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Gameboy 25th Anniversary Thread - April 21

This little fella hasn't seen any power since the 90s.

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He lives!!!
 
I just caved in and bought an original Gameboy off Ebay for £30 in mint condition (just the console). Also picked up Tetris (obviously!) and Pokemon yellow with a new battery installed (even though i've never played a Pokemon game before).

Can't wait for it to arrive, like being a kid at Christmas again!

Bravo on choosing Yellow as your first Pokemon game. Enjoy.
 
I got the brick for Christmas '95, being 4 It was my first game console. I got wario land and Star Wars it was awesome. I unfortunately traded it in for a green GBC, but what did I know, I was a stupid kid who had no appreciation for the OG when the new hotness came out. Hell of a system, and I wish the name was still around, as several people I know still call the 3DS/DS gameboys. Hell of a name, its like throwing away iPod, or walkman, a goddamn icon thrown away by that canadian pizza man doofus.
 
I purchased my original grey brick Game Boy in September of 1989 (or there-abouts); it came with Tetris, of course, and I picked up Qix and Super Mario Land the same day... Stand out games for me in the first year included Batman and Solar Striker, and I've been playing the system in one incarnation or another ever since...

Here are a couple pics of my Game Boy shelves from my handheld collection (full collection pictured in this thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559062)

The Game Boy shelf: There are the Play It Loud colors of the original GB along the left and there are a couple GB Pockets (one MiB), a Game Boy Light with all original packaging, and a couple Game Boy Colors... There are also a pair of Pokemon Mini systems - these things are the smallest cartridge-based handhelds I've ever seen, and are really very cool.

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And this shelf has a few Nintendo Game & Watch systems along with a handful of Game Boy Advance stuff, including three Game Boy Micros...

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The system revolutionized gaming, there's no doubt, and I couldn't possibly count the number of hours I've spent in the company of a Nintendo handheld in the past 25 years. More time than with any other system, I'm sure... And like so many of us I'm still playing my Game Boys today. In fact, in the last three days I've picked up three Game Boy games for the collection: a copy of Qix (GB - only $2 at Sally Anne so isnta-buy), Fire Emblem (GBA w/ box & instructions) and Final Fantasy VI (GBA, sealed).
 
I just caved in and bought an original Gameboy off Ebay for £30 in mint condition (just the console). Also picked up Tetris (obviously!) and Pokemon yellow with a new battery installed (even though i've never played a Pokemon game before).

Can't wait for it to arrive, like being a kid at Christmas again!
That is awesome, I almost feel like doing the same thing.
 
I can't for the life of me remember what happened to my old DMG Game Boy, it's the only gaming hardware I've had that just disappeared under circumstances I can't recall. Though the I had a Pocket by then so there was no gap in GB ownership.

My library wasn't all that special, but Pokémon really gave it some extended life for myself and friends.
 
No headphone jack means inferior sound, though. so don't forget this:


Yeah, using a headphones dongle is probably the worst thing about the SP. Really stupid omission from Nintendo. What did they save, a couple cents per unit by not including a headphone jack? But I had no problem using one. It was a trade off though, your options were either a back lit light or a headphone jack, and I would take an easier to see screen every time.

Out of the original Gameboy line, I have owned a Super Game Boy, the Game Boy Color which I loved for games like Metal Gear Solid and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, and the Game Boy Advance SP. I never owned the original GBA because of the lack of a back light, and my sister had the original Game Boy way back in the day. Though I actually owned a Sega Game Gear instead.
 
Happy days. Tetris, Super Mario Land, Solar Striker... I remember the early days of the GB very fondly.

I'll share this since the statute of limitations on scans seems to have passed in this thread?

This is the first time I saw the Gameboy, a scan from the console section of Zero which was an awesome UK gaming magazine (issue 3 page 60 to be exact).

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I can remember reading this page like it was yesterday. Ironically not specifically for the Gameboy itself (though the concept of a cheap portable 'console' was pretty exciting)... being an Atari ST fan, I was more interested in the Atari portable mentioned at the bottom, and it always confused me that they would put an awesome sounding Atari machine in a little box in the corner while dedicating a page to a crappier looking Nintendo (remember, this was the UK). As an aside, apparently I wasn't too clear on what a "hand job" was at the time because I'm laughing at it now. Anyway, the year after this was printed (December 1989?) the GameBoy had launched and taken everyone by storm. So I skipped on the Lynx (thankfully, though a friend had one) and grabbed a GameBoy.

That GameBoy was the reason that so many of my fellow students failed miserably at school. Time for science class? Nope, that was Tetris time. That thing followed me EVERYWHERE. If you're in the UK and love Nintendo games there's a good chance the GB is why. Everyone I know actually bought an NES AFTER the GB because Nintendo had very little presence in the UK. My fond memories of "NES" games are actually probably just games I knew from playing on the GB.

Sadly I hung it up years before Pokemon etc. It took quite a beating through my high school years, and I eventually busted the screen getting mad at Mystic Quest (known in the US as Final Fantasy Adventure and of course also known as the first Mana game) by which point I was an asshole in my late teens that was too grown up for handhelds. I skipped the whole GBC generation and jumped back in with the GBA.

I can't believe it's been 25 years. For what it's worth, kudos to Nintendo for making it this far.
 
Tetris and Ducktales. Good times.
I think I lost the original though, but got the red Pocket much later.

I remember some of the games I had: Tetris Blast, Yoshi's Cookie, Kirby's Pinball, Kirby's Super Star Stacker, Game & Watch Gallery 1 and 2, and more.

And then there was Pokemon Red. Oh my god, this game. THIS GAME!
 
My first experience with an original gameboy was around the time the gameboy color first came out. My friend had both Pokemon Red and Pokemon Yellow, he was currently playing his copy of Red (on his new gbc) and let me borrow his old gameboy and copy of Yellow. I ended up getting really far and it was close to my birthday. I decided to ask for a Gameboy Color and a new copy of Pokemon Yellow that I could give him in place of the other I had been playing. The rest is history. SP has and will always be the ultimate Gameboy system to me. I just loved being able to play literally any of the 1000s of titles available across GB/GBC/GBA.
 
Gosh, I love looking at all the boxart. Classic stuff, and sometimes, the box (+manual) is the best thing about the game, like in Alleyway's case, haha. Kinda regret that I didn't keep the boxes, and I probably should stop thinking about it asap.
 
Gosh, I love looking at all the boxart. Classic stuff, and sometimes, the box (+manual) is the best thing about the game, like in Alleyway's case, haha. Kinda regret that I didn't keep the boxes, and I probably should stop thinking about it asap.

did you see the box art for alleyway in Japan? totally different. its in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6qfcaO_3_g 30 secconds in

I love seeing the JP stuff, for some reason it looks amazing. I think its because its old memories you had but with a new twist.


I'm sure this will bring back a ton of memories for gamers from Europe. :)
...

Thanks for posting these!
 
did you see the box art for alleyway in Japan? totally different. its in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6qfcaO_3_g 30 secconds in

I love seeing the JP stuff, for some reason it looks amazing. I think its because its old memories you had but with a new twist.

Thanks, hadn't seen that one. Japan had pretty awesome boxart back then, but Alleyway (and GB/GBC in general) might be a rare case where I prefer the one(s) we got. Less generic (re: Alleyway), and the colouring is really neat.

Another example is Link's Awakening. The JP cover is awful, imo:

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(and the DX cover is almost worse)
 
I got one for XMAS in 2nd grade.

Popped in Tetris, thought I was doing pretty well, and then I lost a line.

Lousy game, stealing my work!

Then I read the instruction manual.
 
Thanks, hadn't seen that one. Japan had pretty awesome boxart back then, but Alleyway (and GB/GBC in general) might be a rare case where I prefer the one(s) we got. Less generic (re: Alleyway), and the colouring is really neat.

Another example is Link's Awakening. The JP cover is awful, imo:

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(and the DX cover is almost worse)

ha ha ha, YES! thats very cheep anime, you can already tell what the cartoon would be like
 
Wow, it's Ryan Davis as Malon! (or whatever his name is)

I didn't have a Game Boy growing up, but I remember intensely wanting a Game Boy Pocket when they came out. I have no idea why. I have no nostalgia for the Game Boy or GBC (though plenty for the GBA, I love that thing), but I still kinda want one... Would it be wiser to get the Game Boy Color over the GBP? Are the size and dimensions roughly equal?
 
I grew up with a Game Gear, it had some amazing games (tails adventure!) but I was always jealous of the GameBoys library...

I remember borrowing a Game Gear for a few weeks and thinking it looked amazing. Unfortunately the battery life was shite.
 
I remember borrowing a Game Gear for a few weeks and thinking it looked amazing. Unfortunately the battery life was shite.
I'd always just use the ac or car adapter, I thought of it more as a portable console than a handheld. But when I got a GBA on launch day I realized all that time that I'd have rather had the portability over the better hardware.
 
I said this in the other thread, but Jesus Christ my early experiences with the Game Boy were shit compared to everyone else's.

I couldn't even acquire my own Game Boy until around 1993 or 94 even though I'd been watching other kids play theirs much earlier. And even after that I was stuck with the same handful of games for like four years:

-Yoshi
-A port of Pac-Man
-A port of Killer Instinct
-Some Tom & Jerry game
-TMNT II Back From The Sewers

I think I finally got my own copy of Super Mario Land in like 1997. I probably didn't get a copy of Land 2 until after Pokemon had come out. Didn't even play Link's Awakening until DX came out. Tetris? I first played the Game Boy version when it came out on Virtual Console in 2011. The same goes for nearly every pre-1998 Game Boy game that was worth a damn.

I spent all my early years of Game Boy playing the shit out of the five games listed above. And I did it because what the fuck other handheld games were there to play while in a car or outside or something? The Game Gear was a viable alternative for like two years, and even then only when plugged into a wall because I was never able to get the extra power brick for it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that in my experience, handheld gaming was boring as shit prior to 1998.
 
I had the original model, but I cannot for the life of me remember how I got it, I was too young I guess. Sadly, I had to leave that one behind. I spent the next two years without a handheld/console of any kind.
My game boy pocket I got for Christmas, It was a DK Land 2 bundle and I played the hell out of it.
A year later the Game Boy Color was released and I clearly remember my mom saying to me : " You got one last year. You don't need another". It's funny now to remember how I kept asking her for one.
 
I remember fondly when I first received my Game Boy on my 5th birthday in '93. My parents gave me the system and Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and from that moment I was hooked (it should be noted that now, almost 25 years later, Link's Awakening is still my favorite Zelda title). Growing up my family didn't have a ton money with my father being a local business owner and my mom raising 3 kids on her own, so when I was given the chance to get a new video game, it was usually a Game Boy game since they were significantly cheaper than purchasing an NES or SNES game, and I've not only collected some of my fondest memories of video games from the Game Boy, but it really shaped me into the kind of games I enjoy today, and that clearly shows with how much I enjoy all handhelds.

My greatest memories come Super Mario Land, playing Link's Awakening with my mother during late night sessions, Dragon Warrior Monsters (still probably my favorite hand held game of all time), getting Pokemon Red & Blue, Gold & Silver, and the list can go on and on. Adventure Island II was always a quick favorite of mine as well, and even recently I decided to go back and pick up a Game Boy Color to be able to replay some of my favorite games from my childhood.

The Game Boy will always hold a dear place in my heart and most of the games I remember well I know I'll always be able to go back to for quick pick up and play sessions. Sounds like now is as good a time as ever to replay through Link's Awakening one more time.
 
I don't know how, but I lost my original Gameboy and games from childhood. I've since inherited my older cousin's old OG Gameboy with a few games. Since it's as good a time as any I tried to take a crack at removing the corroded contacts in the battery compartment and while I didn't get it anywhere near nice I slid in a cart only to hear a crunch from the cart slot...where the corroded shit had leaked to.

Oh well, at least I have the bland Nintendo space shooter Solar Striker and a copy of Tetris that might be salvageable although it looks like it's been through the wash and baked in the sun.

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Anyway, since I started a new job I decided to buy this today (。◕‿◕。)


Happy Birthday Gameboy!
 
^Now print it out!

I always wanted that camera as a kid, but never pursued it hard enough.
Print it out and scan it, upload the picture so we can see it here!
I'm pretty sure I still have the printer somewhere, but it wasn't with the other stuff. That thing was kind of a pain with all the AA's it took and the sticker paper it used faded pretty badly over time. For some old middle school pictures I wanted to save, I actually put the camera in my GBA and stuck that in a scanner! I think the quality of those screen scans came out way better than scanning the printer paper would have. The GBA's reflective screen worked pretty well there. I don't have a working scanner now to do that again though...
 
Such memories. Back in the day (I live in NZ) the Game Boy wasn't something people locally were even aware of. Thanks to C&VG, I'd been following the system since it was revealed and released in Japan, so I was extremely jealous of a lad in the basketball team that happened to be on a trip to the US just as the system released there and managed to snag one (with a bunch of great games) only to return to school and lord it over the rest of us. Amazingly, however, he got sick of it fairly quickly, and I convinced him to sell it to me (for an outlandish sum, which I paid off over two months or so) and my love affair with portable gaming began anew (previously I had been hooked on Game & Watch.)

Such a great system! I'd love to get one of those Famitsu Lights but at $800+ that's likely permanently out of reach, sadly. Still, I've got a bunch of different types now, so no complaints here :D

What I wouldn't give for some sort of (Ball-style, if necessary) re-release by Nintendo to celebrate the anniversary! Would pay many dollars for such a thing.
 
It is probably the best portable ever made and the handheld device of any kid and any teenager during the late 80's, the 90's the early 00's.

A system that lasted more than anyone else in the memories and that probably best described the success of Nintendo.

I wish these times would come again - but everything changed.
 
I figure the folks posting in this thread would be among the few to be interested in this – I kicked off a hobby site focused on chronicling the Game Boy's library yesterday. I'm taking it one game at a time with both text and video for each game (though I imagine I'll have more to say about something like Super Mario Land 2 than Sokouban clone #73). First article and video (Alleyway) are up, with more to come as free time allows:

http://www.gameboyworld.com/2014/04/21/alleyway-2/

I hope you'll forgive the rough video quality. I was teaching myself how to use Adobe Premiere as I made this, and the end result was clumsier than I would have liked. Future videos will be more polished, though the narration will probably never stop coming across as a cut-rate Chrontendo knockoff.

I figure to be done with this venture sometime around the system's 50th anniversary.
 
Sweet, sweet memories.
Got a dark green Pocket for Christmas when I was 6 along with a new flaming N64. That was the beginning of my gaming "career". And I bet my parents will never stop cursing that Christmas for the rest of their lives.

However, I clearly remember that a friend of mine got a GB game starring a knight in a castle and I've never figured out which game that was. Even him doesn't remember it...Darn.
Could someone help me? xD
 
On the one end, I'm tempted to go out and find a Game Boy Pocket. But on the other hand, I realize my physical collection of non-color Game Boy games sucks outside of Gen 1 Pokemon.

By far my best collection of Game Boy games right now is on my 3DS. And it's probably going to remain that way since Virtual Console prices for Game Boy games are actually the best prices in most cases.

Are there any hidden gems that aren't on VC yet?
 
Happy 25th.

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What the hell? Not only is that score stupidly low but I have no memory of city scenes and Russian dancers. That said I didn't play Type-B very often.

Anyway I loved my Gameboy and think there's a definite charm to the system due to it's inbuilt limitations, that's not purely nostalgia speaking either because I played For the Frog the Bell Tolls a couple of years ago and loved it.
 
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