Hacker News Reader

And today I learned that a game boy color could connect to the internet.

Japan always got a lot more cool stuff than the US. The first network connector by Nintendo that I’m aware of was from 1988!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Computer_Network_Syst...

I think it's because of a perfect combination of a population willing to take risks with new tech like this, being wealthy enough to afford it, but also the exact right size to make manufacturing a few thousand of these viable.

The Page Boy was a project which would have allowed for the GB Color to wirelessly send/receive email, read news/sports results, get weather reports, use a "search engine", send GB camera photos/animations to other users, and even stream live video. Mario was to deliver small voice samples throughout usage which would be updated by Nintendo.

The product was pitched by a small firm called "Wizard" to senior Nintendo executives in 99. Nintendo responded enthusiastically, but the project was terminated in 02 due to the immaturity of the telecoms infrastructure at the time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com