From left to right: Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance(GBA), Game Boy Advance SP, Game Boy micro. The trademark Game Boy became ambiguous to fans of the Game Boy series.

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Game Boy

The Game Boy line (also: Gameboy, Game-boy; Japanese: ゲームボーイ Gēmu Bōi) is a line of battery-powered handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. more...

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It is one of the best-selling game system lines selling over 100 million units world wide to date, and has spawned many successful spin-offs. The original Game Boy's design set the standard for handheld gaming consoles.

History

Nintendo's 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 Ultrahand, 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. Some consider these early LCD-display handhelds to be a prototype of the Game Boy.

When Gumpei 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.

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 to the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). To celebrate, Nintendo released the Classic NES Series and a NES-themed color scheme for the Game Boy Advance SP.

Versions

The Game Boy console went through several design iterations, without significant changes to its computing power, since its release in 1989.

Game Boy

The original Game Boy was released on April 21, 1989 in Japan and in August 1989 in the United States. Based around a Z80 processor, it had a black and green reflective LCD screen, an eight-way directional pad, and two action buttons. It played games from ROM-based media contained in small plastic detachable units called cartridges (sometimes abbreviated as carts).