Nintendo Game Boy

Nintendo Game Boy
Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Released in JP: April 21, 1989 Released in US: July 31, 1989 Released in EU: September 28, 1990 Released in KR: May 2, 1991 (Hyundai Mini Comboy)

The Nintendo Game Boy was a handheld game console based on a custom Sharp Z80 processor. It used ROM cartridges for gameplay.

Games

• Games for this system

Hardware

• Hardware information

Emulators

• BGB
• Bizhawk
• Gambatte
• Gearboy
• KiGB
• Visual Boy Advance

For emulation accuracy, Bizhawk, Gambatte and BGB should be preferred.

ROM Images

Game Boy ROM images usually have the extension .GB

History

The Nintendo Game Boy system was released in 1988 after Nintendo's successful Game & Watch systems. These differed in the fact that the Game Boy system had completely interchangeable games, whereas the older Game & Watch systems had but one for each console. This immediately brought on fandom to the Game Boy, despite the Sega Game Gear, already on the market, being in color. The Nintendo range of games included the ever popular Mario Brothers, Pokemon, Zelda and Tetris and boasted a new feature; the link port. This port could potentially link up to four Game Boy systems together, encouraging fighting and trading between games. However, this function was never taken beyond the standard two Game Boy link.

In 1998, ten years after the original Game Boy release, and two years after the Game Boy Pocket (a smaller, AAA-battery-using version of the now-bulky Game Boy) Nintendo released a new version, the Game Boy Color. Due to this new version, and having no competition throughout the entirety of its lifetime, the Game Boy Color sold extremely well, helped by color (DX) versions of old favorites and new. The Game Boy Color itself was backwards compatible with all older model Game Boy games, a trend that would continue for some time albeit not quite as well, and such was a reason to completely upgrade from the older versions.

External Links

Emulators accuracy tests