Playing Gameboy games on your NES, that has been my dream for years, decades actually. Why? You might ask, why not just use the Super Gameboy that Nintendo themselves? That’s a tough one and yet so very simple. I did get a Super Nintendo for Christmas one yer, sure I had to share it with my brother and a little later I also got a Super Gameboy, it might have been for Christmas too, not that that bit of info matters much to this story or to anyone really.

But we are getting to the simple part, the Super Nintendo was never my favourite console. Sure I loved Super Mario 4, F-Zero, Castlevania and the other few games I picked up over the years, the graphics were awesome compared to the NES, the sound was amazing, but it just still wasn’t my favourite – the old NES had a special place in my heart, and maybe it just got too cheesy right there.

Anyway I had seen this adapter that someone was working on for the NES, I honestly don’t remember much about my first encounter with the gadget other tan it was on my wish list from that very moment.

I later learned that the device was called “The Biederman Game Boy Adapter” or “Biederman Design Labs Gameboy to NES Adapter”. Peter Biederman, a former engineer from Capcom’s Arcade department, decided to try his luck on his own and created BDL Enterprises where he created various gadgets.

Biederman went on to create the mentioned Gameboy to NES Adapter and teamed up with Camerica to bring it to market. In December of 1990, Electronic Gaming Monthly (Issue 17) featured an article about the Biederman Gameboy to NES Adapter, detailing how it would work.

As far as I know the adapter was never really demo’ed anywhere, so for all we know it could just have been a mockup, or maybe it was actually able to play a select few games, all that it just pure guessing though, because I have not seen any live footage of the adapter running a game.

In June of 1991 and Electronic Gaming Monthly again had a small “blurb” about Camerica and the Gameboy to NES Adapter, but still no screenshots or anything, so I guess they too did not see the thing running, but again – I am again guessing here. A little over a year later in July of 1992 BDL Enterprises was no more and the adapter did not see the light of day. A year later Camerica would be out of business as well.

Some 20 years after the Biederman adapter was announced, Brian Parker of RetroUSB released the RetroVision, a Gameboy to NES adapter that actually worked. It was a $130 device at the time that required Brian to use parts from an original Gameboy for each device, which had to be hand built too, so it was made in limited quantities and soon got discontinued.

I unfortunately waited a little too long with my order of the RetroVision and missed out and it was probably never meant to be. Times had changed too and there were so many other ways to play Gameboy games by then – but I still wanted to play Gameboy games on an NES.

Now forward to 35 years after the Biederman Adapter was announced – out of nowhere, well China, comes a Gameboy to Famicom Adapter and how cool is that, and with a pricetag of roughly $80, it was not too bad either – except it wasn’t for the NES.

2025 would bring another treat though, because a few months later the NES variant of the Gameboy to Famicom adapter would arrive and I once again had had to dig deep into my pockets and find $80, I could not miss out this time!

So, how does it work? What does it do? Well it’s actually pretty simple, it plays Gameboy games on your NES – yes really! 

I believe the adaptor is called “NES to Gameboy” and is probably the closest thing to the Biederman adapter too, the Gameboy cartridge sits flush with edge of the NES cart and it honestly looks really nice. On that note, the name “NES to Gameboy” written on the circuit board it a little weird as it sort of indicated NES on a Gameboy and not the other way around, oh well..

There is one catch though, one that the RetroVision had too, being that sound can’t be played by the NES itself without modification and while the 2 resistors needed to carry out the mod are included with the adaptor, you are not told how to do it – not that I would want to do it anyway.

Fortunately you have a second option for sound as the cartridge has a connector for an audio cable, which also is included.

The Aliexpress adapter is actually also borrows components, the brains of this device is the Nintendo SGB-CPU, meaning every time one of these adapter is made, a Super Gameboy is butchered, still though there is probably more than enough Super Gameboys out there.

I won’t be going much into detail about the game compatibility for official games, it’s using an original Nintendo Gameboy chip, so compatibility is pretty close to “spot on”. What might be interesting though is that the chip also supports unofficial carts from Sachen, like their 4in1’s

Wisdom Tree games are also reported to work, although because of a metal bar inside the NES cartridge slot, it can be a little difficult to get a proper fit, but it can be done.

Will it run your favourite flash cartridge too, seems so!

Even your favourite pirate multicart should work!

What it does not do though, it does not show you the border if your Gameboy game is Super Gameboy compatible – the NES is simply not capable of doing so, and even if it was possible to load it, the number of colors would be an issue.

Speaking of colors, your Gameboy Color cartridge may work if it’s backwards compatible, meaning it can play the game in monochrome “colors”, some games are compatible with the old “DMG” Gameboy while others are not. Don’t even ask about Gameboy Advanve, there is just no way.

Finally, you do have a few options to colorize your games using this adapter. By holding UP for some time and pressing SELECT you can toggle through some preset palettes. LEFT and SELECT gives you the option to switch brightness. It’s compatible with both US and European (NTSC/PAL) consoles – should you experience the screen blinking on and off, simply press and hold the reset for a few seconds to make the adapter “adapt” to your NES and you may have to do it a few times.

That pretty much wraps it up, it’s an awesome gadget I would have loved to own one way back in the 90’s. Will I be using it much now though? Probably not as there are so many more convenient options to play Gameboy games these days – but I absolutely love that someone went through the blood, sweat and tears (maybe) to create this.

If you would like one, they are available at Aliexpress. I am not sponsored in any way and purchased my adapter with my own money, but don’t tell my wife! (please)
Also, if you could like to check out the Famicom counter part, an article is available here.

That’s it, thanks for reading

Credits:
Super Mega Grafx 64 - Play Gameboy on NES?
Chris M. Cowell
Brian Parker