5 Weirdest Game Boy Accessories

Ah, the Game Boy. It’s hard to believe that this beloved handheld device was once the pinnacle of portable gaming technology. Compared to today’s mobile devices, it may seem outdated, but for those of us who grew up playing Tetris and Pokémon on long road trips, the Game Boy is a true icon.

However, what many of us may not remember is that there was a plethora of accessories made for the Game Boy. Some were practical, like the rechargeable battery pack or the light attachment for playing in the dark. But then there were the weird ones. The ones that left you scratching your head and wondering “why?”.

So today, we’re taking a trip down memory lane to explore the top 5 weirdest Game Boy accessories. Get ready to let your inner child out, and let’s dive into the weird and wonderful world of Game Boy accessories!

Work Boy

For some strange reason, a lot of developers in the ’90s wanted to make the Game Boy a productivity device. Not even tween queens Mary-Kate & Ashley™ could help themselves from trying to cash in on the trend. So, it’s unfortunate that the Work Boy was canceled, because it would have put them all to shame. While other devs busied themselves with making pocket planners and calculators, the big brains behind the Work Boy dared to dream.

Imagine this: your Game Boy as your daily work driver. Typing out a 500-word paper on a 7-inch plastic keyboard. Polishing up the quarterly report on that glorious 2.6-inch grayscale screen…

Can you picture it? Now you know why the Work Boy was canned.

Game Boy Pocket Sonar

The Pocket Sonar lets you stick a working sonar into your Game Boy. Just throw the bobber into a lake or stream and watch as it detects and tracks fish beneath the water’s surface. Let’s be real, this is a very weird device, and whoever thought it up must have had at least a few screws loose. But I can’t help but love it.

The device slots neatly where a regular cartridge would go and, together with the Game Boy, makes for a surprisingly effective — and practical — fish finder. That’s right, the thing actually works. It even comes with a little water-proof baggy for your Game Boy that you can hang around your neck.

Aside from the fish finder, the Pocket Sonar also comes with a fish encyclopedia and a fishing mini game, so you can play fish and learn about fish while you actually fish. I make it a rule to keep my electronics away from large bodies of water, but I’d make an exception for the Pocket Sonar.

PediSedate

The PediSedate is hands down the most sinister gaming accessory I’ve ever seen. It’s meant to be a friendly medical device that helps kids overcome pre-op jitters. The PediSedate does this by letting them play Tetris while it administers gradual doses of anesthetic.

Let’s ignore the fact that the thing looks like a cybergoth torture apparatus; I want to talk about how it uses video games to distract kids while they’re slowly gassed out of consciousness. Not only does that sound like a child trafficker’s dream Kickstarter (right down to its name), it’s also probably a great way to get kids addicted to both video games and sevoflurane at the same time.

Most of the wacky ideas in this list can be explained away with “it was the nineties”. Extreme yogurt, puka shells, the Lawrence brothers — bad decisions were basically the defining trait of that era. But that excuse doesn’t apply in the case of the hilarious and disturbing PediSedate, because this dystopian sedation device was designed in 2009.

Singer Izek

The result of a bizarre collaboration between video game software and hardware maker Nintendo and sewing machine producer Singer, the Singer Izek 1500 was a sewing machine you could control through your Game Boy.

The Singer Izek 1500 goes squarely in the “Cool Idea, but Who the Heck Is It For?” category alongside the Pocket Sonar. While it’s cool that you could set custom sewing patterns and control the machine, I can’t imagine there’s much overlap between Game Boy owners and sewing hobbyists. I hope whoever the silver-tongued salesman was that convinced both Singer and Nintendo to greenlight this dumb machine got a big fat raise.

Saitek Booster Boy

In a list of head scratchers, the Saitek Booster Boy is the only accessory that actually makes the Game Boy a worse device.

This thing just makes me unreasonably upset. Imagine looking at the premier portable gaming console of its day and thinking, “Yeah, that thing should be harder to carry around.” It’s bigger and heavier than your Game Boy and it’s uglier, to boot.

The one silver lining is that the Booster Boy kind of looks like a portable medical device, so you’ll get looks of pity instead of disapproval when you pull this behemoth out on the bus or subway.