Console: | Nintendo Game Boy Advance |
TV Standard: | NTSC |
Country: | Australia |
Developer(s): | Sensory Sweep Studios |
Publisher(s): | Nintendo |
Release Date: | 2007-01-01 |
Players: | 1 |
Co-op: | No |
ESRB: | Not Rated |
Type: | Utility |
The Glucoboy was a Game Boy Advance peripheral with an integrated game cartridge initially developed by Guidance Interactive Technologies and released in 2007.
The peripheral was the brainchild of inventor Paul Wessel, who came up with the concept in the early 2000s following frustrations over his diabetic son intentionally misplacing his glucose meter; he thought that interfacing a glucose meter with a video game console would encourage diabetic children to check their blood sugar levels frequently (a process involving pricking one's fingers with a lancet which could upset some youngsters who may be fearful of needles).
Wessel pitched the project to Nintendo for approval, whose executives in Japan were initially bemused by the idea as childhood diabetes is rare in the country compared to the US. Nintendo eventually gave Wessel their blessing, and Wessel received funding from an Australian investor to develop and release a version of the glucose meter for the Game Boy Advance.