SGBC Is An Independently Made FPGA GAME BOY Console Coming Soon

The world of FPGA keeps getting more exciting, especially when you consider that there's a wide range of new players that have entered the market recently, such as Taki Udon's SuperStation One, Analogue's update to the SG and NT and ModRetro's M64. What I do like seeing is independent nerds trying to take a slice of the pie, and today a new opponent has entered the battle known as Thomas Sanfourche, who is a French electronic engineer studying in Taiwan with a passion for FPGA.

This passion of his has led him to create an FPGA console that can play GAME BOY, GAME BOY Color and GAME BOY Advance cartridges on your TV. This console originally started as a university graduation project but gradually turned into something much bigger, with a plan to take it mainstream after his retro gaming community in Taiwan loved what he was building, and so do I!

This console is called the SGBC and connects to your TV using its 1080p HDMI output, upscaling the game in whole numbers while integer-scaling to keep pixels in proportion and "intact". It even has link port connectivity allowing you to play with friends and/or trade Pokémon on the big screen; just make sure to bring your link cable.

Thomas has promised that this will offer speed modes, allowing you to fast-forward through familiar sections and also allowing you to keep your ROM library on a built-in microSD card, which you can select in the main menus of the SGBC, and you can use this slot to update the firmware of the console too, should there be any upgrades and improvements needed to keep this thing fresh.

The design is very nostalgic, keeping the burgundy buttons that we all remember from the chunky GAME BOY DMG, and if you look closely, you can see an SNES controller port too, for those wanting to use legitimate Nintendo controllers. "Warm gray up top. Black underneath. Bordeaux on the details you touch. A compact home for the cartridges you kept" states Thomas.

I love seeing new creations like this enter the retro gaming scene. We need more independently made stuff like this, and I am hoping Thomas and the SGBC get the attention it deserves to make it a reality. You can visit the official SGBC website and sign up for notifications via their email newsletter; that's the best way to support this console at this moment in time.