by Niel de la Rouviere

Created on: January 20, 2009

You might still have this console tucked away in your attic somewhere, abandoned for now, but with it holds the cherished memories of a childhood gone by. The grey brick, as it was also dubbed, is the Original Game Boy by Nintendo that ushered in the era of cheap affordable handheld console gaming. It had a directional pad, select + start and A and B buttons. The volume and contrast could be adjusted with adjusting wheels on the side and used 4 AA batteries that roughly lasted a whopping 35 hours.

It was first launched in Japan on April 21 1989 into the fourth generation of consoles. It originally came in just one colour, grey, but later Nintendo expanded the range with a Play it Loud! campaign featuring many more colors, including black, white, green, yellow, blue, red and green. The Game Boy, came into the handheld console market with other more advanced contenders, the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear, but it trumped the competition by a landslide by following Gunpei Yokoi and Nintendo's stance on simplifying consoles. Atari's and Sega's offerings had color screens, where as the Game Boy had an almost black and white LCD screen, which set the Game Boy in a league of its own, because it didn't use nearly as much batteries as the other contenders.

The Game Boy became a leader and cult phenomenon when Nintendo released Tetris on it. The simple game of adjusting blocks to fit into lines along with its cheesy Russian was a runaway success along with the Pokemon games. It then solidified the Nintendo Game Boy its place in gaming history. The ease of the cartridge system, the long battery life and sturdy design all contributed to its success: an over 100 million units sold success along with the Game Boy color.

However, just when you thought that the Game Boy had died and all you do now is play a forlorn game of Tetris to relive the nostalgia, a resurgence of a small group of musicians are using it to make chiptunes. By using homebrew software the Game Boy can be turned into a handheld composing tool to create any kind of music.

So, go raid that attic, and appreciate the genius of the Game Boy. With its 20 year anniversary just around the corner (21 April 2009), celebrate its success by taking it to work or on your commute and play some Tetris or whatever game you spent your hours on until your parents chased you to go play outside. Needless to say you tucked it inside your shirt and still played it outside. No-one could take you away from this great console.

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