YouTuber in awe of extremely small Game Boy that actually works

YouTuber Elliot Coll was stunned when he found an ‘adorable’ miniature Game Boy that actually functions.

When it comes to handheld gaming devices, you can sometimes hear complaints about them being too small for those with larger hands, a complaint throw at devices such as the Game Boy Advance SP, for example. Those people would have an even harder time with the tiny Game Boy found by YouTuber Elliot Coll, since that device is barely larger than your thumb.

Elliot Coll, aka The Retro Future, is known in retro gamer circles for creating content mostly themed around the Game Boy and its successors, such as the GBA and Nintendo DS. He discovered the miniature handheld when browsing AliExpress looking for interesting items, and according to the description on his video “just had to buy it!”.

Unofficial & handmade mini Game Boy

The device is obviously completely unofficial and not licenced by Nintendo, and was purchased by Coll for roughly $85. The diminutive size is not the only remarkable thing about the mini Game Boy, as it has remarkable attention to detail, from the position and style of the power switch and speaker grill.

That’s not all, though. This unofficial and allegedly handmade device is completely functional. Upon flipping the power switch, the screen lights up and displays the familiar Nintendo logo from the late 80s before showing a list of pre-loaded games, which is a bit suspect.

In another demonstration of the sheer level of detail that has gone into this device, the game ROMs are held on an SD card, which appropriately sits inside a removable casing that looks like an old Game Boy cartridge, and does indeed plug in to the cartridge slot at the back.

It was noted by Coll that the device did not come with any instructions, and much of the controls and other functionality had to be figured out by trial and error, since many of the menus and notices are in Chinese.

Still, the fact that such a small thing is a working console at all is remarkable.