A Christchurch entrepreneur has created a phone case that allows gamers to take a strong hit of nostalgia with them anywhere they go.
The invention, Swoppy, spends most of its life as a phone case - but when applied in reverse, quickly transforms the touch screen into an old school Nintendo Gameboy.
The product has a set of buttons that resemble the 1989 gaming device, allowing players to tap into an emulator and revisit hits like Zelda, Pokémon and Super Mario Land in an authentic way.
Regina Speer came up with the idea after buying a Gameboy-inspired rubber case for her phone.
"It gave me warm nostalgic fuzzies, I really wanted to play it, I pushed the buttons a lot," she says.
"I took that case and went to a local start-up week [event] and pitched the idea and formed a team. Within 24 hours we built a prototype."
Matthias McGregor, who runs the nostalgia-infused gaming store Blast from the Past, says there's still a real market around old gaming consoles.
"Nintendo especially, the Game Boy, the N64, I feel like it never goes away, it's really touched a place in a lot of people's hearts," he says.
"I think it's quite a human thing, to feel comfort in that amphora, in something that's physical, that you can hold in your hand."
A crowdfunding campaign for the product is currently underway on Kickstarter.
Newshub.
