands around 12 inches tall and is just small enough to stash on a shelf yet tough enough to withstand the odd bump while you’re in the middle of a heated gaming session. To add a bit more flair, Substance Labs throw in some printable artwork for the side panels, so you can jazz it up with scans of famous cabinets like Pac-Man or Galaga.

Simply plugging in an HDMI cable to any ordinary TV gets you a 720p resolution gaming experience, upscaled from those low-res original sprites. The Raspberry Pi Zero W gets a nice performance boost here thanks to an updated software setup that whizzes along at 60fps without any issues. Loading up ROMs via USB or streaming them straight from your phone and games like Bubble Bobble and Dig Dug will be displaying on your screen in no time. The built-in speaker may be small but it packs a decent punch and delivers those chiptune tunes with crystal clarity and sound effects that’ll make you feel like you’re in a real arcade. Wireless pairing is a breeze by Bluetooth and the Arcade Edition also comes with a curated playlist called Expo Mode that lets you play 50 public domain arcade games straight out of the box.

Multiplayer is as easy as 1-2-3, as you just need a second controller (they recommend an 8BitDo SN30 Pro) and pass it around for versus matches. The system supports up to four players on compatible games, with split-screen options that neatly partition the screen and even with wireless connections, the latency is low enough to allow for really responsive inputs. Parents will be happy to know there are built in parental controls to limit playtime or filter for titles based on their rating. When you’re not using it for gaming, the cabinet just turns into a bit of a fancy solo run display with the LED lights casting a nice glow on the LEGO bricks.

The Arcade Edition costs €89, but you’ll need to whip out an extra €139 to buy the base BrickBoy kit and LEGO set itself as well, taking the grand total to about €290 or so, depending on the pledge tier you went for on Kickstarter.
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