Glucoboy Rewards Diabetics With GBA Fun

Thanks to Joystick101 for pointing to a news piece discussing the in-development Glucoboy add-on for the GameBoy Advance. According to the article, "Glucoboy is a glucose meter that can be inserted into a Nintendo GameBoy. The product operates independent of the video game system, but downloads video game programs that are contained within its circuitry into the GameBoy as a reward for maintaining good blood sugar control." The product hopes to help children with diabetes monitor their condition better, and the creator comments that his son "...always knew where his GameBoy was, but he always seemed to misplace his Glucometer."

This sounds awesome

[Sevn]

Good work Nintendo!

Now get to work on FapperBoy and JelloshotBoy.

(SARCASTIC VOICE) This sounds awesome

[glassesmonkey]

Brilliant.. Kids with low-iron and low blood volume from staying up all night *playing* Glucomon (Gotta catch them all)

Re:(SARCASTIC VOICE) This sounds awesome

[Sevn]

Or, testing it out on family pets for more free games. Don't forget about that.

As an actual diabetic...

[Yorrike]

As an actual diabetic I must say that a glucose meter in a PDA or game console is really my killer app. Should someone out there be looking to sell me a $1000 peice of equipment I want the following things: Ability to play GBA games, surf the net, test my blood glucose, open my front door and call/text my friends all from the same device no bigger than a Palm M100.

I know blood glucose is an extreme niche for geek toys, but the more projects like this, the better in my opinion. At least until they come up with a reasonable cure.

I'm actually surprised no one did anything like this for the Handspring Springboard format (although, I must admit, I was considering hacking a spare glucose meter up and making on emyself at one point)

Re:As an actual diabetic...

[glassesmonkey]

diabetic testing is killer app for the whole bio-tech industry (the other ones being DNA chips, STD chips, biological chemical testing chips). When they get lab on chip and micro-needles and disposable silicon chips that can measure blood sugar the industry will be ready to explode. But, it's one of the first hurdles.

Re:As an actual diabetic...

[SolemnDragon]

Handspring [handspring.com] has a module for it. I used to be hypoglycemic and had the same issue. My glucose meter wasn't very inconvenient, but it was a fuss to have to deal with it, and Handspring actually does have glucose springboards. Here [seniorhealthweek.org] is one link o the news segment. I have to say that i haven't tried them; i was used to my monitor, and while i'll be looking at these in the future (because having a drastic shift away from hypoglycemia means that i'll be checked for diabetes regularly) i don't need one just this

Re:As an actual diabetic...

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Yeah, but after Handspring decided that stand-alone PDAs were a thing of the past and that integrated PDA/cellphones (without the Springboard slot) were the wave of the future, at least one of these products was cancelled before it ever launched. Nothing worse then spending a few million dollars co-developing a medical device and even getting FDA approval only to find out that your partner has decided to gut that market and doesn't give you any heads up until it's a done deal.

What's next...

[Leffe]

...a GameBoy that injects glucose when you do well in the game?

This idea is not bad though, rewards are what keeps the soceity going.

But what's the game like?

[evilspyperson]

I can see it now: Parent: Now you can this game if your blood sugar is correct! Kid: Yay! (2 days later) Parent: tested your blood sugar yet today? Kid: No, the game sucked so i'm playing zelda! Yay! bottom line - the whole thing collapses if the game isn't as good as a real gameboy game.

Re:But what's the game like?

[Metal_Demon]

Parent: Now you can +play+ this game if your blood sugar is correct!

Perhaps it would be more effective if you made it so that it couldn't be detached from the gb and if your blood sugar sucks you don't get to play your regular gb games. Evil, but more effective.

Re:But what's the game like?

[gmhowell]

This is what I was originally expecting when I saw the story.

Re:But what's the game like?

[evilspyperson]

very nice, but i predict quite a few broken glucometers as a result of pokemon deprived 8 year olds.

Neato!!

[Jhonny]

Amazing the things they can come up with! Now Game boys can check Glucose levels! Wont parents be thrilled! They just love us playing our game boys. At least now kids can get away with it!I can see it now.... " Billy bop, get off the game boy already"! " But Mom I'm checking my glucose and its going reeeealllly slow"!

Lets hope the game isn't Captain Novolin

[analog_line]

Many of you probably haven't heard of Captain Novolin, but if you read a lot of "worst game ever" threads, you've probably heard of it.

Captain Novolin was a NES game about diabetes. You played the good Captain on his quest to save the Earth from invading donuts, and other sugary foods that promote diabetes. In between levels, various poorly drawn doctors would pop up and give supposedly helpful messages to those with diabetes, telling them how to check their blood sugar, etc.

All in all, it's one of the worst games ever, but strangely hypnotizing, as some of the worst games ever do tend to be. I just pray, for the children's sake, that they didn't license this for the Glucoboy, or they're in for a ride through hell.

I thought of it first

[m0smithslash]

A while back there was an article about a gloucose power cell and I predicted the "GloucoseBoy". See it here [slashdot.org]

I can just see the next generation of GameBoy ... Introducing the Nintendo "GlucoseBoy". Never worry about changing batteries again. There is a "leech" attachment included in the controls that painlessly extracts the needed glucose from the person playing the game. There is even an indicator showing if you have enough glucose or if you need to eat some more. Of course, it could be the beginnings of

Re:I thought of it first

[exick]

If I had mod points, I'd go back to your original post and give it a +1,Delphian.

Also as a diabetic...

[deminisma]

The government of New Zealand provides me with free blood glucose meters. I might sadly drop and break mine today and head off and claim a new GBA SP.

Cheers New Zealand!