The Game Boy Color Had An Actual Sewing Machine Add-On (But Why?) – SlashGear

In January 2001, the Washington Post reported that Japan’s Jaguar International launched the Jaguar Nu-Yell, a very special sewing machine, the previous year. It was followed by a North American Singer release, the Izek. The models, explains Kelsey Lewin on YouTube, were largely identical. They boasted a unique colorful section of casing that had become a popular aesthetic at the time (and remains so) and worked just as a conventional sewing machine would. A bold and eye-catching casing is certainly an effective way to draw attention to a product. This alone wouldn’t really boost the appeal of sewing machines very much, though. What was so unique about the Izek and the Nu-Yell, however, was that they were essentially powered by a Game Boy Color.

Some models of these sewing machines connected to the Game Boy Color by means of the Game Link Cable. Via this cable, the little Nintendo handheld became the display and the brains of the machine. It was a very cheap brain too, relatively speaking: the system’s MSRP was $79.99 upon its North American launch in November 1998. Meanwhile, Lewin explains, “Digital interfaces for sewing and embroidery machines were still fairly new technology, with the earliest models in the 1980s selling for tens of thousands of dollars.” This concept, then, made sewing more appealing, more fun, and infinitely more affordable.