Maniacal Engineer
Musing Eternally
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2014
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Hello there video game fans! It is I, Bulbagarden's resident mad scientist and punster, Maniacal Engineer. I have decided to start up a new segment here in Video Games and Technology which I have dubbed: "Maniacal Engineer's Technobabble Corner." In it, I shall discuss several topics including, but not limited to; video game history, technological marvels of the modern era, technological history, and advances in the automation industry.
With that out of the way, allow me to introduce the topic for my first series of segments, namely the Game Boy family of handheld consoles. While not the very first handheld consoles to have ever existed, the Game Boy was the first handheld console that I ever owned. To date, I still own my Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advanced, and a couple of Game Boy Advanced SPs. The Game Boy family will always hold a special place in my heart, and it is always stunning to take a step back into the earlier days of video games past and enter a bygone era. Let's dive right in, shall we?
Debuting during the forth generation of gaming consoles, the Game Boy emerged during the time of massive console wars. Videogaming technology was still in its early stages, and Nintendo realized that handheld systems were a largely unexplored area at the time. Although they had already released one handheld system, the Game & Watch, in 1980, it sought to increase the capabilities of the handheld systems. As such, the original Game Boy became a fusion of the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game & Watch, containing features from both.
The original Game Boy had an 8-bit operating system, and only had four operation buttons; A, B, START, and SELECT, as well as a traditional directional pad. It could be purchases either as a standalone or with the newly released puzzle game, Tetris, which was one of the launch games with the Game Boy, along with Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball, Yakuman, and Tennis. In addition to Tetris, two other major franchises have their debuts on the Game Boy, namely Pokemon and Kirby, both of which are now staples in Nintendo's lineup.
Despite having lower contrast an unlit monochrome screens in comparison to its contemporaries, the Game Boy dominated the market, mostly thanks to its comparatively impressive 15-30 hours of play time from the 4 AA batteries that it took. It was also popular due to its rugged hardware and the burgeoning popularity of Tetris and other compatible games. For reference, after its release in Japan, on April 21st, 1989, it managed to sell out all 300,000 stock units within two weeks. When it was released in the United States on July 31st, 1989, it sold 40,000 units that very day.
Although rechargeable batteries were still in their infancy, the Game Boy contained an adapter port which would allow the user to run the Game Boy off of an external rechargeable battery pack or an AC adapter, instead of the AA batteries.
A useful feature of the Game Boy was that its power switch included a physical lockout, which prevented users from putting in or removing a cartridge while the device was powered on.
Early "multiplayer" features were through a port on the side of the Game Boy, to which a link cable could be connected, allowing players to go head-to-head in Tetris, and later as the very first multiplayer features in the Pokemon games. Naturally, given that wifi did not exist in that era, and that the link cable was a finite length, this meant that, in order to participate in multiplayer modes, you needed to physically be in the same room as the person you were playing with.
Over all, nobody can deny that the Game Boy was a major success, and Nintendo's second foray into the realm of handheld consoles would lead to many later successes. Although the Game Boy was, in some ways, technologically inferior to its contemporaries, it fulfilled its purpose thanks to Nintendo having a clear strategy and having user friendly features where it counted. At the time, features like color screens and being able to link up to 15 other consoles at once were considered luxury features, and the Game Boy's success came from not splurging on luxuries at the expense of battery life or durability.
Here are some questions to consider to get conversation rolling. You don't have to answer all of them or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic and within global forum rules.
With that out of the way, allow me to introduce the topic for my first series of segments, namely the Game Boy family of handheld consoles. While not the very first handheld consoles to have ever existed, the Game Boy was the first handheld console that I ever owned. To date, I still own my Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advanced, and a couple of Game Boy Advanced SPs. The Game Boy family will always hold a special place in my heart, and it is always stunning to take a step back into the earlier days of video games past and enter a bygone era. Let's dive right in, shall we?
Maniacal Engineer's Technobabble Corner: The Original Game Boy
Debuting during the forth generation of gaming consoles, the Game Boy emerged during the time of massive console wars. Videogaming technology was still in its early stages, and Nintendo realized that handheld systems were a largely unexplored area at the time. Although they had already released one handheld system, the Game & Watch, in 1980, it sought to increase the capabilities of the handheld systems. As such, the original Game Boy became a fusion of the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game & Watch, containing features from both.
The original Game Boy had an 8-bit operating system, and only had four operation buttons; A, B, START, and SELECT, as well as a traditional directional pad. It could be purchases either as a standalone or with the newly released puzzle game, Tetris, which was one of the launch games with the Game Boy, along with Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball, Yakuman, and Tennis. In addition to Tetris, two other major franchises have their debuts on the Game Boy, namely Pokemon and Kirby, both of which are now staples in Nintendo's lineup.
Despite having lower contrast an unlit monochrome screens in comparison to its contemporaries, the Game Boy dominated the market, mostly thanks to its comparatively impressive 15-30 hours of play time from the 4 AA batteries that it took. It was also popular due to its rugged hardware and the burgeoning popularity of Tetris and other compatible games. For reference, after its release in Japan, on April 21st, 1989, it managed to sell out all 300,000 stock units within two weeks. When it was released in the United States on July 31st, 1989, it sold 40,000 units that very day.
Although rechargeable batteries were still in their infancy, the Game Boy contained an adapter port which would allow the user to run the Game Boy off of an external rechargeable battery pack or an AC adapter, instead of the AA batteries.
A useful feature of the Game Boy was that its power switch included a physical lockout, which prevented users from putting in or removing a cartridge while the device was powered on.
Early "multiplayer" features were through a port on the side of the Game Boy, to which a link cable could be connected, allowing players to go head-to-head in Tetris, and later as the very first multiplayer features in the Pokemon games. Naturally, given that wifi did not exist in that era, and that the link cable was a finite length, this meant that, in order to participate in multiplayer modes, you needed to physically be in the same room as the person you were playing with.
Over all, nobody can deny that the Game Boy was a major success, and Nintendo's second foray into the realm of handheld consoles would lead to many later successes. Although the Game Boy was, in some ways, technologically inferior to its contemporaries, it fulfilled its purpose thanks to Nintendo having a clear strategy and having user friendly features where it counted. At the time, features like color screens and being able to link up to 15 other consoles at once were considered luxury features, and the Game Boy's success came from not splurging on luxuries at the expense of battery life or durability.
Here are some questions to consider to get conversation rolling. You don't have to answer all of them or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic and within global forum rules.
- Do you like or dislike the Game Boy? Why?
- How do you think the Game Boy compares to its contemporary handheld consoles?
- How does the Game Boy compare to modern handheld consoles?
- Did you ever own a Game Boy or any of the Game Boy family consoles?
- If you could add one feature to the Game Boy, what would it have been?
- What was your favorite Game Boy Game?
- What is your fondest memory of the Game Boy?
- Would you be interested in seeing more threads like this in VGT?
- What other topics would you like to see discussed in this segment?
Surprise me.
