For this year's April Fool's, a company named Hyperkin teased the Smart Boy, which is a hardware emulator that can convert a smartphone into a Game Boy.
Hyperkin uploaded a picture of the device on its official Facebook account, for which it garnered a lot of excitement before it was ultimately dismissed as an April Fool's prank.
Many of the users who posted comments on Hyperkin's picture of the Smart Boy wished it was true, and that the device was not just a joke.
Apparently, Hyperkin only took advantage of April Fool's Day to give gamers a first glimpse of the device. It would have been laughed off as a joke if it was not warmly met, but with the enthusiastic response, the company decided to move ahead with the concept's development.
From what started as an April Fool's prank, the Smart Boy was in full display at E3 2016, with Hyperkin showing off a working alpha build of the device.
The Smart Boy is capable of doing what it said it would do from the onset. The device is an enclosure for a user's smartphone that will transform it into an actual Game Boy, complete with a slot where a Game Boy cartridge can be inserted and functional buttons, namely the eight-way directional pad, the start and select buttons, and the A and B action buttons.
The Smart Boy even had the same corrugated design seen in the original version of the mobile gaming device. It is also inferred that the device uses a mini-USB port connection to link with the Samsung smartphone that it was displayed with, with Hyperkin looking at the challenge of making the Smart Boy compatible with different USB port standards, especially with USB Type C catching on.
However, it should be noted that in the original draft of the Smart Boy, which was the one released as an April Fool's prank, the device was shown with an iPhone. The alpha build on display, on the other hand, was only shown working with an Android-powered Samsung smartphone, with Hyperkin stating that the device will be compatible with smartphones on Google's mobile operating system.
This does not mean that the Smart Boy will only be for Android smartphones though, so Game Boy fans who are iPhone owners can still hope for compatibility once the product is released.
If all goes according to plan, Hyperkin will be releasing the Smart Boy into the market in December, which would be just in time for old and new gamers alike to wish for the device as a holiday present. Excited Game Boy fans can already preorder the device through Hyperkin's official website, at a price of $59.99.
