‘Bitcoin Game Boy’ Gets a Runes Makeover—Here’s How to Win One

The BitBoy One, an upcoming handheld console built around a Bitcoin gaming ecosystem, looks like an old-school Nintendo Game Boy—albeit in neon orange. But a new version themed around Bitcoin’s Runes token protocol will arrive with a new black sheen, and it’s being given away for free, too.

The BitBoy One x Buoyant Capital Runes Black Limited Edition console casts the portable device in a new color scheme, complete with the Runes protocol logo on the front. Aside from the shift in color scheme and the added branding, it's otherwise identical.

The limited edition console is limited to 69 units, and an Ordz Games representative confirmed to Decrypt that at least as of now, it will exclusively be offered through a giveaway.

On Thursday, Ordz Games and Buoyant posted the first details for the giveaway, noting different ways community members would be eligible to participate: holding both its GAMES token and Buoyant’s LOBO token—fungible tokens created via Bitcoin Runes—holding at least six total different Runes tokens, or holding a Runestone or Runedoor Ordinals inscription.

In other words, this giveaway is strictly for the Bitcoin die-hards who have taken to both Runes tokens and NFT-like Ordinals. There is no word yet on when the companies will choose the winners. As with the standard BitBoy One console, Ordz Games has inscribed a 3D model of the device as an Ordinals asset, offering a digital look at the handheld.

The BitBoy One was announced in April as a crypto device that can do many things—including play Ordz Games titles, hold Bitcoin and other assets via its built-in wallet, play old-school video games via emulation, and even participate in decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) to farm airdrops.

It’s set to release later this year, and Ordz put up the first batch of devices for preorder at prices ranging from approximately $420 to over $600 worth of Bitcoin at the time, based on whether or not users had been added to a certain allowlist.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.