Game Boy
- Manufacturer
- Nintendo
- Production
- 1989–2003
- Generation
- Gen 4
- Type
- Handheld
- Launch price
- $89
- Units sold
- 118.7M
About Game Boy
The Game Boy is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America on July 31, 1989, and in Europe on September 28, 1990. Nintendo's first handheld to use ROM cartridges, it succeeded the Game & Watch line of handheld electronic games and competed with Sega's Game Gear, Atari's Lynx, and NEC's TurboExpress in the fourth generation of video game consoles.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Library & collector facts
1,057licensed games
- North America: 1,057
Lineage
Release timeline
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- April 21, 1989
- 🇺🇸 North America
- July 31, 1989
- 🇪🇺 Europe / PAL
- September 28, 1990
- Lifespan
- 14 years on market
Pricing
Launch price (1989)
- 🇺🇸 USD
- $89
- 🇯🇵 JPY
- ¥12,500
- 🇬🇧 GBP
- £70
Launch titles & exclusives
Tetris · Super Mario Land · Alleyway · Baseball · Yakuman (JP launch only) · Tennis
Tetris (NA / EU launch bundle) — credited as the system-seller
Tetris · Pokemon Red / Blue / Yellow · Super Mario Land 1 & 2 · The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening · Metroid II: Return of Samus · Kirby's Dream Land · Wario Land · Donkey Kong (1994, the puzzle remake)
Pokemon Yellow (1998, NA) was among the last major releases; some Japan-only titles released into 1999
Hello Kitty World (JP, very limited); Spud's Adventure (NA, low print run); sealed launch DMG-01 units
Variants of Game Boy
Hardware specs
- Cpu
- Sharp SM83
- Ram
- 8 KB RAM, 8 KB Video RAM
- Power
- Original: 4 × AA batteries (Up to 30 hours), Pocket: 2 × AAA batteries (Up to 10 hours), Light: 2 × AA batteries (Up to 12 hours w/ backlight on, 20 w/ backlight off)
- Display Output
- Original: STN display, STN LCD, Pocket/Light: FSTN LCD, 160 × 144 px
Hardware revisions
- Original DMG-01(1989)
launch hardware, reflective monochrome LCD, 4 AA batteries, ~10–15h life
- Game Boy Pocket MGB-001(1996)
~half the size, true black-and-white screen (vs. green-tinted DMG), 2 AAA batteries
- Game Boy Light MGB-101(1998)
JP-only, EL backlight, the only original-line Game Boy with a lit screen
Launch colorways & special editions
- Play It Loud! line — Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Black, Transparent (1995)
- Pokemon Yellow Pikachu Edition (1999)
- Game Boy Light (JP-only, electroluminescent backlight, 1998)
Modding scene
- Difficulty
- soft-mod
- Custom firmware
- N/A (no OS); flashcarts — EZ-Flash Junior, Everdrive GB X3 / X5 / X7
Reception & legacy
Skeptical reception inside Nintendo — staff feared the monochrome screen would lose against the color Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear, but battery life proved decisive
Tetris licensing battle with Atari/Tengen (settled in Nintendo's favor); low-contrast screen a chronic user complaint pre-Pocket revision
Defined handheld gaming for a decade; Yokoi's 'lateral thinking with withered technology' (cheap, proven parts) ethos shaped every later Nintendo handheld through the DS era
References
More from Nintendo
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Game Boy in the news
Recent coverage mentioning the Game Boy, gathered from 80+ gaming-news sources.
Pokemon Japanese Game Covers Turned Into Merchandise
The games covered range from the Game Boy generation all the way to the Switch generation.
8 Obscure Game Boy JRPGs Games Made By Big Developers
Over the years, these little Game Boy JRPGs have fallen into obscurity, and they might be worth another look today.
25 years ago today, the GBA arrived in the US, but you don't need the real thing to play the handheld's hits
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'Land Of The Free' Is A New GTA-Esque Experience For Nintendo Game Boy, Bridging The World Of Comics & Games
"Do you have what it takes to escape Miami?". If you cast your mind back to last year, you may remember us mentioning Triple Threat Terror — an exciting new independent Game Boy title pitched by its developer as a "hybrid" between comic books and video games. Well, since then, it appears its...
Mina The Hollower Has A Hidden Ending That’s Nearly Impossible To See
Mina the Hollower is a hit for Yacht Club, having recently passed 500,000 copies sold. The gothic take on classic Game Boy adventure games goes to some appropriately dark places. The story is mostly set in stone, but you actually can get an alternate ending. You just need to plan for it and execute...
Nintendo datamine points to NES remix-style challenges on Switch
Following recent updates to the Nintendo Classics apps for NES, SNES, and Game Boy, dataminers discovered hidden references to an unreleased challenge system internally known as “CYCLONE.” According to information uncovered in the update files, players would be dropped into specific moments of...