Throwback Thursday: The Nintendo Light Boy

By on Feb 10, 2011 at 8:14 PM
General February 10, 2011

Before the days of the backlit LCD-display, portable gaming — like reading — required a certain amount of ambient light. Sure, that original Game Boy was great — and you were a wiz at Tetris and Mario Bros. – but you needed an assist from your trusty floor-lamp… that was, before the Light Boy. The Light Boy was an accessory for Nintendo’s popular Game Boy portable gaming system that provided its users with two benefits. First, it illuminated the device’s monochromatic screen, allowing owners to game in the dark. And second, it had a magnifying glass that hovered over the screen, making gameplay a little easier on the eyes. The Light Boy allowed us to play our Game Boy in our favorite location forbidden by our parents: between the sheets after bedtime. In the 1990′s, it was a thing of beauty. Anyone out there own this handy little accessory?

Thanks to Tee for this week’s suggestion!

BGR’s Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.

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  • andrew

    I had one.. and under my covers was exactly where I had some of my best Donkey Kong runs!

    • Anonymous

      That’s what she said…

  • Anonymous

    This takes me back to the good old days!

    • Anonymous

      Yes, I had one of these too and boy does it take me back.

      • http://twitter.com/GlassFiends Glass Fiends

        thats what she said.

  • http://twitter.com/MostlyMinutiae Anthony Casaldi

    I had one. It was pretty handy, but not as handy as the one for the original Game Boy Advance. That first Castlevania game was impossible to play on GBA without some sort of extra light.

  • Shaun

    I’ve got one of these yeah. In a box somewhere collecting dust.

  • Anonymous

    always was a female gamer, had this crazy pack that came with a light, magnifying screen, and speakers… it added like 20 pounds to it, but i loved it and still have it on my old tech shelf. wonder if it works….

  • Anonymous

    I freaking loved mine.. until i kept on scratching it so often that it got all blurred….. then I got the sony clie and had a gameboy emulator on it.

  • Tomm

    All I can say is Dr. Mario.

  • that guy

    You can find them on ebay for 7 bucks from sweeden.

  • http://twitter.com/silverlotus152 Silverlotus

    I still have this! Along with the extra battery pack/plug-in adapter, my GameBoy wasn’t particularity portable.

  • Tee

    Hilarious. When I said that I never expected you to actually use it.

  • Anonymous

    Heh, wow – this is one of those things that I had completely forgotten about – the whole idea of a device you have to clip on to your portable gaming device to light up the screen seems really quaint now.

    • Anonymous

      I forgot how necessary this thing was geez were old

  • Matthias_groener

    yes, this was/is an great assesoiry

  • Hellboy

    Aaah the good old days!!!

  • Anonymous

    i miss gameboy,,, lightboy too,

  • Necromaster

    Actually that’s not 100% true the Linx, Turbo Erpress, and other hand held portable gaming systems were out before the gameboy and did have a backlit LCD. We just got the typical Nintendo, hey why spend 10 bucks to make it if we can spend 5 and sell it for the same amount.

    • Anonymous

      Maybe that’s why those companies bk’d

  • JonMTCurley

    I had one up until a week ago when I finally trashed it.

  • Anonymous

    This is why I never bought one before the GBA SP

  • Joruus

    Own one?? I STILL have one!

  • Anonymous

    I used mine all the time… I kinda miss my GB actually…

  • Aynonimiz

    That thing was the best back when my mom and I would take long night-time roadtrips when I was a kid.

  • TheGers

    I had one! really helped with tearing it up on TMNT.

  • Anonymous

    I had one of those…….ahhh the good ol’ days

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BWROAM5FLX7YAR2RQPV5VUSAIU BC3Tech

    echoing similar comments… wow. now just post up about the “advanced” attachment that turned the d-pad in to todays joystick control (like xbox/ps3) and i’ll really be in 90′s land…

  • http://twitter.com/Syk0Matik420 Beefy McBigDick

    def one of the best accessories for original gameboy.

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