The Nintendo Recreation Boy Colour hit the North American market approach again on November 18th, 1998. However at greater than 25 years outdated, it’s nonetheless very talked-about because of its incredible library of video games. There isn’t a lot on this world extra satisfying than enjoying Pokémon Yellow on a yellow Recreation Boy Colour. However in addition to the Recreation Boy Colour has aged, it nonetheless has quite a lot of points that appear fairly obvious within the modern-day. So LeggoMyFroggo fully redesigned the Recreation Boy Colour to make it higher in each possible approach.
The obvious distinction between a Recreation Boy Colour and this gadget, dubbed the “Frog Boy Colour,” is the shape issue. Like a Recreation Boy Advance, is has a large format with the controls to the left and proper of the display. That’s much more snug to carry for lengthy intervals of time than the “portrait” format of the Recreation Boy and Recreation Boy Colour. You may play Recreation Boy Colour video games on a typical Recreation Boy Advance, however the cartridges stick out and LeggoMyFroggo had many enhancements to make, too.
LeggoMyFroggo is a console modding genius and carried out far too many enhancements for us to cowl on this quick house, so we’ll simply persist with the highlights. It is usually necessary to notice that the Frog Boy Colour isn’t an emulator. It runs actual cartridges on actual {hardware} (CPU, RAM, crystal, and extra) pulled from an precise Recreation Boy Colour. That stated, LeggoMyFroggo did exchange a few of the circuits, similar to these for audio and energy.
That was needed as a result of the Frog Boy Colour’s parts are significantly better. In the case of audio, for instance, the Frog Boy Colour has twin mono amps to push sound via both the built-in audio system or headphones. Energy is an actual deal with, as a result of the Frog Boy Colour has lithium batteries and USB-C charging — no want to hold round a sack of AA batteries anymore. It additionally accepts backlit IPS LCD display mods, so customers gained’t need to depend on e book lights anymore.
This does, in fact, require a customized PCB and enclosure. LeggoMyFroggo expertly designed the PCB in KiCAD and had it manufactured by PCBWay. Additionally they CNC-machined the attractive aluminum entrance half of the enclosure, and resin-printed the again half. We can not overstate the great thing about that enclosure. It makes the Frog Boy Colour appear like an actual shopper product and never a modded console.
We’ve barely scratched the floor on this mission, so you’ll want to watch the video for all the particulars. And if you wish to construct your individual Frog Boy Colour, you’ll find all the information on the GitHub web page.