The Game Boy by Nintendo is in all likelihood the most popular handheld console ever, considering that, from 1989 to today, sold the beauty of 118 million units sold . The little jewel of the Big N is not only remembered for its iconic games – such as Tetris or Super Mario Land – but also and above all for the incredible variety of accessories dedicated to it.

One of these peripherals responds to the name of WorkBoy and, unlike the more famous Game Boy Camera or the bizarre Handy Boy, he never saw his debut on the market. A 16 years from its presentation, a working prototype was found accessory that would transform Game Boy into a practical (and unusual) handheld computer .

WorkBoy, the add-on for Game Boy that has never seen the light

Announced by Nintendo in 1992, the WorkBoy was shown in action during the CES of the same year: we are talking about an add-on that would have extended the features of the Game Boy both on the hardware and on the software front, introducing some tools dedicated to productivity .

The device consisted of a small keyboard to connect to the console, which would have allowed us to use an exclusive package of 12 applications , which included a calendar, an address book, an agenda for appointments and much more. The software developed by Nintendo for the WorkBoy would have supported five different languages, including Italian.

In short, the small portable console of the Kyoto giant could have become a real workstation in reduced size. In Nintendo’s plans, WorkBoy should have seen the light in late ’92 and the spring of ’93, at a particularly high price for a “simple” accessory : between 79 and the 89 dollars , at least for the US market. Today we know that that debut never happened, due to some obstacles found in the last stages of production.

The miraculous (re) discovery of the peripheral after 28 years

The history of the discovery of the WorkBoy is almost unbelievable. The author of the (re) discovery is Liam Robertson , journalist and videomaker for the YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming, where has already been able to tell the story of some games and consoles that are now missing.

Speaking with Robertson, the designer of the WorkBoy Eddie Gill has revealed the existence of only two prototypes: one, most likely, would be hidden in the “dungeons of Nintendo”, while the other would belong to Frank Ballouz , founder of Fabtek – company in charge of the production of the peripheral. The journalist then got in touch with Ballouz, who showed the infamous WorkBoy during the video call with Robertson .

Not having a working Game Boy, Ballouz sent his very rare prototype to Indiana Jones at DidYouKnowGaming to allow him to carry out any tests. The only missing piece was the WorkBoy software , never released and therefore unobtainable.

Paradoxically, Robertson’s stroke of luck was the recent “Gigaleak” that hit Nintendo by stealing an enormous amount of data; apparently among the leaked files there was also a ROM of the aforementioned software package. Within minutes the reporter was able to run the WorkBoy applications on his portable console.