LEGO’s new Game Boy set already modded into a real console

This week, LEGO gave us yet another excuse to keep building blocks and feel nostalgic about our past. The arrival of the LEGO set based on the original 1989 Game Boy brought back many memories with a life-size recreation of Nintendo’s monochrome handheld console. The modding community quickly began transforming this 421-piece plastic set into a functional system.

Through her Bluesky account, Australian creator Natalie the Nerd showed the process of how she is turning the latest LEGO set into a console that can be used without any problems. Although there are still a few details to be 100% complete, what the modder is doing is not just putting a screen on it and running emulator games but using parts so that it can run original cartridges from the system. Natalie began her project in July of this year, coinciding with the original announcement of the LEGO set.

How did Natalie the Nerd manage to transform the LEGO Game Boy?

According to her blog, Natalie, who specializes in circuit board design, managed to create a customizable piece with Game Boy chips, using the Game Boy Pocket CPU and smaller than a cartridge. To make the buttons 100% functional, she plans to mount a custom 3D-printed LEGO piece. And although she had to remove some LEGO bricks from the middle, she managed to add “the smallest screen kit on the market” to have a screen to play on. To power this, she managed to include a battery that also charges via USB-C.

Once everything is fully functional, Natale hopes to “release it once I am satisfied with it” so that people can make their own versions at home.

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