Game Boy Color

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Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color with Atomic Purple case
Also known asCGB-001
DeveloperNintendo Research & Engineering
ManufacturerNintendo
Product familyGame Boy[1]
TypeHandheld game console
GenerationFifth
Release date
  • JP: October 21, 1998
  • NA: November 18, 1998
  • EU: November 23, 1998
  • AU: November 27, 1998
Introductory priceUS$79.95 (equivalent to $150 in 2023)
DiscontinuedMarch 31, 2003
Units shipped118.69 million (including the Game Boy)
MediaGame Boy Game Pak
Game Boy Color Game Pak
CPUSharp LR35902 @ 4/8 MHz
Memory32 KB RAM
16 KB VRAM
DisplayTFT LCD 160 × 144 px, 44 mm × 40 mm (1.7 in × 1.6 in)[2]
Online servicesMobile System GB[3]
Best-selling gamePokémon Gold and Silver, approximately 23 million units
Backward
compatibility		Game Boy
PredecessorGame Boy[4]
SuccessorGame Boy Advance[4]

The Game Boy Color (GBC) is an 8-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of its product line. Compared to the original, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen rather than monochrome, a processor that operates twice as fast, and has three times as much memory. It retains backward compatibility with games initially developed for its predecessor. However, despite these improvements, reviewers consider the Game Boy Color to be more akin to a hardware revision than a next generation product.[5]

The handheld is slightly thicker and taller and has a slightly smaller screen than the Game Boy Pocket, its immediate predecessor, although significantly smaller than the original Game Boy. As with its predecessors, the Game Boy Color has a custom 8-bit processor made by Sharp. The American English spelling of the system's name, Game Boy Color, remains consistent throughout the world.

The Game Boy Color is part of the fifth generation of video game consoles. The Game Boy and the Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide making them the fourth best-selling system of all time.[6][7] Its best-selling games are Pokémon Gold and Silver, which shipped 23 million units worldwide.[8][9]

History[edit]

The development of the Game Boy Color was spurred by news in October 1997 that Bandai, with the help of former Nintendo engineers including the late Gunpei Yokoi, was planning a new handheld console called the WonderSwan. Leveraging an earlier color prototype from 1992, Nintendo was able to accelerate development of Game Boy Color. Critically, the Game Boy Color maintained backward compatibility with all existing Game Boy games.[10][11]

Nintendo formally announced the Game Boy Color on March 10, 1998.[12] Sales started in the Japanese home market on October 21, 1998[13] and rolled out across international markets over the next month, starting with North America on November 18, Europe on the 23rd and Australasia on the 27th. The introductory price of the device was US$79.95 (equivalent to $150 in 2023).[14] The Game Boy Color ultimately would go on sale five months before the monochrome WonderSwan, which would ultimately suffer from low sales.

The Game Boy Color would remain on sale for several years, until all remaining new units were reportedly sold by March 31, 2003.[6] The handheld was superseded in Nintendo's line up by the Game Boy Advance, a sixth generation device.

Hardware[edit]

Technical specifications[edit]

The technical specifications for the console are as follows:[15]

Height 133.5 mm (5.26 in)
Width 78 mm (3.1 in)
Depth 27.4 mm (1.08 in)
Weight 138 g (4.9 oz)
Screen
  • 2.3-inch (diagonal) reflective thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid-crystal display (LCD)
  • Maximum sprites: 40 total, 10 per line, 4 colors each (one transparent)
  • Sprite size: 8 × 8 or 8 × 16
  • Tiles drawn: 512 (360~399 visible, others off-screen as a scrolling buffer)
Display size 44 mm × 40 mm (1.7 in × 1.6 in)[16]
Frame rate 59.727500569606 Hz[17]
Resolution 160 (w) × 144 (h) pixels (10:9 aspect ratio)[a]
CPU Sharp Corporation LR35902 (custom Intel 8080/Zilog Z80 hybrid 8-bit processor) operating at 8.388608 MHz or 4.194304 MHz
Memory 32 KB RAM; 16 KB Video RAM
Color support 32,768 colors, up to 56 simultaneously
Power
Battery life Up to 10 hours
Sound
I/O
  • Game Link Cable: 512 kbit/s with up to 4 connections
  • Infrared: Usable at distances less than 2 m (6 ft 7 in), and within 45°
  • Game Pak slot
Controls

Game Paks manufactured by Nintendo have the following specifications:

  • ROM: 8 MB maximum
  • Cartridge RAM: 128 KB maximum

Without additional mapper hardware, the maximum ROM size is 32 KB (256 kbit).

The Game Boy Color motherboard

The Game Boy Color uses a custom Sharp LR35902 central processing unit that is considered to be a hybrid between two other 8-bit processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80, but with a few extra (bit manipulation) instructions.[19] The processor has a clock rate of 8.388608 MHz, exactly twice as fast as that of the original Game Boy.[b] The processor can also step down to match the 4.194304 MHz speed of its predecessor to maintain backward compatibility.

The Game Boy Color has three times as much memory as the original: 32 KB of system RAM and 16 KB of video RAM. The screen aspect ratio and resolution is the same as the original Game Boy: 10:9 at 160 pixels wide by 144 pixels high.

The Game Boy Color features an infrared communications port for wireless data transfer, however the feature is only supported by a small number of games, so the infrared port was dropped from the Game Boy Advance line.

The device is capable of displaying up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768 colors (8 × 4 color background palettes, 8 x 3 + transparent sprite palettes), and can add basic four-, seven- or ten-color shading to games that had been developed for the original 4-shades-of-grey Game Boy. In the 7-color modes, the sprites and backgrounds are given separate color schemes, and in the 10-color modes the sprites are further split into two differently-colored groups; however, as flat black (or white) was a shared fourth color in all but one (7-color) palette, the overall effect is that of 4, 6, or 8 colors. This method of upgrading the color count results in graphic artifacts in certain games; for example, a sprite that is supposed to meld into the background is sometimes colored separately, making it easily noticeable. Manipulation of palette registers during display allows for a rarely used high color mode, capable of displaying more than 2,000 colors on the screen simultaneously.[21]

Cartridges[edit]

Game Boy Color Game Pak
Color enhanced Game Boy Game Pak
Original Game Boy Game Pak

The Game Boy Color offered backward compatibility with all original Game Boy games, and there were three main Game Pak cartridge types for the handheld:

Game Boy Color Game Pak (Clear Case): Designed specifically for the Game Boy Color, these cartridges exploit the system's full potential. They boast a wider color range (up to 56 colors) and benefit from the handheld's increased processing speed and memory compared to the original. These cartridges are physically incompatible with the original Game Boy due to a different shape.[22]

Illustrated color-samples of the color palettes and the key combinations to select them on an original Game Pak.

Color enhanced Game Boy Game Pak (Black Case): These cartridges leverage the Game Boy Color's hardware, offering a richer color palette (up to 16 colors) utilizing the original Game Boy's four layers.[23] These cartridges remain compatible with the original Game Boy. Developers pre-programmed which color palette would be used. A few games, primarily by licensed developers, used a technique called "Hi-Color mode" to achieve a wider color range (over 2,000 colors). This technique involved rapidly switching scan lines to create the illusion of more colors, but it was not widely used.  Examples of games using Hi-Color mode include The Fish Files, The New Addams Family Series, and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare.[21] Cannon Fodder uses this technique to render full motion video segments.[24]

Original Game Boy Game Pak (Gray Case): The classic Game Boy cartridges. The Game Boy Color applies a limited color palette (often dark green) using up to ten colors to enhance the game, originally intended to be presented in monochrome.[25] On startup, users could choose from 12 different palettes using button combinations. A dedicated palette option replicates the original Game Boy's grayscale experience.

Model colors[edit]

Berry
Grape
Kiwi
Dandelion
Teal
Atomic Purple

The logo for Game Boy Color spells out the word "COLOR" in the five original colors in which the unit was manufactured: Berry (C), Grape (O), Kiwi (L), Dandelion (O), and Teal (R).

Another color released at the same time was "Atomic Purple", made of a translucent purple plastic. Other colors were sold as limited editions or in specific countries.

Games[edit]

Main articles: List of Game Boy Color games and List of Game Boy games
See also: List of cancelled Game Boy Color games

Due to its backward compatibility with Game Boy games, the Game Boy Color's launched with a large playable library. The system amassed a library of 576 Game Boy Color games over a four-year period. While the majority of the games are Game Boy Color exclusive, approximately 30% of the games released are compatible with the original Game Boy. Most Game Boy Color games released after 1999 are not compatible with the original Game Boy.

Tetris for the original Game Boy is the best-selling game compatible with Game Boy Color, and Pokémon Gold and Silver are the best-selling games developed primarily for it. The best-selling Game Boy Color exclusive game is Pokémon Crystal.

The last Game Boy Color game ever released is the Japanese exclusive Doraemon no Study Boy: Kanji Yomikaki Master, on July 18, 2003. The last game released in North America is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, released on November 15, 2002. In Europe the last game released for the system is Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!, on January 10, 2003.

Beyond officially released games for the platform, there is an active online community creating new games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color through the use of tools like GB Studio.[26] One such example is Dragonhym (originally Dragonborne) which was available for release on a physical cartridge which will be playable on the Game Boy Color.[27]

Reception[edit]

Sales[edit]

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were both commercially successful, selling a combined 32.47 million units in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in other regions.[6][7] At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of the Game Boy were the best-selling game console of all time. Surpassed in sales by the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Switch the trio are now the fourth-best-selling console, the third-best-selling console and the second-best-selling handheld of all time. Sales of the console were in part driven by the success of Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Crystal, with combined sales of 29.5 million units, making them one of the best selling-video games of all time.

Sales of the Game Boy Color were strong at launch. Nintendo of America reported a sale of one million units from launch to December 1998,[28] and two million by July 1999.[29] Retail chains in the United States reported unexpectedly high demand for the console, with executives of FuncoLand reporting "very pleasant and unpredicted" sales and Electronics Boutique stating "the entire Game Boy Color line just exploded, including accessories" upon release.[30] Faced with high worldwide demand and competitive retail pricing, retailers such as CompUSA sold out of Game Boy Color stock in the weeks before the 1998 Christmas season.[28]

Critical reception[edit]

Reception of the Game Boy Color was positive, with critics praising the addition of color and improved clarity of the display. Affiliated publications such as Total Game Boy praised the handheld for its "bright, colorful picture that can be viewed in direct light", backward compatibility features preserving the "vast catalogue of original Game Boy games", and improved technical performance.[31] Computer and Video Games praised the Game Boy Color for making the Game Boy library of games "look better than ever – everything is crystal clear, bright and in colour".[32] Writing for GameSpot, Chris Johnston stated that the display was "crystal clear" and free of motion blur, stating that Tetris DX was the "killer app" of the launch titles on the platform.[33] Milder reviews included those by Arcade, who conceded that the colors were "very impressive" but "not as eyeball-popping as you might have hoped for [...] it's mostly seaweed greens, rusty browns, timid yellows and the like". They concluded that "nothing about [the Game Boy Color] is very radical" but also said the device was "Game Boy as it always should have been".[34]

Legacy[edit]

Commentary on the legacy of the Game Boy Color has been shaped by the perception that the handheld was as an incremental and transitional upgrade of the Game Boy rather than a completely new handheld release.[35][36] In a history of Nintendo, author Jeff Ryan noted the Game Boy Color had a reputation as a "legacy machine" that found success mostly due to its backward compatibility, as "few wanted to lose all the Dr. Mario and Pokémon cartridges they had amassed over the years."[37] Quoted in Retro Gamer, Blitz Games Studios developer Bob Pape acknowledged that although "backwards compatibility more or less defined (the) Game Boy Color", the handheld "ticked all the right boxes with regards to size, battery life, reliability and most importantly backwards compatibility".[36]

Positive assessment on the legacy of the Game Boy Color has also focused upon the merits of its game library, particularly for its third-party and import titles. Travis Fahs for IGN noted whilst "the Game Boy Color's life was relatively brief", it "built up a small library of excellent games", including Wario Land 3 and Pokémon Gold and Silver, and a "unique" and "previously unheard of" line of successful third-party games, including Dragon Warrior Monsters, Metal Gear Solid and Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories.[35] Ashley Day of Retro Gamer noted that the handheld had an "overlooked" status, stating "the Game Boy Color (has) an unfair reputation as the one Nintendo handheld with few worthwhile titles, but this simply isn't the case...returning to the Game Boy Color now reveals a wealth of great games that you never knew existed, especially those available on import."[38]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Same aspect ratio and resolution as the original Game Boy
  2. ^ The Game Boy Color CPU is sometimes considered as running with a clockspeed of approximately 2 MHz, because all of its instruction timings are divisible by 4.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ishihara; Morimoto. "Pokémon HeartGold Version & Pokémon SoulSilver Version". Iwata Asks (Interview: Transcript). Interviewed by Satoru Iwata. Nintendo. Archived from the original on November 24, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  2. ^ "Technical data". Nintendo of Europe GmbH. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  3. ^ "モバイルシステムＧＢ". Nintendo (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 28, 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Umezu; Sugino; Konno. "Nintendo 3DS (Volume 2 – Nintendo 3DS Hardware Concept)". Iwata Asks (Interview: Transcript). Interviewed by Satoru Iwata. Nintendo. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
  5. ^ Fahs, Travis (July 27, 2009). "IGN Presents the History of Game Boy". IGN. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c "Consolidated Sales Transition by Region" (PDF). Nintendo. April 26, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 11, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  7. ^ a b "A Brief History of Game Console Warfare: Game Boy". BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. Archived from the original on May 9, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
  8. ^ "Japan Platinum Game Chart". The Magic Box. Archived from the original on December 13, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
  9. ^ "US Platinum Videogame Chart". The Magic Box. Archived from the original on April 21, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
  10. ^ "Satoru Okada – Interview". Nintendo. Archived from the original on May 29, 2000. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  11. ^ blackoak (2022). "Satoru Okada – 2022 Retrospective Interview". Shmuplations. 4gamer.net. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  12. ^ "Nintendo Announces Full Color Game Boy". Nintendo. March 10, 1998. Archived from the original on May 30, 1998.
  13. ^ "Game Boy Color hardware". www.nintendo.co.jp. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  14. ^ "Introducing Game Boy Color". Nintendo Power. Nintendo. November 1998. p. 85.
  15. ^ "Nintendo Game Boy Color Console Information – Console Database". ConsoleDatabase.com. Archived from the original on July 2, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  16. ^ "Technical data". Nintendo of Europe GmbH. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  17. ^ "TASVideos / Platform Framerates". tasvideos.org. Archived from the original on February 29, 2020. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  18. ^ "Adding Color to Game Boy". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 106. Ziff Davis. May 1998. p. 26.
  19. ^ "The Nintendo Game Boy, Part 1: The Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80". RealBoy. January 2, 2013. Archived from the original on May 10, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  20. ^ "CPU Instruction Set – Pan Docs". Archived from the original on August 17, 2022. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
  21. ^ a b "First Alone in the Dark Screenshots for Game Boy Color". IGN. August 4, 2000. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  22. ^ "Game Pak Troubleshooting – All Game Boy Systems". Nintendo of America customer support. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  23. ^ "Disassembling the GBC Boot ROM". Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  24. ^ Albatross, Zen (November 18, 2011). "Game Boy Games That Pushed The Limits of Graphics & Sound". Racketboy. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015.
  25. ^ "Changing the Color Palette on Game Boy Advance Systems". Customer Service. Nintendo. Archived from the original on January 13, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
  26. ^ "GB Studio". Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  27. ^ "Dragonhym (GBC) – Standard Edition". Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  28. ^ a b "Game Boy Color Sales Exceed 1 Million During Holidays". Gaming Intelligence. February 1999. p. 4.
  29. ^ Dunne, Alex (July 1999). "Industry Watch". Game Developer Magazine. p. 10.
  30. ^ Trainman, Steve (May 12, 1999). "Retailers Coming to E3 with High Expectations". Game Week. Vol. 5, no. 17.
  31. ^ "Introducing The Game Boy Color". Total Game Boy. No. 1. 1998.
  32. ^ "Portable Colour Gaming Is Here!". Computer and Video Games. No. 205. December 1998.
  33. ^ Johnston, Chris (1998). "Hands On: Game Boy Color". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  34. ^ "The Color Purple". Arcade. No. 1. December 1998. pp. 60–61.
  35. ^ a b Fahs, Travis (July 27, 2009). "IGN Presents the History of Game Boy". IGN. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
  36. ^ a b Carroll, Martyn (December 2018). "Game Boy Color". Retro Gamer. No. 187. pp. 50–55.[dead link]
  37. ^ Ryan, Jeff (September 25, 2012). Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Penguin Random House. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-59184-563-8.
  38. ^ Day, Ashley (May 2006). "Game Boy Color". Retro Gamer. No. 24. pp. 41–43.

External links[edit]

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