The Game Boy is a handheld game console created and sold by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America on July 31, 1989, and in Europe on September 28, 1990. It was Nintendo’s first handheld console to use ROM cartridges and replaced the Game & Watch series of handheld games. It competed with Sega’s Game Gear, Atari’s Lynx, and NEC’s TurboExpress in the fourth generation of video game systems.

Nintendo Research & Development 1, led by Gunpei Yokoi and Satoru Okada, designed the Game Boy. To improve upon the single-game Game & Watch, Nintendo used a dot-matrix display and interchangeable game cartridges. They focused more on being affordable, lasting longer on batteries, and being durable instead of having faster processors or color graphics like other consoles. Based on Yokoi’s idea of using older, less expensive technology, the Game Boy has a black-and-white screen and an 8-bit processor. It kept the Game & Watch D-pad, and the Game Link Cable, created by Okada, allows multiple players to connect and share data.

In North America and Europe, the Game Boy was supported by a big marketing effort and came with the game Tetris, which made it popular with people who didn’t usually play video games. Even though its black-and-white screen and limited technology faced some criticism, its low cost, long battery life, and many available games led to high sales worldwide. The success of Nintendo’s Pokémon games kept it popular until the late 1990s. Nintendo made new versions, like the smaller Game Boy Pocket in 1996 and the Japan-only, backlit Game Boy Light in 1998.

Nintendo kept supporting the Game Boy after the Game Boy Color (GBC) was released in 1998. The Game Boy could play many Game Boy Color games, while the Game Boy Color and its 2001 successor, the Game Boy Advance, could play Game Boy games. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color sold about 118.69 million units together. They were the best-selling console when they stopped making them in 2003 and are still the fourth best-selling console as of 2025. Reporters say the Game Boy helped make handheld gaming popular with many people and introduced video games to a new generation.

History and development

The Game Boy was created by Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1), the team responsible for popular arcade games like Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong, as well as the Game & Watch series of handheld devices. These handhelds helped Nintendo become financially stable. By 1983, while Game & Watch remained popular worldwide, sales in Japan started to drop, which put pressure on R&D1 to create something new. At the same time, R&D1 faced competition from Nintendo Research & Development 2 (R&D2), another team within Nintendo. In 1983, R&D2 launched the Family Computer, which added more pressure on R&D1 to improve Game & Watch. To update Game & Watch, R&D1 researched new screens from Sharp, including dot-matrix displays that could support multiple games. Unlike Game & Watch, which used pre-printed segmented LCDs that limited each device to one game, the new screens offered more flexibility.

On June 10, 1987, division director Gunpei Yokoi told R&D1 that Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted a Game & Watch successor priced under ¥10,000 (equivalent to ¥12,840 in 2024). From the start, the team decided to use a dot-matrix display and named the project "Dot Matrix Game" (DMG), later reflected in the Game Boy’s model number: DMG-01.

Within R&D1, Yokoi promoted "lateral thinking with withered technology," a design approach that focused on using older, proven technology in new ways instead of relying on the latest, more expensive innovations. This idea caused disagreements with assistant director Satoru Okada. Yokoi wanted a simple toy similar to Game & Watch, while Okada believed in creating a more powerful system with interchangeable cartridges, like a portable version of the NES. Some team members thought Yokoi resisted the idea to avoid connecting the project to the NES, developed by R&D2. After a tense meeting, Yokoi agreed to Okada’s plan and gave him full control of the project.

At first, R&D1 considered using a Ricoh CPU, like the one in the NES, for possible compatibility. However, R&D2, which was working on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), blocked this, claiming it would strain Ricoh’s resources. R&D1 suspected this was an attempt to slow their progress. Instead, they chose a Sharp CPU. A key benefit of this choice was the CPU’s built-in communication feature. Earlier, Okada had worked on a Nintendo project called Computer Mah-jong Yakuman that allowed multiplayer gaming over a cable. He saw an opportunity to use a similar idea. Despite doubts from his team, he developed the Game Link Cable, which later enabled features like "battle" and "trade" in Pokémon. The Game Boy also kept a key innovation from Game & Watch: the D-pad. Yokoi designed it as a compact alternative to joysticks, making it ideal for handheld devices. Its use on the NES controller also helped players transition easily.

Early in development, R&D1 tested dot-matrix displays from Sharp but found them unsuitable due to severe ghosting. They then approached other companies like Citizen, Epson, and Matsushita. Most declined, but Citizen, which already made LCDs for portable TVs, agreed to collaborate. Citizen’s chip-on-glass technology, which combined the screen controller with the display, reduced costs and production time. They offered Nintendo a monochrome screen for ¥1,300 or a color version for ¥3,900. However, following Yokoi’s philosophy, the team chose the monochrome screen to save power and money. This decision proved wise, as competing color handhelds later struggled with poor battery life, giving the Game Boy an advantage.

Despite this, Sharp remained an important partner. Nintendo asked Sharp if they could match Citizen’s technology and price. Sharp gave vague answers and quoted a price of ¥2,500 to ¥3,000 per screen. In response, Citizen lowered its price to ¥1,000. With Yamauchi’s approval, R&D1 signed a deal with Citizen on September 1, 1987. However, as Citizen’s representatives left, they saw Sharp’s team arriving for a meeting with Yamauchi. Without explanation, Yamauchi canceled the deal and gave the contract to Sharp. To avoid hurting Citizen, R&D1 made up a story, telling them they planned to buy color screens the next year and even created fake project documents. Citizen later supplied color screens for Sega’s Game Gear, which had a design similar to Nintendo’s fake project. Citizen never admitted to sharing the design.

R&D1 soon discovered Sharp was unprepared to make the screens they needed, causing delays. Early prototypes with low-quality twisted nematic (TN) screens led to skepticism, with some employees jokingly calling the project "DameGame" (meaning "hopeless" in Japanese). In the summer of 1988, R&D1 showed a prototype to Yamauchi, who canceled the project due to poor display visibility. Team members argued that small adjustments or a slightly higher budget could fix the issue, but Yamauchi refused, leading them to believe other teams had convinced him the device would fail. With the NES still popular and the SNES on the way, a Game & Watch successor no longer seemed necessary.

Most of R&D1, including Okada, was reassigned. However, Yokoi stayed committed. He continued refining the display and learned about a new super-twisted nematic (STN) display in development by Sharp. Though it had a green tint and lower contrast, it improved the viewing angle. Yokoi convinced Sharp to share the technology, and R&D1 installed the STN display in a Game Boy.

Three months after canceling the project, Yamauchi saw the STN prototype. Though still unimpressed by the screen, he approved the console for sale, possibly because the SNES was now two years away from launch.

Using the STN display increased production costs. To save money, the team reduced the screen size, but it was too late to change the console’s overall size. The target price of ¥10,000 was not met, and the Game Boy sold for ¥12,500 (equivalent to ¥15,594 in 2024). To make the product seem more valuable, Yamauchi included headphones and four AA batteries in the box, which cost little but made the Game Boy look like a better deal.

On January 17, 1989, Nintendo officially announced the Game Boy. It launched in Japan on April 21, selling out its first 300,000 units in two weeks. By August, sales reached 720,000 consoles and 1.9 million games across four launch titles. The Game Boy debuted in North America on July 31, 1989, priced at US$89.99 (equivalent to $234 in 2025), supported by a $20 million marketing campaign (equivalent to $52 million in 2025) to make it a must-have holiday toy. On its release day, 40,000 units sold

Hardware

The Game Boy uses a special system on a chip (SoC) to hold most of its parts. This chip is called the DMG-CPU by Nintendo and the LR35902 by its maker, Sharp Corporation.

Inside the DMG-CPU is the main processor, the Sharp SM83. This processor combines parts from two other processors, the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80. It uses the seven 8-bit registers from the 8080 and adds instructions from the Z80 for programming and handling data. The SM83 also includes new instructions for tasks specific to the Game Boy. It runs at a speed of 4.194304 MHz.

The DMG-CPU also includes the Picture Processing Unit (PPU), which acts like a basic graphics processor (GPU). It uses 8 KB of Video RAM on the motherboard to create images. The screen is a 2.5-inch reflective super-twisted nematic (STN) monochrome liquid-crystal display (LCD). It measures 47 mm wide by 43 mm high and has a resolution of 160 pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9 aspect ratio. The screen shows four shades of gray or green.

The SoC also has a 256-byte "bootstrap" ROM to start the device, 127 bytes of High RAM for faster access, and an Audio Processing Unit. This unit has four sound channels: one for pulse wave with frequency and volume changes, one for pulse wave with only volume changes, one for custom waveforms stored in RAM, and one for white noise with volume changes. The motherboard also includes an 8 KB "work RAM" chip for general use.

The Game Boy has physical controls, including a D-pad, four action buttons (labeled 'A', 'B', 'SELECT', 'START'), a sliding power switch with a cartridge lock, and volume and contrast dials on both sides.

The original Game Boy used four AA batteries. For longer use, an AC adapter or rechargeable battery pack could be connected via a coaxial port on the left side. The right side has a Game Link Cable port for connecting up to four Game Boy devices for multiplayer games or data transfer. The Game Boy has a single monaural speaker and a 3.5 mm headphone jack for stereo sound.

The Game Boy was a popular seller in the 1990s, partly because of games like Pokémon. Around 1992, it sold about 10 million units. However, Nintendo was hesitant to replace it because it was still selling well.

At a press conference in 1994, Nintendo's vice president of marketing said the company would not develop a color handheld system soon because the Game Boy was still selling strongly. Instead, Nintendo planned updates to keep the system relevant.

The first update came in 1995 with the "Play It Loud!" campaign, which offered colored cases in red, yellow, green, blue, black, white, and transparent. This change was only for appearance, and the screen had a darker bezel compared to the original model.

A major update in 1996 introduced the Game Boy Pocket, a smaller version that used two AAA batteries but had shorter battery life (10 hours). The screen was improved to a film compensated super-twisted nematic (FSTN) LCD with better visibility and no ghosting. The screen showed true black and white instead of green hues. The Pocket had a smaller Game Link Cable port requiring an adapter. Internally, it used a new SoC called the CPU MGB, which moved Video RAM to the SoC.

The Game Boy Pocket launched in Japan in 1996 and in North America in 1996 for $69.99 (about $144 in 2025). It helped boost sales and coincided with the success of Pokémon in Japan. Some reviewers praised its size and display, but others criticized its short battery life and lack of a power LED.

In 1997, a revised version added a power LED, more case colors, and a lower price of $54.95 (about $110 in 2025). By 1998, the price dropped to $49.95 (about $99 in 2025).

The Game Boy Light, released in Japan in 1998, kept the Pocket's improvements and added an electroluminescent backlight for use in low light. It used two AA batteries for longer life (12 hours with the backlight on, 20 hours off). The Light was larger and heavier than the Pocket but still smaller than the original Game Boy. It came in gold and silver colors and cost ¥6,800 (about ¥7,502 in 2024).

Games

Over 1,000 games were released for the Game Boy, not including games that were canceled or not officially licensed. More than 300 games made for the Game Boy Color could work on the older black and white Game Boy models.

Games for the Game Boy are stored on cartridges called Game Boy Game Paks. These cartridges use read-only memory (ROM) chips to store data. At first, the Game Boy’s 8-bit system limited ROM size to 32 KB. Nintendo solved this problem by adding a Memory Bank Controller (MBC) inside the cartridge. This chip connects the processor to the ROM chips. The Game Boy’s CPU can only access 32 KB of data at a time, but the MBC allows the system to switch between different 32 KB sections of the ROM. This technology let Nintendo create games using up to 1 megabyte of ROM. Some Game Paks also added extra features, such as up to 128 KB of RAM to improve performance. This RAM could be battery-backed to save progress when the device was turned off. Other cartridges included real-time clock chips to track time even when the Game Boy was off, and Rumble Pak cartridges added vibration feedback to improve gameplay.

The most popular game series for the Game Boy was Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, the first games in the Pokémon series. These games sold over 46 million copies. The best-selling single game was Tetris, which sold over 35 million copies. Tetris was included with many original Game Boy systems when they were purchased.

Besides official games, as of 2025, people in online communities continue to create new games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color using tools like GB Studio. This free software makes game creation easier than writing code manually.

When the Game Boy was first sold in Japan in April 1989, it included four games: Alleyway (a Breakout-style game), Baseball (a version of an NES game), Super Mario Land (a handheld version of the Mario series), and Yakuman (a Japanese mahjong game). When the Game Boy was released in North America, two more games were added: Tetris and Tennis (another NES version). Yakuman was not widely released outside Japan.

Reception

The Game Boy was not as advanced as some of its competitors, like the Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and NEC TurboExpress, because it did not support color. However, it became successful because it was less expensive and had a longer battery life.

When critics reviewed the Game Boy, they had mixed opinions. In a 1997 review, four editors from Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it scores of 7.5, 7.0, 8.0, and 2.0. One reviewer gave it a low score because of its black-and-white screen and blurred images when moving, while the others praised its long battery life, good game selection, and the compact design of the Game Boy Pocket model.

The Game Boy was first sold in Japan on April 21, 1989, with 300,000 units. These sold out quickly. In the United States, 40,000 units were sold on July 31, 1989, and sales reached 1 million within weeks. By 1995, 46% of Game Boy players in America were female, which was higher than the percentages for the Nintendo Entertainment System (29%) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (14%).

Before the Game Boy Color was introduced, more than 59.89 million monochrome Game Boy models had been sold worldwide by September 30, 1997. After that, Nintendo only reported combined sales for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. By 2003, when the system was no longer sold, the total number of Game Boy and Game Boy Color units sold globally was 118.69 million: 32.47 million in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in other regions.

At the time it was discontinued, the Game Boy was the best-selling game console ever. Later, it was surpassed by the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo Switch, making it the fourth-best-selling console as of 2025.

By 1997, the Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket models had sold over 64 million units worldwide. Combined sales of all Game Boy models reached 118.69 million units globally by the time the system was discontinued.

The Game Boy had a lasting impact on culture. Its affordable and durable design helped make handheld gaming popular and brought video games into everyday life. It is often remembered as the first gaming device for many players.

Smithsonian Magazine calls the Game Boy a permanent part of American history, noting its economic importance and lasting appeal. The Guardian describes it as "a portal to other magical worlds," with players recalling important gaming memories.

An original 1989 Game Boy is displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as part of the "American Enterprise" exhibition, along with early mobile phones. It is also shown at the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, Japan. In 2009, the Game Boy was added to the U.S. National Toy Hall of Fame.

The Game Boy is used in the chiptune music scene, where people create music using special software on the device. Lego partnered with Nintendo to make a Game Boy-themed set, which was released in October 2025.