Page Boy: Nintendo's LOST Game Boy Add-on | Game History Secrets

[@LiamRproductions]

Happy holidays, everyone!

[@Myblaxitis]

Happy Holidays to you too. 😊

[@cpt_kick_a_hoe_549]

Merry Christmas

[@bobthedopeman7327]

Merry Christmas!

[@ramrodbldm9876]

Little Liam shut up

[@aisadal2521]

Dang, your ability to find and unearth even more lost articles never ceases to amaze me! Just when I think I know all there is about a certain topic, you come along with a new discovery! I love how I'm always learning new things 🥰

[@LiamRproductions]

Thanks very much!

[@juicek566]

You should watch Lady Decade if you haven’t already, she has tons of interesting topics of lesser known gaming topics.

[@maimetechy]

What ever he uses to search for this stuff we need we could find almost anything then

[@LiamRproductions]

@@maimetechy I just talk to game developers. There’s no magic secret :)

[@ParanoidTofu]

Imagine an alternate history where this actually came out and flourished! That would have been nuts.

[@Myblaxitis]

Anything is possible. 😗👍

[@Stinkoman87]

Potentially, Nintnedo could have used the Pageboy DS as a launch point in to making their own smartphones.

[@johneygd]

Well if nintendo combines all elements from all their handhelds and addons(including planned addons) just together,they could indeed make their own smartphone,even if it never will hold any candle against apple & samsung but still it would be cool to see it happen.

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

typical nintendo same as apple ,they get ideas pitched to them, say " nah " and then steal the ideas and concepts anyway without paying for loyalties

[@superzigzagoon]

Likely it would have become obscure history. Every time you look at this sort of topic you'll find something surprising.

[@Onyxvoid]

Fascinating stuff. The sheer ambition and passion they had for this project is quite impressive. Truly ahead of it's time.

[@Nordlicht05]

I remember back than everything the Gameboy wasn't made for was dope as hell.

[@mr.altoids6002]

6:02 haha, saw the domain was for sale and decided to snatch it. I was actually planning on creating a site that can page my actual beeper so this'll come in handy.

[@whoswho2267]

That's actually pretty neat

[@jimbob3332]

You still have a pager?

[@Whurlpuul]

Pager? I hardly know 'er!

[@mr.altoids6002]

I enjoy old electronics and radio that's why I have one.

[@hilldwler420]

@@mr.altoids6002got tons of good ol analog vacuum tubes and equip myself. I dig all things electronic. I’ll never get tired of seeing the power led light up.

[@hooptyhoop7862]

This was ahead of its time. It would have been so revolutionary.

[@607]

Why do you think so? Sure, this would have been an impressive tool at the time, but I don't think it would have been adopted by a lot of people. I found out only recently that smartphones, which are now ubiquitous where I live (the Netherlands), have been around since the early 2000's, and they only really gained traction a few years after the 2007 release of the iPhone.

[@clark778]

There's an alternate universe where this became a thing and we are all now still using a modern version of pageboy

[@therealevilmudbug]

I can imagine the wii being called the turnboy, a turn of the page on a page boy. Advanced hardware allows the turn boy to have a page boy built in. Then it's just a wii

[@smokeymcpot69]

And to think I have to deal with f#ck boys smdh

[@Sonictheoofhog4]

Page boy advance Nintendo 64 pager GameCube pager The Wii, Wii U, and Switch have all these features built in

[@retrospect]

This was incredibly well done, loving the GameBoy videos!!!

[@gc8972b]

video: a minute ago comment: seconds ago video length: 17min 🤔

[@BlueKnight85]

Eddie Gill and the Page Boy: "I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!" Honestly though, this would've been the craziest thing ever in the early 2000's.

[@rux_ton]

im surprised at how many things i DONT know about the gameboy. No idea how you unearth this stuff but man am i glad you guys do because we need this history to be preserved in some fashion. Thanks for always teaching us new things like this! This is so awesome!

[@LiamRproductions]

Thanks very much.

[@ktvx.94]

So the man basically came up with humanity's entire lifestyle 20 years later, including DLC for games

[@NueThunderKing]

Basically

[@incognitoman3656]

DLC was invented many years before and communication by text and photo and internet browsing on mobile devices was practically impossible. Doing this with a controller dpad and some other things would be so much easier for consumers..

[@emthegem8141]

I love these lost tech videos!!!! I know the algorithm hasn't been to kind to this channel recently but your guys's stuff is still super top notch :)

[@ChrisyBearTV]

Might be working again because I was just recommended this!

[@tkayube]

So they weren't fine with releasing this only in North America, but they were perfectly okay with the GBC mobile adapter for Pokemon Crystal only being released in Japan.

[@Blood-PawWerewolf]

Mobile phone companies are different in Japan. Since Nintendo is a Japanese company, they had a much better chance of getting it approved than in the U.S.

[@zero9112]

My thoughts exactly. Nintendo will always be looking out for home

[@erickemiliogazconarevalo3989]

I think the Mobile adapter was considered for the Américas and Europe aswell, but they did not expect they could not be able to reach an agreement with overseas Carriers.

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

That’s what he said

[@generalkenobi6687]

Greetings, comrades! I am a russian 14 yr old, and I am currently on my way of achieving perfect fluency in English, and what I can say, that every single DYKG video is where new words for me are at their abundance peak! This really helps me learn something new every day and keep my studies ongoing even out of the confines of school! Thank you, DYKG, for your righteous campaign and effort put into every video! Also thanks for such thorough explanations of things!

[@KLUTCHdot58]

Greetings to you, comrade, from England. Specifically the People's Republic of Yorkshire. ✊

[@JaredConnell]

You've got a pretty good vocabulary there buddy, good job!

[@elfedorausado]

Commissar Kenobi! You are a bold one

[@generalkenobi6687]

@@elfedorausado Hello there

[@Dave01Rhodes]

Meanwhile in Japan Nintendo dabbled with Mobile GB which connected the GB’s link port to several Japan-only mobile phones. Only a handful of games supported it, the most prominent being Pokémon Crystal. It never made it outside of Japan. There was also a JP-only satellite gaming service for the Super Famicom. It’s a shame that they took chances on those, even with no roadmap to get them to other regions, but canned this because it wouldn’t work in Japan.

[@GridDweller77]

Really makes you think what online gaming would have looked like back then if it got out of japan

[@viper8908]

Nintendo had Satellaview and Sega had Sega Channel, but they only downloaded broadcast content/games and didn't allow for online gaming. Nintendo wanted to launch it in North America with help of Microsoft, but these plans didn't flourish. For online multiplayer gaming, there actually was a third-party service called XBAND.

[@viper8908]

Microsoft's Xbox would later become the first console with actual online gaming in mind. Funnily enough, the logo looks much like unrelated XBAND's.

[@origintrackz5235]

@@viper8908 Yup! the xband was ahead of its time with all the functions it had! the team who created it were super passionate and i don't use this term lightly, but i think it applies to them. they were basically geniuses!

[@connormclernon26]

I've always wondered what it would be like if Nintendo had invented the modern Smartphone instead of Apple, based on stuff like this.

[@Xenothekid7]

Well, the modern Desktop layout with folders and a mouse cursor was invented by Xerox of all groups. It was only for office use, but they didn't know what else to do with it. Eventually, they gave it to a guy called Steve Jobs.

[@yardh]

I remember owning epic win mobile , RIM and s60 smart phones (that had copy paste and multi tasking) way before Apple gave us the semi dumb fashion phone. 👍 apple gave a capacitive screen and more finger friendly OS but that was just merging tech and someone had to do it first. Lg had the first capacitive screen, and win mo had loads of skins that were finger friendly by design but no capacitive screen. Apple were riding on the ipod popularity and it really worked for them I think they did a good job but it was fashion. It wasn't a complete OS for a few generations. So I can't see it as the start of the modern smart phone, just a step 👍 Microsoft suffered from such bad management it was a joke. They wanted to keep zune, xbox and windows phones completely separate to make money. That's the real what if (I think) What if MS had given a xbox/zune phone and put all their resources into it. 4 years after Apple released iPhone Nintendo gave us the 3ds and it still had a resistive touch screen because capacitive screens are not accurate enough for pure gaming machines. But resistive is bad for finger friendly OS. I don't think Nintendo ever wanted to go outside of their gaming bubble enough and they didn't have anything like the tech Microsoft had. 👍 Sorry I went all into memories there 😅

[@GamerFromJump]

A phone that would play great games and you couldn’t break with a nuke.

[@connormclernon26]

@@yardh no, it helped to put into context why Nintendo didn’t do it and why Apple did it

[@ElVlogdeBob]

why? that's as stupid as wanting them to make PCs. Is not that they needed it. They are hardware-software company and they are doing very well that way. No need to so other stuff. Funny how the so-called "fans" want Nintendo to die doing stuff like this.

[@Igorcastrochucre]

I love learning about tech companies trying to achieve what we have now with the limited tech they had then.

[@origintrackz5235]

hell yeah! i think the limitations actually forced them to be more creative with there designs!

[@607]

I love how you _only_ mention Sega as competitor at the beginning. xD What a fascinating piece of history! Great video, too.

[@fistofreak99]

This is probably the dopest shit found from a prototype like this! So much can be traced back to this!

[@MasterArchfiend]

Man, owning all of the GB add-ons would be so cool. There's just something so awesome about all of them and would be fun to imagine a world where they all caught on.

[@Jolis_Parsec]

I’m imagining someone going to great lengths to do just that only for it to have an effect similar to the Infinity Stones from the Marvel movies or the Shankara Stones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and allow the one in possession of all GB relics to rewrite history as it pertains to the GB and its game library. 😆

[@svenbtb]

This is really fascinating, I had never heard of this before! I can understand a few reasons why it didn't finalize, but it's really interesting to learn about stuff like this. Super ambitious

[@cecillewolters1995]

This is one of the most interesting videos I have seen in a big while, thank you very much! :)

[@LiamRproductions]

Thank you. I'm glad you thought so.

[@soma1990]

We could’ve all been holding Nintendo phones right now…

[@Stumbo99]

I knew nothing about workboy or really anything about the og Gameboys add-ons (og gameboy was just before my time), but this story and was son interesting! The fact the workboy seems to work so well really makes me think it was an unbelievably missed opportunity

[@barccy]

I saw an advertisement for this in a magazine distributed in school around 99. I wondered about whatever happened with it and searched the net until just today coming across this.

[@thenickster015]

I would've LOVED to have one of these as a kid if it came out! Imagine Pokemon wonder trades in the early 2000s!

[@lowtech42]

Slotting every single GameBoy accessory in at the same time like stones in the infinity gauntlet 🤣 But seriously, this was another fantastic deep dive into something that would've been lost to time. Just as good as the WorkBoy video and fascinating how ahead of it's time it was!

[@LiamRproductions]

Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

[@RetroPiero]

For shame it never got released. Over time, someone could have released a homebrew patch for full internet search and could have gain the title GAME MAN, based on search.

[@Katosepe]

I have huge doubts that the Game Boy Color could have handled live video in the late 90s. Wish they had actually built this out so we could see one way or another.

[@scragar]

If it's being streamed then the console is entirely limited to the speed it can push the data into RAM from the cart, the GBA had similar RAM speeds and was able to do video at a similar sort of resolution to the GBC and low framerate. So yeah, it'd be possible, but I doubt it'd be usable unless they could use clever tricks like reducing the real resolution(do it against a fixed colour background to reduce the amount needing to be updated each frame) or running a low framerate(doing the feeds as more like a slideshow with animatioms than a continuous live video).

[@LiamRproductions]

It wasn’t streaming live video. As I said in the video, it was using assets already on the device to convey new information.

[@ty_sylicus]

Amazing. So far ahead of its time!

[@chadmorris5154]

In 2003 I would have 100% wanted this.

[@mwbgaming28]

I've always wondered if the Gameboy was capable of displaying video When I was 10 there was nothing I wanted more than to be able to watch TV on my Gameboy color

[@chicocalte]

This would have been insane if they made this for the game boy advance and released promoted it for pokemon specifically. An internal game gear for the trainer.

[@donteriofloyd3746]

If you're not aware, there was actually something exactly like what you're describing for the gameboy advance sp. It was sold as a promotional item for when Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf green dropped back in the early 2000'sp

[@Astonkid08]

The early 90's really was a wild west of tech. Absolutely fantastic

[@origintrackz5235]

It truly was!! i think the innovation came from the limitations within the hardware they were working with. it forced them to be creative to figure out solutions etc. nowadays the tech we have is still truly amazing, but it still seem to me at least as if we lost some of that creativity idk...

[@BobbyMiller64]

Fascinating video! I like these deep dives into topics I'm not familiar with.

[@bobthedopeman7327]

You deserve all 2 million subscribers.

[@colt5189]

If they were able to pull off a deal. Then that could have been something that carried over to where even today they could have been getting royalties or something even though there isn't a need for an attachment.

[@lunatpr5594]

I'd love to seen a DYKG on the Klonoa series!

[@pablofmc]

It's undeniable. Nintendo always thinks about the japanese market FIRST, it's their utmost priority, to the point where they'd rather have something come out in japan but not everywhere else

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

That’s how Japanese companies work. American companies would do the same if they were as prevalent or less focused solely on profits

[@wesnohathas1993]

I'm certain this whole idea would have come to fruition if Nintendo could make it work in Japan, even if it wouldn't be made available anywhere else in the world.

[@nicodalusong149]

Naturally. Home market first. It's just easier to manage and fix. It's also why the international versions of games used to not have the bugs the japanese versions had since they had time to find out if there were bugs and patched them or fixed them some other way before releasing them to the wider market. That's not true anymore since Nintendo's into worldwide simultaneous releases now for their bigger titles. That's why we get buggier games now.

[@bobafett4265]

Man Great Job Liam I love your work of investigations and such, keep it up man.

[@ezrawyvern6795]

Funny enough, I heard about this add-on on a radio show on a classic rock radio show recently.

[@UndyingEnergy]

Had this released, it would have made ultimate Punching Weight material. I like to imagine that there is a Parallel Universe Derek out there somewhere, doing this thing the justice it so rightly deserves. Awesome coverage on a truly ambitious device. It's crazy the kinds of things we would never learn about if not for investigations like this.

[@theonlybilge]

5:18 Howard Lincoln? *THE* Howard "Night Trap will never be on a Nintendo system" Lincoln?

[@LiamRproductions]

Yep

[@evanhanley6437]

This is a really awesome product Nintendo endorsed. It should have become popular. Fair play to the creators.

[@Tzen03]

What a fascinating concept! Thanks for showcasing this, Liam!

[@backslash_iii]

This would have been a game changer if it came out in the late 90s, but I'd wage it would have been astronomically expensive if it was able to deliver all those features. On top of that it would definitely require a monthly service fee - even Sega Channel was a paid service. Or it might have been a huge flop. One of those "You guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it" situations. Who knows!

[@singletona082]

Fifteen year old me would have found this to be pretty f'ing amazing. Combine that with a way to get data on/off the thing and 'oh look it's turned the gameboy into a PDA.'

[@TheCreepypro]

why are these game boy add-ons so interesting?

[@JackCats0]

YOU THIEF! YOU STOLE MY SPICE GIRLS CD.

[@Yo_DynamoJoe]

From then on, Page Boy replaces your name with THIEF in all messages

[@nkhazov]

Omg I’m surprised about the page boy I’d love to personally own it things are improved like the Wii U 3ds switch. Best regards Nikita.K

[@gee_fm]

this would’ve been so ahead of it’s time

[@jhonsmithy2873]

smart phone before smart phones

[@hilldwler420]

Why was this not pursued? Was it the intro of smartphones the apple and initial android releases that put a halt to it? I mean there is so many applications. If you’re gonna be playing games on it , make it do everything else why not?

[@Owl_of_Books]

I love the little mugshot in the Gameboy "You thief! You stole my Spice Girls CD! " 😂

[@danielg.w5733]

this was way ahead of it's time

[@t3hp0larbear]

It's ironic to me how Nintendo Japan was like "yeah, but what about international markets, having something NA only will mess everything up" when they had so much JP-only stuff like the Satellaview and the N64DD.

[@rainbowspongebob]

So…. The iPhone before the iPhone?

[@mattwo7]

And to think, we could have gotten internet-based wireless trades and battles in Pokemon Crystal like Japan.

[@madwax4771]

That backlight tho :D

[@TheBlargMarg]

A man a head of the time, he seemed like the one to attempt to modernized wireless communication before it was relatively available.

[@HunterKiotori]

Imagine the things that are ahead of our time now, that some executives are canceling because they won't sell.

[@CommandLineVulpine]

Didn't you guys already do a video on this?

[@thysonsacclaim]

@ 0:05 I love how the tops of the platforms look like DIPs.

[@PrezzySK]

Is the sales pitch document available somewhere ?

[@LiamRproductions]

I wasn’t permitted to release them publicly. Sorry.

[@arielglr7177]

Dang, they really cancelled it because it was USA exclusive, while they did Japanese exclusive stuff and didn't even consider other markets smh

[@fauzanramadhan9046]

It makes sense since Nintendo is Japan company, and they will always prioritize home first

[@arielglr7177]

@@fauzanramadhan9046 yeah, but what they said is that they wanted all the world to have the same experiences with handhelds and games, then made multiple add ons and even a game boy that never left japan (Gameboy Light)

[@fauzanramadhan9046]

@@arielglr7177 they tend to use Japan as test market for new the hardware. Gameboy light is a unique case, because if it's release in the US it will collide with Gameboy Color line up (at the were already out). For the development side it was a strange time for gameboy R&D team because gunpei yokoi has already leave nintendo and project atlantis (Gameboy Advance) were still on the long development. And because of higher up at Nintendo wants a next gen gameboy to compete against Neo Geo in Japan and at the time there are rumors for bandai new handheld. Then Nintendo was forces to relelase the gameboy color a few months after gameboy light (at the time Nintendo was planning GBA to be the next gameboy but they still need more time for development)

[@arielglr7177]

@@fauzanramadhan9046 then what about the DS Japanese exclusive stuff?

[@frankflores6793]

Low-key mad this didn't happen

[@hubzcaps]

Dat backlight doh

[@Dremag_Gaming]

Even if it somehow did get approved. How long would've it lasted? Plus to think that feature ideas would be like these are something as well.

[@kitestar]

Looks like the workboy wasn’t the only lost gameboy add-on

[@Chaos89P]

There's a radio tuner that I would've loved to get my hands on as a kid, but I don't even know if it exists.

[@tonypang83]

All those functions, and it would've only required two AA batteries? Not sure how long it'd last before running out... 🤔

[@Forever_Zero]

Too bad they were limited at the time, this could've been a major technological advance in history

[@djdrastic1]

Hi algorithm brought me here.

[@jamescrow8822]

So basically our GBC could have been the world's first smartphone in many senses.

[@TheDarkestPhoenix]

"A product limited to one territory" One of the biggest territories and didn't stop them from using similar things in Japan exclusively, the Satellaview comes to mind. So yeah, this was less "it's not able to get on everything" and more "it's not able to work here".

[@highwind4559]

In an alternate universe we have Page Boys in 2021, instead of smartphones!

[@chompythebeast]

*YOU THIEF! YOU STOLE MY SPICE GIRLS CD* Yep, that's all pretty 90's

[@lynntaylor9681]

It's too bad it didn't come out at the time. With all the Japanese games that are region locked, it would have been nice to have a US region locked game add-on.

[@nidorinojohans]

The Link's Awakening music adds up to the dream-like nostalgia and cuteness of this sadly unmaterializable project. Cheers for the mind inventing it.

[@thefirstguyjaek255]

YOU STOLE MY SPICE GIRLS CD

[@sakuraanime122]

so what your saying is that nintendo tried to make the gameboy into a cell phone

[@johnanimespacemarine3041]

Just imagine an alternate universe where this actually came out and took off, Nintendo would have been considered to be the origin and creator of social media instead of the cell phone industry.

[@TheDeadUnlucky]

The only thing that might have held this product back was price but if they managed to figure that out we might have seen later gameboys have this integrated into the hardware. So cool seeing old companies explore what was possible with any bit of hardware they could get their hands on. Now the only question is can a modders and hardware enthusiast recreate something like this.

[@troystrain2436]

I initially thought this was going to be something like the Shark MX or whatever that thing was called, but this is much cooler.

[@genkaiba15]

This while video I could only think of one thing: GS Ball in America. Sad day.

[@Fabstron]

I'm really enjoying these type of videos! Great work!

[@EckmanJones]

I call bs on their reason for a universal launch, there were tons of Japan only releases. In truth, if it couldn't come out in Japan it wasn't going to be released.

[@Shinobi33]

Excellent video

[@stabinghobo57]

Great video, merry Christmas!

[@Ludanc0]

Interesting, was this found on the recent Nintendo leak?.

[@ArktikAlice]

Videos like this are the reason I ever started using the damned Bell that KZbin added to subscriptions. Stuff like this is too good to miss

[@AmyraCarter]

Interesting device, not sure if I would of wanted one. Sounds like it might of been more hassle than useful ultimately.

[@JaredConnell]

Was

[@Gilhelmi]

Today maybe, but in the 90's the hassle would have been far more worth it. Keep in mind, a standard cellphone plan only allowed you to talk for 200 minutes. Many computers required a decent level of technical knowledge to install software. (I was actually forbidden from buying games that used 3.5" floppies because my Aunt said that they were to difficult to use. CD-ROM's were much easier for her to use.) For the time, the PageBoy seems rather user friendly.

[@SilverAura]

It almost sounds to me like the add-on did change the way Nintendo did business. Upon reflection, it would seem this whole concept might have actually been the backbone behind how and why their network implementation has always been a bit... unique compared to the more consistent/standardized experience across any other platform.

[@SeiferA2001]

Nintendo: The page boy can only be used in America and not worldwide? Nah, we dont want this Also nintendo: The mobile game adapter, which can be used to battle and trade people online in Pokemon Crystal, can only be used in Japan? Oh hell yeah this is what we want!

[@wesnohathas1993]

"We can't launch this in North America only. The whole idea is for it to be universal." Translation: "If Japan can't have it, no one can."

[@SuperTrainStationH]

Wait so Japan can get Satellaview BS, the 64 DD, and all those cool Famicom attachments as region exclusive, but the second the US almost got something similar as region exclusive, it gets canned for not having global appeal. Okay.

[@s0ul216]

It was and is always "Japan first; overseas second" for Nintendo. If Pageboy's comm mechanism was doable in Japan, then they might try to release the add-on.

[@l3layze]

Most of this is too ambitious for the Game Boy Color. It's cool that it was researched, but idk why it wasn't considered for the game boy advance...

[@ImJustLayZ]

you should do lego worlds for dykg

[@mr.flipstv]

This would of been so bad ass

[@steamyhams9315]

Wait, there could've been a slight chance that this would've competed with Apple and Samsung?!

[@mikecraftbro]

That’s level ups outro song

[@SpookyButtz]

It would be cool to see the page boy being used in an analog horror series.