Lost Nintendo WorkBoy Prototype Found 28 Years Later Turning Game Boy into Mini PC

Within their walls, companies often experiment, creating interesting gadgets or add-ons for existing devices. True, not everyone gets to store shelves, and WorkBoy is one of such devices.

What is known

In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy handheld console, and then began bombarding players with various add-ons. The company even released stereo speakers and a magnifying glass for the display.

A full-fledged keyboard called the WorkBoy was in development, which connected to the Game Boy via cable and added 12 applications to work with. According to video game historian Liam Robertson, WorkBoy was jointly developed by Fabtek Inc. and Nintendo. In 1992, the Japanese even registered the corresponding trademark and presented the device at CES 1992.

Robertson even tracked down Eddie Gill, WorkBoy architect and founder of Source Research and Development. The creator of the gadget said that the release of the keyboard for the Game Boy was planned for 1992-93 with a price tag of $ 79 or $ 89, but  due to problems in the company it never made it to the market.

Gill says he knows of only two existing WorkBoy prototypes. The first is kept by Nintendo itself, but the second was by Frank Ballouz, founder of Fabtek. Robertson contacted Balllows and obtained a test device. After connecting the WorkBoy to the console, nothing happened. It turned out that the programs were not built into the plugin itself. Fortunately, Ballouz was able to find a ROM for WorkBoy and test his applications.