The FPGA world is becoming increasingly exciting, especially considering that many new players have recently entered the market, such as Taki Udon’s SuperStation One, updated SG and NT from Analogue, and M64 from ModRetro.
Now it has been revealed that Thomas Sanfourche has stepped into the fray — a French electronics engineer studying in Taiwan with a passion for FPGA. This hobby inspired him to create a console capable of playing Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges.
Initially conceived as a university graduation project, it gradually grew into something much bigger: plans emerged to bring it to the mass market after Taiwan’s retro gaming community showed immense enthusiasm for the development.
The console is called the SGBC and connects to a TV via a 1080p HDMI output, scaling the image by an integer multiple to preserve aspect ratios and pixel “integrity.” It even features link cable support, allowing users to play with friends or trade Pokémon on the big screen.
Thomas promised that the device will feature fast-forward modes allowing players to skip through familiar sections of games, as well as the ability to store a ROM library on an onboard microSD card. Games will be selectable from the SGBC main menu. The same slot can be used to update the console’s firmware if improvements are needed to keep the device up to date.
The design looks very nostalgic: it retains the maroon buttons that gamers remember from the chunky Game Boy DMG. And if you look closely, you can also spot a SNES controller port — for those who want to use original Nintendo gamepads.
“Warm grey on top. Black on the bottom. Maroon on the parts you touch. A compact home for the cartridges you’ve kept,” Thomas states.