Lilbits: Game Boy's long lost WorkBoy accessory revealed at last - Liliputing

The Game Boy changed the way people play video games when it was first released in 1989. It wasn’t the first handheld gaming device, but it hit a sweet spot thanks to a combination of portability, playability, and a great selection of games.

But it was almost more than a game console – in the early 90s Nintendo was developing a WorkBoy accessory and software that basically turned the device into a tiny laptop or PDA (personal digital assistant like the Palm Pilot or Apple Newton).

The WorkBoy was never released. But one YouTuber has spent the last year tracking down a prototype and he’s put together an epic video that starts with a bit of history… and ends in a demonstration of one of the only WorkBoy prototypes ever produced, giving us a peak into an alternate universe where Nintendo was known for more than gaming (and fitness).

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

• WorkBoy: Lost Game Boy Add-on FOUND After 28 Years – Game History Secrets [DidYouKnowGaming / YouTube]
  A YouTuber tracks down a prototype of the never-released WorkBoy accessory for the Nintendo Game Boy. In addition to a keyboard, it adds a clock, calendar, address book, conversion, and basic accounting, language, and geography tools. You can check out the full video below… but if you’d rather skip past the background and investigation and just see the WorkBoy in action, you might want to skip ahead to the 19 minute mark. 
• rC3 Talk: Hacking the Nintendo Game & Watch [StackSmashing / YouTube]
  A deep dive into the process of hacking Nintendo’s new retro-style handheld game system. It was only supposed to run a few pre-loaded games. Now it can do much, much more.
• ReactOS now supports Windows XP NTFS file system storage [@ReactOS]
  ReactOS is a free and open source operating system designed to be compatible with Windows applications. It’s been in development for decades and sometimes progress seems slow. But sometimes there are breakthroughs that make it a little more usable.
• Pine64 shows off its upcoming 120W power supply [@thepine64]
  First mentioned publicly in Pine64’s December update blog post, now we have our first look at the upcoming desktop PC accessory that supports 120 watts of total power output through 4 USB ports (including one 65W USB-C port that should be able to power any PineBook laptop and many other recent notebook computers).

In this month’s community update (https://t.co/4TXkXrKAVD) we introduced the #PinePower range of power supply units. We already showed the reference design for the portable version, now here is a look at the stationary (desktop) 120W power supply.
Let us know what you think. pic.twitter.com/5xqCrDo6oP

— PINE64 (@thepine64) December 28, 2020

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