There have been a lot of peripherals in the history of video games. Light guns, fishing rods, and that giant Steel Battalion control board have graced store shelves and personal collections alike. But you might not know about the sewing machine for the Game Boy Color.
In a video posted this week, video game YouTuber and collector Kelsey Lewin digs into the history of the Nu-Yell sewing machine (and its American equivalent, the Izek). They are Game Boy Color compatible sewing machines that used the video game platform as their “brain” for sewing complex stitches or embroidered figures onto cloth.
Lewin goes deep into the industrial history in her video, and it’s an excellent resource for anyone who finds either the history of peripherals or the history of fiber arts to be fascinating. After all, the first programmer used her knowledge of mathematics and weaving to understand how programming worked, so there’s a long history there.
As Lewin says, this is probably all you will ever need to know about the sewing machines of the 20th century controlled by the Game Boy.