Happy Birthday, Game Boy!
1989 was a newsworthy year. It was the time when the Berlin Wall fell, it saw homosexual acts between consenting adults in Western Australia decriminalized, and gave us the premiere episode of The Simpsons. But among these and other important events, something small happened in 1989: the Japanese launch of Nintendo's Game Boy. That's right, the little beige brick is 20 years old now! That means there's only one more year before its incredible 21st birthday where it will surely get stupid drunk and pass out on top of a Lynx.
While the lime and avocado screened wonder didn't hit American shores until summer of '89 (and European countries the next year), the handheld would go on to sell 118.69 million units worldwide. While the technical specs may not be much to look at now, the platform's games were and incredible amount of fun. I fondly remember playing through my first encounters with Castlevania, Donkey Kong Country, and Adventures of Lolo on the original Game Boy. And who can forget the debut appearances of classics series like Wario Land and the "still selling millions of copies" juggernaut known as Pokemon?
Do you remember playing with portable power? Share your stories below.
Game-Boy
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 21 April 2009
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: gameboy, handehld, nintendo, retro, retro gaming
I remember Christmas when I was about eight years old. All I wanted was a Gameboy Color and Pokémon Blue. One of the best days in my life.
If had done a little research and noticed this earlier, I would have composed a little song in tribute to the Gameboy. But alas, a little late now. I'll wait for the 25th anniversary instead. ;3
For a second I thought it was *your* birthday, Game-Boy! xD
But yeah, 1989 is the year my boyfriend and pretty much everyone else in my class (of '07 for high school and '11 for college) were born, and I was just about a month old at the start of 1989. Good year!
There's a picture of me at my grandmother's house, just 4 year's old, playing Tetris on my grandpa's Game Boy. Tetris was the only game my grandpa played, and it was my gateway into the magical world of video games.
From there I moved onto Super Mario Land, Kirby, Yoshi's Cookie, and, of course, Pokemon. Me and my gameboy were inseparable back in the 90's ;)
I had my gameboy for so long. I got it in 91 and I stopped actually using it in 97 when the screen gave out. I loved that clunky grey brick.
I remember seeing a commercial for Kirby back when he was still white, he was puffing up and acting like rambo. He was the cutest character at the time, so I beged my mom to take me to Toys R Us. I didn't even have a gameboy, but that didn't stop me from bogarting my sisters to enjoy my very first gameboy game. I played it for hours until finally getting to king deedeedee, and thinking, wow, this music is incredible. I put the brick up to my ear and listened to that tune for a good long while!
I was six and in the hospital for a second operation on my legs to relieve the tension caused from the cerebral palsy. I was scared since I was only six and both my parents had to be back at the military base so they could not be by my side for one night before my surgery.
Before they left, my mother gave me a Gameboy with Tetris and Super Mario Land. I figured why not, and gave it a shot. I loved it so, I was able to have it taken into surgery with me.
I've been a Nintendo fanboy since.
I don't know how many hundreds upon hundreds of hours the duo of Gameboy & Tetris consumed out of my life, not that I'm complaining in the least! Not to mention the thousands of batteries lol I love my Gameboy, GBC, Advance, DS. Wow! Counting the DSi, Gameboy is a great, great grandfather.
I was living in Germany at the time (dad was in the military and we moved a lot, and lived there from 86-90), and I remember convincing my parents to buy me a Game Boy because it had Tetris (my parents were both addicted to the NES version).
I still have it, even though it quit working a few years ago. Dad took it with him to Iraq when he was in Desert Storm, and it still has a little bit of sand in it from the experience. It's quite the world traveled handheld.
i remember when gameboy first came out. My older brother and i got one for some reason..i dunno we were poor... and i was so excited. My brother and i played some multiplayer tetris and i was kicking his ass so much that he got angry and smacked the gameboy against his head..the screen broke...lol