We really did get Windows on the Game Boy before we got GTA VI! Ever stare at a Game Boy Color and think, “This thing needs Windows”? No? Well, now you will. GBS Windows by Ruben Retro is a ridiculous, beautiful, perfectly unnecessary but deeply satisfying piece of nerd culture. It’s a full-blown tribute to Windows 3.1 packed into a 512KB Game Boy cartridge. It boots, it beeps, it has a fake startup sequence, a bootable file directory, and yes, you need to type ‘cd windows’ followed by ‘win’ to get going – except you don’t really type. You just mash buttons and bask in the illusion. The Game Boy Color itself was never meant for this. Released in 1998, it ran a custom Sharp LR35902 processor at 8 MHz, had a 160×144 pixel screen, supported 32,768 colors (of which only 56 could be displayed simultaneously), and took two AA batteries. It was built for basic 8-bit gaming, but this cartridge turns it into a gorgeously retro Windows machine, complete with a GUI, windows that maximize and minimize, and yes – it even comes with (wait for it) MS Paint! Designer: Ruben Retro GBS Windows comes loaded with a faux-multitasking interface that lets you navigate between a media player, Minesweeper, a piano keyboard, an arcade-style cannon defense game, and a literal paint app! Every interaction is deliberately clunky in the most loving way. You have to double-click icons to launch, and launching apps has noticeable load times that feel like you’re back on a 486 with 4MB RAM. Heck, booting the system also displays a parody of the famous American Megatrends page before loading command prompt. ‘Type’ the command and it magically loads the Windows GUI, with all the apps. The whole thing runs on a flash ROM, not a mask ROM, so the data is rewritable. There’s even a CR2032 battery inside, although – plot twist – nothing in the cartridge actually uses it. There’s no save functionality. You can’t store high scores, paint drawings, or piano loops. That battery is just there, waiting. It’s the Schrödinger’s save feature of the Game Boy world. My earliest memories of a Windows PC were playing Solitaire and Minesweeper on a crusty old computer. Given that this probably isn’t powerful enough (or the display isn’t hi-res enough) to run Solitaire, the GBS Windows does, however, come with a fully operational version of Minesweeper, complete with the Windows theme and graphics. You move a cursor around and play the game, and the best part is that even though GBS Windows is only compatible with Game Boy Colors, the cartridge actually works with Game Boy Classic consoles too, loading just a b/w version of Minesweeper that you can play. The media player is a surprise hit. Featuring chiptune renditions of themes inspired by Dr. Mario, Mega Man, and a few original compositions like “Free City” and “Seaside”, it’s all courtesy of the prolific Beatscribe. The music can even keep playing while you tinker around in other apps, a multitasking miracle on hardware with the power of a digital calculator. Now the paint app. Grayscale only, of course, because we’re not monsters trying to make this thing too modern. What sets it apart is support for the Game Boy Printer, which means you can actually print your pixel scribbles onto tiny thermal stickers. Assuming your ancient paper hasn’t turned to dust, it works. You get low-res joy printed in faded thermal gray. Sadly, you can’t save any of your creations, which I really do wish were a feature! GBS Windows even has a piano app modeled after the childhood Casio PT-10. It doesn’t save your compositions, and no, the tempo doesn’t go as fast as your hyperactive eight-year-old self might want, but it plays tones, loops tracks, and does it all in glorious 8-bit charm. Combine that with Cannon Defense, which uses a virtual mouse cursor to shoot enemies in real time, and you’ve got more interaction in this cartridge than most mobile apps pretending to be “retro” ever bother to deliver. And then, out of nowhere, you get a Blue Screen of Death. A proper blue screen, mid-session, that lets you return to Windows. That’s sacrilegious in a way that makes you laugh out loud. Windows never let you come back. Windows was the friend who crashed your party and then set your house on fire. GBS Windows is the friend who imitates that friend and then hands you a soda. The entire project is engineered to delight anyone who remembers when computing was tactile and weird and ran on 1.44MB of possibility. Before Teams crushed spontaneity. Before Copilot started writing emails you didn’t want to send. Before Excel became the only app your boss respected. GBS Windows is a microdosed hit of digital nostalgia. It’s gloriously inefficient. It’s pixelated comfort food. It’s a Windows tribute, playable on a Game Boy, and it reminds you why tech was once magical and not just managerial.The post This Game Boy Runs Windows 3.1, Plays Music, Minesweeper, and Even Has a Blue Screen of Death first appeared on Yanko Design.