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The Game Boy is back at CES 2017 as the Super Retro Boy

The Super Retro Boy is a portable game console that lets you play your favorite Game Boy cartridges.

Headshot of Patrick Holland
Headshot of Patrick Holland
Patrick Holland Managing Editor
As Managing Editor, I lead CNET's mobile team, covering news and reviews on smartphones, wireless carriers, AI, wearables and more. I oversee the team's product testing and translate our findings into accessible recommendations. With nearly a decade of experience at CNET, I've covered Apple and the iPhone, Google and the Pixel, Samsung and the Galaxy, Motorola and the Razr, iOS vs. Android and much more. I'm passionate about storytelling (hey, former theater director and playwright here).
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  • Patrick's play The Cowboy is included in the Best American Short Plays 2011-12 anthology. He co-wrote and starred in the short film Baden Krunk that won the Best Wisconsin Short Film award at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival.
Patrick Holland

If you have a bunch of old Game Boy games gathering dust, the company Retro-Bit has something for you. It's the Super Retro Boy -- a 2017 take on Nintendo's Game Boy. And at CES in Las Vegas, there was a working prototype that was so fun to play that it left a directional pad indent in my thumb.

The Super Retro Boy is not a Game Boy clone. Rather the hardware has captured the soul of the Game Boy while making some improvements, like a 10-hour internal battery and a backlit display. It can play all the games for the original Game Boy as well as the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance -- you just need the cartridges.

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At CES, I got to play a prototype of the Super Retro Boy -- and it was fun.

Patrick Holland/CNET

A spokesperson for Retro-Bit explained how the Super Retro Boy came about. He said it's all about video game console licensing. More importantly when those licenses expire. This allowed Retro-Bit to work on its own portable console that could play Game Boy games. The project took about a year.

All the cool new gadgets at CES 2017

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The Super Retro Boy comes in black or white and will cost $80 (which converts to £65 and AU$110). Retro-Bit is projected to ship it in August 2017.