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GAME BOY JOURNAL
Welcome to the Game Boy Journal, the field
notes of a lifelong DMG-01 collector.
This is where the little grey box that fit in a
pocket and quietly changed gaming gets the
attention it deserves: the stories behind the hardware, the games that defined it, the strange accessories and the rare variants most people never knew existed.
Expect well-researched articles, surprising facts and the occasional look behind the scenes of the collection itself. Whether you are a serious collector, a curious newcomer or simply nostalgic for that pea-green screen, there is a story here waiting to pull you in. Pick an article and start exploring.
CATEGORIES
DEEP DIVES - SPECIAL ARTICLE SERIES
The Collector's Handbook: How to Collect, Grade and Care for the Game Boy
A practical, friendly handbook for anyone who collects the Game Boy: how to grade it, store it, clean it, spot a fake and understand what it is really worth, all gathered into one place.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
Bootlegs and Flashcarts: Preservation, Piracy and the Homebrew Revival
Preservation, piracy and a thriving homebrew scene all meet on the same little grey cartridge. This is the hub for our Bootlegs and Flashcarts series, an honest tour of the Game Boy's grey edge, from flash carts and DIY builds to brand-new games for a machine that refuses to retire.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
The Sound of the Game Boy
Two features, two directions of travel. This is the hub for the whole story of the Game Boy and music: the instrument it became on stage, and the muse it became on the charts.
Marcel Pflug
2 min read
The Collector's Handbook, Part 1: What a Grade Really Means
A plain-language guide to how video-game grading works, from slabs and seal ratings to WATA, CGC and VGA, using two graded pieces in the museum as real examples. Educational, not financial advice.
Marcel Pflug
5 min read
The Paper Trail: The Game Boy in Print
The Game Boy did not just live on shelves and in pockets. It left a paper trail: comics, guides, catalogues, fan magazines and books. Here is the map to all of it.
Marcel Pflug
2 min read
Great Game Stories: 12 Game Boy Tales, from Once Upon a Time to The End
The Game Boy's little grey cartridges held real stories. Great Game Stories retells twelve of them from the museum's collection like fairy tales, from once upon a time to the end.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
Write Your Own Game Boy Games: A Beginner's Journey in Two Series
You do not need to be a programmer to make a real Game Boy game. Two hands-on series take you from an empty folder to a polished, cartridge-ready game, explained in plain English. Here is where to start.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
Third-Party Game Boy Hardware, Part 1: The Big Names
Nintendo built the console; a whole industry built everything else. Part one of a series on the third-party makers, with a dedicated look at Nuby, Joyplus, ASCII, Naki, Beeshu, Saitek, Datel and InterAct.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
The Game Boy Around the World: One Console, Eleven Stories
The same grey box lived a different life on every continent. Our series traces the Game Boy from Tokyo to Lagos to Switzerland, market by market.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
Retro Game Museums in Switzerland: A Tour of Kindred Spirits
The Game Boy Museum lives online, but Switzerland has three wonderful places where you can actually play gaming history. Meet our kindred spirits in Lucerne, Lausanne, and Zurich.
Marcel Pflug
3 min read
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Game Boy in Disguise, Part 2: On the Desk and Around the House
A warm roundup of the Game Boy in disguise: officially licensed clocks, mugs, coasters, watches and even shower foam that hide the DMG-01 silhouette all around the house.
Game Boy in Disguise, Part 1: The Family of Fake Game Boys
A radio, a clock, a wristwatch, a calculator and a pair of walkie talkies, all shaped exactly like a Game Boy, and not one of them a games console. Meet Mani's family of fake Game Boys, from the 1993 Radio Boy to the 1997 Calculator Boy.
Game Boy in Disguise, Part 3: Build It, Wear It, Frame It
Four Game Boys that were never meant to be switched on: two brick-built consoles (one official Lego set, one unlicensed kit), a Nintendo mini replica bundled with Donkey Kong trading cards, and a pair of Bluetooth glasses. The Game Boy in disguise.
LATEST ARTICLES
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
When Hollywood Met the Game Boy: Licensed and Pop-Culture Games
Film franchises, cartoon stars and ported arcade classics all found their way onto the Game Boy. A look at the licensed and pop-culture games that turned the handheld into a piece of nineties popular culture.
The Collector's Handbook: How to Collect, Grade and Care for the Game Boy
A practical, friendly handbook for anyone who collects the Game Boy: how to grade it, store it, clean it, spot a fake and understand what it is really worth, all gathered into one place.
Mario's Game Boy Empire: The Plumber Across the Handheld Library
Mario did not just visit the Game Boy, he colonised it. From platformers to puzzlers to a starring role on merchandise, here is how one plumber turned up across the whole handheld library.
ALL ARTICLES
Fresh Find: The Second German Game Boy Player's Guide (1994)
The scarcer of Nintendo's two German Game Boy guides. This 1994 second volume joins the collection, a harder-to-find companion to the 1992 original.
Level Up Your Snake, Part 6: Sound and Pause
The finishing touches. In the final part we give the game a voice with simple sound effects, add a pause function, and hand you the whole leveled-up Snake to download.
Level Up Your Snake, Part 5: A Proper Game Over
Every game deserves a good ending. In part five we replace the frozen screen with a real GAME OVER screen that shows the final score and invites another go.
When Hollywood Met the Game Boy: Licensed and Pop-Culture Games
Film franchises, cartoon stars and ported arcade classics all found their way onto the Game Boy. A look at the licensed and pop-culture games that turned the handheld into a piece of nineties popular culture.
Level Up Your Snake, Part 4: Three Lives
One mistake should not end everything. In part four we give the snake three lives, lose one on each crash, and keep the game going until the last life is gone.
Game Boy in Disguise, Part 2: On the Desk and Around the House
A warm roundup of the Game Boy in disguise: officially licensed clocks, mugs, coasters, watches and even shower foam that hide the DMG-01 silhouette all around the house.
Game Boy in Disguise, Part 1: The Family of Fake Game Boys
A radio, a clock, a wristwatch, a calculator and a pair of walkie talkies, all shaped exactly like a Game Boy, and not one of them a games console. Meet Mani's family of fake Game Boys, from the 1993 Radio Boy to the 1997 Calculator Boy.
The Collector's Handbook, Part 3: Cleaning a Game Boy Without Ruining It
A gentle, safety-first guide to cleaning and lightly caring for a Game Boy: the right tools, isopropyl alcohol for contacts, mild soap for the shell, and the pieces you should never, ever touch.
The Collector's Handbook, Part 2: Storing and Preserving Your Game Boys
A calm, practical guide to keeping a Game Boy collection safe for decades: evicting batteries before they leak, controlling light and damp, caring for boxes and paper, and the honest truth about whitening yellowed plastic.
The Collector's Handbook: How to Collect, Grade and Care for the Game Boy
A practical, friendly handbook for anyone who collects the Game Boy: how to grade it, store it, clean it, spot a fake and understand what it is really worth, all gathered into one place.
Bootlegs and Flashcarts, Part 3: New Games for an Old Machine
More than thirty-five years on, small studios are still designing and pressing brand-new physical cartridges for the Game Boy. Three of them, from Greenboy Games, Incube8 and Broke Studio, prove the grey brick is still a living platform.
Bootlegs and Flashcarts, Part 2: The Do-It-Yourself Game Boy
Three DIY and hacked Game Boys from the collection: the GBinterceptor that taps the console to capture its screen, the Raspberry Pi-powered Zeroboy, and a USB-C power pack. A look at the hobbyist maker culture that keeps rebuilding the Game Boy.
The Game Boy's Hidden Powers, Part 2: Eyes and Ears
The Game Boy shipped with no camera and no microphone, yet the right cartridge could give it eyes or ears. Meet the Game Boy Camera and the Bandai Pocket Sonar.
Bootlegs and Flashcarts: Preservation, Piracy and the Homebrew Revival
Preservation, piracy and a thriving homebrew scene all meet on the same little grey cartridge. This is the hub for our Bootlegs and Flashcarts series, an honest tour of the Game Boy's grey edge, from flash carts and DIY builds to brand-new games for a machine that refuses to retire.
Bootlegs and Flashcarts, Part 1: Every Game on One Cartridge
One cartridge can now hold a whole library. We walk the museum's shelf of Game Boy flash carts and bootlegs, from the respected krikzz EverDrive to the classic 100-in-1 pirate cards, and stay honest about where preservation ends and piracy begins.
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