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2014: Celebrating 25 Years of Game Boy

TMCnet Feature

April 21, 2014

2014: Celebrating 25 Years of Game Boy

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By Steve Anderson
Contributing TMCnet Writer

Those who have been gaming long-term—and that's measured in decades—likely remember the Game Boy fondly. That tiny, portable gaming device kicked off something of a revolution in mobile gaming, and laid the groundwork for just about everything from Nintendo's control of portable devices to even the smartphone gaming concept. But 2014 marks something of a milestone for the original Game Boy: its 25th anniversary.


While the Game Boy really didn't invent portable gaming—it had been around in several forms long prior to its release—what it did was bring portable gaming to a wider market, and in a fashion that was more accessible to the user. Working in essentially the same fashion as the console systems did at the time—all a user needed to do was slap a cartridge into the device and flip the switch on—users got an experience that was much the same as the home experience was, though on a dot matrix screen with limited resolution.

It also offered a service seldom seen in portable gaming devices, offering users a link cable to connect devices and play in head-to-head matches with others in range of that cable. After a while, new peripherals even started emerging to give users more variety to work with. There was the Game Boy Camera, which allowed users to take pictures with a Game Boy and use said pictures in games, and the resulting Game Boy Printer allowed users to print out the produce of the Game Boy Camera. Granted, resolution was poor at best, but being able to carry a gaming device and use it as a camera was something of a thrill back then.

Image via EVRD.net

The Game Boy was well-received by the gaming public; it sold nearly 119 million units before being discontinued, and largely sparked sales of the Game Boy Advance which came out in 2001, which itself realized 81.5 million units in sales at last report. What's more, the Game Boy might well be able to take credit for an array of accomplishments in the field: the rise of portable gaming, the rise of networked gaming and remote competition, and even the beginnings of getting more women involved in video games. A 1995 report from Nintendo of America noted that 14 percent of the Super Nintendo's players were female, and 29 percent for the Nintendo Entertainment System were likewise, but the Game Boy audience was almost evenly split at 46 percent female.  In perhaps the saddest part of the report, Nintendo has no plans to offer up any commemorative events around this anniversary.

Indeed, the Game Boy was something of a big deal when it first arrived. Comparing the Game Boy to various devices like the tablets and smartphones of today isn't particularly difficult, either; surely some out there wondered if a Game Boy might be used to type reports or work outside of the office. This was a device that could switch games just by swapping a cartridge out; this functionality may well have spurred some users to wonder why a platform couldn't switch functions—go from gaming to productivity—by doing likewise.

But one thing that the Game Boy will always be remembered for, particularly for those who played it regularly, was the games. From “Tetris” to “Pokemon,” action to puzzle games, the Game Boy had a slew of great titles. That makes this anniversary a particularly poignant one, as gamers of all stripes remember the time with a little gray box with familiar controls that meant so much fun for all involved.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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