When did the Game Boy come out?
5591552#10
Though it was less technically advanced than the Lynx and other competitors, the Game Boy's excellent battery life and rugged hardware and the popularity of the bundled "Tetris" and other games made it much more successful. In its first two weeks in Japan, from its release on April 21, 1989, the entire stock consisting of 300,000 units was sold; a few months later, the Game Boy's release in the United States on July 31, 1989, saw 40,000 units sold on its first day. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide, with 32.47 million units in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in other regions. By Japanese fiscal year 1997, before Game Boy Color's release in late-1998, the Game Boy alone had sold 64.42 million units worldwide. At a March 14, 1994 press conference in San Francisco, Nintendo vice president of marketing Peter Main answered queries about when Nintendo was coming out with a color handheld system by stating that sales of the Game Boy were strong enough that it had decided to hold off on developing a successor handheld for the near future.
Game Boy
11979#14
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, 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) which had some classic NES ports and newer titles. It comes in seven different colors; Clear purple, purple, red, blue, green, yellow and silver for the "Pokémon" edition. Like the Game Boy Light, the Game Boy Color takes on two AA batteries. It was the final handheld to have 8-bit graphics.
Game Boy family
21197#48
After the success of the "Game & Watch" series, Yokoi developed the Game Boy handheld console, which was released in 1989. Eventually becoming the best-selling handheld of all time, the Game Boy remained dominant for more than a decade, seeing critically and commercially popular games such as "Pokémon Yellow" released as late as 1998 in Japan, 1999 in North America, and 2000 in Europe. Incremental updates of the Game Boy, including "Game Boy Pocket", "Game Boy Light" and "Game Boy Color", did little to change the original formula, though the latter introduced color graphics to the Game Boy line.
Nintendo
5591552#7
In July 21, 1996, Nintendo released the Game Boy Pocket: a smaller, lighter unit that required fewer batteries. It has space for two AAA batteries, which provide approximately 10 hours of gameplay. The unit is also fitted with a 3 volt, 2.35mm x 0.75mm DC jack which can be used to power the system. The Pocket has a smaller link port, which requires an adapter to link with the older Game Boy. The port design is used on all subsequent Game Boy models, excluding the Game Boy Micro. The screen was changed to a true black-and-white display, rather than the "pea soup" monochromatic display of the original Game Boy. Also, the Game Boy Pocket (GBP) has a larger screen than the Game Boy Color (GBC) that later superseded it. The GBP's screen has a diagonal, width, and height, compared to a diagonal for the GBC. Although like its predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket has no backlight to allow play in a darkened area, it did notably improve visibility and pixel response-time (mostly eliminating ghosting). The first version did not have a power LED. This was soon added due to public demand, along with new Game Boy Pocket units of different colors (released on April 28, 1997), some of them new to the Game Boy line. There were several limited-edition Game Boy Pockets, including a gold-metal model exclusive to Japan. The Game Boy Pocket was not a new software platform and played the same software as the original Game Boy model.
Game Boy
41329635#1
In Japan, on March 21, 2001, Nintendo released a significant upgrade to the Game Boy line. The Game Boy Advance (also referred to as GBA) featured a 32 bit 16.8 MHz ARM. It included a Z80 processor and a switch activated by inserting a Game Boy or Game Boy Color game into the slot for backward compatibility, and had a larger, higher resolution screen. Controls were slightly modified with the addition of "L" and "R" shoulder buttons. The system was technically likened to the SNES and showed its power with successful ports of SNES titles such as "Super Mario World", "", and . There were also new titles that you will only find on GBA, such as "" and "", and more. A widely criticized drawback of the Game Boy Advance is that the screen is not backlit, making viewing difficult in some conditions. The Game Paks for the GBA are roughly half the length of original Game Boy cartridges, and so older Game Paks would stick out of the top of the unit. When playing older games, the GBA provides the option to play the game at the standard equal square resolution of the original screen or the option to stretch it over the wider GBA screen. The only Game Boy Color games known to be incompatible with the system are "Pocket Music" and "Chee-Chai Alien".
Game Boy Advance family
2003810#33
This red monochromatic 3-D "virtual reality" system failed due to issues related to players getting eye strain, stiff necks, and headaches when trying to play it, along with the console's price and unportability. It came out in 1995 and was Nintendo's first failed console release. Gunpei Yokoi, the designer of the platform and the person largely credited for the success of the original Game Boy handheld and the "Metroid" series of games, resigned from the company shortly after the Virtual Boy ceased sales in order to start his own company, although for reasons unrelated to the console's success. The Virtual Boy was included in a "Time" "50 Worst Inventions" list published in May 2010.
List of commercial failures in video gaming
14199#28
The Game Boy Pocket is a redesigned version of the original Game Boy having the same features. It was released in 1996. Notably, this variation is smaller and lighter. It comes in seven different colors; red, yellow, green, black, clear, silver, blue, and pink. It has space for two AAA batteries, which provide approximately 10 hours of game play. The screen was changed to a true black-and-white display, rather than the "pea soup" monochromatic display of the original Game Boy. Although, like its predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket has no backlight to allow play in a darkened area, it did notably improve visibility and pixel response-time (mostly eliminating ghosting).
Handheld game console
6848268#15
Released in June 2003 as the spiritual successor to the Super Game Boy, the Game Boy Player allows Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games to be played on a television screen via the Nintendo GameCube. The add-on attaches to the GameCube's base through the "Hi Speed" port on the bottom. On the front of the Game Boy Player is a link cable port, offering support for multiplayer gameplay, Game Boy Printer, and expanded e-Reader functionality. Essentially a Game Boy Advance designed to output to a television, the Game Boy Player uses the same colorization hardware and methods as the handheld system. Some Game Boy Advance games, such as "Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga", have enhanced gameplay (such as force feedback) when played on the Game Boy Player, while the Game Boy Advance Video series is intentionally incompatible with the Game Boy Player due to concerns of piracy.
Game Boy accessories
21458349#0
The best-selling video game of all-time on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color is "Tetris". First released in Japan on June 14, 1989, "Tetris" was often released as a pack-in game for the original Game Boy, and went on to sell in excess of 35 million units worldwide. The second best-selling Game Boy games are "Pokémon Red", "Green" and "Blue", which sold over 31 million units combined, followed by the best-selling Game Boy Color games "Pokémon Gold" and "Silver", which sold over 23 million units in total. The top five is rounded out by the platform's first "Super Mario" title, "Super Mario Land", which sold over 18 million copies worldwide, and "Pokémon Yellow", which sold over 14 million units in total.
List of best-selling Game Boy video games
315526#7
"A Boy and His Blob" was officially licensed by Nintendo in the summer of 1989. Though standard NES games took six to eight months to develop, Imagineering completed "A Boy and His Blob" in a mere six weeks. Crane himself rented a room in a flophouse near his office and put in several 16- to 20-hour days of the work on the project. After going without sleep for 48 hours in its last two days of earnest development, Crane flew to the CES in Chicago for trade demonstrations, then spent nights at his hotel fixing bugs. The game was released just prior to Christmas in 1989 as Absolute's first game on the NES. Crane recalled the development process for Absolute's early games to be enjoyable, but explained that "under the rule of Nintendo, the publishing side of the game business was really tough", emphasizing how frequently game publishers went out of business in those years. The team was originally in talks with a writer-producer of the "Transformers" animated features to simultaneously launch the "A Boy and His Blob" video game with a tie-in toy and a film. However, the plans never came to fruition due to deadlines and difficulty in dividing production resources three ways between a game, toy, and movie. When "A Boy and His Blob" was released in Japan by Jaleco in November 1990, it was retitled .
A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia