The Game Boy Color (shortened as GBC) is an 8-bit handheld game console made by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and in other countries the next month. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color has a color screen instead of a black-and-white one, a faster central processing unit (CPU), and four times more memory. It can play games made for the older version of the console. The Game Boy Color was released during the fifth generation of video game consoles and competed with systems like the WonderSwan, Neo Geo Pocket, and Genesis Nomad.

The Game Boy Color is slightly thicker and taller than the Game Boy Pocket, which came before it, but it is much smaller than the original Game Boy. Like earlier models, it uses a special 8-bit processor made by Sharp. The name "Game Boy Color" is spelled the same way in English in all countries.

When it was released, the Game Boy Color received positive reviews, especially for being able to play games from its predecessor. It was used for less than three years before being replaced by the Game Boy Advance. Together, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color sold over 118 million units worldwide, making them the fourth best-selling console system of all time. The most popular games for the system were Pokémon Gold and Silver (1999), which sold 23 million copies globally.

History

The original Game Boy was first sold in 1989. It was a black and white handheld device. One of its competitors, the Atari Lynx, had a color screen. The Lynx’s color display was visually appealing, but people criticized it for being large and having weak battery life. In contrast, the Game Boy was easier to carry and lasted longer, which helped it become very popular. Nintendo publicly said it would create a color version of the Game Boy, but it waited until technology problems were solved.

Inside Nintendo, a team led by Satoru Okada, who helped design the original Game Boy, tested color screens. Their early 1990s prototype, called "Project Atlantis," had a color screen and a powerful 32-bit processor made by Sharp. However, the team was not happy with the results and stopped working on the project.

Even without color, people still wanted the Game Boy. In 1996, Nintendo released a thinner version called the Game Boy Pocket. The same year, the Pokémon game series was launched, which increased sales. However, game developers were less interested in making new games for the older system.

More competition came in October 1997 when news spread about Bandai’s new handheld, the WonderSwan. The project was led by Gunpei Yokoi, the engineer who created the Game & Watch series and the original Game Boy. Yokoi had left Nintendo in 1996 after his last project, the Virtual Boy, failed commercially. His departure caused investors to sell Nintendo stock, leading to a temporary stop in trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yokoi died in a car accident in 1997 before the WonderSwan was released.

Faced with competition, Okada returned to Project Atlantis. He focused on launching a product quickly rather than using powerful technology. He replaced the 32-bit chip with a faster version of the Game Boy’s 8-bit processor to allow a faster release and keep compatibility with existing games.

The Game Boy Color was announced in March 1998 and released in Japan in October. It was sold worldwide in November, during the busy holiday season, reaching North America on the 18th, Europe on the 23rd, and Australasia on the 27th. It cost $79.95 at launch (about $160 in 2025). The Game Boy Color sold more units than the WonderSwan, which launched in March 1999.

The Game Boy Color was on the market for about two and a half years before being replaced by the Game Boy Advance in 2001. The new system finally included the 32-bit power from Project Atlantis. Even after its replacement, the Game Boy Color continued to be made as an inexpensive option. The last units were sold by March 2003.

Hardware

The Game Boy Color uses a custom system-on-a-chip (SoC) that combines the CPU and other important parts into one package. Nintendo called this chip the CPU CGB, and it was made by Sharp Corporation. While the CPU CGB was a new design for the Game Boy Color, it was based on the DMG-CPU SoC used in the original Game Boy, which was ten years older.

Inside the CPU CGB, the main processor is the same Sharp SM83 chip that powered the original Game Boy. The SM83 was developed from two other 8-bit processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80. It has seven 8-bit registers like the 8080 but does not include the alternate registers found in the Z80. The SM83 uses the Z80’s programming style and additional instructions for manipulating bits, along with new instructions tailored for the hardware.

In the original Game Boy, the SM83 ran at a clock speed of 4.194304 megahertz (MHz). However, games on the Game Boy Color can use "dual-speed mode," which doubles the processor’s speed to 8.388608 MHz. This allowed developers to create games with twice the processing power for the Game Boy Color while still working with older Game Boy games.

The CPU CGB includes a Picture Processing Unit (PPU), a basic GPU that uses 16 kilobytes (KB) of Video RAM. This is twice the amount of Video RAM in the original Game Boy. Games made for the Game Boy Color could use this extra memory to add effects and display up to 56 colors at once from a total of 32,768 colors. Programmers later created a technique called "high color mode," which quickly changed color palettes to show over 2,000 colors at once. This feature was used in games like The Fish Files, The New Addams Family, and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. When a Game Pak designed for the original Game Boy was used, the extra Video RAM was not active.

The screen is a 2.3-inch thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid-crystal display (LCD) that measures 44 millimeters (1.7 inches) wide by 40 millimeters (1.6 inches) high. The screen’s size, resolution, and aspect ratio match the original Game Boy: 160 pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9 format. Like the original Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket, and the later Game Boy Advance, the screen is passively reflective, meaning it uses ambient light from the room instead of a built-in light source. This makes the device harder to use in dark areas.

The SoC also includes a 2 KB "bootstrap" ROM for starting the device, 127 bytes of high-speed RAM (similar to a CPU cache), and an Audio Processing Unit. This unit has four channels for sound: one for pulse waves with adjustable frequency and volume, one for pulse waves with only volume control, one for reproducing custom waveforms, and one for white noise with volume control. The Game Boy Color’s motherboard has a 32 KB "work" RAM chip, which is four times the size of the original Game Boy’s RAM.

The Game Boy Color has a D-pad (directional pad), four action buttons ('A', 'B', 'START', and 'SELECT'), and a sliding on–off switch on the right side. Volume is controlled by a dial on the left side. The left side also has a Game Link Cable port for connecting up to four Game Boy devices for multiplayer games or data sharing. This port, first used on the Game Boy Pocket, requires an adapter to work with the original Game Boy. The Game Boy Color also had a "high-speed" mode that made data transfer over the Game Link Cable up to 64 times faster than the original Game Boy. Additionally, it included an infrared port for wireless data transfer, though few games used this feature. It was not included on the later Game Boy Advance.

Nintendo had previously sold colored versions of the Play It Loud! Game Boy and the Game Boy Pocket, so the company released the Game Boy Color in several case colors. The logo on the Game Boy Color uses the five original colors: Berry (C), Grape (O), Kiwi (L), Dandelion (O), and Teal (R). Another color, "Atomic Purple," was made from translucent purple plastic. Other colors were sold as limited editions or in specific countries.

Games

The Game Boy Color was released with a large collection of games because it could play original Game Boy titles. When it first came out, it had three exclusive games: Pocket Bomberman, Tetris DX, and Wario Land II. Over time, the system had more than 900 games, plus all the games from the original Game Boy, which had over 1,000 titles. In a list of 296 Game Boy Color games, 100 of them could also be played on the original Game Boy.

Nintendo did not allow simple color versions of black-and-white Game Boy games. Instead, developers had to add meaningful changes, such as new levels, characters, items, or gameplay features that used the system’s color display. These changes had to be noticeable to players who knew the original black-and-white versions. Many of these improved versions, called "Deluxe" or "DX," became popular, including Tetris DX and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX.

The Game Boy Color’s better screen and faster processor allowed more accurate versions of NES games compared to the original Game Boy, which had limited color capabilities. One example is Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, which showed how the Game Boy Color could create a true version of an NES game.

Tetris for the original Game Boy was the best-selling game compatible with the Game Boy Color. Pokémon Gold and Silver were the best-selling games made mainly for the Game Boy Color, and Pokémon Crystal was the best-selling exclusive Game Boy Color game.

The last Game Boy Color game released in Japan was Doraemon no Study Boy: Kanji Yomikaki Master on July 18, 2003. In North America, the last game was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on November 15, 2002. In Europe, the last game was Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! on January 10, 2003.

Besides official games, as of 2025, people still create new games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color using tools like GB Studio. This tool makes it easier to build games without complex coding. Some professional studios, like Krool Toys, have used GB Studio to create games, such as Grimace's Birthday for McDonald’s in 2023.

Games for the Game Boy Color are stored on cartridges called Game Boy Game Paks, which use read-only memory (ROM) chips. Because the Game Boy used an 8-bit system, it could only access 32 KB of ROM at a time. Nintendo solved this by adding a Memory Bank Controller (MBC) chip in the cartridges. This chip switches between different 32 KB sections of ROM, allowing games up to 8 megabytes in size. Some cartridges also include extra features, like 128 KB of RAM to save progress, real-time clock chips to track time, or Rumble Pak cartridges that add vibration feedback.

The Game Boy Color can play all original Game Boy games. Three main types of Game Pak cartridges were released:

• Original Game Boy Game Pak (gray case): These are classic Game Boy cartridges. The Game Boy Color uses a limited color palette (often dark green) with four to ten colors to improve games originally designed for four shades of gray. The Game Boy Color’s "bootstrap" ROM has default color settings for more than 90 games, mostly first-party titles and popular games. For other games, players can choose from 12 color palettes, including one that mimics the original Game Boy’s black-and-white display by pressing specific buttons at startup.
• Color enhanced Game Boy Game Pak (black case): These cartridges can use the full color range of the Game Boy Color (56 colors from a palette of 32,768) while still working on the original Game Boy, which displays them in four shades of gray. However, they cannot use the Game Boy Color’s faster speed or more memory.
• Game Boy Color Game Pak (clear case): Designed for the Game Boy Color, these cartridges use the full color range (56 colors from a palette of 32,768) and benefit from the system’s faster speed and more memory. However, they cannot be used on the older monochrome Game Boy models.

Accessories

Nintendo released several add-ons for the Game Boy Color, including:

• Game Boy Camera: A cartridge-based digital camera that takes low-resolution black-and-white images and includes built-in games where players use their faces as avatars.
• Game Boy Printer: A thermal printer that prints images from the Game Boy Camera and supports printing content from games like Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Donkey Kong Country, and Pokémon versions Yellow, Gold, Silver, and Crystal. It connects to the Game Boy via a Game Link Cable.
• Game Link Cable: Allows multiplayer gaming and data transfers between Game Boy systems, especially used in the Pokémon series.
• Mobile Adapter GB: Connects the Game Boy to a mobile phone, using the phone’s cellular network for online features through the Mobile System GB service, most notably for Pokémon Crystal. Few games worked with it, and it was expensive, so few people used it. The service stopped on December 18, 2002, and was not sold outside Japan due to wireless issues.

Reception

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were very popular and sold 118.69 million units worldwide: 32.47 million in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in all other regions. When it stopped being sold in 2003, the total sales of all Game Boy versions made it the best-selling game console ever. Later, its sales were surpassed by the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo Switch, making it the fourth-best-selling console and the second-best-selling handheld of all time as of 2024. Sales of the device were partly driven by the success of Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Crystal, which sold 29.5 million units combined, making them some of the best-selling video games ever.

The Game Boy Color sold well when it was first released. Nintendo of America reported selling one million units from its launch until December 1998, and two million by July 1999. Retail stores in the United States saw very high demand for the console. Executives at FuncoLand said sales were "very pleasant and unpredicted," and Electronics Boutique said "the entire Game Boy Color line just exploded, including accessories" when it was released. Because of high worldwide demand and competitive prices, stores like CompUSA ran out of Game Boy Color units weeks before the 1998 Christmas season.

Critics generally had positive reactions to the Game Boy Color, praising its color display and improved screen clarity. Publications like Total Games praised the handheld for its "bright, colorful picture that can be viewed in direct light," its ability to play original Game Boy games, and its better technical performance. Computer and Video Games said the Game Boy Color made the Game Boy game library "look better than ever – everything is crystal clear, bright, and in [color]." GameSpot writer Chris Johnston said the display was "crystal clear" and free of motion blur, calling Tetris DX the "killer app" of the launch titles on the platform.

Some reviews were more moderate. Arcade said the colors were "very impressive" but "not as eyeball-popping as you might have hoped for […] it's mostly seaweed greens, rusty browns, timid yellows, and the like." They said the Game Boy Color was "not very radical" but "Game Boy as it always should have been." Other drawbacks included its use of an 8-bit system, which was outdated compared to competitors' 16-bit systems, and its non-backlit screen, which required users to be in a well-lit area.

The legacy of the Game Boy Color is often seen as an incremental upgrade from the original Game Boy rather than a completely new device. Author Jeff Ryan noted that the Game Boy Color was known as a "legacy machine" that succeeded mainly because it could play older Game Boy games, as "few wanted to lose all the Dr. Mario and Pokémon cartridges they had collected over the years." Bob Pape, a developer at Blitz Games Studios, said that while "backward compatibility more or less defined the Game Boy Color," the handheld "ticked all the right boxes with regards to size, battery life, reliability, and most importantly backward compatibility."

Positive assessments of the Game Boy Color's legacy focus on its game library, especially third-party and import titles. Travis Fahs of IGN noted that while "the Game Boy Color's life was relatively brief," it "built up a small library of excellent games," including Wario Land 3 and Pokémon Gold and Silver, and had a "unique" and "previously unheard of" line of successful third-party games, such as Dragon Warrior Monsters, Metal Gear Solid, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories. Ashley Day of Retro Gamer said the Game Boy Color had an "overlooked" status, stating "the Game Boy Color (has) an unfair reputation as the one Nintendo handheld with few worthwhile titles, but this simply isn't the case…returning to the Game Boy Color now reveals a wealth of great games that you never knew existed, especially those available on import."