 | |
 Game Boy Color withAtomic Purple case | |
| Also known as | CGB-001 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo Research & Engineering |
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Product family | Game Boy family |
| Type | Handheld game console |
| Generation | Fifth |
| Release date | |
| Introductory price | US$79.95 (equivalent to $150 in 2024) |
| Discontinued | March 31, 2003 |
| Units sold | 118.69 million (including all Game Boy variants) |
| Media | Game Boy Game Pak Game Boy Color Game Pak |
| System on a chip | Nintendo CPU CGB |
| CPU | Sharp SM83 @ 4.2 / 8.4 MHz |
| Memory | 32 KB RAM, 16 KB Video RAM |
| Display | ReflectiveTFT LCD 160 × 144 px, 44 × 40 mm (1.7 × 1.6 in) |
| Online services | |
| Best-selling game | Pokémon Gold andSilver (23 million) |
| Backward compatibility | Game Boy |
| Predecessor | Game Boy |
| Successor | Game Boy Advance |
TheGame Boy Color (Japanese:ゲームボーイカラー,GBC orCGB) is an 8-bithandheld game console, manufactured byNintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the originalGame Boy, the Game Boy Color features a colorTFT screen rather thanmonochrome, a processor that can operate twice as fast, and four times as much memory. It retainsbackward compatibility with games initially developed for its predecessor.
While the handheld was slightly thicker, taller and had a smaller screen than its immediate predecessor, theGame Boy Pocket, the Color was significantly smaller than the original Game Boy. As with its predecessors, the Game Boy Color has a custom8-bit processor made bySharp. TheAmerican English spelling of the system's name,Game Boy Color, remains consistent throughout the world.
While it received positive reviews upon its release, the Game Boy Color was seen as more of a transitional upgrade of the original Game Boy rather than a completely new device, It would have a relatively brief lifespan, being supplanted by theGame Boy Advance after less than three years on the market.
The Game Boy Color is part of thefifth generation of video game consoles and primarily competed with theWonderSwan,Neo Geo Pocket, andGenesis Nomad. The Game Boy and the Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide, making them the fourthbest-selling system of all time. Its best-selling games arePokémon Gold andSilver, which shipped 23 million units worldwide.
When the original Game Boy was first introduced in 1989, many questioned why Nintendo had chosen to develop a monochrome handheld, considering competitors like theAtari Lynx andSega Game Gear boasted color screens. However, while these color displays were visually impressive, they led to criticism that the rival devices had poor battery life and were bulky. The Game Boy, in contrast, offered superior portability and longevity, propelling it to immense popularity.[1][2] Publicly, Nintendo pledged to develop a color Game Boy, but only when technology limitations could be addressed.[3]
Internally, a team led bySatoru Okada, who played a key role in the original Game Boy's design, was experimenting with color displays. Their early-1990s prototype, codenamed "Project Atlantis," featured a color screen and a powerful 32-bit processor from Sharp. However, the team was not satisfied with the outcome and shelved further development.[4][5]
Despite the lack of color, consumer interest in the Game Boy remained strong. In 1996, Nintendo released the slimmerGame Boy Pocket and the launch of thePokémon series that same year further boosted sales.[3] But developers were losing interest in creating new games for the aging platform.[6]
Additional market pressure for Nintendo came in October 1997 when news broke aboutBandai's new handheld, theWonderSwan. The project was led byGunpei Yokoi, the engineer who led the development of theGame & Watch series and the original Game Boy. Yokoi had left Nintendo in 1996 following the commercial failure of his final project, theVirtual Boy. His departure caused a stir, with investors dumping Nintendo stock, forcing a temporary halt on trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yokoi was killed in a roadside accident in 1997 before the WonderSwan's release.[7]
Faced with mounting pressure, Okada revisited Project Atlantis. Prioritizing speed to market over processing power, he dropped the 32-bit chip for a faster version of the existing Game Boy's 8-bit processor that would allow for a quicker launch and maintain compatibility with the existing library of Game Boy games.[5]
The Game Boy Color was announced in March 1998 and released in Japan that October.[8] It received an international rollout throughout November (amid the busy Christmas holiday shopping season), reaching North America on the 18th, Europe on the 23rd, and Australasia on the 27th. Launching at a price ofUS$79.95 (equivalent to $150 in 2024),[9] the Game Boy Color ultimately outsold the WonderSwan, which went on sale in March 1999.[10]
The Game Boy Color had a relatively short lifespan, being on the market for only two and a half years before being succeeded by theGame Boy Advance in 2001. The successor finally brought the 32-bit processing power envisioned in Project Atlantis. Despite the new arrival, the Game Boy Color remained in production, serving as a budget-friendly alternative.[3] The last units were reportedly sold by March 2003.[11]
The Game Boy Color uses a customsystem on a chip (SoC), integrating the CPU and other major components into a single package, named the CPU CGB by Nintendo and manufactured by theSharp Corporation. While the CPU CGB was a new design for the Game Boy Color, the technology inside was largely an evolution of the then ten-year-old DMG-CPU SoC used inside the original Game Boy.
Within the CPU CGB, the main processor is the sameSharp SM83 which powered the original Game Boy.[12] A hybrid between two other8-bit processors: theIntel 8080 and theZilog Z80, the SM83 has the seven 8-bitregisters of the 8080 (lacking the alternate registers of the Z80) but uses the Z80's programming syntax and extrabit manipulation instructions, along with adding new instructions to optimize the processor for certain operations related to the way the hardware was arranged.[13][14] While in the original Game Boy the SM83 operated at aclock rate of 4.194304megahertz (MHz), games on Game Boy Color exclusive cartridges can command the processor to operate in "dual-speed mode," doubling its frequency to run twice as fast at 8.388608 MHz. This allowed developers to get double the processing power out of the device when creating games exclusively for the Game Boy Color while allowing the hardware to retainbackward compatibility with existing games.[15]: 12
The CPU CGB incorporates thePicture Processing Unit, a basicGPU that renders visuals using 16 kilobytes (KB) ofVideo RAM, twice as much as the original Game Boy.[15]: 16 Games developed specifically for the Game Boy Color could fully utilize this additional memory, enabling enhanced effects and displaying up to 56 colors simultaneously out of a selection of 32,768 colors.[15]: 49 Programmers later developed the "high color mode" technique, which involved rapidly switching color palettes to display over 2,000 colors at once. This feature was utilized in games such asThe Fish Files,The New Addams Family Series andAlone in the Dark: The New Nightmare.[16][17] When a Game Pak compatible with the original Game Boy is inserted, the additional Video RAM is disabled.[15]: 49
The display itself is a 2.3-inch (diagonal)thin-film transistor (TFT) colorliquid-crystal display (LCD), measuring 44 millimeters (1.7 in) wide by 40 millimeters (1.6 in) high. The screenaspect ratio and resolution remain identical to the original Game Boy at 160pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9 format. Like the original Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket before it and the Game Boy Advance after it, the screen is passively reflective, with a surface behind the screen that sends light back through the liquid crystal pixel elements to the viewer. Because there is nobacklight, the device can be hard to use in dark environments.[18][19]
Additionally, the SoC contains a 2 KB "bootstrap" ROM which is used to start up the device,[20] 127 B of High RAM that can be accessed faster (similar to aCPU cache), and theAudio Processing Unit, aprogrammable sound generator with four channels: apulse wave generation channel with frequency and volume variation, a second pulse wave generation channel with only volume variation, a wave channel than can reproduce anywaveform recorded in RAM, and awhite noise channel with volume variation.[15]: 79 [21] The motherboard of the Game Boy Color contains a 32 KB "work"RAM chip, four times more than the original Game Boy.[15]: 16
The Game Boy features aD-pad (directional pad), four action buttons ('A,' 'B,' 'START,' and 'SELECT'), and a sliding on-off switch on the right side of the device. The volume is adjusted by apotentiometer dial on the left side of the device.
The left side also has aGame Link Cable port for connecting to up to four Game Boy devices for multiplayer games or data transfer.[22] The port used on the Game Boy Color is of a smaller design first introduced on the Game Boy Pocket, and requires an adapter to link with the original Game Boy.[23] The Game Boy Color also offered a "high-speed" mode that would allow data to be transmitted up 64 times faster over the Game Link Cable than on the original Game Boy.[15]: 28 The Game Boy Color added an infrared communications port for wireless data transfer, but it was only supported by a small number of games and consequently was not included on the laterGame Boy Advance line.[21]
| 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) |
| Display | 2.3-inch (diagonal) reflectivethin-film transistor (TFT) colorliquid-crystal display (LCD) |
| Screen size (playable) | 43 mm × 39 mm (1.7 in × 1.5 in)[24] |
| Resolution | 160 (w) × 144 (h)pixels (10:9aspect ratio) |
| Graphics |
|
| Frame rate | 59.727500569606Hz[25] |
| Color support | 32,768 colors, up to 56 simultaneously |
| System on a chip (SoC) | Nintendo CPU CGB |
| CPU | Sharp SM83 (customIntel 8080/Zilog Z80 hybrid,8-bit) @ 4.194304 or 8.388608 MHz |
| Memory | |
| Power |
|
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| Sound |
|
| I/O |
|
| Controls |
|
| References:[27][28][15]: 16 | |
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Nintendo had seen success selling colored variations of the Play It Loud! Game Boy and the Game Boy Pocket, so the company released the Color in several case variations.[3]
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.[29]
The Game Boy Color launched with an extensive game library, thanks to its ability to play original Game Boy titles. At launch, it featured three exclusive games:Pocket Bomberman,Tetris DX andWario Land II.[30] Over time, the system amassed more than 900 titles, in addition to the original Game Boy’s catalog of over 1,000 games. While most Game Boy Color titles were exclusive to the platform, about 30% remained compatible with the original system. However, after 1999, the majority of new Game Boy Color releases no longer supported the original Game Boy.[31][32][33]
Nintendo prohibited simple "colorized" re-releases of monochrome Game Boy titles, requiring developers to implement meaningful gameplay enhancements. These additions included new levels, characters, items, or mechanics that leveraged the system’s color capabilities. To ensure these enhancements were significant, Nintendo mandated that they be easily recognizable to players familiar with the monochrome version.[15]: 6 Many of these enhanced versions, often called "Deluxe" or "DX", became some of the Game Boy Color's most popular titles, includingTetris DX andThe Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX.
The Game Boy Color’s improved display and enhanced processing power also enabled more faithful ports of NES games, in contrast to the heavily modified versions created for the original Game Boy due to its monochrome display limitations. One of the most notable examples isSuper Mario Bros. Deluxe, which showcased the Game Boy Color's ability to deliver an authentic port of the NES classic.[34]
Tetris for the original Game Boy is the best-selling game compatible with Game Boy Color,[35][36]Pokémon Gold andSilver are the best-selling games developed primarily for it, andPokémon Crystal was the best-selling Game Boy Color exclusive title.[37][38]
The last Game Boy Color game ever released is the Japanese exclusiveDoraemon no Study Boy: Kanji Yomikaki Master, on July 18, 2003. The last game released in North America isHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on November 15, 2002,[39] while Europe's wasHamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! released on January 10, 2003.[3]
Beyond the platform's official titles, as of 2025[update], an active online community continues to create new titles for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color through tools like GB Studio, a free and user-friendly game-building engine that simplifies the process compared to manual coding.[40]
Games are stored on cartridges calledGame Boy Game Paks, usingread-only memory (ROM) chips. Due to the limitations of the 8-bit architecture of the device, the maximum ROM size the processor could access at any time was 32 KB. Nintendo overcame this limitation with aMemory Bank Controller (MBC) in the cartridge. This chip sits between the processor and the ROM and canswitch between banks of 32 KB ROM. Using this technology, Nintendo created Game Boy Color games up to 8 megabytes in size. Game Paks can also provide additional functionality to the Game Boy system. Some cartridges include up to 128 KB of RAM to increase performance, which can be battery-backed to save progress when the handheld is off,real-time clock chips can keep track of time even when the device is off, andRumble Pak cartridges added vibration feedback to enhance gameplay.[41][15]: 299
The Game Boy Color has backward compatibility with all original Game Boy games. Three main Game Pak cartridge types for the handheld were released:
Nintendo released several add-ons for the Game Boy Color, including:
TheGame 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.[11][45] At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of all Game Boy variants made it thebest-selling game console of all time. In later years, its sales were surpassed by theNintendo DS,PlayStation 2 andNintendo Switch, making it the fourth-best-selling console the second-best-selling handheld of all time, as of 2024[update]. Sales of the device were in part driven by the success ofPokémon Gold and Silver andPokémon Crystal, with combined sales of 29.5 million units, making them one of thebest selling-video games of all time.[46][47]
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,[48] and two million by July 1999.[49] Retail chains in theUnited States reported unexpectedly high demand for the console, with executives ofFuncoLand reporting "very pleasant and unpredicted" sales andElectronics Boutique stating "the entire Game Boy Color line just exploded, including accessories" upon release.[50] Faced with high worldwide demand and competitive retail pricing, retailers such asCompUSA sold out of Game Boy Color stock in the weeks before the 1998 Christmas season.[48]
Reception of the Game Boy Color was positive, with critics praising the addition of color and improved clarity of the display.
Affiliated publications such asTotal Games 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.[18]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 [color]".[51] Writing forGameSpot, Chris Johnston stated that the display was "crystal clear" and free of motion blur, stating thatTetris DX was the "killer app" of the launch titles on the platform.[52]
Milder reviews included those byArcade, who said that while that the colors were "very impressive" they were "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 said the device was "Game Boy as it always should have been".[53] Reviewers pointed out other drawbacks including that the system was still using an 8-bit architecture when competitors had moved onto 16-bit handheld systems and that the non-backlit screen required that the user be in a well lit area.[54][19]
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 device,[55][56] and had a relatively brief lifespan, being supplanted by the Game Boy Advance after two years, five months on the market.
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 theDr. Mario andPokémon cartridges they had amassed over the years."[57] Quoted inRetro 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".[56]
Positive assessments of the legacy of the Game Boy Color have focused on the merits of its game library, particularly for its third-party and import titles. Travis Fahs forIGN noted while "the Game Boy Color's life was relatively brief", it "built up a small library of excellent games", includingWario Land 3 andPokémon Gold and Silver, and a "unique" and "previously unheard of" line of successful third-party games, includingDragon Warrior Monsters,Metal Gear Solid andYu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories.[55] Ashley Day ofRetro 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."[58]
Pokémon allowed more than metaphorical communication; it made use of a system that created actual communication — a network game.
