Happy Birthday, Gameboy (20 today)

Mr E

I remember Tetris and Super Mario Land on this when it came out. Before I got one, I regularly went into Smyths Toys to play on their display model. Seems like a long time ago now. God I'm old. I think my favourite games on it were Batman and Balloon Kid.

Twenty years ago today, the original Game Boy first went on sale in Japan. What better way to pay tribute than with a series of cheesy retro ads.

The Game Boy was created by Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi, who also created the company Game & Watch handhelds. Worldwide, the Game Boy and its later iteration Game Boy Color have sold 118.69m units. Nintendo produced a variety of accessories for the portable, including Game Boy Camera.

More here (including those cheesy ads).

Professey Chin

Still play tetris a lot. oh and Dr.Franken. Its a terrible game but im hell bent on completing that someday :mad:

Retr0gamer

For such a piece of **** piece of hardware with an archaic Z80 processor it had some amazing games. I suppose the specs were part of the attraction. It had really long battery life and anyone with a year of a college programming degree could program a Z80. I only wish I knew a lot more about the system. I'm sure there's a load of really excellent obscurities on it that I don't know about.

A fantastic piece of hardware all round with an excellent library of games.

cozziej

amazing memories regarding the Gameboy!i actually dressed up as a Gameboy a couple of haloweens ago...will post picture at later stage...was epic though!

Mr E

I remembered another game (worth hunting down) - Mole Mania.
Such a sublime, clever puzzle game. Absolute genius.

If Nintendo ever start releasing some of these on DSiWare, I'd be tempted to bite the bullet and get one.

witnessmenow

It really missed a back light though

Nothingcompares

i played super mario world and tetris like everyone obsessively. so frustrating though the inability to save games.

i bought a cartridge in gibaltar around 1995 with 10 games, such as a nba basketball game and a wrestling game. good times.

Diddler82

witnessmenow wrote: »

It really missed a back light though

Probably why you used to get days out of batteries instead of hours like the Sega Gamegear....

That used to eat batteries. Portable my ars* you had to have that plugged in because batteries lasted about half an hour!!

Loved the Gameboy...Tetris, SML 1&2, some Kung-Fu game which I cant remember the name of ..still have one at home with SML2 in it...found it after it went missing for about 6 years!

Retr0gamer

Mr E wrote: »

I remembered another game (worth hunting down) - Mole Mania.
Such a sublime, clever puzzle game. Absolute genius.

If Nintendo ever start releasing some of these on DSiWare, I'd be tempted to bite the bullet and get one.

Only discovered it recently. It's a Miyamoto game and came near the end of the Gameboys life before Pokemon gave it a kick start. Only discovered it because of hardcore gaming 101 doing an article on it.

I'm almost sure the GB had a backlight. Was it not the later iterations like the GB pocket that didn't have one?

doonothing

Jeez, I'm only 3 months older than the gameboy. I feel so insignificant!

Recently bought Mario land 1 and 2 on ebay, they are incredible. Link's awakening, Pokemon, jesus, what a console. There aren't enough hours in the day!

niallon

Dug out my Gameboy as a result of this thread! Pokemon Red, Blue, Silver, Gold and Yellow, Nemesis, Tetris, Mega Man 2, The Addams Family and then outta nowhere, GTA 2! God it was such a great console!

FruitLover

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm almost sure the GB had a backlight.

Spot the noob!

IIRC, the pocket light was the first model with a backlight. By that time, I was on my 3rd GB...

Atavan-Halen

Yeah, the GameBoy Light http://www.geocities.com/compcloset/GameBoyLightBox.jpg (Only officialy released in Japan) was essentially a GB Pocket with a light. The Original GB did have a contrast adjustment thing though. I only got a GB about 6-7 months ago. Got it boxed with Metroid for something like €12 on ebay. Such a great little system, and an awesome library of games. Happy Birthday GB!!

Gummy Panda

I remember the good ole gameboy. I thought it was ace when it came out. Didn't have one myself but my cousin did. Wasn't mad about Tetris but i was a kid so couldn't see how good it was. Loved Kirby and Super Mario Land

norrie rugger

I used to love Kirby and Street Fighter 2

I was a Tetris King at one stage

CiDeRmAn

Happy Birthday GB, I love you, you little yellowy green thing you!
I am happy to have most if not all variants, as in GB, GBpocket, GBlight, GBColor, GBA, GBASP and GBAmicro.
I reckon, of all the consoles I have ever owned, the ones labelled Gameboy have been the most played.
I still play Tetris on my GBpocket, and spent many hours squinting at Lemmings on the original GB, as well as the aforementioned SuperMarioLand, certainly the first Mario game I ever owned, as I only got Super Mario World later on the Snes.

And Kirby kicked ass! A lovely port of the Nes game too, now there's an IP Nintendo whould get their finger out and update!

Gummy Panda

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And Kirby kicked ass! A lovely port of the Nes game too, now there's an IP Nintendo whould get their finger out and update!

Buy Kirby Super Star Ultra from the US for your DS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSOZxtvMKJo

rubadub

Think it was about £89 when I got mine, so about €113, so quite dear considering inflation. Remember playing tetris on the highest level after a while, you could get freakishly good at it, like being hypnotised or something! the second you were distracted it was game over though.

GenghisCon

In the before time, a mate down (or up, we could never decide) the road from me from got a game boy when it first came out and was convinced that the "bullet proof" software name that appeared in one of Tetris's start up screens was a indication of the structural integrity. His father was a keen gun club member and just started his son on basic gun etiquette/safety. Long story short, the little toe-rag managed to sneak the gun and some shells from the locked cabinet and give him gameboy both barrells. Inevitable hilarity ensues.

FruitLover

GenghisCon wrote: »

was convinced that the "bullet proof" software name that appeared in one of Tetris's start up screens was a indication of the structural integrity

A kid I knew used to carry his Tetris cartridge around in his shirt pocket (over his heart) because it was "bullet proof"... :rolleyes:

JæKæ

I still remember all the words form the Mario land 2 ad. I would have pised my pants if there was such a thing as an R4 equivalent back then

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhB8XG9_5Rc

Firetrap

I got one for myself for my 19th birthday and had it for years and years and years. I got it in the Virgin Megastore (nostalgia alert) and it had just the one game bundled with it - Tetris. It's still my favourite version of the game ever. I went on to buy the GB colour, GBA and now the NDS. I don't think anybody else has ever come close to Nintendo when it comes to little handheld consoles.