original Game Boy. Released by Nintendo in 1989 I think it’s safe

to say this was one of the most important video game console

releases ever. Let’s see what it’s all about. The first thing you’ll

notice is that the original Game Boy was big. It’s still pocketable

but by today’s standards it’s a brick. While you definitely won’t

forget it’s in your pocket there are some advantages to its size.

It fits well in the hand and everything has a very solid feel that

you don’t find often in newer systems like the 3DS. Most Game Boys

came in gray however in 1995 Nintendo released the Play It Loud models

which brought new colors to the line including black and my favorite,

transparent. While the Game Boy wasn’t the first portable console to

use cartridges it was the first to bring it into the mainstream.

Compared to its bigger brothers the carts are downright tiny with

storage between 32 kilobytes and a whopping 1 megabyte.

Unsurprisingly, face melting graphics weren’t part of the equation.

The Game Boy rocks a 4.19Mhz 8-bit CPU and 8 kilobytes of RAM. Despite

entire games taking up far less space than a single low quality MP3

they weren’t half bad looking at all. With over 800 games made during

the 10 year lifespan of the Game Boy you had everything from racing

games to RPGs. One part where the nostalgia machine gives up a bit is

with the screen. The OG Game Boy sports a 2.6 inch screen with a

resolution of 160x144. The size and resolution are just fine, the

problem is that’s it’s green. Really really green. You can adjust the

contrast with a dial on the left side of the system but even then you’re

limited to four shades of green. Like most Game Boys it’s not backlit so

you’ll need to play near a source of light but for most games it works

alright. Something that made the Game Boy a bit unique was the addition

of a link cable port. This allowed you to connect two Game Boys together

to compete or trade, something that Pokemon took full advantage of.

One of the reasons the Game Boy is so large is because it needs four AA

batteries. This might seem like overkill today but this along with the

modest technical specs gave the system anywhere between ten and fourteen

hours of battery life whereas competitors like the Game Gear and Lynx

required six AA batteries and only managed four to five hours.

In fact the Game Gear and Lynx are great examples of the Game Boy’s massive

success. How many of you have honestly heard of either of these consoles

before? With games like Tetris and Pokemon Nintendo had a runaway success

for nearly 15 years before Sony finally entered the PSP into the ring to

compete and even today the 3DS is still the most popular dedicated console

of this generation. It may not have had the best screen or been the slimmest

console, but there’s little doubt that the Game Boy helped shape gaming as we know

it today. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to being six years old again.