This Dash-Mounted Nintendo Game Boy Speedometer Is A Sight To Behold
For a generation of gamers, Nintendo's travel-ready Game Boy was nothing short of a game-changer, giving one and all the chance to hit the road with some NES favorites (or at least Tetris) in tow. The late great Game Boy was, of course, one of the first mobile gaming devices to go mainstream when it hit the market in 1989. And it remained a go-to gadget for gamers through much of the 1990s.
These days, Game Boys are largely sought-after items of nostalgia, with now middle-aged gamers looking to get their 8-bit kicks with vintage or refurbished models of the hand-held device. But even as Nintendo bosses look to tap that nostalgia factor, the folks at Zaku Mods recently found a brilliant new way to do the same, re-purposing a Game Boy to function as the speedometer for an automobile. Zaku Mods debuted the speedometer via the Three 6 Mafia-soundtracked Instagram reel below, and it promptly went viral as the re-purposed device became the envy of old-school Game Boy geeks far and wide.
For now, the Game Boy speedometer appears to be a one-off passion project from Zaku Mods. But if you're desperate to outfit your ride with such a device, rumor has it that the Zaku Mods gang is taking orders via DM. So, feel free to reach out if you want to mount one of these beauties on the dashboard of your own vehicle.
The Game Boy Speedometer is a little less Game Boy than you think
We should point out that you will not be able to play any games on the Game Boy once Zaku Mods is done turning into a speedometer. The transformation no doubt requires the removal of the device's 8-bit guts to make room for the block number counter, wires, and processors that work in tandem with the vehicle's existing speedometer. So once the transformation is complete, you're left with a Game Boy shell wrapped around a functioning speedometer.
Yes, it's highly likely your car already has a functional speedometer. Given that redundancy and the device's lack of playability, a few naysayers popped into the comments section of Zaku Mods' Instagram post to question the practical need for a Game Boy speedometer, and it's easy to see their point. But who cares about practicality when cool is on the table, right? If the nostalgic cool factor is all you're looking for in the Zaku Mods' Game Boy speedometer, it's maybe the coolest re-design it has done to date. That's true even if it is noticeably bulky once mounted to the dash.
Cool factor aside, if you do task Zaku Mods with re-purposing a Game Boy for your car, you'll still need to figure out how to attach it to your car's speedometer. Some obvious safety concerns may also need to be addressed as it's unclear how accurate the re-purposed speedometer is. And nobody wants to get stuck explaining a Game Boy speedometer to a police officer who is busy writing them a speeding ticket.