1989 Nintendo Game Boy | For the Mobile Retro Gamer

The Game Boy handheld console was first developed by Gunpei Yokoi and his R&D1 team at Nintendo. He wanted to combine the best features of the successful NES with the portability of the Game & Watch handhelds, which he also developed. The first prototype of the Game Boy was produced in 1987 and expectations at Nintendo were high. Nintendo of Japan president Hiroshi Yamauchi predicted that it would sell over 25 million in the first three years.

An interesting move was the choice of game to be bundled with the Game Boy. Out of all the games it had to be TETRIS: A game developed by a Russian mathematician, which has sold over 1 million copies to date. Someone at Nintendo had noticed the game at an exhibition in 1988 and immediately knew that it would be the ideal game to complement the Game Boy. The decision was spot-on!

The Game Boy was released to the Japanese public in 1989 two years later in the US. Three years after its initial release it had sold over 32 million units and continued going from strength to strength throughout the '90s. By 1997, a new and improved Game Boy called the Game Boy Pocket was released with a better quality "clear" LCD screen and a smaller size. It was much lighter than the original. As a result, more games were released for the GB and various accessories such as the camera and printer were also released.

Over 650 games have been released for the original and pocket Game Boy units to date.

Technical Specs:

CPU: 8-bit Z80 CMOS (4.19MHz)
RAM: 8KB
Colors: 4 (Grayscale)
Sprites: 40
Sprite Size: 8x16 or 8x8 pixels
Resolution: 160x144 pixels
Sound: 4 channel audio

Offer Price: B$75