GoKawiilOne of my favorite iPhone cases is back with a new look. I have used the previous generations of BitmoLab’s GAMEBABY case and immediately loved it. It felt like an accessory purpose-built to tug at my nostalgia strings. The superpower of this case is that it is not a secondary accessory you need to bring and make sure is charged; it’s a regular iPhone case that is smartly designed to also serve as a set of tactile, physical buttons for playing your favorite Game Boy ROMs (among others). It’s the perfect summation of work smarter, not harder. It uses no batteries or Bluetooth and requires little setup. If you are into any sort of retro game emulation, you have to check this out.
Be sure to check out our hands-on video of the case in action!
The design of this case is so simple, yet genius. It uses a two-piece design, with the bottom half serving as the controller. During normal, non-gaming use, it just feels like a normal case. You get:
Tactile side buttons for the lock button, volume rocker, and the action button
Cutouts for the USB-C port, speakers, buttons, and Camera Control
Protective lip surrounding the display and camera plateau
Hardshell plastic protection
But the bottom half is where the magic lives. That is where you find the game’s control buttons, and they are very well-made, tactile, and satisfying to press. But how does it all work?
How it works
Again, what makes this so clever is that there are no electronics in it. So there is no pairing process. The way this works is that each physical game control button has a small capacitive contact that simulates the touch of your finger on the display. So it makes your iPhone believe you are tapping on screen controls, while you feel like you are pressing real buttons. It is the same tech as the soft capacitive tip on those inexpensive touchscreen styluses.
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