Via DidYouKnowGaming? on YouTube, video game historian Liam Robertson shared the story of the cancelled Game Boy Color accessory Page Boy.
This video comes days after Robertson revealed the story of the WorkBoy, a PDA-like add-on for the original Game Boy that was shown at CES 1992. but didn’t make it into the market.
WorkBoy creator Eddie Gill worked on the Page Boy alongside his brother Christopher Gill. This device would have given Game Boy Color users access to the Internet, news updates, and communication tools (text messages, emails). Page Boy would have worked with radio waves used by two-way pagers.
Because of his connection with Frank Ballouz, Gill was able to talk in 1999 with Minoru Arakawa (former NOA president), Howard Lincoln (former chairman) and Wayne Alan Shirk (former head of engineering).
Gill showed various features such as Ask Mario, Game Boy Live TV, weather info, sports scores, as well as world news. According to the video, the weather app seemed like a precursor of the Weather Channel on the Wii.
The Game Boy Live TV feature was supposed to broadcast news about upcoming Nintendo products, sort of what Nintendo does with Nintendo Direct.
Though Nintendo agreed in 1999 to work the Gill’s company, known as Wizard, the future of the device wasn’t set in stone.
Nintendo wanted the device to work everywhere in the world. The main roadblock for this feature was that “there were no cost-effective duplex wireless data network for Japan and Europe then, limiting the Page Boy to work just for North America.”
Nintendo cancelled the plan for Page Boy “around July 2002.”
Check out the 17-minute video below.
[Source]: DidYouKnowGaming? (YouTube): Page Boy: Nintendo’s LOST Game Boy Add-on | Game History Secrets.
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