Showing posts with label Handy Boy for Game Boy print ad (1993). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Handy Boy for Game Boy print ad (1993). Show all posts

Monday, March 9, 2015

Handy Boy for Game Boy (1993)

Original ad published in the May 1993 of Electronic Gaming Monthly (no. 46)

Press to enlarge or download in higher resolution.

Franken-Game Boy for the masses


Another one of those dubious peripherals for the original Game Boy, the Handy Boy intended to offer gamers a better portable experience. Like most artifacts of this kind, its actual usefulness was debatable. Your Game Boy suddenly transformed into semi-portable contraption that was not lightweight at all. It also made you look like a dunce.

This seems like a re-conceptualization of the Light Boy and Game Keeper (1992),  another Game Boy third-party peripheral I talked about some months ago. The main selling point of the first seemed very obvious, due to the Game Boy’s terrible dot matrix screen. The Handy Boy goes to another level and adds a completely different controlling scheme to Nintendo’s handheld.

Was it any good? No. The original Game Boy d-pad was practically perfect and has been copied and recopied in practically every portable system since 1989. The joystick-type button placed over your original d-pad seemed like a throwback to the original Atari consoles and the arcades of the 80s and 70s. The problem was that the Handy Boy was released in 1993. And besides, not a lot of true 3-D games were available for the Game Boy at this time (maybe Face Ball 2000 actually made sense with it).

The printed material you saw in popular game mags of the era showed the curious contraption in all its glory. The copy is weak, like most texts that accompanied products of this kind. And the color combination just seems too garish. And yes, the official name of the company was “STD”.



Handy Boy for Game Boy print ad copy


Fully Loaded.

It’s the stereo amplifying, screen magnifying, night lighting, fire button enlarging, thumb stick controlling, compacting,easy carrying accessory for your Game Boy—whew! Try saying that three times fast—it’s a mouthful! But that’s what you get when you have it all. Other Game Boy accessories leave you with nothin’ to say. Hey, there’s only one worth talkin’ about.

Handy Boy—don’t settle for less.

STD
We can help you win.

Game Boy and Handy Boy are trademarks of Nintendo of America.
Game Boy sold separately,

Sears, Best, Kaybee, Service, Software Etc