If You Hate Your Car’s Digital Dashboard, Consider Game Boy

I’ve complained that machines don’t have enough buttons anymore, but that’s not exactly what I meant. a YouTuber named John Sutley showed us How he got the original 1989 Game Boy as a speedometer in his car. It’s a sincere, “why not?” is kind of a hack project, and it’s incredibly painful at a time when in-car screens are getting bigger and more distracting with each generation.

I didn’t have time to watch the 55-minute video because I was so busy, but it covers the process from infancy to execution. John spends most of the video walking through his process and explaining how he decided to connect the car to the Game Boy. Its original goal was to get the Game Boy to read the vehicle’s CAN bus system and display the mileage per hour on a 160×144 pixel dot-matrix display. John had to make custom circuit boards for this project to bridge the CAN system and the Game Boy. The process of building the bridge took months, but John found a form factor to insert into the Game Boy’s cartridge slot and then run a cable that connected to the car’s on-board computer.

The final product is unusually unpolished. It looks like a device that has come apart at the seams with the circuit board fully exposed. It won’t replace the Android Auto/CarPlay external displays you might buy for your car, but it will provide some “geek” cred.

As John drove, he barely managed to capture a video of the glowing pea green Game Boy screen. So he takes the circuit board monster he created from the original Game Boy and tests it on a late 90s Game Boy Pocket model instead. Its sharper black and white screen could show the mileage on the clock a little better, giving John the confidence he needs.the world’s worst digital dash.”

“The idea of ​​using Game Boy as your car’s digital dash is ridiculous,” John admits in a YouTube video. I’m glad he sees it for what it is. While walking around with the final product isn’t practical, that’s the point of this kind of hacking can be done.