Fresh Find: The Konami Hyperboy Advert

This new arrival is a single Japanese magazine page, and it advertises one of the most ambitious third-party accessories the Game Boy ever had: the Konami Hyperboy. The advert is a wonderful companion piece, because the Hyperboy itself already lives in the collection, and now the way it was sold does too.

One magazine page selling the dream of a Game Boy that thought it was an arcade.

What It Is

The Hyperboy was Konami's attempt to turn the pocket-sized Game Boy into a small tabletop arcade machine. You dropped the console into a cradle that added a proper joystick, amplified stereo sound and a magnifying lens over the screen, transforming the hunched, private experience of handheld play into something you could sit at like a miniature cabinet. This advertisement sells exactly that promise, and it reflects the early-90s fascination with expanding the Game Boy into a bigger, more immersive home experience rather than accepting it for the modest handheld it was.

Why It Joined the Collection

Pairing an object with its period advertising is one of the most satisfying things a collection can do, because the two illuminate each other. The Hyperboy on its own is an intriguing lump of plastic and lenses; the advert explains what its makers hoped it would feel like, and how they pitched that dream to buyers. Together they tell a fuller story than either could alone. This page also strengthens the collection's growing set of Game Boy advertisements from around the world, each one a small window onto how the console and its add-ons were marketed in their day.

The Konami Hyperboy advertisement is documented, with a full scan, on its own page in the collection.

More on this in Game Boy advertising.