Esteban Fuentealba's MALVEKE Turns the Flipper Zero Into a Nintendo Game Boy Powerhouse

Maker Esteban Fuentealba is colliding two worlds of portable electronics with the launch of the MALVEKE, which connects cartridges designed for the classic Nintendo Game Boy console to the popular Flipper Zero electronic multi-tool.

"As a hacking challenge enthusiast and a Game Boy console fanatic, as well as a Flipper Zero enthusiast, I decided to combine two of my favorite things and create this product," Fuentealba explains. "Currently, it's a functional prototype where I'm developing various apps for the board, and you can also create and contribute to them, as pull requests and new ideas are welcome."

The Flipper Zero, recently the subject of a Tech Highlight video, is designed to combine a pocket-friendly Tamagotchi-style virtual pet with a range of tools for experimenting with sub-gighertz, Bluetooth, Radio-Frequency ID (RFID), and Near-Field Communication (NFC) radios, infrared signals, iButton tags, and a range of other devices via its general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins. The Game Boy, by contrast, was Nintendo's smash-hit success in the portable gaming market, launched in 1989 and selling near 120 million units worldwide.

Fuentealba's creation takes advantage of the Flipper Zero's GPIO headers to interface with an Espressif ESP32-S2 microcontroller — adding Wi-Fi connectivity to the Flipper Zero's loadout straight out of the box. Unusually, though, it also lets you connect a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, or Game Boy Advance cartridge, unlocking some interesting new admittedly-work-in-progress functionality.

At the time of writing, the software side of the MALVEKE had matured to the point where it could read cartridge information from Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges, and dump saved games in RAM from Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. Work is underway to add the ability to dump the game ROMs themselves, too, though this has yet to be finished — but a Pokémon trading app has been demonstrated, letting the Flipper Zero trade any first-generation Pokémon to a real Game Boy.

For owners of the iconic black-and-white Game Boy Camera accessory, there's good news: the MALVEKE can use the camera directly, taking snapshots which are saved onto the Flipper Zero and can be transmitted to a desktop or laptop over Wi-Fi. If you also have a Game Boy, on-board Link Cable connectors let the Flipper Zero stand in for a Game Boy Printer. If that's not enough, there are also slots for optional radio modules and a GPS receiver.

The MALVEKE is, perhaps, the most unusual Flipper Zero add-on we've seen of late, but it's certainly not alone: Erwin Ried recently launched the FlippernHeimer to add radiation monitoring to the electronic multi-tool, while SCE's TinyGPS offers the ability to go "subdriving" — like Wi-Fi wardriving, but for sub-gigahertz radio signals.

Fuentealba is developing the project on GitHub under the permissive MIT license, with contributions welcome; prototype boards are available on his Tindie store starting at $65 for the basic kit version.