As a purveyor of all things Retro, I was immediately intrigued by the original viral Game Boy Speedometer post by Zaku Mods and knew I was going to have to figure out how to make myself one. I am a lifelong car guy and a kid of the ’90s who grew up glued to a Game Boy screen playing Pokemon Yellow in the back of my parent’s 1993 Ford Escort. Fast forward about 20 years and I own two Foxbody Mustangs, host a vintage-themed Mustang & Ford event called Retro Meet, and am the co-owner of LUE Creative, a motorsports-centric design agency with a heavy focus on all things retro.
With all of that put together, I have always had the spark to create and make things my own, especially when it comes to car-related things! I have done everything from working at an aftermarket Mustang parts company to being on the creative team at NASCAR, but my favorite thing by far is the freedom and creativity that our Retro Meet event inspires.
Over the years we’ve spent a ton of time creating and building unique trophies for our costume and burnout contest winners. Our trophies have ranged from skateboards based on the Back to the Future II hoverboard, to fully-functional mini arcade machines that play Pac-Man and Dig Dug and the creation process has become our favorite part of planning the event each year. Coincidentally, the grand prize for our fourth meet ended up being custom, chrome-gold Game Boys complete with a backlight and our event artwork on the screen, so I was no stranger to modifying these shells for another purpose. After seeing Zaku’s Game Boy Speedometer mod, I knew my experience would come in handy again soon.
The aforementioned post planted an idea that would come to the front of my mind every time I glanced over at my Retro Meet Game Boy trophy. One night, after staring at it a bit too long, I decided to hop on Google to research what it would take to make my own and see if anyone had written an article like this one. I could not find much, but it led me to Erebor Creative Co. on Etsy, selling a Game Boy Color setup on their shop. After studying their version and weighing my options, I knew I wanted to make my own and immediately got the wheels turning. After building the Game Boy trophies in 2021, I knew I could make sure the buttons still felt like they worked properly and was confident I could come up with a better mounting solution while retaining the function of the GPS speedometer.
How To Build This Yourself
That research led me to Amazon, where I quickly found the parts I thought would work and started assembling my plan. After choosing the proper color shell to match my car and all the tools and accessories to fill my cart (don’t worry, I have made a list, so you don’t have to.) I hit purchase and began gathering my materials.
To begin you will need a few tools, which include a Dremel (or similar rotary tool,) an X-Acto knife, tiny Game Boy screwdrivers (included with the replacement shell,) and a cutting mat. Then you will need your replacement Game Boy shell in the color of your choice, the GPS digital speedometer, a roll of 3M Tape, foam core board (black or white,) and alternate colored buttons if desired. I also created my mounting system that uses the battery door as the base for a threaded suction cup mount. The mount requires extra materials, which includes the 3M Tape, the camera cold shoe adapter, and the RAM-style suction cup mount.
Once everything is compiled and ready we can unbox all of our parts & pieces, grab our tools, and start building:
Step 1: Use your snipping pliers to trim the proprietary mount tabs from the back of the GPS Speedometer. Don’t forget to remove the screen protection film from the speedometer during this stage. Sand down the area if needed.
Step 2: Grab the back of the Game Boy shell and place the front of the GPS Speedometer on the flat area where the game is inserted.
Center the front in the area about 1/4 of an inch down from the top and mark the contour of the speedometer with a pencil or the X-Acto knife.
Step 3: Use your Dremel tool to cut and clearance the marked area until complete.
Step 4: Place the speedometer in the cleared area. Flip over the shell and mark a rectangular area around the power plug to fit the supplied power cord.
Step 5: Drill starter holes in all four corners of the marked area and proceed to Dremel out the marked area.
Step 6: Once the hole is made and the area is clear for your speedometer, recheck that the fitment is correct and make sure that the cord properly plugs in.
Step 7: Apply a 1/2” piece of 3M Tape over the removed mount holes on the back of your Speedometer and apply it to the flat spot of the back of the Game Boy. Press to secure.
Step 8: Grab your foam core board and apply the Tension Board template with scotch tape. Using your x-acto and mini screwdriver, punch the marked holes, trim the edges, and dig out the area for the battery door location.
Step 9: Place around the speedometer in the back shell of the Game Boy. Press down until flush or below the edges of the shell.
Step 10: Grab the front shell of the Game Boy and install the buttons and rubber contacts. Install the IR sensor block and power switch into the back shell of the Game Boy.
Step 11: Mate the front and back together, being mindful of the alignment of the power button in the process. Screw together both halves until the proper tension is achieved.
Step 12: Peel the protective film and adhesive backing film from the Game Boy screen glass and install onto the completed Game Boy shell.
Step 13: Grab the battery door and one threaded disc from the cold shoe adapter. Apply 3M tape to the cold shoe adapter and trim around the circular disc and tape the disc to the center of the battery door.
Step 14: Screw the suction cup mount into the circular disc now attached to the battery door and install the battery door to the Game Boy.
Step 15: Mount the suction cup in your desired area, plug in your Game Boy Speedometer and make sure everything works.
Please keep in mind the following information:
The tension board is not 100% necessary, but it does help tighten up the installation and make the button presses feel more natural. Also, make sure to consult the speedometer manual to set your required speed adjustment, warning alarm speed, and measure of distance.
Once you have worked out all the details, it’s time to hit the road in retro style and add a perfect touch of nostalgia to your daily drive. If you’re anything like me, this mod will surely take you back to a simpler time when beating the next gym and trading Pokémon with your friends using a link cable was all that mattered. If only there were a rare candy glitch to level up our horsepower!
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I hope you have as much fun making your own Game Boy Speedometer as I have. I can’t wait to see the color combinations created across the different vehicles. Feel free to tag me in your results on Instagram at @luecreative, and join us at Retro Meet (@Retro_Meet) during Mustang Week in Myrtle Beach every September. Until then, stay retro and keep creating!
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I might use this idea for my trike, to help further the hybrid cyberpunk/post-apocalyptic/occult theme I have planned for it.
I want to make it look like it belongs in a post-apocalyptic world. The vehicle will be painted the color of rust with a silver Baphomet statue with its wings spread out as a hood ornament, one front wheel disc cover with a pentagram on it, the other wheel having the “333” symbol for Choronzon on its aero disc cover, a fallout shelter sign for a rear derailleur access hatch, a racing number “666” within a cleanly-made circle surrounding it spray-painted on the top of the front, a big red anarchy sign sloppily spraypainted on the left side, the front made to look like the face of an Eldritch abomination(perhaps Cthulhu) using the headlights as eyes, occult symbols and magick incantations written all over the body, and yellow/red/blue LEDs placed inside the wheels to make them look like they are on fire when lit up and riding down the street.
Here’s an earlier mockup for the previous body shell, that was not quite as well thought out:
https://i.imgur.com/bygu75s.jpg
A Gameboy as a digital speedometer would TOTALLY work for this from an aesthetic perspective. Make it look scavenged.
The body shell I’m currently working on looks a lot like a Bulk Urban velomobile.
The vehicle is a human/electric/solar hybrid enclosed trike with the possibility of also having an ethanol-to-electric fuel cell added to it to maximize the amount of fuel sources available to make it move. And it will be extremely efficient. The previous iteration before I took it apart used approximately 0.008 kWh/mile to travel 30-35 mph(the equivalent of about 4,000 mpg), and I expect that the next body will have less than one-third the aerodynamic drag of the previous one. It’s getting AWD and 20+ kW peak power, but it will still be able to be pedaled to faster-than-bicycle speeds with the motor(s) disabled. A roll cage and safety harness are being incorporated into the build. Expected finished weight to be under 120 lbs with a 1.7 kWh Molicel P42A battery pack and a PMDC hubmotor in each wheel. Full suspension gas shocks as well. Wheels are 16×1.5″ DOT rims with 13ga spokes and Mitas MC2 16×2.25″ tires. Front hub motors are Grin All-Axle 3T wind and rear is a Leafbike 1500W 3T with slight field wakening run from the controller to match the kV rating of the front motors. Controllers are an ASI BAC4000 for the rear motor and two Phaserunners for the front motors, run at 12kW peak and 4kW peak each. The solar panels will be placed on the top and sides where they can be fit, and I expect to get about 150W in direct sunlight, which on a normal day, should generate about 50-100 miles range per day at 30-35 mph, more with pedaling. Plenty of trunk space to store food, guns, ammo, camping gear, water, and anything else on might need.
I will put it in rear wheel drive only mode and use it to make Phi symbols in the middle of intersections, ala Toecutter’s gang from “Mad Max”, just for the chaos that it represents. And lots of ass will be hauled. Count on it.
Have you considered adding bomb-like tail fins? Anyway, looks rad.
Depending upon high-speed stability issues that arise when careening down the highway at 80 mph, I might add a dorsal ridge in the rear.
But shape-wise, everything is being done for drag reduction and crosswind stability. This vehicle needs to be first and foremost as efficient as possible while remaining functional as a road-worthy vehicle. As an apocalypse vehicle, you can even pedal it to keep going if you must, and in that use case, every little watt of power becomes more important, especially when you might only be able to maintain 100W on average pedaling all day long, where proper aerodynamics and proper selection of components can mean the difference between a 20+ mph rolling average when operated solely on pedal power, or a < 10 mph rolling average… And the faster it can be operated on pedal-only power, the higher the efficiency and the greater the cruising range will be at highway speeds when using the electric drive system. Solar + pedaling might allow one to maintain 35-40 mph all day long without draining the battery down, where if I stay around 35 mph or so, charge during breaks/meals, I might be able to cover 400 miles in a day. I expect that using battery plus solar plus pedaling, maybe 120 miles range at 70 mph on a full charge. Which is where a one-horsepower ethanol-to-electric fuel cell and a 1 gallon tank of ethanol would be really handy to have, as it would allow me to do highway speeds all day long, and I’d likely get 1,000+ MPGs while doing it and it would allow me to cover car-like distances at car-like speeds. Like aero drag, mass is also the enemy and anything over 120 lbs is going to be too heavy to be pedalable on a disabled motor, so a larger/heavier battery than what I’m already using is not feasible for the application. My current battery pack is below 20 lbs.
I’ll be using art and adornments for my aesthetics, but nothing that will significantly compromise the aero. This thing is going to be so slippery that the baphomet hood ornament by itself could end up being 1/3 or more of the vehicle’s total aero drag!
Man I’m old.
When I saw retro speedometer, the first thing I thought of was an old school analogue dial.
This looks like a fun though.
The dials are still in vehicles. The 7 segment displays really aren’t (though some of the screen-based stuff and some of the HUDs reproduce the effect). I can see a case for considering this the retro option.
I was expecting to read something about programming a gameboy to be a speedometer.
Yeah, I have to admit I’m a little disappointed. I feel like attaching a case to get a cool looking speedometer is nice, but not really turning a Gameboy Color into a speedometer.
Same, but the thing is that the Gameboy doesn’t have backlighting so it would be totally useless at night.
There are plenty of aftermarket backlit LCD kits available these days for every Game Boy model.
https://there.oughta.be/a/wifi-game-boy-cartridge — I’m pretty sure that this thing can be used to display OBD-II data streamed through a Raspberry Pi.
Cheap amazon fire tablet does that for cheap, not particularly ugly either
You def can and apparently you can program the actual GameBoy Os to read OBD2 info as well. However, neither of my Rad Era Mustangs have OBD2 so that doesn’t do me much good! The beauty is that you could attach this to a battery on a bicycle and it would still work!
If a Playstation controller can run a submarine, a Gameboy can be a speedometer!
But can it though? I mean, the controller worked for a while I guess…
The controller gets way more bad rap than it deserves. It’s a solid device that goes through a lot of abuse without failing. It’s also a very well known and familiar user interface to a lot of young men. That’s why the Navy is using them too to control periscopes. The thing about the billionaire compressor is that it wasn’t a very well made submarine and that one single bad thing gets associated with the controller (and it was xbox, not playstation).
Yes, I’m actually aware of all of this. It was just funny to me to use the Billionaire Compressor, which is a funny term, as a positive example.
The OceanGate sub used a Logitech gamepad: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/06/submarine-missing-near-titanic-used-a-30-logitech-gamepad-for-steering/
But in general game controllers are incredibly well developed to be: ergonomic, used by a wide range of hand sizes, and with the expectation that they’ll be thrown at the wall a few times. Oh, and they’re pretty cheap. Why reinvent the wheel when there’s a commercial solution that fits the job?