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), it was Nintendo's first portable console, combining features from both.
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 An original Game Boy | |
| Also known as | DMG-01
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|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo R&D1 |
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Product family | Game Boy |
| Type | Handheld game console |
| Generation | Fourth |
| Release date | |
| Lifespan | 14 years |
| Introductory price |
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| Discontinued | March 31, 2003 |
| Units sold | 118.69 million (including all variants and Game Boy Color) |
| Media | Game Boy Game Pak |
| System on a chip |
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| CPU | Sharp SM83 @ 4 MHz |
| Memory | 8 KB RAM, 8 KB VRAM |
| Display | |
| Best-selling game | Tetris (40 million units) |
| Predecessor | Game & Watch |
| Successor | Game Boy Color |
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 TurboExpress, the Game Boy rapidly outsold them all. 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
The Game Boy was designed by the team at Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1), which had previously developed the Game & Watch handhelds and games. However, early in the process, deep disagreements arose between Gunpei Yokoi, the R&D1 division director, and Satoru Okada, the assistant director. Yokoi's original vision was for 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 successful Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Their differing visions for the project led to frequent clashes, heated meetings and high tensions, with Okada ultimately convincing Yokoi of his vision.
The team was encouraged to pursue the project by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who was also known to encourage the competition between the teams. 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).
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-01."[better source needed]
Satoru Okada developed the Game Boy as a more portable version of the Famicom, inspired by the concept of interchangeable game cartridges. Despite initial resistance and technical challenges, Okada aimed to address the Famicom's shortcomings, such as the lack of development tools for third-party developers. Initially, a Ricoh-manufactured CPU, similar to the one used in the Famicom, was considered for compatibility. Due to resource constraints and the ongoing development of the Super Famicom, a less powerful Sharp CPU was chosen instead. Sharp initially showed reluctance to engage in the project, particularly for the LCD technology, which was a critical component.
The team then considered buying LCD screens from Citizen which was already using them to build portable TVs. However, Okada continued talks with Sharp, even showing the company a Game Boy mockup. After seeing the device and wanting to keep Nintendo as a client, Sharp offered competitive pricing and secured the contract. Sharp originally proposed a twisted nematic (TN) display, but after seeing a prototype Game Boy, Yamauchi rejected the TN technology as too hard to see. Sharp then suggested super-twisted nematic (STN) technology, which had better viewing angles and contrast, but was more expensive. To reduce cost, the team reduced the screen size, however, it was too late in the development process to shrink the console's overall size.
Gunpei Yokoi emphasized the importance of affordability and reliability over cutting-edge technology. This approach, named "Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology" (Japanese: 枯れた技術の水平思考, romanized: Kareta Gijutsu no Suihei Shikō) involved the innovative use of existing, mature technology to create new products. To keep costs low and extend battery life, the Game Boy was designed without a backlight and used a simple grayscale screen, despite potential concerns about visibility and the lack of color. In the early 1980s, Okada had worked on an electronic game from Nintendo called Computer 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. 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 the Game Link Cable technology himself. This effort led to the creation of the "battle" and "trade" gameplay features in Pokémon, released in 1996.
Game Boy was unveiled as a prototype in 1987 and later exhibited at multiple industry trade shows. The device incorporated a key design element from its predecessor, the Game & Watch: the 8-way directional control pad, often referred to as the "D-pad". The concept was developed by Gunpei Yokoi and his team at R&D1. Yokoi recognized that traditional joysticks might hinder the portability of handheld devices. As a result, he designed the D-pad – a flat controller that would not extend beyond the handheld device's casing. Hiroshi Yamauchi estimated that the console would achieve sales exceeding 25 million units in its initial three years, a claim that was regarded as bold for that period.
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, Gunpei Yokoi and Satoru Okada developed Super Mario Land, a portable adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. game, intending it to be the flagship title for the Game Boy. However, Henk Rogers brought the Soviet Union-made game, Tetris, to the attention of Nintendo of America. Despite its simple graphics and lack of a well-known brand, Tetris's suitability for a handheld platform convinced Nintendo president Minoru 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.
The Game Boy launched in the Japanese market in April 1989 followed by North America in July, and Europe in September of the following year, backed by a $10 million marketing effort. Sales of the Game Boy and its successor variants (including the Game Boy Color) continued until March 2003.
Hardware
(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
Within the DMG-CPU, the main processor is a Sharp SM83, a hybrid between two other 8-bit processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80. The SM83 has the seven 8-bit registers of the 8080 (compared to 14 on the Z80), but uses the Z80's programming syntax and extra bit manipulation instructions, it also adds a few new instructions to optimize the processor for certain operations related to the way the hardware was arranged. The Sharp SM83 operates at a clock rate of 4.194304 MHz.
The DMG-CPU also incorporates the Picture Processing Unit, essentially a basic GPU, that renders visuals using an 8 KB bank of Video RAM located on the motherboard. 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.
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, 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. The motherboard also contains a 8 KB "working RAM" chip.
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.
The original Game Boy was powered internally by four AA batteries. For extended use, an optional AC adapter or rechargeable battery pack can be connected via a coaxial power connector on the left side. The Game Boy has a single monaural speaker and a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack on the bottom allows for private listening.
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. This port can also be used with a Game Boy Printer.
Technical specifications
| Game Boy | Game Boy Pocket | Game Boy Light | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 148 mm (5.8 in) | 127.6 mm (5.02 in) | 135 mm (5.3 in) |
| Width | 90 mm (3.5 in) | 77.6 mm (3.06 in) | 80 mm (3.1 in) |
| Depth | 32 mm (1.3 in) | 25.3 mm (1.00 in) | 27 mm (1.1 in) |
| Weight | 220 g (7.8 oz) | 125 g (4.4 oz) | 138 g (4.9 oz) |
| Display | 2.5-inch reflective super-twisted nematic (STN) liquid-crystal display (LCD) | 2.5-inch film compensated STN (FSTN) LCD | 2.5-inch FSTN LCD with electroluminescent backlight |
| Screen size (playable) | 45.5 mm × 41.5 mm (1.79 in × 1.63 in) | 47.5 mm × 42.5 mm (1.87 in × 1.67 in) | 47 mm × 42 mm (1.9 in × 1.7 in) |
| Resolution | 160 (w) × 144 (h) pixels (10:9 aspect ratio) | ||
| Frame rate | 59.727500569606 Hz | ||
| 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 LR35902) | Nintendo CPU MGB | |
| Processor | 4.194304 MHz Sharp SM83 (custom Intel 8080/Zilog Z80 hybrid, 8-bit) | ||
| Memory |
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| Power |
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| Battery life | Up to 30 hours | Up to 10 hours |
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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, known in Japan as Game Boy Bros. Play It Loud! units were manufactured in red, yellow, green, blue black, white, and clear (transparent), also referred to as "x-ray". The Play It Loud's screens also have a darker border than the normal Game Boy.
Revisions
Game Boy Pocket
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). The Game Boy Pocket was a smaller, lighter unit that required just two smaller AAA batteries, which provide approximately 10 hours of gameplay. 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.
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.
Reviewers said that the screen’s visibility and pixel response-time had been improved, mostly eliminating ghosting. 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.
Game Boy Light
The Game Boy Light was released on April 14, 1998, and was only available in Japan. Like the Game Boy Pocket, the system was priced at ¥6,800 (equivalent to ¥6,892 in 2019). 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. It was available in two standard colors: gold and silver.
Games
Games are stored on cartridges called Game Pak, using read-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 a Memory 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 megabytes 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 and Rumble Pak cartridges added vibration feedback to enhance gameplay.
Launch titles
The Game Boy was released alongside six launch titles, which are listed in the table below:
| Name | JP | NA | EU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alleyway | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Baseball | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Super Mario Land | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tennis | No | Yes | No |
| Tetris | No | Yes | Yes |
| Yakuman | Yes | No | No |
Re-releases
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.
On February 8, 2023, Nintendo announced the introduction of Game Boy/Color games to its Nintendo Switch Online service.
Reception
Critical reception
Though it was less technically advanced than the Sega 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 much more such. 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. It sold one million units in the United States within weeks. 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 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. 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.
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%). In 2009, the Game Boy was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, 20 years after its introduction.
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.
Sales
The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were both 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. 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[update].
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Game Boy Compact Video Game System Owner's Manual. Nintendo. 1989. DMG-GB-UKV.
- Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games (1st ed.). Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
- Hand-held electronic game – Design patent for the case
External links
- Media related to Game Boy at Wikimedia Commons
- Game Boy at Nintendo.com (archived versions at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
- Game Boy (original) games list at Nintendo.com (archived from the original at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
- Game Boy at Curlie
- Game Boy Development Manual
- Shirriff, Ken (June 2020). "Reverse-engineering and comparing two Game Boy audio amplifier chips".
