I was a paperboy in my neighborhood for the better part of a year, and while I certainly weathered my fair share of hazards, there was nothing that quite compared to what I saw in the video game adaptation of my boyhood profession. In the video game version of Paperboy you took control of some paperboy riding his bike on his route, and you have to deliver papers to your customers. And his route is just a straight, couple-of-blocks long street. Sounds pretty easy, right. You don’t know how w
Dear Readers, Welcome to yet another Gameboy SP game review hope you enjoy it.. Gamepaly: 2/10 - you move bomberman…and it takes a few seconds to react….compared to the original NES version..and you feel you are moving in a black hole…you move so slow you can’t catch up to any bad guy making it really hard to beat a level…very different compared to the original Learning Curve : Easy difficulty - this game..is a cake walk once you figure out how it works…. Graphics: 1/10 - terrible…..
Challenge yourself with this entertaining collection of five brain-teasers. These puzzles range in difficulty from moderate to difficult, and cover a wide range of intelligent puzzles: calculate the number of cars on a circuit to play a variant of chess by 8 bishops! Other headache “Alpha Blocks”, “Eight Branches” and “The naval convoy,” that the training [...]
Super Mario Advanced 2 : Super Mario World - Gameboy SP - Game Review -
Dear Readers, Welcome to yet another Gameboy SP game review hope you enjoy it.. Gamepaly: 6/10 - it feels a lot harder to control..then with the super NES controller Learning Curve : Medium difficulty - This game was never..an easy game and it is going to take awhile to unlock all of the hidden parts… Graphics: 5/10 -Pretty much a spot on..remake of the original from the super Nintendo Lasting Appeal: 5/10 -You like Mario or Yoshi your going want to pick up this game for sure…also
Este seria una clase de Re-Make de lo que fue el Primer Video-Juego salido a la luz de: METROID. --- Click en Imagen para Agrandar --- La verdad es que hubiera sido mejor si se hubiera subido primero el ROM de NES, pero como aquí no se suben ROMs de dicha consola me vi obligado a empezar con este juego, ya que básicamente es lo mismo y hasta mil veces mejor que el juego de hace 22 años. Todos
For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line.
Game Boy
Manufacturer
Nintendo
Product family
Game Boy line
Type
Handheld game console
Generation
Third generation era
First available
JP April 21, 1989 NA August 1989 EU 1990
Media
Game Boy cartridges
Units sold
Worldwide: 118.7 million, including Game Boy Color units (as of March 31, 2006)
Best-selling game
Tetris, 33 million (pack-in/separately). Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green, approximately 20.08 million combined (in Japan and the US) (details). Super Mario Land, 14 million (as of May 21, 2003).
Predecessor
Game & Watch
Successor
Game Boy Pocket
The Game Boy(ゲームボーイ,Gēmu Bōi?) is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo, released in 1989 at US$89.95. The Game Boy was the predecessor of all other iterations of the Game Boy line. The Game Boy was originally bundled with the puzzle game Tetris. As of March 31, 2006, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.7 million units worldwide.
Features
Technical information
CPU: Custom 8-bit Sharp x80 core at 4.19 MHz which is similar to an Intel 8080 in that all of the registers introduced in the Z80 are not present. However, some of the instruction set enhancements from the Z80, particularly bit manipulation are present. Still other instructions are unique to this particular flavor of x80 CPU. The core also contains integrated sound generation
Sound: 2 Square Waves, 1 programmable 32-sample 4-bit PCM Wave, 1 White noise. The unit only has one speaker, but headphones provide stereo sound (for further information, see Game Boy music)
Display: Reflective LCD 160 × 144 pixels
Screen size: 66 mm (2.6 in) diagonal
Color Palette: 4 shades of "gray" (green to (very) dark green)
Communication: Up to 4 Game Boys can be linked together via serial ports
Power: 6 V, 0.7 W (4 AA batteries provide ~#5 hours)
The game cartridges contained chips made by Nintendo to perform bank switching to access all of the memory contained in the cartridge as it could not all be mapped into memory at the same time. The same technique was used on the NES. These chips are sometimes called Memory Mapper Chips or MMCs for short. In theory, you could have cartridges with more than 8 Megabits of memory if you have a MMC capable of handling more memory. Nintendo didn't make a MMC for original Game Boy games designed to have more than 8 Megabits. Games such as Pokemon Red & Blue were some of the last popular original Game Boy games and were 8 Megabits large. Game Boy Color cartridges could be larger than 8 Megabits.
Controls
The Game Boy's main controls are located on the lower half of its front frame. Like the NES controller, the Game Boy has four face buttons labelled "A", "B", "SELECT", and "START". The functions of these face buttons vary from game to game, though generally, the START button is used as a "pause" function to temporarily stop gameplay. The Game Boy also features a directional pad, allowing up to eight directions of movement in its games.
Outside of buttons used in gameplay, there is a volume control knob on the right side of the console, and a similar knob to change the contrast on the left side. The ON/OFF switch is located at the top of the Game Boy.
Input/output
The Game Boy contains the following input/output connectors:
A power input, located on the left side of the handheld console. The power adapter was included in a rechargeable battery pack kit. Separate editions of the battery pack were made for 110V and 230V countries. The Game Boy requires 6V DC of at least 250mA.
A link cable port, located on the right side. It connects multiple Game Boy handheld consoles, and transfers information between two or more games of the same type or same series. This was widely used in games such as Pokémon. The port can also be used to connect a Game Boy Printer
A 3.5mm stereo headphone jack output is located on the bottom side of the console.
An input for Game Boy cartridges (also called Game Paks) is situated on top of the Game Boy.
Games
One of the top-selling games for the Game Boy was Tetris, which sold 33 million copies, and is an example of a killer app. Tetris was packaged with the Game Boy and consumers often bought the Game Boy only to play Tetris.
Sales and competition
As of March 31, 2005, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined has sold 32.47 million units in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in other regions. As of March 31, 2006, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined has sold 118.7 million units worldwide.
At the time of its release in 1989, the Atari Lynx was also just being introduced to the market. This system featured color graphics, a backlit screen, and networking capabilities. Nevertheless, its release price of $179, substantial requirement of 6 AA batteries that would provide roughly only four hours of gameplay (compared to 35 hours on 4 AA batteries for the Game Boy), physical bulkiness, and other factors doomed it to a second-rate status.
In 1991, Nintendo experienced heavier competition from Sega's Game Gear. To promote its new, color console, Sega aired a number of negative but unsuccessful ad campaigns in the United States that criticized the Game Boy's monochrome color palette. Like the Lynx, it too required six AA batteries that only lasted about 4-6 hours and was much more expensive than the Game Boy. The Game Gear had the advantage of being fully compatible (with an adapter) with all Sega Master System games and, while not as successful as the Game Boy, it sold from 1991 until early 1997.
Official Nintendo Magazine has praised the Game Boy and its models that follow it as it "got people who enjoyed gaming while sprawled on the couch in their undies to game wherever they liked."
Accessories
Several accessories compatible with the Game Boy were also produced:
The Game Boy Battery Pack (or AC Adapter), sold for about US$30, was roughly 3 in. long, 2 in. wide, and 0.5 in. thick. One end of it had a 2 inch-long cord, ending in a 3.5 mm phone plug, while the other end had a standard mains plug. The first version of it was gray with purple lettering, to match the colors used on the Game Boy. It also featured a belt clip. The battery pack was good for several hours of gameplay per charge, providing an alternative to purchasing more AA batteries once their power was exhausted. The product used nickel-cadmium batteries, lasted about 4-5 hours per charge, and could be charged roughly 1000 times before a significant loss in effectiveness. A major drawback of the battery pack was its weight, as well as the way the phone plug stuck out prominently.
The Game Link Cable an accessory that established a data connection between two Game Boys using the same game or game from the same series.
Released in 1998, the Game Boy Camera was able to take pictures that could be printed out using the Game Boy Printer. The photos were in black and white only, and the resolution of the pictures was 128 x 123. Both the Game Boy Camera and Game Boy Printer products were marketed together in Japan, the United States, and Europe, primarily towards children.
Released at the same time as the Game Boy Camera, the Game Boy Printer was a thermal printer. It ran on six AA batteries. In addition to printing out Game Boy Camera photos, it also ran in conjunction with several Game Boy games, such as The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX and Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition.
The Work Boy was an unreleased accessory for the Game Boy. It included a mini keyboard that plugged into the link cable outlet. The Work Boy cartridge included such programs as a clock, calendar, measurement conversion, and a phone book. This accessory was featured in Volume 36 (May, 1992) of Nintendo Power.
References
^ abc A Brief History of Game Console Warfare: Game Boy. BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
^ ab Did you know?. Nintendo. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
^ ab All Time Top 20 Best Selling Games (2003-05-21). Archived from the original on 2006-02-21. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
^ Japan Platinum Game Chart. The Magic Box. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
^ US Platinum Videogame Chart. The Magic Box. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
^ ab Ken Polsson (2007-08-13). Chronology of Video Game Systems. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
^ Douglas C. McGill. "Home Video Game Players Can Take Show on the Road", New York Times, 1989-06-05.
^ http://www.romhacking.net/docs/gbspec.txt
^ ab Nintendo Game Boy (DMG-001). Vidgame.net (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-22.
^ Tetris Makes Game Boy a Must-Have. GameSpy (2003-07-23). Retrieved on 2006-08-22.
^ Tetris: A History (2005-12-26). Retrieved on 2006-08-22.
^ 05 Nintendo Annual Report - Nintendo Co., Ltd. (PDF) 33–34. Nintendo. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
^ The Atari Lynx. ataritimes.com (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
^ The Atari Lynx: The Handheld System that Time Forgot!. i-mockery.com (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
^ Game Boy Battery / AC Adapter. The Nintendo Repository. gamersgraveyard.com (2005-12-11). Retrieved on 2006-08-18.
External links
Nintendo Portal
Official website
Game Boy at Nintendo.com (archived versions at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
Game Boy (original) games list at Nintendo.com (archived from the original at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
Game Boy at the Open Directory Project
v•d•e
Nintendo video game hardware
Consoles
Color TV Game • NES (Famicom Disk System • NES 2 • AV Family Computer) • Super NES (Super Game Boy • Satellaview) • Virtual Boy • Nintendo 64 (64DD • iQue Player) • GameCube (WaveBird • Panasonic Q) • Wii
Handhelds
Game & Watch • Game Boy(Pocket • Light) • Game Boy Color • Game Boy Advance (SP • Micro) • Nintendo DS (Lite)
Arcade
Nintendo Classic • Vs. Series • PlayChoice-10 • Nintendo Super System • Triforce
Misc.
Nintendo Gateway • R.O.B. • Power Glove • DK Bongos • Nintendo optical discs • MultiAV
v•d•e
Handheld game consoles
Early units
Microvision · Handheld electronic games
Nintendo
Game & Watch ·Game Boy (Pocket) (Light) ·Game Boy Color ·Pokémon mini · Game Boy Advance (SP) ·Game Boy Micro ·Nintendo DS (Lite)
Sony
PocketStation · PlayStation Portable (Slim and Lite)
