[a look back at one of gamings most defining elements]

As videogames push their way into the third dimension, creating realism and detail in graphics is becoming more and more important. Modern games are becoming extremely life-like, with realistic speech, facial expressions, and environments. The goal seems to be creating the most realistic digital world technology allows. How, then, does a console whose graphics are utterly ‘unrealistic’ and whose games are largely 2d, become the highest selling game console in the world? Nintendo’s Game Boy is this console, despite the obvious lack of powerful hardware.

This small, ‘underpowered’ device has had an undeniably significant impact on both the videogame and electronics world. From the puzzle game Tetris, to a little RPG known as Pokemon, it has spawned some of the most well known videogame franchises. The console’s influence on modern American culture is deceptively large, and it continues today to influence everything from cellular phones to television.

In the 1970’s, Japanese card maker Nintendo stepped into the emerging ‘coin-op’ game market, developing various arcade games, including the first ‘beam-gun’ game. It soon split off an entire division of its company devoted to the development of coin-operated games. On April 28th 1980, Nintendo released a series of portable games under the brand ‘Game & Watch.’ Brainchild of designer Gunpei Yokoi, these small devices consisted of a small, static Liquid Crystal Display and various controls in one unit. The systems were a run-away success, selling many millions. Eventually Nintendo released 59 ‘Game & Watch’ games in total for about a decade. Ironically, these games have made a return in modern days with the ‘Game & Watch Gallery’ series of games. Soon after, in 1985, Nintendo released its ‘Nintendo Entertainment System’ videogame console in America. It was a cheap, powerful system that, unlike the Game & Watch, used removable cartridges for its games. It also became a great success for Nintendo. After seeing the amazing sales of these two systems, Yokoi began to envision a merging of Nintendo’s two greatest successes. Thus, the Game Boy was born.

In 1987, Yokoi presented an update of the old Game & Watch system to then company president, Horoshi Yamauchi. Like the NES, the Game Boy would use removable cartridges for its games, and the Game and Watch, it would feature a black and white LCD screen. This allowed for an infinite amount of games, in a (then) small, portable package. The system would not be as powerful as the ‘regular’ home consoles, but it would allow for multiplayer gaming through a special cable. Yokoi was convinced it would sell well (around 25 million in the first 3 years) and Yamauchi agreed. The system would be packaged with Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris, a deceptively simple puzzle game. The Game Boy was released in America in 1989, with a price of $169. The combination of the Game Boy and the universal addictive Tetris sold beyond all expectations, selling more than the projected 25 million the first 3 years. Obviously, Nintendo had found a brand new market and it wasn’t going to be alone in it for long.

The success of the Game Boy inspired other game companies to introduce their own handheld units. The most well-known being Sega’s Game Gear, introduced in 1991. Although the Game Gear used the same Z-80 processor as the Game Boy, it was a much more powerful machine and surpassed the Game Boy technologically. The Game Gear had a higher quality backlit color screen, higher quality sound, and higher quality graphics. It also could become, with certain peripherals, a TV tuner and an fm radio. Despite these advantages, the Game Gear failed to sufficiently penetrate the Game Boy market enough to survive. The success of the original Game Boy and its next version, the Game Boy Pocket, proved that success in the portable gaming market was definitely not linked to technical superiority.

After six years, Game Boy sales were slowing down, and this was no doubt due to the competition provided by other companies. Nintendo tried, unsuccessfully, to spark sales with a series of colored ‘Play it Loud!’ cases for the Game Boy in 1995. The system was showing its age. It had a screen that had a tendency to get blurry and muddy when the on screen action got intense, it used 4 AA batteries pretty quickly, and wasn’t the most pocket friendly thing in the world. Nintendo solved these problems by releasing an updated version of the Game Boy, called the Game Boy Pocket. It was much thinner, only used 2 AAA batteries (with a longer life), and the old screen’s tendency to become blurry was fixed. It was also released in various colors, none of which were the originals’ grey and maroon. Releasing electronics in various colors would not only turn into a Nintendo tradition, but would go on to influence other products as well. Though it contained the same hardware, the system was a success. It boosted total Game Boy sales to about 60 million units. This tweaking of the Game Boy hardware without changing the underlying technology would continue with just as much success in future itineration of the console. But even with the improvements and success of the Game Boy Pocket, the system still lacked something that its failed competition had, a color screen.

The Game Boy Color, released in 1998, was the last and most drastic itineration of the original 8-bit hardware. Also know as the GBC, the system had twice the processing power and twice the memory of the original. The system was actually more powerful than Nintendo’s first home console, the NES. It also, perhaps most importantly, was backwards compatible with all the previous Game Boy games, and, in some cases, color enhanced them. This meant that when the system was launched, it had literally thousands of titles already available for it. GBC exclusive games used the system to its fullest, displaying games in as many as 56 colors at a time. The GBC was hailed as a massive event in the systems history, and was marketed as such. Interestingly enough, the marketing for the Game Boy Color reached far beyond the usual ages that Nintendo typical sold to. Nintendo launched a massive college campus tour, for the first time specifically targeting an older market for the Game Boy. GBC sold just as well as it predecessors, pushing total Game Boy sales up over 100 million units. Thus, Nintendo ended a generation of amazing success, with a system that was based off of 9 year old technology. Some of this success can be attributed to the strict standards of portability that Nintendo stuck to throughout the systems’ lifetime.

What is perhaps most amazing about the success of Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, and Game Boy Color is that they all rely on the same basic technology, and that despite this failure to advance the technology, Nintendo was still able to sell units at an amazing rate. Obviously, pioneering the market helped Game Boy sales, but once the competition showed up, how did this monochrome, technologically inferior platform succeed? With the Game Boy Nintendo’s hardware decisions were always made with portability in mind. The system has always been made as small as possible, and the system continues to become technologically superior only when it can remain small. Battery life is obviously an important part of the design as well. This may explain Nintendo’s choice to release the technically inferior Game Boy Pocket after the color, backlit Game Gear. When Nintendo released the Game Boy Pocket, they stood by their decision to stay monochrome saying that a color screen would simply sap battery power to quickly with current power technology. Sega’s system proved this; its battery only lasted half the time that the Game Boy’s did, namely because of its colored-backlight screen. Thus, a color screen would have to wait until a sufficient power solution could be found, and when the solution was found, the Game Boy Color was released.

Keeping portability an important factor in design is something that Nintendo has done throughout the Game Boy’s history, and it obviously helped against the competition in the early 90’s. But to last as long as it has, the Game Boy has to have something that keeps consumer’s interested; games.

Nintendo has created some of the worlds most well-known, creative, loved, and critically acclaimed videogame characters and franchises in the world. Having portable versions of well-known franchises, such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Metroid, and Kirby obviously helps sell systems, but it is not these franchises alone that are responsible for the success of the Game Boy. The depth and breadth of game titles available for the system is the reason why it is successful among so many different groups. Over 400 games were released for the black and white Game Boy’s alone, that number doubled with the Game Boy Color, and now, with the Game Boy Advance that number is well over a thousand and growing weekly. This means that any competitor of the Game Boy’s already has more than a thousand game deficit in the market. The Game Boy’s ability to provide a variety of game genres means that everyone will find something they can play on the system. Like it or not, Pokemon, has become such a phenomenon that it has been spun off into its own subsidiary of Nintendo, appropriately called The Pokemon Company. The game and its sequels, are usually among the top sellers of the year. Nintendo’s innovations and successes in the portable gaming market continue today, with the most advanced portable hardware the company has ever released.

The first substantial leap in Game Boy technology came in 2001, with the introduction of the Game Boy Advance, or GBA. Featuring a 32-bit processor, the GBA was portable gaming unlike the world had ever seen. The graphics were a quantum leap over anything previously introduced. The hardware was more powerful than Nintendo’s Super NES and represented some of the most powerful 2d gaming technology in the world, so powerful in fact, that it can produce rudimentary 3d graphics as well. The layout of the hardware was changed, from a vertical to a horizontal one and had a larger, wider, more detailed screen. Even with these advancements in technology, the size and battery life of the unit stayed the same. As with all Game Boy’s, the GBA had the capability to play all Game Boy games ever released. With these upgrades the Game Boy finally had the capabilities to provide users with a deep, engrossing game play experience. Many of Nintendo’s known franchises have been brought to the system, some in the form of new games, others in the form of ports of previous SNES games. Other developers also have ported their games from the 16 bit generation of game consoles to the system. This trend makes the GBA’s game library an interesting mix of old games re-released and new games. Although the GBA released in 2001 was technologically superior to its long defunct competition, it still needed light from an external source to see. At the time, Nintendo again said battery life would be a problem, but only two years later, a solution was released.

In 2003, the Game Boy Advance SP (’SPecial’) was released. The unit definitely stands out from the rest of the Game Boy family. Like the Game Boy Pocket before it, the GBASP is basically a repackaging of existing technology. It drastically changed the form factor of the original GBA. Its set-up was more like the old Game Boy’s, vertical, but with one new twist. The entire system folded, like a laptop. This not only cut the size down to literally half (when closed), it also brought a more mature look to the Game Boy. While the original GBA, released in 4 bright colors looked almost toy like, the new GBASP, released in silver and dark blue initially, has the look of a small gadget. The unit uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and most importantly, the GBASP has a front lighting system, finally eliminating the need for an external light source. Unlike the Game Boy Pocket, the GBASP is not a replacement for the GBA. Both products are sold side by side, with the GBASP being marketed to an older crowd. Both the GBA and the GBASP continue to sell at an amazing pace, the sales of the GBA/SP, when combined with all the other products in the Game Boy line, is well over 100 million units worldwide.

Most interesting perhaps, is what the GBA represents in the current gaming world. Most, if not all, console games now are 3d games. Game Boy, with its hardware limited to mainly 2d, has provided a sort of renaissance of the 2d games. With modern console games striving for realism, GBA games stand in stark contrast to the trend. The GBA provides a unique perspective in the current world of gaming, a two dimensional one. Many games developed for the system have been heralded as being just as deep and engrossing as their 3d counterparts. It, almost single-handedly, has shown that better technology does not necessarily equate to higher quality in game play. It is the blueprint for success in the game hardware market. The portable gaming market has become so lucrative that numerous new devices are now following that blueprint.

After almost a 10 year period with no serious competition in the portable gaming market, the Game Boy is now being challenged. Phone maker Nokia has released multi-function device that serves as, among other things, a game console and a phone. Start up company Tapwave has recently released a game console based on the Palm OS PDA system. Videogame giant Sony, Nintendo’s biggest competitor, has also released the PSP. PSP’s graphics are unparalleled in the portable game arena, and are entire generations above the GBA. It is Sony’s view that the videogame system should become a ‘convergence device,’ combining movies, music, internet access, and gaming into one sleek portable system. The goal of the PSP is one of bigger, better technology for creating more complex graphically intensive game worlds on a portable system. This is in stark contrast with Nintendo’s direction with the GBA, as the PSP arguably sacrifices portability and battery life for these leaps in technology. Even Nintendo has indirectly created competition for the GBA with its Nintendo DS (and its ability to play GBA games). Nintendo has always stated that the DS is a ‘third pillar’ in its marketing plan… not meant to replace the GBA platform.

This strategy was strained by the introduction of the DS, as GBA software development seemed to quiet in anticipation of this newly released hardware. Nintendo proved this speculation wrong by developing the GBA platform into another sleeker, smaller package, the Game Boy Micro. About the size of an iPod Mini and with a rechargeable 8 hour battery included, this system continues Nintendo’s tradition of leaning toward portability and battery life instead of higher technology.

Nintendo’s Game Boy essentially created the portable gaming market and all portable gaming systems draw inspiration from it, but its influences reach far deeper than gaming. Most PDA’s and cell phones for example, feature some sort of simple gaming ability. More recent cell phones, have the ability to download more complex games from the internet, and PDA gaming has an entire community behind it. These devices are not in any way related to gaming, but Game Boy’s success has shown that portable gaming is essential, if nothing but a simple time waster or chance to grab a moment’s entertainment during a stressful day.

Nintendo’s focus on portability and simplicity over technology and the resulting success of Game Boy over its more technologically advanced competitors have had an undeniable influence not only on gaming, but on electronics design in and of itself. Throughout it’s 14 year history the Game Boy has proven, over and over again, that it is a force to be reckoned with in the gaming world. The brand has become synonymous with portable gaming, defining success in the electronics world. Now, with serious competition on the horizon what remains to be seen is if the Game Boy’s simplicity will be enough for it to compete in the future. No matter what the future holds for the Game Boy, it has been successful for more than a decade; its influence on a generation is undeniable and will continue to manifest itself for years to come.