LABEL BOY: THE LABEL MAKER THE GAME BOY NEVER HAD
he Game Boy Printer from 1998 was a sticker printer, and Nintendo only ever let it print what somebody else had decided: a photo from the Camera, a Pokédex page. What it never had was a program that lets the person holding the Game Boy decide what goes on the paper.
LABEL BOY is a homage to the Game Boy Printer, delivered a little late. It is the third cartridge built for this collection, and it turns the old thermal printer into a proper label maker: type text on the D-pad, build a QR code or a barcode on the Game Boy itself, lay out a label and watch it on screen exactly as it will come out of the printer. Press START below and have a look around.
How to use
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Arrow keys move, and page through text
A open, confirm
B back
Space (SELECT) step to the next setting, or hold for the explanation
Enter (START) hold to leave a screen
The keys are named after the buttons on the console, so A is the A button and B is B. You build a label by moving through its parts with up and down, changing each one with left and right, and stepping to the next setting with SELECT. Text is typed letter by letter on a grid, the way a Game Boy has always had to. Every screen has a help text behind SELECT.
LIMITS OF THE EMULATOR
The version above runs in a browser, with one honest limitation: a browser has no Game Boy Printer on its link port. Everything up to the preview works. You can start from a template, type text, generate a QR code or a barcode and see the finished label exactly as it will print. When you try to print, the cartridge reports that no printer answers, which, for once, is exactly right.
LABEL BOY ON YOUR REAL GAME BOY (DMG-01)
The version above was built as a real Game Boy ROM. It can be downloaded free of charge and run on original hardware with a compatible flash cartridge. Plug a Game Boy Printer into the link port, load it with the thermal paper it was sold with, and LABEL BOY prints what you typed: shelf labels, numbered boxes, QR codes, barcodes, name tags, even a card for the 1992 Namco Barcode Boy.
LABEL BOY is an early alpha and a one-person hobby project under semi-active development. I do not test every update thoroughly, so it may still contain bugs. Please try it, tell me what breaks, and if you are missing a feature you would want, I would genuinely love to hear it. Friendly, constructive feedback is the quickest way to make the cartridge better.