The Nintendo Game boy turns 30

Ahoy Captain Cats here and today is a special day because we are going to talk about a gaming device that played a massive roll in mobile gaming like no other before it and it turns 30 this year and that device is the Nintendo Game Boy.

The Nintendo Game Boy or GB for short was created by Nintendo Research & Development 1, Satoru Okada and what many to have called The God of Games Gunpei Yokoi. Their previous work was on the Game & Watch, and they were asked to create a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES for short) with the portability of a Game & Watch. On April 21, 1989, Japan got its hand on the GB and in three months later North America got its grip on the GB, and a full year later all of Europe got its hand on it.

The GB was a HUGE hit for Nintendo and outsold and outlived its competitors, Sega’s Game Gear, Atari’s Lynx and NEC’s TubroExpress. What made the GB stand out was its battery life, with just 4 AA batteries it would go on for 40 hours, yes 40 hours compare to 4-6 hours and use up to 8 AA. Over the next 14 years, Nintendo would release six other versions of the GB, and they were:

• Game Boy Pocket 1996
• Game Boy Light and Game Boy Color 1998
• Game Boy Advance 2001
• Game Boy Advance SP 2003
• Game Boy Micro 2005

Sadly the GB was retired in 2003 due to the release of its successor, the Nintendo DS (Dual-Screen.) The total of units sold came to be over 200 million that either the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS could match. The GB has a soft spot for many gamers who grew up in the ’90s and had fond memories of this little handheld. Thank you, Game Boy for all the beautiful memories and times you help me waste time when I needed it the most.