--- title: OpenAI's DevDay Game Boy hit eBay at $4,000 in 90 minutes description: ModRetro produced 8,000 limited-edition transparent Chromatic handhelds for OpenAI's DevDay, paired with a custom Codex plugin for playing vibecoded games on... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-devday-game-boy-hit-ebay-at-4-000-in-90-minutes-isita5dn4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: OpenAI's DevDay Game Boy hit eBay at $4,000 in 90 minutes | daily.dev og:description: ModRetro produced 8,000 limited-edition transparent Chromatic handhelds for OpenAI's DevDay, paired with a custom Codex plugin for playing vibecoded games on... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-devday-game-boy-hit-ebay-at-4-000-in-90-minutes-isita5dn4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/isiTa5DN4.png og:image:alt: OpenAI's DevDay Game Boy hit eBay at $4,000 in 90 minutes og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OpenAI's DevDay Game Boy hit eBay at $4,000 in 90 minutes **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary ModRetro produced 8,000 limited-edition transparent Chromatic handhelds for OpenAI's DevDay, paired with a custom Codex plugin for playing vibecoded games on the device. Within 90 minutes of the announcement, a unit was already listed on eBay for $4,000. Social reaction shows attendees fixated on the free collectible handheld rather than the games or the keynote itself, raising the question of whether the hardware or the vibecoding pitch is the real draw. ## Content The hottest ticket at OpenAI DevDay wasn't a ticket. It was a see-through Game Boy-style handheld, and the scalpers moved fast. ModRetro made 8,000 limited-edition transparent Chromatics for the event, plus a custom Codex plugin that lets you play vibecoded games on it. According to @tbpn, within 90 minutes of Sam Altman announcing the collab, one was already listed on eBay for $4,000, a find credited to @Casey. ## The demand is real @jxnlco says his DMs "instantly went from devday ticket requests to modretro chromatic requests." That's a pretty good review of the swag. Conference giveaways usually end up in a drawer. This one ended up on a resale site before the keynote cooled off. ## Why people actually want it The device ships with a blank cartridge. You build a game with Codex, then play it on the hardware. @rpnickson called it "awesome," and the early projects suggest people mean it: - @covacut made a game on the DevDay Game Boy, inspired by @casey's NYC rides. - @lizziepika built a game where you run a COVID-conscious lesbian bar in western Mass and survive a Saturday shift. - @sriramkiron built a Tomodachi-style game, and says almost everyone at the afterparty got to create a character. A bar-management sim and a Tomodachi clone, made in an evening, on a handheld. The gimmick turned into something people shipped. ## Where it came from @jxnlco told the origin story. It started with Ko Kuramoto's inventions and the nanu team, and an idea to connect Codex to a Game Boy through a remote-control bridge. "That part never came together," he wrote, though he enjoyed the early conversations. @dkundel then pitched doing something for DevDay. @DylanAbruscato pushed for every attendee to get one, and @thsottiaux "needed little convincing." That moved it from a tinkering concept to figuring out how to make thousands. They landed on ModRetro "just as these models were getting really good at making games." ## My take An AI company handed out a toy that lets people hold what they made, and the secondary market priced it like a collectible. Nobody got that reaction from a model card. Whether the $4,000 listing sells is another question, but eBay asking prices are not the same as sales. ## Questions this post answers ### What is the OpenAI Codex plugin for the ModRetro Chromatic handheld announced at DevDay? It is a custom plugin that lets developers build a game using Codex and then play it on a ModRetro Chromatic handheld, which ships with a blank cartridge. ModRetro produced 8,000 limited-edition transparent Chromatics for OpenAI's DevDay, and the two companies describe themselves as collaborating on game creation for the device. _Developers curious about vibecoded games and AI-hardware crossovers can follow how this plays out on daily.dev._ ### How much did a DevDay ModRetro Chromatic sell for on eBay? One was listed for $4,000 within 90 minutes of Sam Altman announcing the OpenAI and ModRetro collaboration at DevDay, though this reflects an asking price rather than a confirmed sale. Only 8,000 of the limited-edition transparent handhelds were made, fueling immediate scalper interest. _Anyone tracking AI hardware drops and resale hype can follow the ModRetro Chromatic story on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 8 comments across x (as of 2026-10-02). **TL;DR:** Reaction is largely enthusiastic, with people praising the idea of pairing a nostalgic handheld with Codex as a clever, inspiring concept for an event like DevDay, though a couple of replies note the fun is in the prototype while scaling it to everyone is a logistical afterthought. **Sentiment:** 75% positive · 20% mixed · 5% skeptical **The case for** - Combining a familiar device like the Game Boy with Codex's coding capability is seen as a fun, novel pairing well-suited to a developer event. - The physical cartridge/device is viewed as closing the feedback loop, making the hardware itself part of playtesting. - Some were inspired to try their own homebrew projects after seeing it. **The pushback** - One reply points out that making a fun prototype is different from the less glamorous work of producing one for every attendee. **By community** - x (positive): Replies are mostly enthusiastic and inspired by the Codex-powered Game Boy concept, with only mild skepticism about scaling it. **Highlights** > @jxnlco @ko_kuramoto It really was such a good idea, proprietary ‘dev’ gadgets are always fun but to take a familiar thing like a gameboy and give it codex super powers feels like a perfect combo especially for an event like DevDay. Inspired me to charge up my OG Switch and try build some homebrew > — [suhburo on x · 2 points](https://x.com/suhburo/status/2105452200638243145) > @jxnlco @ko_kuramoto the physical artifact closes the feedback loop: the controller becomes part of the playtest > — [guannanjiayou on x](https://x.com/guannanjiayou/status/2105474288660754639) > @jxnlco @ko_kuramoto the prototype is the fun part. “make one for everyone attending” is where the idea meets a rather less charming spreadsheet. > — [rohitvpgawli\_ on x](https://x.com/rohitvpgawli_/status/2105664664382386229) > @jxnlco I want one of @ko_kuramoto’s Wi-Fi cartridges soooo badly! So inspiring and probably a lot less finicky than my solution of sending IR packets hahaha > — [maddiedreese on x · 3 points](https://x.com/maddiedreese/status/2105452494130397207) **Source threads** - [x](https://x.com/jxnlco/status/2105772703458398368) · 0 points · 0 comments - [x](https://x.com/jxnlco/status/2105450207492370574) · 0 points · 8 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [ModRetro’s new transparent Chromatic Game Boy looks like it came straight out of the 2000s](https://daily.dev/posts/modretro-s-new-transparent-chromatic-game-boy-looks-like-it-came-straight-out-of-the-2000s-twhl8jyd9) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Palmer Luckey’s retro gaming startup ModRetro reportedly seeks funding at $1B valuation](https://daily.dev/posts/palmer-luckey-s-retro-gaming-startup-modretro-reportedly-seeks-funding-at-1b-valuation-x5iwduogs) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#vibe-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/vibe-coding), [#openai-codex](https://daily.dev/tags/openai-codex) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-devday-game-boy-hit-ebay-at-4-000-in-90-minutes-isita5dn4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"OpenAI's DevDay Game Boy hit eBay at $4,000 in 90 minutes","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-devday-game-boy-hit-ebay-at-4-000-in-90-minutes-isita5dn4","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-devday-game-boy-hit-ebay-at-4-000-in-90-minutes-isita5dn4"},"datePublished":"2026-09-29T22:36:35.063Z","dateModified":"2026-10-02T00:05:07.439Z","description":"ModRetro produced 8,000 limited-edition transparent Chromatic handhelds for OpenAI's DevDay, paired with a custom Codex plugin for playing vibecoded games on...","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-devday-game-boy-hit-ebay-at-4-000-in-90-minutes-isita5dn4","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"openai,vibe-coding,openai-codex","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"OpenAI's DevDay Game Boy hit eBay at $4,000 in 90 minutes"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-s-devday-game-boy-hit-ebay-at-4-000-in-90-minutes-isita5dn4#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the OpenAI Codex plugin for the ModRetro Chromatic handheld announced at DevDay?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It is a custom plugin that lets developers build a game using Codex and then play it on a ModRetro Chromatic handheld, which ships with a blank cartridge. ModRetro produced 8,000 limited-edition transparent Chromatics for OpenAI's DevDay, and the two companies describe themselves as collaborating on game creation for the device. Developers curious about vibecoded games and AI-hardware crossovers can follow how this plays out on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How much did a DevDay ModRetro Chromatic sell for on eBay?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"One was listed for $4,000 within 90 minutes of Sam Altman announcing the OpenAI and ModRetro collaboration at DevDay, though this reflects an asking price rather than a confirmed sale. Only 8,000 of the limited-edition transparent handhelds were made, fueling immediate scalper interest. Anyone tracking AI hardware drops and resale hype can follow the ModRetro Chromatic story on daily.dev."}}]} ```