Lost Nintendo Game Boy business accessory has surfaced after 28 years

By admin On Dec 28, 2020

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A rare, unreleased WorkBoy accessory for the Nintendo Game Boy has surfaced after 28 years. This expansion adds, among other things, a diary, calculator and address book to the handheld, which is now more than 30 years old.

The WorkBoy was tracked down by video game historian Liam Robertson, who managed to track down the creator of the accessory. On YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming? he says that only two prototypes of the Game Boy corporate expansion exist. One was said to be “deep in Nintendo’s vaults,” and the other was owned by Frank Ballouz, the producer of the lost accessory.

Image via DidYouKnowGaming?

However, Ballouz himself did not have a Game Boy to use the device. For that reason, the manufacturer shipped the product to Robertson, hoping to get the device working. Once there, it turned out that the accessory also needed a cartridge, but Ballouz did not have one in his possession. Thanks to a large-scale gigaleak that took place at Nintendo earlier this year, Robertson was able to obtain a ROM of the WorkBoy software a few weeks after receiving the accessory. With that he got the device working.

The WorkBoy includes a qwerty keyboard with Game Link cable. In combination with the accompanying cartridge, the accessory adds several business functions, including a calendar, calculator and an address book. Some more advanced functions, such as text translation into different languages and currency conversion, were also supported, converting the Game Boy into a kind of PDA.

Nintendo registered the WorkBoy brand name in early 1992, and the accessory was even shown at CES that same year. The WorkBoy was to be released in December 1992 at a live event of UK television show GamesMaster. According to creator Eddie Gill, the device would have a suggested retail price of $ 80 or $ 90. Ultimately, the hardware was not released; The GamesMaster event continued, but the WorkBoy was nowhere to be found and since then, until last weekend, not a word has been said about the accessory.