Game Boy

Nintendo's first handheld gaming console was the Game Boy, which was released in 1989. It was an 8-bit system with a green-grey screen and mono sound that made use of interchangable cartridges to play many different titles. It featured A and B buttons, a D-Pad, and Select and Start buttons. This set of buttons basically makes it akin to a rearranged NES Controller. It used 4 AA batteries.

Although not the most technologically advanced handheld games console even during its lifetime, the Game Boy was affordable, its batteries lasted and it was bolstered by an impressive software library.

Improvements upon the Game Boy's design produced the Game Boy Pocket and later the Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Advance was the first in the series to deviate significantly from the basic design of the original, demonstrating amply its functionality and staying power.

History
The Game Boy was initially released in the spring of 1989 in Japan. It was constructed by Gunpei Yokoi and the Nintendo R&D1 team, and was created in order to bring the NES and their previous Game & Watch units together with a handheld console (G&W) that had removable cartridges (NES).

Nintendo had high hopes for the console, with the president of Nintendo estimating that they would sell 25 million copies in three years if the right games were released for it. Games were obviously released in their popular video game series including Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, though they also needed an original IP, and that came in the form of Tetris. Tetris had been released on multiple other consoles, but none of which were owned by Nintendo. Without the creator's permission, Nintendo created their own verison. Before releasing it, they of course had to negotiate with him, and eventually an agreement was made and the game sold millions.

Three years later, the console sold 7 million more than expected with 32 million copies sold. By 1997, the Game Boy had sold a whopping 60 million copies. It became one of Nintendo's most succesful investments of all time.

Technical Specification

 * CPU: Custom 8-bit Sharp x80 core at 4.19 MHz
 * RAM: 8 kB internal S-RAM
 * Video RAM: 8 kB internal
 * ROM: On-CPU-Die 256-byte bootstrap;
 * Sound: 2 Square Waves, 1 programmable 32-sample 4-bit PCM Wave, 1 White noise. The unit only has one speaker, but headphones provide stereo sound
 * Display: Reflective LCD 160 × 144 pixels
 * Screen size: 66 mm diagonal
 * Color Palette: 4 shades of "gray" (green to (very) dark green)
 * Communication: Up to 4 Game Boys can be linked together via serial ports
 * Power: 6 V, 0.7 W (4 AA batteries provide ~35 hours)
 * Dimensions: 90 mm(W) × 148 mm(H) × 32 mm(D)
 * Weight: 200g (without batteries)

Major Games

 * Tetris - Tetris is a game that was released on launch day for the Game Boy. To this day, the game is second on the most sold games ever, and first on the most sold handheld games ever. The game is in the Puzzle genre. It is frequently claimed that this game alone helped increase the Game Boy's selling potential enormously.
 * Super Mario Land - Mario's first full-scale platform outing on a handheld console played in the vein of the classic Super Mario Bros..

Related

 * Nintendo Game Boy Pocket
 * Nintendo Game Boy Games