TheGame Boy is ahandheld game console developed byNintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of theGame & Watch single-game handhelds, Nintendo developed the Game Boy to be more like a portableconsole, with interchangeable cartridges. The concept proved highly successful and the Game Boy became acultural icon of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Despite mixed reviews criticizing its monochrome graphics compared to competitors like theSega Game Gear,Atari Lynx, andNEC TurboExpress, the Game Boy's affordability, battery life, and extensive game library propelled it to market dominance. An estimated 118.69 million units of the Game Boy and its successor, theGame Boy Color (released in 1998), have been sold worldwide, making them the fourth-best-selling system ever. The Game Boy received several redesigns during its lifespan, including the smaller Game Boy Pocket (1996) and the Game Boy Light (1998). It was succeeded by theGame Boy Advance in 2001. Sales of Game Boy variants continued until 2003.
The Game Boy was designed byNintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1), the team behind theGame & Watch handhelds and video games includingMario Bros. andDonkey Kong.[11][12] However, early in development, deep disagreements arose between R&D1 division directorGunpei Yokoi and assistant directorSatoru Okada. Yokoi envisioned a simpler device, akin to an advanced Game & Watch, while Okada strongly advocated for a more powerful device with interchangeable cartridges, like a portable version of the successfulNintendo Entertainment System (NES). Their differing visions led to frequent clashes, heated meetings and high tensions, with Okada ultimately convincing Yokoi to adopt his approach.[13]
The project was codenamed "Dot Matrix Game" (DMG), reflectingits display technology, which contrasted with thesegmented LCDs of the Game & Watch series, where each screen was pre-printed with a static overlay, limiting each device toa single game. The "DMG" initials later became part of the Game Boy's official model number: "DMG-01."[14]
Initially, the team considered using aRicoh-manufactured CPU, similar to the one used in the NES, for potential compatibility.[15] However, the team atNintendo Research & Development 2, working on theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System, requested that they find another vendor, concerned that supporting both consoles would strain Ricoh’s resources. As a result, the Game Boy team opted for a less powerful CPU fromSharp Corporation which was bundled in a package deal that also includedLCD screens.[16]
Despite support from Nintendo presidentHiroshi Yamauchi, many within the company remained skeptical of the project’s viability. Some employees even mockingly referred to it asDameGame (withdame (だめ) meaning "hopeless" in Japanese).[17][18]
Sharp, which was approached to provide LCD screens, was also unconvinced of the Game Boy’s commercial potential.[16] Concerned Sharp might not commit to supplying the displays, Nintendo reached out to theCitizen Watch Company, which was already producing LCD screens for portable televisions. Citizen was eager to participate, but Yokoi and Okada continued discussions with Sharp, and even showed the company a Game Boy mockup. Seeing the potential of the prototype, and unwilling to lose Nintendo as a client to Citizen, Sharp made a competitive offer for both the displays and the CPU and secured the contract.[15]
Sharp initially proposed atwisted nematic (TN) display, but after seeing a prototype, Yamauchi rejected it for being too hard to see. In response, Sharp suggested asuper-twisted nematic (STN) display, which offered better contrast and viewing angles but was more expensive. To offset costs, the team reduced the screen size, though by that point in development, it was too late to shrink the overall size of the console.[16][19]
Within R&D1, Yokoi had long championed "lateral thinking with withered technology",[a] a design philosophy which eschewed cutting-edge technology in favor of innovative use of mature technologies, which tended to be more affordable and reliable.[11] Following this principle, the Game Boy was designed without abacklight and used a simple grayscale screen to reduce costs and maximize battery life, despite concerns about visibility and the lack of color.[20] This approach was ultimately vindicated, as competing handhelds with full-color, backlit screens suffered from poor battery life, making the Game Boy the more practical choice for consumers.[11]
In the early 1980s, Okada had worked on an electronic game from Nintendo calledComputer Mah-jong Yakuman that allowed cable communication between two devices, he thought it would be possible to implement a similar feature in the Game Boy.[16][21] Despite concerns within the team that the feature would be too difficult to use and thus a waste of resources, Okada pushed forward and developed theGame Link Cable technology himself.[15] This effort led to the creation of the "battle" and "trade" gameplay features inthePokémon series, first released in 1996.[16]
A prototype Game Boy was unveiled in 1987 and later exhibited at multiple industry trade shows. The device incorporated a key design element developed by Yokoi and his team at R&D1 for itsGame & Watch predecessor: the directional control pad, often referred to as the "D-pad." Yokoi had recognized that traditionaljoysticks might hinder the portability of handheld devices. As a result, he designed the D-pad – a flat controller that extends just slightly beyond the device's casing. A similar layout had been used on the NES, making it easier for owners to transition to the handheld. Yamauchi predicted that the console would achieve sales exceeding 25 million units in its initial three years, a claim that was regarded as bold at the time.[11]
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, Okada pushed to makedevelopment tools available forthird-party developers, a shortcoming of the launch of the NES.[15] R&D1 also developedSuper Mario Land, a portable adaptation of theSuper Mario Bros. game, intending it to be the flagship title for the Game Boy.[22] However,Henk Rogers brought the Soviet Union-made game,Tetris, to the attention ofNintendo of America. Despite its simple graphics and lack of a well-known brand,Tetris's suitability for a handheld platform convinced Nintendo presidentMinoru Arakawa to port and bundle it with the Game Boy. As a result,Tetris was bundled with the Game Boy in every region except Japan on its release.[11]
The Game Boy launched in Japan in April 1989, followed by North America in July and Europe in September 1990,[22] backed by aUS$10 million marketing campaign.[23] Sales of the Game Boy and its successor models (including theGame Boy Color) continued until early 2003.
The Game Boy uses a customsystem on a chip (SoC), to house most of the components, named theDMG-CPU by Nintendo and theLR35902 by its manufacturer, theSharp Corporation.[24]: 11
Within the DMG-CPU, the main processor is aSharp SM83,[24]: 15 a hybrid of theIntel 8080 andZilog Z80 processors. It combines the seven8-bit registers of the 8080 (omitting the alternateregisters of the Z80) with the programming syntax and additionalbit manipulation instructions of the Z80. The SM83 also includes new instructions optimized for operations specific to the Game Boy's hardware arrangement.[11][25][26] It operates at a clock rate of 4.194304 MHz.[24]: 12
The DMG-CPU also incorporates the Picture Processing Unit, essentially a basicGPU, that renders visuals using an 8 KB bank ofVideo RAM located on themotherboard.[27]: 11 The display is a 2.5-inch (diagonal) reflectivesuper-twisted nematic (STN) monochromeliquid-crystal display (LCD), measuring 47 millimeters (1.9 in) wide by 43 millimeters (1.7 in) high with a resolution of 160pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9aspect ratio.[28] The screen displays four shades of grey/green.[27]: 16
Additionally, the SoC includes a 256 byte "bootstrap" ROM[29] which is used to start up the device, 127 bytes 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 that can reproduce anywaveform recorded in RAM, and awhite noise channel with volume variation.[27]: 79 [30] The motherboard also contains a 8 KB "workRAM" chip providing storage for general operations.[27]: 16
The Game Boy's physical controls include aD-pad (directional pad), fouraction buttons (labeled 'A', 'B', 'SELECT', 'START'), a sliding power switch with a cartridge lock to prevent accidental removal, along withvolume andcontrast dials on either side of the device.[31]
The original Game Boy was powered internally by fourAA batteries.[32] For extended use, an optional AC adapter or rechargeable battery pack can be connected via acoaxial power connector on the left side.[33] The right side also has aGame Link Cable[b] port for connecting to up to four Game Boy devices for multiplayer games or data transfer.[35] For sound output, the Game Boy includes a single monaural speaker and a3.5 mm headphone jack that offeredstereo sound.[36]
The Game Boy continued to experience strong sales well into the 1990s, as popular games continued to increase interest in the handheld. This commercial success was something of a double-edged sword for Nintendo; the device was seen as aged, but the company was unwilling to abandon it. Instead, the company embarked on a series of improvements to the Game Boy in an effort to keep the console relevant.[11]
The first revision to the Game Boy came on March 20, 1995, when Nintendo released several special edition Game Boy models with colored cases, advertising them in the "Play It Loud!" campaign,[40] known in Japan asGame Boy Bros.[c] Play It Loud! units were manufactured in red, yellow, green, blue black, white, and clear (transparent). The Play It Loud's screens also have a darker border than the normal Game Boy.[41]
A major revision to the Game Boy came in 1996 with the introduction of the Game Boy Pocket, a slimmed-down unit that required just two smallerAAA batteries, albeit at the expense of providing just 10 hours of gameplay.[42] The other major change was that the screen was changed to a much-improvedfilm compensated super-twisted nematic (FSTN) LCD. The screen's visibility and pixel response-time had been improved, mostly eliminatingghosting.[43] Additionally, the film compensation layer produced a true black-and-white display, rather than the green hues of the original Game Boy.[44] The Pocket also has a smallerGame 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.[45] Internally, the Game Boy Pocket had a new SoC, the Nintendo CPU MGB, an improved version of the DMG-CPU. A major change was that the device's 8 KB of Video RAM was moved from the motherboard to the SoC for faster access.[46][47]
The Game Boy Pocket was released in Japan on July 20, 1996, and in North America on September 2, 1996, forUS$69.99 (equivalent to $140 in 2024).[48] The Game Boy Pocket revitalized hardware sales and its release was ultimately well-timed as it coincided with the release of the first Pokémon game, which became a major hit and catapulted the aging Game Boy back into spotlight, spurring a new wave of sales.[11] Reviewers praised the device's small size and improved display.[43][49] However, other reviewers were dismissive of the device, with theLos Angeles Times saying Nintendo was "repacking the same old black-and-white stuff and selling it as new."[50]
The initial version came only in silver and did not have a power LED, which also served as a battery strength indicator for the device. A revision in early 1997 added a power LED, different case colors (red, green, yellow, black, gold metal, clear, and blue) and dropped the price toUS$54.95 (equivalent to $108 in 2024).[51] By mid-1998, just months before the Game Boy Color went on sale, the price had fallen toUS$49.95 (equivalent to $96 in 2024).[52]
The Game Boy Light was a Japan-only revision released on April 14, 1998, just six months before the Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Light was priced at¥6,800 (equivalent to ¥6,892 in 2019).[53] The Game Boy Light is slightly bigger than the Game Boy Pocket and features anelectroluminescent backlight allowing it to be played in low-light conditions. It uses two AA batteries, which give it approximately 12 gameplay hours with thebacklight on and 20 with it off.[53] It was available in two standard colors: gold and silver.[53][54]
The standard graycartridge for the original Game Boy games
More than 1,000 games were released for the Game Boy, excluding cancelled and unlicensed games.[55] Additionally, more than 300 games developed for the Game Boy Color werebackward compatible with the monochrome Game Boy models.[56][57]
Games are stored on cartridges called theGame Boy Game Pak, usingread-only memory (ROM) chips. Initially, due to the limitations of the 8-bit architecture of the device, ROM size was limited to 32 KB. However, Nintendo overcame this limitation with aMemory Bank Controller (MBC) inside the cartridge. This chip sits between the processor and the ROM chips. The CPU can only access 32 KB at a time, but the MBC can switch between several banks of 32 KB ROM. Using this technology, Nintendo created Game Boy games that used up to 1 megabyte of ROM. Game Paks could also provide additional functionality to the Game Boy system. Some cartridges included up to 128 KB of RAM to increase performance, which could also be battery-backed to save progress when the handheld was off,real-time clock chips could keep track of time even when the device was off andRumble Pak cartridges added vibration feedback to enhance gameplay.[27]: 299 [46][58]
The top-selling franchise for the Game Boy werePokémon Red,Blue, andYellow, the first installments of thePokémon video game series, which sold more than 46 million copies.[59][60] The best-selling single game wasTetris, with more than 35 million copies shipped, it was apack-in game included with the purchase of many original Game Boy devices.[61][62]
When the Game Boy was released in Japan in April 1989 alongside fourlaunch titles:Alleyway (aBreakout clone),Baseball (aport of the NES game),Super Mario Land (an adaptation of theMario franchise for the handheld format) andYakuman (a Mahjong game).[63] When the console was introduced in North America, two more launch titles were added:Tetris andTennis (another NES game port), whileYakuman was never released outside of Japan.[64][65]
One of the many criticisms for the original Game Boy was its lack of abacklight, so many third-party accessories were made to make play possible in low-light conditions.
Though it was less technically advanced than theSega Game Gear,Atari Lynx,NEC TurboExpress and other competitors, notably by not supporting color, the Game Boy's lower price along with longer battery life made it a success.[66][67] 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 in the US on its release day there.[22] It sold one million units in the United States within weeks.[68] 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. By Japanesefiscal year 1997, before Game Boy Color's release in late 1998, 64.42 million units of the Game Boy had been sold worldwide.[69] 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.[70]
The console received mixed reviews from critics. In a 1997 year-end review, a team of fourElectronic Gaming Monthly editors gave the Game Boy scores of 7.5, 7.0, 8.0, and 2.0. The reviewer who contributed the 2.0 panned the system due to its black-and-white display andmotion blur, while his three co-reviewers praised its long battery life and strong games library, as well as the sleek, conveniently-sized design of the new Game Boy Pocket model.[73]
The Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color were commercially successful, selling a combined 118.69 million units worldwide: 32.47 million in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in all other regions.[74] At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of the Game Boy 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 of all time, as of 2024[update].[75]
^Gorges, Florent (2019).L'Histoire de Nintendo Vol. 4: L'incroyable Histoire de la Game Boy [The History of Nintendo Vol.4: The Incredible History of the Game Boy] (in French). Châtillon: Omaké books.ISBN978-2-919603-66-4.
^"Game Boy Owner's Manual". Nintendo of America. 1989. p. 6. RetrievedMay 26, 2024.Remove the cover on the back of the GAME BOY and insert the four AA batteries (supplied) as shown in the illustration.
^Masuyama, Meguro (2002). "Pokémon as Japanese Culture?". In Lucien King (ed.).Game On.New York, NY: Universe Publishing. p. 39.ISBN0-7893-0778-2.Pokémon allowed more than metaphorical communication; it made use of a system that created actual communication — a network game.
^"Game Boy Owner's Manual". Nintendo of America. 1989. p. 5. RetrievedMay 26, 2024.(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. (11) Speaker — A small built-in external speaker. It will turn on automatically if the headphones are not plugged into the headphones jack.
^ab"Technical data".Nintendo of Europe GmbH.Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2018.
^Oxford, David (February 14, 2019)."Boy, Oh Game Boy: Play It Loud!".Old School Gamer Magazine.Archived from the original on October 28, 2023. RetrievedOctober 28, 2023.
^"Game List – Released Titles".GameBoy.com. Nintendo of America. January 19, 2001.Archived from the original on January 19, 2001. RetrievedAugust 20, 2018.
^"AtariAge – Lynx History".AtariAge.Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. RetrievedNovember 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.
^Maher, Jimmy (December 22, 2016)."A Time of Endings, Part 2: Epyx".The Digital Antiquarian.Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. RetrievedDecember 23, 2016.
^Kent, Steve L. (2001).The Ultimate History of Video Games (1 ed.). Roseville, Calif.: Prima Publishing. p. 416.ISBN978-0-7615-3643-7.According to an article inTime 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 andSeaQuest DSV), was shown in color like the Game Gear version.
