The Game Boy has played host to some amazing accessories over the years, from the iconic Game Boy Camera to the frustrating worm light and other accessories that look like they’ve come straight off a Stranger Things set that made the Game Boy look like a bona fide transformer. Let’s not forget about some of the more modern peripherals like the GB Operator from Epilogue too, allowing us to play our favourite Game Boy games on Mac & PC and acting as a means of getting our GB Camera photos onto a modern medium. Well, there’s another kid on the block that, in a world of DAB Digital Radios and Alexas, turns your Game Boy into an FM Radio.
When I first saw Orange FM, it took me right back to the last portable radio I had. My Nonno Giuseppe (just in case you didn’t know I was Italian) brought me this red and blue FM radio with a wrist strap and a massive antenna from the local market, and I used to walk around with it listening to Radio 1 until the batteries ran out. It ate through batteries faster than PAC-MAN chomps down on ghosts, but I loved it. Now, I can relive those memories using a Game Boy cartridge with an antenna that fits into my Game Boy, Analogue Pocket (which coincidentally is also orange), and ModRetro Chromatic.
I know what you’re thinking – this is old school. Well, so is everything else here at Retro Dodo, and this piece of nostalgia from OrangeGB has really taken me back to the 90s. Digital Tuning through 64-108Mhz, preset stations, RDS Radio Text Support – all of the mod cons that we no longer use thanks to smart speakers but ones that we still rely on when making long car journeys whenever we forget a phone cable or are trying to save battery on our devices. The cartridge has a stereo headphone amp that provides stereo audio output on every Game Boy cart playing system including the Super Gameboy.
The cartridge is designed to output mono audio through the console’s speakers when used with Game Boy versions up to GBC, the Super Game Boy (using your TV’s speakers), and the Analogue Pocket. The original Game Boys had audio input capability on the cartridge connector which meant that mono audio could be sent into the Game Boy, and Orange FM is making use of that little-known fact over 3 decades later. Mono audio won’t work on the GBA, GameCube Game Boy Player or the Chromatic, however so you’ll need headphones for those systems. Also, your Analogue Pocket needs to be running firmware version 2.3.
Of course, this isn’t the only FM Radio option that’s come out for the Game Boy over the years. There’s the Boom Box Boy that slotted into the link cable port on the side of the Game Boy and the Big Ben radio that you can still buy sealed on eBay, but the Orange FM is still by far the coolest. You can either buy a DIY version to place in your own cartridge or buy a pre-made version if you don’t want to mess around with fiddly parts, and while they’re currently sold out, you can still head to the OrangeGB website for more information!
