Game Boy

The Game Boy was designed by the team at Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1), which had previously developed the Game & Watch handhelds and video games including Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.^[7][8] 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.^[9]

The team was encouraged to pursue the project by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi. However within Nintendo, many were skeptical that such a device would be feasible. Some employees even gave the project the derogatory nickname "DameGame" (dame (だめ) meaning "hopeless" in Japanese).^[10][11]

The codename for this nascent project was "Dot Matrix Game," (DMG) reflecting its intended display technology, a stark contrast to the Game & Watch series, 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."^[12]

Initially, a Ricoh-manufactured CPU, similar to the one used in the NES, was considered for compatibility.^[13] However, due to resource constraints amid the ongoing development of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Game Boy team chose a less powerful CPU from the Sharp Corporation.^[14]

Sharp initially showed reluctance to engage in the project, particularly for the LCD technology, which was a critical component.^[14] The team considered buying displays from the Citizen Watch Company which was already using LCD screens to build portable TVs. However, talks continued with Sharp, with Yokoi and Okada 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.^[13] 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.^[14][15]

Within R&D1, Yokoi had long promoted "lateral thinking with withered technology"^[a], a design philosophy which eschewed cutting-edge technology in favor of using mature technologies, which tended to be more affordable and reliable, in innovative ways.^[7] As a result of this philosophy, 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.^[16] The approach was ultimately vindicated as rival units with full-color, backlit screens were panned for their dismal battery life, making the Game Boy more appealing to consumers.^[7]

In the early 2000s, 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.^[14][17] 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.^[13] This effort led to the creation of the "battle" and "trade" gameplay features in the Pokémon series, first released in 1996.^[14]

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 its Game & Watch predecessor: the directional control pad, often referred to as the "D-pad." Yokoi had recognized that traditional joysticks 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 estimated 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.^[7]

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 make development tools available for third-party developers, a shortcoming of the launch of the NES.^[13] R&D1 also developed Super Mario Land, a portable adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. game, intending it to be the flagship title for the Game Boy.^[18] 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.^[7]

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,^[18] backed by a $10 million marketing effort.^[19] Sales of the Game Boy and its successor variants (including the Game Boy Color) continued until March 2003.^[6]

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.^[20]

Within the DMG-CPU, the main processor is a Sharp SM83,^[21] 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.^{[7][20][22][23]} The Sharp SM83 operates at a clock rate of 4.194304 MHz.^[20]

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.^[20] 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.^[24][25]

The SoC also contains a 256 B "bootstrap" ROM which is used to start up the device, 127 B of High RAM that can be accessed faster (similar to a CPU cache), and the Audio Processing Unit, a programmable sound generator with four channels: a pulse wave generation channel with frequency and volume variation, a second pulse wave generation channel with only volume variation, a wave channel than can reproduce any waveform recorded in RAM, and a white noise channel with volume variation.^{[20][26][27][28]} The motherboard also contains a 8 KB "working RAM" chip.^[20]

The Game Boy features a D-pad (directional pad), four buttons labeled 'A,' 'B,' 'SELECT,' and 'START,' and a sliding power switch with a cartridge lock to prevent removal. The volume and contrast are adjusted by dials on either side.^[29] The original Game Boy was powered internally by four AA batteries.^[30] For extended use, an optional AC adapter or rechargeable battery pack can be connected via a coaxial power connector on the left side.^[31] The Game Boy has a single monaural speaker and a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack.^[32] The right side offers a Game Link Cable port^[b] for connecting to another Game Boy for two-player games or, notably in Pokémon, sharing files.^[34] This port can also be used with a Game Boy Printer.

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.^[7]

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,^[38] known in Japan as Game 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.^[39]

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 smaller AAA batteries, albeit at the expense of providing just 10 hours of gameplay.^[40] The other major change was that 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.^[41] The Pocket also 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.^[42] 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.^[20][43]

The Game Boy Pocket was released in Japan on July 21, 1996, and in North America on September 3, 1996, for US$69.99 (equivalent to $136 in 2023).^[44] 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 catapulted the Game Boy into uncharted realms of commercial triumph.^[7] Reviewers praised the device's small size,^[45] and said that the screen’s visibility and pixel response-time had been improved, mostly eliminating ghosting.^[46] However, other reviewers were dismissive of the device, with the Los Angeles Times saying Nintendo was "repacking the same old black-and-white stuff and selling it as new."^[47]

The first version came only in silver and did not have a power LED. A revision in early 1997 added a power LED, different case colors (black, green, red, yellow, gold metal, and clear) and dropped the price to US$54.95 (equivalent to $104 in 2023).^[48] By mid-1998, just months before the Game Boy Color went on sale, prices had fallen to US$49.95 (equivalent to $93 in 2023).^[49]

The Game Boy Light was a Japan-only revision released on April 14, 1998. Like the Game Boy Pocket, the system was priced at ¥6,800 (equivalent to ¥6,892 in 2019).^[50] 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.^[50] It was available in two standard colors: gold and silver.^[50][51]

More than 1,000 games were released for the Game Boy, excluding cancelled and unlicensed games.^[52] Additionally, more than 300 games developed for the Game Boy Color were backward compatible with the monochrome Game Boy models.^[53][54]

Games are stored on cartridges called the Game Boy 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 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 and Rumble Pak cartridges added vibration feedback to enhance gameplay.^[20][55][56]

The top-selling franchise for the Game Boy were Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, the first installments of the Pokémon video game series, which sold more than 46 million copies.^[57][58] The best-selling single game was Tetris, with more than 35 million copies shipped, it was a pack-in game included with the purchase of many original Game Boy devices.^[59][60]

When the Game Boy was released in Japan in April 1989 alongside four launch titles: Alleyway (a Breakout clone), Baseball (a port of the NES game), Super Mario Land (an adaptation of the Mario franchise for the handheld format) and Yakuman (a Mahjong game).^[61] When the console was introduced in North America, two more launch titles were added: Tetris and Tennis (another NES game port), while Yakuman was never released outside of Japan.^[62][63]

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 a success.^[64][65] 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.^[18] It sold one million units in the United States within weeks.^[66] 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.^[6] 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.^[6][67] 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.^[68]

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%).^[69] In 2009, the Game Boy was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, 20 years after its introduction.^[70]

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. The reviewer 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-sized design of the new Game Boy Pocket model.^[71]

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.^[6][72] 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 of all time, as of 2024^[update].^[73]

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