Game Boy History

Last Updated on May 22, 2025 by nice2buy

1989

The Game Boy – The Brick That Launched a Billion Hours of Lost Productivity

Back in 1989, while most portable technology was still the size of a microwave and twice as useless, Nintendo did something utterly insane — and brilliant. They released a little grey box called the Game Boy. And for $89.95 — which, adjusted for inflation, is roughly the cost of a small island today — you could hold fun in your actual hands. Not responsibility. Not spreadsheets. Not emails. Just pure, battery-draining fun.

And make no mistake: this thing was built like a tank. You could drop it, step on it, forget it in the freezer, and it would still boot up with that glorious green-tinted screen and that unmistakable “ding” sound that felt like being handed happiness by a robot.

Technically?

It was 8-bit, black and green, with a screen resolution that could only be described as optimistically pixelated. The buttons were rubbery, the sound was somewhere between a microwave and a dying robot, and the whole thing looked like a calculator that had been possessed by joy.

But here’s the kicker — it worked. And not only that, it worked everywhere. In the back of your parents’ car. Under the desk at school. In your bed, under the covers, while you were supposed to be asleep. Game cartridges the size of a credit card, and a battery life that made modern devices look like thirsty little power hogs in comparison.

And let’s not forget Tetris — the game that turned entire generations into square-moving zombies. It didn’t need DLC. It didn’t need 4K. It needed two buttons and anxiety, and somehow, it was perfect.

From today’s perspective?

Well, the screen is smaller than your phone’s notification bar. There’s no backlight. The graphics are what you’d get if a potato tried to sketch. But none of that matters — because it had heart. And it started something enormous. Without Game Boy, you wouldn’t have Pokémon, or mobile gaming, or that awkward guy at the airport playing Candy Crush like it’s a matter of national security.

Final verdict:

• Powerful? No.
• Pretty? God no.
• Essential? Absolutely.
• If you’ve ever felt the thrill of gaming on the move — whether it’s on a Switch, a phone, or a VR headset — then you owe a silent nod to the Game Boy. It was heavy, it was dim, and it was glorious.

Game Boy: proof that you don’t need Retina displays, online servers, or RGB lighting to have fun — sometimes all you need is 8 bits, four AA batteries, and a bit of imagination.

1996

The Game Boy Pocket – Nintendo’s First Fitness Program: Carry Less, Game More

So, it’s 1996. The world has moved on. We’ve got Windows 95, grunge is dying, and your original Game Boy — the magnificent grey lump of joy — is starting to feel like you’re hauling around a miniature VCR in your pocket.

Enter the Game Boy Pocket.
A smaller, lighter version of the original Game Boy, now running on just two AAA batteries instead of four fat AAs — because apparently, even Nintendo realized your back pocket wasn’t designed to carry a plastic paving stone.

At launch, it cost $59.95, which in 1996 was… well, still a lot of paper route money, but cheaper than therapy. And make no mistake, this wasn’t just a redesign. This was Nintendo admitting: “Yes, we made it enormous the first time. You’re welcome.”

So, what changed?

• It was thinner.
• It was lighter.
• It fit in a normal human pocket without making you look like you had a tumor on your hip.
• And it still played all your old cartridges, meaning Tetris-induced panic attacks were still very much on the menu.

But let’s talk about the screen — now sharper, clearer, and no longer looking like it had been sneezed on. No backlight still, of course. Nintendo wasn’t going to give you everything. That would’ve been madness. But for what it was? An absolute joy.

Battery life? 10 hours on two AAAs. Ten glorious hours of gaming from two batteries you probably stole from your TV remote. That’s still better than most smartphones in 2025 — and those can’t even run Donkey Kong Land.

Final verdict:

• Stronger than coffee when it comes to keeping you awake at night.
• Cheaper than the original, but way more usable.
• Still had no color, but you didn’t care — your childhood brain filled that in.
• The Game Boy Pocket was what happens when someone at Nintendo says: “What if we made the Game Boy not weigh as much as a brick and look like it belongs to a Bond villain?”
  And they absolutely nailed it.

It was lean. It was practical. It was everything the original Game Boy wasn’t — but without losing its soul. In short: it was brilliant.

1998

Game Boy Light – The Glorious Japan-Only Upgrade You Were Never Cool Enough to Own

Now imagine this: it’s 1998, and Nintendo — clearly bored of winning — decides to finally fix the one thing everyone had been complaining about since 1989. That damned screen.

Because yes, as amazing as the Game Boy was, trying to play it in the dark was like attempting brain surgery during a blackout using only candlelight and hope. You’d end up angling it under a lamp, next to a window, or dangerously close to a toaster just to see where the hell Mario went.

So what did Nintendo do?

They released the Game Boy Light — an upgraded, slightly chunkier Game Boy Pocket with something revolutionary at the time: a backlit screen. Finally!
You could game in the dark, under the covers, or in the backseat of a car during a night drive without requiring a headlamp or divine intervention.

But wait.
Before you sprint to the store… it was only released in Japan.
Yes. Nintendo gave the world’s loyal fans a glowing Game Boy… and then locked it behind the Pacific Ocean like a shiny golden tease. You could import it, sure — if you were rich, cool, or the kind of person who read tech magazines cover to cover in your early teens.

Technical stats (for those who care):

• 2 AA batteries – because now it’s powerful and efficient
• 20 hours with the light off, 12 with it on – which is still more than your iPhone lasts on standby
• Electroluminescent backlight – which sounds like something from a spaceship, and honestly, it felt like it too
• Colors? Gold and silver. Because of course — if you’re going to make something exclusive, it might as well look like treasure

Final verdict:

• Functionally? Brilliant.
• Design? Sleek, grown-up, and painfully elegant.
• Availability? As if Nintendo whispered, “Here’s the best version… but you can’t have it.”
• This was the Game Boy you always wanted, released in a market you couldn’t reach, with a feature that should have been there since day one. It’s like building the perfect car, giving it heated seats, night vision, and a champagne cooler — then selling it only in Antarctica.

Game Boy Light: the best Game Boy you never owned. And yes, we’re still bitter.

1998

Game Boy Color – Now in Colour! Unless You’re British, Then It’s Still “Color”

So it’s late 1998. The original Game Boy is approaching a decade of loyal service. The Game Boy Pocket has trimmed the fat, the Game Boy Light finally let you play without needing to sit under a chandelier… and then, Nintendo drops this: the Game Boy Color.

Now, let’s be clear — the name is hilariously on-the-nose. They didn’t call it “Game Boy Ultra” or “Game Boy Nova” or “Game Boy Visual Hypercore Turbo Extreme” like any self-respecting tech brand would today.
No, they called it exactly what it was: Game Boy… but now in color.
That’s it. That’s the headline. That’s the pitch.
And honestly? That’s all it needed.

So what was it?

It was basically a Game Boy with a crayon set taped to it. Still 8-bit. Still running on the same Zilog Z80 processor. Still powered by two AA batteries. But now your games looked like someone finally woke them up from the monochrome nightmare they’d been trapped in since 1989.

Yes, it was a bit thicker and taller than the Game Boy Light. Yes, the screen still had no backlight — because apparently, Nintendo was determined to keep us squinting until the 21st century.
But the sheer fact you could now see Mario’s red hat or Pikachu’s banana-yellow face was revolutionary. It didn’t just make games better — it made them alive.

And let’s not ignore the elephant in the cartridge slot…

Yes, it still played your old Game Boy games. But more importantly, it ushered in a new generation of titles — Pokémon Gold & Silver, Zelda: Oracle of Ages, Wario Land 3 — all now in glorious, vibrant, washed-out daylight-sensitive 90s colour.

And what did the competition bring?
SNK had the Neo Geo Pocket. Bandai had the WonderSwan. Both had more power, more features, more everything.
Nintendo, meanwhile, had charm, simplicity, and a worldwide fanbase of children and exhausted parents who just wanted to survive another road trip.

The result?
The Game Boy Color didn’t just outsell them — it crushed them. It wasn’t a spec sheet victory. It was a cultural one. Over 118 million units later, it proved that raw hardware doesn’t stand a chance against pure, nostalgic magic.

Final verdict:

• Powerful? Not really.
• Elegant? Like a Fisher-Price toy designed by actual geniuses.
• Essential? Completely.
• This wasn’t just a handheld console. It was the gateway drug to every mobile game you play today.
  The Game Boy Color was the moment when Nintendo finally looked us in the eye and said:
  “You’ve had black and white for nine years. Here. Have a rainbow.”

And honestly, it was worth every single one of those 79 dollars. Even if you spelled it with a “u.”

2001

Game Boy Advance – When Nintendo Finally Gave the Game Boy a Gym Membership

By 2001, the world had changed. Mobile phones were getting smarter, internet was something you could actually use without yelling at the dial-up tone, and handheld consoles were trying to prove they weren’t just toys for children with long car rides and zero legroom.

Enter the Game Boy Advance — the first time Nintendo looked at their wildly successful Game Boy, squinted, and said:
“What if we actually gave it… power?”

And by God, they did.

Gone was the tall, clunky Game Boy silhouette — the GBA arrived like a widescreen spaceship, looking like someone flattened a Super Nintendo and gave it shoulder buttons. Shoulder buttons! For the first time ever on a handheld, your index fingers got involved. Revolutionary.

It launched at $149.99, which, let’s be honest, was a lot of money back then — roughly the price of half a PlayStation 2 or three weeks’ worth of lunch money. But what you got for that price was a 32-bit powerhouse. Yes — thirty-two.

But let’s address the elephant in the darkness:

The screen was still not backlit.

Yes, despite being able to run near-console-quality games like Metroid Fusion and Advance Wars, you still couldn’t see a damn thing unless you were seated directly under the sun or sandwiched between two halogen lamps.

They fixed it later with the GBA SP, of course — but for a brief, glorious moment, we had the most advanced handheld gaming machine on the planet… that required NASA-level lighting to function after 6 PM.

Competitors?

They tried. Oh, they tried.

• Neo Geo Pocket Color? Dead.
• WonderSwan? Still a ridiculous name.
• Tapwave Zodiac? Sounds like a Cold War submarine.
• N-Gage? Half phone, half console, all disaster.

The GBA didn’t just win — it obliterated the competition, outselling all of them combined while still running on batteries like some kind of nuclear-powered flashlight.

Final verdict:

• Performance? Absolutely brilliant.
• Design? Finally something you could hold without needing a chiropractor.
• Visibility? Only if you lived inside a lighthouse.
• The Game Boy Advance was the Lotus Elise of handheld consoles: light, fast, ridiculously fun, and wildly impractical in the dark.

But when it worked — and you could see the screen — it was everything you’d ever wanted in a handheld.
Not just a Game Boy.
Not just a toy.
But a proper gaming machine.

And it proved once again: when Nintendo focuses, they don’t just make consoles. They make childhoods.

2003

 

Game Boy Advance SP – The Moment Nintendo Remembered That Human Eyes Need Light

Ah, the Game Boy Advance SP. The “SP” stands for Special, which is marketing speak for:
“We finally added the features you’ve been begging for since the Clinton administration.”

Released in 2003, the SP was essentially Nintendo looking at the original GBA — that long, sleek, magnificent wedge of plastic — and saying:
“Right. This is brilliant… but let’s make it fold, make it shiny, and more importantly — let’s make the damn screen visible without pointing it directly at the sun.”

What changed?

Oh, just everything that should’ve been there in the first place.

• A front-lit screen (and later, a backlit version, because apparently even Nintendo learns eventually).
• A clamshell design that made it look like a gadget Q would give James Bond to distract children on a mission.
• A rechargeable lithium-ion battery — no more AA batteries, no more digging through drawers for Duracells that expired in 1997.
• And all this in a form factor that actually fit in your pocket without making it look like you were smuggling bricks.

All this launched at $99, and honestly? It was worth every cent. This wasn’t just a Game Boy. This was the luxury Game Boy. This was the one you didn’t share with your younger cousin. The one that meant business. The one you flexed at school like it was a Rolex with Pokémon.

The screen?

Sharp. Lit. Beautiful.
Finally, you could play Metroid Fusion or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in bed, on a plane, or under a blanket at 2 a.m., pretending to sleep while your GBA glowed like forbidden treasure.

It even looked grown-up.

Gone was the toy-like plastic shell — the SP had metallic finishes. Silver. Blue. Black. It looked like something Apple would make if they cared about fun.

And the competition?

They still didn’t exist in any meaningful way. While the rest of the tech world flailed about trying to make something halfway decent, Nintendo released a console that felt like it was designed by people who actually played games.

Final verdict:

• Design? Folding genius.
• Screen? Finally visible in less-than-solar conditions.
• Battery? Rechargeable heaven.
• The Game Boy Advance SP was the moment handheld gaming grew up. It was sleek, it was powerful, and — most importantly — you could actually see the screen.

It didn’t just fix the GBA’s flaws. It obliterated them and replaced them with polish, confidence, and that oh-so-satisfying click when you closed it shut.

If the original Game Boy was a charming brick, the SP was a folding blade of joy — compact, deadly, and absolutely glorious.

2005

Game Boy Micro – The Tiny, Shiny Farewell Nobody Asked For

By 2005, Nintendo had already changed handheld gaming forever. The Game Boy had evolved from a grey plastic brick to the sleek, foldable brilliance of the Game Boy Advance SP. Then, out of nowhere — like a final encore nobody requested — came this:

The Game Boy Micro.
A console so small, so sleek, and so utterly pointless, it felt like Nintendo made it just to see if they still could.

It was unveiled by Reggie Fils-Aimé himself, which is hilarious because the Micro is about the size of his thumb. Measuring just over 4 inches wide, this thing was barely larger than a credit card. It looked like an iPod Shuffle had a fling with a Game Boy Advance cartridge.

So what was it?

Technically, it was still a Game Boy Advance. Same 32-bit power. Same games. But now in a casing so tiny that playing Metroid Fusion felt like trying to pilot a spaceship through a keyhole.
It had a brilliantly sharp backlit screen — finally, one that wasn’t only visible in direct sunlight or during a solar eclipse. The display was genuinely gorgeous. Crisp, bright, colourful.
But here’s the problem:

It only played GBA games.

No compatibility with Game Boy or Game Boy Color games — which, for a console bearing the Game Boy name, is like making a teapot that doesn’t hold tea. Utter madness.

Controls?

They were fine… if you were a raccoon. The buttons were so small and close together, it felt like trying to play a fighting game on a calculator. This wasn’t a console for gaming — it was a collector’s item with delusions of usability.

Market timing?

Disastrous. By late 2005, the Nintendo DS had already entered the chat — and it had two screens, a touch panel, and was busy redefining handheld gaming. The Micro, meanwhile, felt like Nintendo’s polite way of saying:
“Right, that’s the end of the Game Boy line. Here’s a tiny reminder. Goodbye.”

And goodbye it was.
No new Game Boy consoles after this. The Game Boy line — 1989 to 2005 — ended not with a bang, but with a very small, very shiny whimper.

Final verdict:

• Design? Gorgeous. Portable. A fashion statement in 2005.
• Practicality? Laughable.
• Timing? Awful. Like launching a new VCR the day after Netflix was invented.
• The Game Boy Micro is what happens when engineers win a design fight against actual players.
  It’s beautiful. It’s premium.
  It’s also the most spectacularly unnecessary console Nintendo ever made.

A glorious, ridiculous end to a legendary dynasty.
It didn’t try to compete. It just walked in, posed for a few photos, and vanished — like a tuxedo-wearing squirrel at the Oscars.
Farewell, Game Boy. You deserved a parade. You got a Micro.