Game Boy Color fans are getting a new R-Type DX cartridge in 2026

R-Type DX is getting a fresh physical release for Game Boy Color, with Retro-Bit producing a new cartridge for Nintendo’s original handheld hardware. Pre-orders are open now at $45, with the ordering window set to close on 1 November 2026. This isn’t a remake or a modern port. It’s the 1999 handheld release presented on newly manufactured hardware, complete with printed extras and a translucent purple cartridge. For anyone who missed the original release, R-Type DX is a surprisingly packed cartridge. It brings together two handheld conversions, two colour versions and one extended campaign, giving players five ways to run through Irem’s side-scrolling shooter series.

What’s in the new R-Type DX release?

Retro-Bit’s edition uses a translucent plasma-style purple shell and comes with a full-colour instruction manual, new packaging and a numbered certificate. The outer artwork comes from animator and illustrator Paul Johnson, better known online as Otaking.

A separate soundtrack release is planned on CD and purple marble vinyl. The main attraction, though, is the cartridge itself. It works with original Game Boy hardware and Game Boy Color systems. Put it into a monochrome Game Boy and the older presentation remains available. Use a Game Boy Color and the colour versions come into play.

It’s a straightforward physical reissue rather than a reworked edition. No modern display modes. No remake treatment. The appeal lies in having the original Game Boy Color compilation on a newly produced cartridge for the hardware it was made for.

R-Type DX packs five versions into one cartridge

R-Type DX first arrived on Game Boy Color in 1999, with its European release following on 20 July. British developer Bits Studios handled the project, building on its earlier Game Boy conversions of R-Type and R-Type II.

The cartridge includes the monochrome Game Boy versions of both games, colour editions of each title, plus the DX campaign. The latter joins R-Type and R-Type II into one continuous run, so players can move through both games as a longer single session.

For a handheld release from 1999, it was a fairly generous package. Game Boy owners could play the earlier conversions in their original form, and Game Boy Color owners gained colour graphics without losing access to the monochrome editions. The DX mode tied the package together with a longer campaign rather than leaving the two games as separate menu choices.

R-Type started in the arcades

Irem released the original R-Type in arcades in 1987. It quickly became one of the defining horizontal shooters of its period, largely thanks to a weapon system built around the R-9 spacecraft, its chargeable Wave Cannon and the detachable Force unit.

The Force could sit on the front or rear of the ship, absorb enemy fire and attack from different positions. Players could detach it, send it across the screen and use it as an independent weapon. R-Type rewarded positioning and timing as much as rapid shooting, with stages built around enemy patterns, tight spaces and large mechanical bosses.

R-Type II followed in arcades in 1989. It expanded the weapon set, pushed the difficulty further and continued the fight against the Bydo. Both games spread across home computers and consoles during the late 1980s and early 1990s, often in versions adapted heavily for weaker hardware.

From Game Boy conversions to R-Type DX

Bits Studios brought R-Type to Game Boy in 1991. Nintendo’s handheld couldn’t reproduce the arcade game scene for scene, so the conversion trimmed content and simplified presentation to fit the system. R-Type II reached Game Boy in Europe in 1992 and took a similar approach. Those two conversions later formed the basis of R-Type DX. By 1999, the Game Boy Color gave the studio room to add colour presentation and bundle the pair into a broader compilation.

The 2026 release keeps this structure intact. Retro-Bit isn’t turning R-Type DX into something new. It’s putting the original five-mode package onto a fresh cartridge, with new packaging around it and compatibility with Nintendo’s original handheld machines.

For anyone interested in the release itself, the key point is simple: R-Type DX is returning as a real Game Boy cartridge, with its original mix of monochrome games, colour editions and the combined DX campaign preserved in one physical package.

Spread the love

What’s in the new R-Type DX release?

R-Type DX packs five versions into one cartridge

R-Type started in the arcades

From Game Boy conversions to R-Type DX

MORE AMIGA & RETRO NEWS