YouTuber Otto Climan turned a GameBoy Color into a remote control for Apple TV. An unusual challenge that is starting to make the rounds of the web and that takes advantage of the infrared sensor and the button matrix of Nintendo’s portable console.
Single remote control for Apple TV
Besides, the personalized GameBoy in question does not only serve as an Apple TV remote control, it is also a modern handheld. This GameBoy has a new bright backlit screen instead of the very old school panel which only showed a few colors.
The final product sports a sleek white casing with the classic six-color Apple logo on the back that is reminiscent of the American brand’s older computers. But inside, besides the new generation screen, the hacker had to create a special cartridge capable of running different software. Climan has notably developed its own ROM which integrates with the infrared sensor so that it can be recognized by an Apple TV. It also includes software that maps the d-pad and auxiliary buttons to the Apple TV user interface.
The fact that Apple still retains support for infrared remote controls in the most recent versions of Apple TV, therefore made it easier to complete this project. Indeed, the firm could have done without it given that the Siri remote control uses Bluetooth to communicate with the box.
Would you be interested in an original remote control like this? It would go very well with the Super Nintendo “shell” seen last month.