Game Boy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Game Boy Pocket)

Game Boy
An original Game Boy
Also known asDMG-001
  • KR: Mini Comboy
DeveloperNintendo R&D1
ManufacturerNintendo
Product familyGame Boy[1]
TypeHandheld game console
GenerationFourth
Release date
Lifespan14 years
Introductory price
  • ¥12,500 (equivalent to ¥14,327 in 2019)[5]
  • US$89.99 (equivalent to $221.19 in 2023)[5][6]
  • £99 (equivalent to £239.38 in 2021)[7]
DiscontinuedMarch 31, 2003
Units sold118.69 million (including all variants and Game Boy Color)[8]
MediaGame Boy Game Pak
System on a chipNintendo DMG-CPU (Sharp LR35902)
CPUSharp SM83 @ 4 MHz
Memory8 KB RAM, 8 KB VRAM
DisplaySTN LCD 160 × 144 px, 47 mm × 43 mm (1.9 in × 1.7 in)
Best-selling gameTetris (approx. 35 million units)[9]
PredecessorGame & Watch
SuccessorGame Boy Color[10]

The Game Boy is an 8-bit, fourth generation, handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America and Europe later that year. Designed by the team behind the Game & Watch handhelds and NES games (Satoru Okada, Gunpei Yokoi, and R&D1),[11][12] it was Nintendo's first portable console, combining features from both.

The Game Boy features a dot-matrix screen with adjustable contrast, a directional pad, four game buttons, a single monaural speaker with volume control, and uses Game Pak cartridges. The two-toned gray design with black, blue, and dark magenta accents sported softly rounded corners, except for the bottom right which was curved. At launch, it was sold either as a standalone unit, or bundled with games like Super Mario Land and Tetris, with accessories like carrying pouches, a camera, and a printer available.

Despite mixed reviews criticizing its monochrome graphics and larger size compared to competitors like the Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and NEC Turbo Express, the Game Boy outsold them rapidly.[13] It sold one million units in the United States within weeks.[14] An estimated 118.69 million units of the Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color (1998), have been sold worldwide, making it the fourth best-selling console ever. A cultural icon of the 1990s, the Game Boy received several redesigns during its lifespan, including the smaller Game Boy Pocket (1996) and the backlit Game Boy Light (1998). Sales of Game Boy variants continued until 2003.

Development[edit]

The Game Boy was the brainchild of Nintendo's chief engineer Gunpei Yokoi and its Nintendo R&D1 team. Inspired by the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Yokoi approached president Hiroshi Yamauchi with an ambitious plan: a portable console that offered interchangeable games. Yamauchi encouraged the team to work on the project, however within Nintendo, many were skeptical that such a device would be feasable. Some employees even gave the project the derogatory nickname "DameGame" (dame (だめ) meaning "hopeless" in Japanese).[15][16]

The codename for this nascent project was "Dot Matrix Game," (DMG) reflecting its intended display technology, a stark contrast to the limited, single-game Game & Watch series Yokoi had previously created, which had segmented LCDs pre-printed with an overlay, limiting each model to only play one game. The initials DMG came to be featured on the final product's model number: "DMG-001."

The dot-matrix screen was ultimately one of the biggest hurdles the team had to overcome. Nintendo's supplier Sharp was skeptical of the project, prompting the team to consider an alternative suppliers, coming close to a deal with Citizen.[17] However Okada was persistent, going so far as to show Sharp's leadership a prototype of the Game Boy, which convinced the company to supply a dot-matrix screen using twisted nematic (TN) technology. However, when the team showed Yamauchi a prototype, the Nintendo chief disliked the TN screen's narrow viewing angle. The team went back to Sharp who offered up a screen using super-twisted nematic (STN) technology. The STN display offered better viewing angles and contrast, but was less established in mass production, making it more expensive. The development team compensated by reducing the screen size, however it was too late in the development cycle to alter device's overall dimensions.[17][18]

For the other technology inside the Game Boy, Yokoi championed a philosophy of "lateral thinking with withered technology," prioritizing affordability and reliability over bleeding-edge tech. This meant leveraging existing, mature technology in innovative ways. This led the team to opt for a less powerful Sharp CPU compared to their original preference to use the Ricoh chip from the NES. A key design element was also carried over from the Game & Watch: the now-iconic D-pad. This flat directional control pad, another brainchild of Yokoi, addressed the challenge of portability by keeping the controls flush with the console's body, in contrast to the joystick controls popular at the time.[19]

During development, Satoru Okada, Nintendo's head of research and engineering, joined the team, leading to disagreements with Yokoi. Okada's primary concern was addressing a limitation encountered with the launch of the NES: a lack of development tools for third-party developers. He also pushed for a serial cable port on the device. Many on the team doubted it would be useful. Okada persisted and developed the necessary communication library. This seemingly minor decision would have a profound impact, paving the way for the revolutionary "battle" and "trade" mechanics in the Pokémon series, released years later in 1996.[17]

In 1987, a prototype of the Game Boy debuted at industry trade shows. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi made a bold prediction, estimating the Game Boy would sell a staggering 25 million units within its first three years.[19] Nintendo's philosophy centered on the belief that the appeal of a gaming system was primarily determined by the quality of its games. With this in mind, Yokoi and Okada developed Super Mario Land, a portable take on the beloved Super Mario Bros. game, intending it to be the flagship title for the Game Boy.[20] Fate, however, intervened. Henk Rogers introduced Tetris, a Soviet-made game with simple visuals but addictive gameplay, to Nintendo of America. Recognizing its perfect fit for a handheld platform, Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa convinced the company to bundle Tetris with the Game Boy in most regions (excluding Japan).[19] This last minute change would prove to be a cornerstone of the console's success.

The Game Boy launched in 1989 (Japan), 1989 (North America), and 1990 (Europe), backed by a significant $10 million marketing push.[20][21] Despite initial skepticism, the console defied expectations. Sales of the Game Boy and its successor variants (including the Game Boy Color) continued until March 2003.[8] At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales made it the best-selling game console of all time.

Hardware[edit]

The original Game Boy motherboard
(Annotated version)

The Game Boy uses a custom system on a chip (SoC), to house most of the components, named the DMG-CPU by Nintendo and the LR35902 by its manufacturer, the Sharp Corporation[22]

Within the DMG-CPU, the main processor is a Sharp SM83,[23] a hybrid between two other 8-bit processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80. The SM83 has the seven general-purpose registers of the 8080 (compared to 14 on the Z80) but retains the Z80's extra bit manipulation instructions, while adding a few new instructions to optimize the processor for certain operations related to the way the hardware was arranged.[24][25] The Sharp SM83 operates at a clock rate of 4.194304 MHz.[22]

The DMG-CPU also incorporates the Picture Processing Unit (PPU), essentially a basic GPU, that renders visuals using an 8 KB bank of Video RAM located on the motherboard.[22] The display itself is a 2.5-inch (diagonal) reflective super-twisted nematic (STN) monochrome liquid-crystal display (LCD), measuring 47 millimeters (1.9 in) wide by 43 millimeters (1.7 in) high. The screen can render four shades with a resolution of 160 pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9 aspect ratio.[26][27]

The SoC also contains the Audio Processing Unit, a programmable sound generator with two pulse wave channels, a wave channel with user-definable waveform and a pseudo-random noise channel,[28] along with 127 B of High RAM (similar to a CPU cache) that can be accessed faster and a 256 B "bootstrap" ROM which is used to start up the device.[29] The motherboard also contains a 8 KB "working RAM" chip.[22]

The Game Boy features a D-pad (directional pad), four buttons labeled 'A,' 'B,' 'SELECT,' and 'START,' and a sliding on-off switch with a cartridge lock to prevent accidental removal. The volume and contrast are adjusted by dials on either side.[30][31]

The original Game Boy was powered internally by four AA batteries.[32] For extended use, an optional AC adapter or rechargeable battery pack can be connected via a coaxial power connector on the left side.[33] The Game Boy has a single monaural speaker and a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack on the bottom allows for private listening.[34]

The right side offers a Game Link Cable port for connecting to another Game Boy for two-player games or, notably in Pokémon, sharing files.[35][36] This port can also be used with a Game Boy Printer.

Technical specifications[edit]

Game Boy[26][37] Game Boy Pocket[37]
Height 148 mm (5.8 in) 127.6 mm (5.02 in)
Width 90 mm (3.5 in) 77.6 mm (3.06 in)
Depth 32 mm (1.3 in) 25.3 mm (1.00 in)
Weight 220 g (7.8 oz) 125 g (4.4 oz)
Display 2.5-inch reflective super-twisted nematic (STN) liquid-crystal display (LCD), 47 mm × 43 mm (1.9 in × 1.7 in) 2.5-inch film compensated STN (FSTN) LCD, 48 mm × 44 mm (1.9 in × 1.7 in)
Resolution 160 (w) × 144 (h) pixels (10:9 aspect ratio)
Frame rate 59.727500569606 Hz[38]
Color support 2-bit, four shades of green:  0x0  0x1  0x2  0x3  2-bit, four shades of grey:  0x0  0x1  0x2  0x3 
System on a chip (SoC) Nintendo DMG-CPU (Sharp Corporation LR35902)
Processor Sharp SM83 (custom Intel 8080/Zilog Z80 hybrid 8-bit processor) operating at 4.194304 MHz
Memory
  • On SoC: 256 B "bootstrap" ROM,[39] 127 B High RAM
  • Internal: 8 KB RAM, 8 KB Video RAM
  • External: (in the game cartridge) up to 8 MB ROM, up to 128 KB RAM (can be battery-backed to hold save games)[40]
Power
  • Consumption: 80–90 mAh
  • Internal: 2 × AAA batteries
  • External: 0.6 W at 3 V DC from 2.35 mm × 0.75 mm coaxial connector
Battery life Up to 30 hours Up to 10 hours
Sound
I/O
Controls
  • 4-way D-pad
  • Four action buttons (A, B, Start, Select)
  • Volume potentiometer
  • Contrast potentiometer
  • Power switch

Play It Loud! edition[edit]

Clear "Play It Loud!" edition

On March 20, 1995, Nintendo released several special edition Game Boy models with colored cases, advertising them in the "Play It Loud!" campaign,[41] known in Japan as Game Boy Bros.[a] Play It Loud! units were manufactured in red, yellow, green, blue black, white, and clear (transparent),[42] also referred to as "x-ray".[43] The Play It Loud's screens also have a darker border than the normal Game Boy.[42]

Revisions[edit]

Game Boy Pocket[edit]

On July 21, 1996, Nintendo released the Game Boy Pocket in Japan and on September 3, 1996 in North America for US$69.99 (equivalent to $135.97 in 2023).[44] The Game Boy Pocket was a smaller, lighter unit that required just two smaller AAA batteries, which provide approximately 10 hours of gameplay.[45] The Pocket has a smaller Game Link Cable port, which requires an adapter to link with the original Game Boy. This smaller port design would be used on all subsequent Game Boy models. The screen was changed to an film compensated super-twisted nematic (FSTN) LCD. This film compensation layer produced a true black-and-white display, rather than the green hues of the original Game Boy.[46] The screen also had notably improved visibility and pixel response-time (mostly eliminating ghosting).[47] The first version did not have a power LED, but was soon added due to public demand. Addtionally, different case colors were introduced after April 28, 1997.[48]

Game Boy Light[edit]

The Game Boy Light was released on April 14, 1998, and only available in Japan. Like the Game Boy Pocket, the system was priced at ¥6,800 (equivalent to ¥6,892 in 2019).[49] The Game Boy Light is slightly bigger than the Game Boy Pocket and features an electroluminescent backlight allowing it to be played in low-light conditions. It uses two AA batteries, which give it approximately 12 gameplay hours with the backlight on and 20 with it off.[49] It was available in two standard colors: gold and silver.[49][50]

Games[edit]

The standard gray cartridge for the original Game Boy games

Games are stored in up to 8 MB of ROM on a Game Boy Game Paks cartridges, which can also provide up to 128 KB of additional RAM to the system which can be battery-backed to hold saved games on the cartridge.[22][51]

Launch titles[edit]

The Game Boy was released alongside six launch titles, which are listed in the table below:

Name JP NA EU Notes
Alleyway Yes Yes Yes Breakout clone
Baseball Yes Yes Yes Sports game ported from the Famicom
Super Mario Land Yes Yes Yes Platform game in the Super Mario series
Tennis No Yes No Sports game
Tetris No Yes Yes Port of the 1984 puzzle game of the same name
Yakuman[52] Yes No No Mahjong game

Re-releases[edit]

Various Game Boy and Color games have been re-released on newer Nintendo consoles through its digital distribution services. On June 6, 2011, Nintendo launched the Virtual Console service on the Nintendo 3DS handheld system. All releases (aside from the Pokémon games) do not support multiplayer.[citation needed]

On February 8, 2023, Nintendo announced the introduction of Game Boy/Color games to its Nintendo Switch Online service.[53]

Reception[edit]

One of the many criticisms for the original Game Boy was its lack of a backlight, so many third-party accessories were created to make play possible in low-light conditions.

Critical reception[edit]

Though it was less technically advanced than Sega's Game Gear, Atari's Lynx and other competitors, notably by not supporting color, the Game Boy's lower price along with longer battery life made it much more successful.[54] In its first two weeks in Japan, from its release on April 21, 1989, the entire stock of 300,000 units was sold; a few months later on July 31, 1989, 40,000 units were sold on its first release day.[20] More than 118.69 million units of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have been sold worldwide, with 32.47 million units in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in other regions.[8] By Japanese fiscal year 1997, before Game Boy Color's release in late 1998, 64.42 million units of the Game Boy had been sold worldwide.[8][55] 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.[56]

In 1995, Nintendo of America announced that 46% of Game Boy players were female, which was higher than the percentage of female players for both the Nintendo Entertainment System (29%) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (14%).[57] In 2009, the Game Boy was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, 20 years after its introduction.[58]

The console received mixed reviews from critics. In a 1997 year-end review, a team of four Electronic Gaming Monthly editors gave the Game Boy scores of 7.5, 7.0, 8.0, and 2.0. Sushi-X (who contributed the 2.0) panned the system due to its black-and-white display and motion blur, while his three co-reviewers praised its long battery life and strong games library, as well as the sleek, conveniently pocket-sized design of the new Game Boy Pocket model.[59]

Sales[edit]

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were both commercially successful, selling 118.69 million units worldwide: 32.47 million in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in all other regions.[60][61] At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of the Game Boy made it the best-selling game console of all time. In later years, its sales were surpassed by the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Switch, making it the fourth-best-selling console the second-best-selling handheld of all time, as of 2024. Sales of the device 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.[62][63]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Japanese: ゲームボーイブラザーズ

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. ^ White, Dave (July 1989). "Gameboy Club". Nintendo Power. No. 7. p. 84.
  3. ^ "retrodiary: 1 April – 28 April". Retro Gamer. No. 88. Bournemouth: Imagine Publishing. April 2011. p. 17. ISSN 1742-3155. OCLC 489477015.
  4. ^ "Video Games Around the World: South Africa". Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Happy 20th b-day, Game Boy: here are 6 reasons why you're #1". Ars Technica. September 7, 2015. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  6. ^ "The Real Cost of Gaming: Inflation, Time, and Purchasing Power". October 15, 2013. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  7. ^ "Console Crazy!". ACE. No. 37. September 1990. p. 142. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d "Consolidated Sales Transition by Region" (PDF). Nintendo. April 26, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 27, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  9. ^ "All-time best selling console games worldwide 2018 | Statistic". Statista. Archived from the original on May 21, 2018. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  10. ^ Umezu; Sugino. "Nintendo 3DS (Volume 3 – Nintendo 3DS Hardware Concept)". Iwata Asks (Interview: Transcript). Interviewed by Satoru Iwata. Nintendo. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  11. ^ Beuscher, Dave. "Game Boy – Overview". Allgame. Archived from the original on December 12, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2008. A team headed by Gumpei Yokoi [sic] designed the Game Boy. Yokoi had previously designed handheld games for Nintendo with the cartridge-based Game & Watch system, introduced in 1980. His staff, called Research and Development (R and D) team #1, had designed the successful NES games Metroid and Kid Icarus. What Yokoi's team did was create a hybrid of the NES and the Game & Watch systems.
  12. ^ "Satoru Okada talks Game & Watch, Game Boy and Nintendo DS development". Issue 163. Retro Gamer Magazine. 2016. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  13. ^ "AtariAge – Lynx History". AtariAge. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2016. Eventually the Lynx was squeezed out of the picture and the handheld market was dominated by the Nintendo GameBoy with the Sega Game Gear a distant second.
  14. ^ Kent 2001, p. 416. "According to an article in Time magazine, the one million Game Boys sent to the United States in 1989 met only half the demand for the product. That allotment sold out in a matter of weeks and its black and white (except for Konami/Factor 5 games and SeaQuest DSV), was shown in color like the Game Gear version."
  15. ^ Audureau, William (March 18, 2015). "NX, Ultra 64, Revolution… Petite histoire de Nintendo à travers ses noms de code". Le Monde.fr (in French). ISSN 1950-6244. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  16. ^ "駄目". Wiktionary. Archived from the original on May 15, 2021. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  17. ^ a b c Aetas (July 15, 2022). "ゲームボーイの生みの親・岡田 智氏が任天堂での開発者時代を語った「黒川塾 八十八(88)」聴講レポート". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  18. ^ Aetas (March 29, 2022). "元任天堂・岡田 智氏の独立独歩 後編 ひたすらに意志を貫いたゲームボーイ&ゲームボーイアドバンス開発 「ビデオゲームの語り部たち」:第28部". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  19. ^ a b c McFerran, Damien (2016). "Game Boy". Videogames Hardware Handbook Vol 1. (2nd RE). pp. 157–163.
  20. ^ a b c Fahs, Travis (July 27, 2009). "IGN Presents the History of Game Boy". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. p. 2. Archived from the original on February 19, 2023. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  21. ^ Shiver, Jube (November 29, 1989). "Hardly Playing Games : Toys: It's serious business as Nintendo's Game Boy goes head to head with Atari's Lynx. The products differ, but both firms hope to expand beyond the traditional teen male market". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  22. ^ a b c d e Copetti, Rodrigo (February 21, 2019). "Game Boy / Color Architecture - A Practical Analysis". Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  23. ^ Javanainen, Joonas (April 23, 2024). "Game Boy: Complete Technical Reference" (PDF). gekkio.fi.
  24. ^ "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.
  25. ^ "CPU Comparison with Z80". Pan Docs. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  26. ^ a b Amos, Evan (1989). "GameBoy : User Manual, Page 12". Nintendo of America. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 12, 2011.
  27. ^ Fruttenboel Gameboy Section (August 22, 2009). "GameBoy : Using the GameBoy skeleton for serious business (Interrupt Descriptions)". Archived from the original on September 21, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  28. ^ "Game Boy – 8bc Chiptune Wiki". November 5, 2008. Archived from the original on February 21, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
  29. ^ GameBoy Development Wiki (November 12, 2009). "Gameboy Bootstrap ROM". Archived from the original on August 18, 2010. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
  30. ^ Owner's Manual, pp. 3–4. "(3) Game Pak slot — Insert the Nintendo GAME BOY Game Pak here. (See page 7 for instructions on inserting Game Pak)"
  31. ^ Owner's Manual, pp. 4–5. "(5) Volume dial (VOL) — Adjusts the sound volume…(7)Contrast adjustment (CONTRAST) — Adjusts the contrast of the display."
  32. ^ Owner's Manual, p. 4. "(2) External power supply jack — You can connect a Rechargeable Battery Pack (sold separately) for longer play."
  33. ^ "Nintendo Game Boy (DMG-001)". Vidgame.net. 2006. Archived from the original on February 11, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2006.
  34. ^ Owner's Manual, p. 5. "(10) Headphone jack (PHONES) — Connect the stereo headphones that come with the GAME BOY to enjoy the impressive sounds of games without disturbing others around you...."
  35. ^ Masuyama, Meguro (2002). "Pokémon as Japanese Culture?". In Lucien King (ed.). Game On. New York, NY: Universe Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 0-7893-0778-2. Pokémon allowed more than metaphorical communication; it made use of a system that created actual communication — a network game.
  36. ^ Owner's Manual, pp. 4, 8. "(4) Extension connector (EXT CONNECTOR) — Connects to other GAME BOY…Do not insert different games in the interconnected Game Boys."
  37. ^ a b "Technical data". Nintendo of Europe GmbH. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  38. ^ "TASVideos / Platform Framerates". tasvideos.org. Archived from the original on February 29, 2020. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  39. ^ GameBoy Development Wiki (November 12, 2009). "Gameboy Bootstrap ROM". Archived from the original on August 18, 2010. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
  40. ^ Byers, Brendan. "Exploring the Gameboy Memory Bank Controller". Brendan's Website. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  41. ^ "Color it loud with hot new Game Boys; Game Boy reflects players own style with five exciting new colors". Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2009.
  42. ^ a b Oxford, David (February 14, 2019). "Boy, Oh Game Boy: Play It Loud!". Old School Gamer Magazine. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  43. ^ Gavin, Michael (June 8, 2017). "Retro Retail: Game Boy, the original 8-bit wonder of the handheld world". Inside the Magic. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  44. ^ "1998 Sears Christmas Book, Page 161 – Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks". christmas.musetechnical.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  45. ^ "The Incredible Shrinking Game Boy Pocket". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 84. Ziff Davis. July 1996. p. 16.
  46. ^ "Game Boy Relaunched". Next Generation. No. 20. Imagine Media. August 1996. p. 26.
  47. ^ "Pocket Cool". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 89. Ziff Davis. December 1996. p. 204.
  48. ^ "Tidbits...". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 94. Ziff Davis. May 1997. p. 19.
  49. ^ a b c "Game Boy Lights Up". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 105. Ziff Davis. April 1998. p. 26.
  50. ^ ゲームボーイライト (in Japanese). Nintendo. Archived from the original on May 30, 1998. Retrieved November 3, 2009.
  51. ^ Byers, Brendan. "Exploring the Gameboy Memory Bank Controller". Brendan's Website. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  52. ^ "Yakuman for Game Boy (1989) – MobyGames". Archived from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  53. ^ "Nintendo is adding Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to Switch Online today". February 8, 2023.
  54. ^ Maher, Jimmy (December 22, 2016). "A Time of Endings, Part 2: Epyx". The Digital Antiquarian. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  55. ^ "A Brief History of Game Console Warfare: Game Boy". BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. Archived from the original on May 9, 2007. Retrieved July 30, 2008. Game Boy and Game Boy Color's combined lifetime sales reached 118.7 million worldwide, according to Nintendo's latest annual report.
  56. ^ "Cart Queries". GamePro. No. 71. IDG. August 1994. p. 14.
  57. ^ "Makers Of Games Focus On Girls". The Gainesville Sun. January 15, 1995. p. 15. Archived from the original on March 25, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  58. ^ "Ball, Game Boy, Big Wheel enter toy hall of fame, retrieved 5 Nov 2009". Rbj.net. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved August 3, 2010.
  59. ^ "EGM's Special Report: Which System Is Best?". 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide. Ziff Davis. March 1998. p. 58.
  60. ^ "Consolidated Sales Transition by Region" (PDF). Nintendo. April 26, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 11, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  61. ^ "A Brief History of Game Console Warfare: Game Boy". BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. Archived from the original on May 9, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
  62. ^ "Japan Platinum Game Chart". The Magic Box. Archived from the original on December 13, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
  63. ^ "US Platinum Videogame Chart". The Magic Box. Archived from the original on April 21, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2007.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]