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History

 

The Game Boy is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989 (1989-04-21), in North America in August 1989 (1989-08), and in Europe on September 28, 1990 (1990-09-28). It is the first handheld console in the Game Boy line, and was created by Gunpei Yokoi and Nintendo Research & Development 1—the same staff who had designed the Game & Watch series as well as several popular games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

 

Redesigned versions were released in 1996 and 1998, in the form of Game Boy Pocket, and Game Boy Light (Japan only), respectively.The Game Boy is Nintendo's second handheld system following the Game & Watch series introduced in 1980, and it combined features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game & Watch. It was originally bundled with the puzzle game Tetris.

 

As part of the fourth generation of gaming, the Game Boy competed with the Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and the TurboExpress. Despite these other technologically superior handheld consoles, the Game Boy was a tremendous success. The Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color, have both combined sold 118.69 million units worldwide. Upon its release in the United States, it sold its entire shipment of one million units within weeks.

 

History

 

Game Boy handheld was first released in 1989. The gaming device was the brainchild of long-time Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi, who was the person behind the Ultra Hand, an expanding arm toy created and produced by Nintendo in 1970, long before Nintendo would enter the video game market. Yokoi was also responsible for the Game & Watch series of handhelds when Nintendo made the move from toys to video games.When Yokoi designed the original Game Boy, he knew that to be successful, the system needed to be small, light, inexpensive, and durable, as well as have a varied, recognizable library of games upon its release. By following this simple mantra, the Game Boy line managed to gain a vast following despite technically superior alternatives which would have color graphics instead. This is also apparent in the name (conceived by Shigesato Itoi), which connotes a smaller "sidekick" companion to Nintendo's consoles.

 

Game Boy continues its success to this day and many at Nintendo have dedicated the handheld in Yokoi's memory. Game Boy celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2004, which nearly coincided with the 20-year anniversary of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). To celebrate, Nintendo released the Classic NES Series and an NES controller-themed color scheme for the Game Boy Advance SP.In 2006, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said on the rumored demise of the Game Boy brand: "No, it's not true after all. What we are repeatedly saying is that for whichever platform, we are always conducting research and development for the new system, be it the Game Boy, or new console or whatever. And what we just told the reporter was that in thinking about the current situation where we are enjoying great sales with the DS and that we are now trying to launch the Wii, it's unthinkable for us to launch any new platform for the handheld system, including the new version of the GBA... Perhaps they misunderstood a part of this story, but as far as the handheld market is concerned [right now] we really want to focus on more sales of the DS; that's all."

 

Game Boy family

 

Game Boy the original black Game Boy was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989. Based on a Z80 processor, it has a black and green reflective LCD screen, an eight-way directional pad, two action buttons (A and B), and Start and Select buttons. It plays games from ROM-based media contained in small plastic detachable units called cartridges (sometimes called carts or Game Paks).The killer game that pushed the Game Boy into the upper reaches of success was Tetris. Tetris was widely popular, and on the handheld format could be played anywhere. It came packaged with the Game Boy, and broadened its reach; adults and children alike were buying Game Boys in order to play Tetris. Releasing Tetris on the Game Boy was selected as #4 on GameSpy's "25 Smartest Moments in Gaming".

 

The original Game Boy was one of the first cartridge-based systems that supported more than four players at one time (via the link port). In fact, it has been shown that the system could support 16 simultaneous players at once. However, this feature was only supported in Faceball 2000.

 

Game Boy Pocket

 

The Game Boy Pocket is a redesigned version of the original Game Boy having the same features released in 1996. Notably, this variation is smaller and lighter.Another notable improvement over the original Game Boy includes a black-and-white display screen, rather than the "pea soup" monochromatic display of the original Game Boy and less sprite blurs. The Game Boy Pocket takes two AAA batteries for roughly ten hours of gameplay. The first model of the Game Boy Pocket did not have an LED to show battery levels, but was added in favor of public demand.

 

Game Boy Light

 

On April 1998, a variant of the Game Boy Pocket named Game Boy Light was exclusively released in Japan. The differences between the original Game Boy Pocket is that it takes on two AA batteries and has a backlit screen that can be turned on or off. This backlit screen allowed the use of it in darkened areas. The Game Boy Light was superseded by the Game Boy Color six months later.

 

Game Boy Color

 

First released in Japan on October 21, 1998, the Game Boy Color (abbreviated as GBC) added a (slightly smaller) color screen to a form factor similar in size to the Game Boy Pocket. It also has double the processor speed, three times as much memory,[10] and an infrared communications port. Technologically, it was likened to the 8-bit NES video game console from the 1980s although the Game Boy Color has a much larger color palette (56 simultaneous colors out of 32,768 possible).A major component of the Game Boy Color is its near-universal backward compatibility (that is, a Game Boy Color is able to read older Game Boy cartridges and even play them in a selectable color palette) (The only Black & White Game Boy games known incompatible are Road Rash and Joshua: the Battle of Jericho). Backwards compatibility became a major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors. Some games written specifically for the Game Boy Color can be played on older model Game Boys, whereas others cannot (see the Game Paks section for more information).

 

 

Reception

 

Approximately two thousand games are available for the Game Boy, which can be attributed in part to its sales in the amount of millions, a well-documented design, and a typically short development cycle. The Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite are able to play the large library of Game Boy Advance games (though the Nintendo DSi, Nintendo DSi XL, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo 2DS lack a GBA game cartridge slot). However, the DS consoles do not have a GBA game link connector, and so cannot play multiplayer GBA games (except for the few that are multiplayer on a single GBA) or link to the GameCube. The DS is not backward-compatible with Game Paks for the original Game Boy or the Game Boy Color. With homebrew development on the Nintendo DS, full speed Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulation has been achieved as well as the ability to scale the smaller Game Boy screen image to the full DS screen. Also, on the 3DS's Nintendo eShop, games for Game Boy and Game Boy Color can be downloaded from its Virtual Console. Game Boy Advance games were thought to be as well due to the 3DS not being compatible, but it was just a mistranslation. However, ten Game Boy Advance games will be released to Nintendo 3DS ambassadors, or those who logged into the 3DS e-Shop before the price drop. The Virtual Console features of releases are limited, and there are no plans to release them to the public.

HISTORY

Manufacturer: Nintendo

Product family: Game Boy line

Type: Handheld game console

Generation: Fourth generation

Retail availability:

                        JP April 21, 1989

                        NA July 31, 1989

                        EU September 28, 1990

Discontinued: March 23, 2003

Units sold: Worldwide: 118.69 million (including Game Boy (Play it Loud!), Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light and Color units)

Media: Game Boy cartridges, referred to as Game Paks.

Best-selling game: Tetris, 30.26 million (pack-in/separately) Pokémon Red and Blue, 23.64 million approximately (as of January 18, 2009).

Predecessor: Game & Watch

Successor: Game Boy Pocket (redesign)Game Boy Light (redesign) Game Boy Color (successor)

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