In my search for the ultimate retro gaming machine I’ve been surprised by the limited options when it comes to controllers for iOS and android. While there are plenty of controllers that you can clip your phone onto in landscape orientation, I haven’t seen any that are designed to play in portrait mode. I see several benefits to a clip on controller for portrait mode. Pinball games, Tetris, and DS games all play best in portrait mode. Plus, a portrait mode controller would be close to the original gameboy in terms of form-factor.
Anyone else looking for something like this? Have I missed a product that’s out there? Maybe once I get a 3D printer I can cannibalize a Bluetooth controller and experiment.
The SmartBoy is probably the closest thing to a gamevice/backbone/kishi that works in portrait mode. If you are ok with the lack of input (it only has Gameboy controls) then you can use it for other systems than just GB/GBC
See the comment below for a tutorial for using smartboy with other emulators
Direct link to instructions so people don’t have to give Reddit webtraffic:
To do this you’ll need:
Your phone
Your Hyperkin SmartBoy
GBA emulator (MyBoy! Is a good one)
Hyperkin SmartBoy companion app
When setting up the app, make sure you do NOT allow it to appear on screen as then you will get a piracy cover/window if you take your phone out.
Go to your emulator and set up the controls (Including L and R).
Make sure that before launching your rom you put phone in your SmartBoy and launch the companion app (as only then SmartBoy will work).
Done!
PS: You can also use it to dump GB games. After the cartridge has been read, go to the folder where it wss dumped and copy it to elsewhere, while doing this, don’t take your phone out! Instead just rotate it.
Thanks so much, I’ll go ahead and edit my comment to just reference you comment below
Never seen this before, thanks for sharing! Looks a bit clunky but this is more or less what I had envisioned.
No clip, but phone stand + 8bitDo Bluetooth controller works well.
Check out the controllers made by ipega – I’ve never personally used them, but they’re the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.
