What’s inside Game Boy battery packs?

With all the Game Boys I collected I sometimes received other Game Boy accessories, like a magnifying glass and a four player adapter. Most of all I got battery packs: the Nuby Snap ‘n’ Power™ and Naki™ Action-Pak+.

I tried charging them but they would hardly hold any charge so I got like 5 minutes of play time. Considering these were made for the DMG, which came out in 1989, they must be pretty old. The Game Boy Pocket came out in 1996, so let’s assume these battery packs are at least 20 years old…

The main battery technology used for consumer electronics up until the mid nineties was NiCd, or Nickel Cadmium, which was characterized by a rather low capacity and is very toxic. Later on the NiMH, or Nickel-Metal Hydride, batteries came to market, which has a much higher energy density, two to three times more.

As I concluded that these packs must be at least 20 years old, they’re probably NiCd. Are there normal batteries in there? Only one way to find out, let’s crack one open!

There are no screws so I had to pry it open. I used a metal spudger and started in one corner. I sort of chiseled the spudger along the edges and sure enough it opened pretty easily in the end.

Normal batteries! Four regular AA NiCd batteries with only 600mAh. I wonder how long you could play with this pack, it probably wasn’t that long.

As you can see the batteries are useless now, they leaked pretty badly and I’m going to dispose of them properly.

I don’t really see any use for these battery packs anymore. They’re bulky and battery technology has improved a lot in two decades. I have been using Apple’s Rechargeable batteries, which are actually Sanyo Eneloops (best batteries ever!), and it feels like they never run out!. They are rated at 1900mAh and have a very low discharge rate. Highly recommended!