134-594: The Game Boy Color ( GBC or CGB ) is an 8-bit handheld game console , manufactured by Nintendo , which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy , the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen rather than monochrome , a processor that can operate twice as fast, and four times as much memory. It retains backward compatibility with games initially developed for its predecessor. While
268-472: A Game Boy Printer . The port used on the Game Boy Color is of a smaller design first introduced on the Game Boy Pocket, and requires an adapter to link with the original Game Boy. The Game Boy Color also offered a "high-speed" mode that could operate up 64 times faster than the original Game Boy. The Game Boy Color added an infrared communications port for wireless data transfer, which was supported by
402-482: A bullet train , saw a bored businessman playing with an LCD calculator by pressing the buttons. Yokoi then thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time. Starting in 1980, Nintendo began to release a series of electronic games designed by Yokoi called the Game & Watch games. Taking advantage of the technology used in the credit-card-sized calculators that had appeared on
536-413: A touchscreen was the Game.com released by Tiger Electronics in 1997. The Nintendo DS , released in 2004, introduced touchscreen controls and wireless online gaming to a wider audience, becoming the best-selling handheld console with over 150 million units sold worldwide. This table describes handheld games consoles by generation, with over 1 million sales. No handheld achieved this prior to
670-411: A "unique" and "previously unheard of" line of successful third-party games, including Dragon Warrior Monsters , Metal Gear Solid and Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories . Ashley Day of Retro Gamer noted that the handheld 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
804-727: A 16-bit bus. The SM83 is a hybrid between two other 8-bit processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80 . The SM83 has the seven 8-bit registers of the 8080 (compared to 14 on the Z80), but uses the Z80's programming syntax and extra bit manipulation instructions. Like the Game Boy Color, the SM83 in the Advance could be commanded to operate at either 4.194304 MHz when playing games compatible with
938-646: A Pokémon Center sticker on the back), Celebi edition (olive green with Celebi images on bezel), and Latias/Latios edition (pink/red and purple, with images of Latias and Latios on bezel). With hardware performance comparable to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System , the Game Boy Advance represents progress for sprite -based technology. The system's library includes platformers, SNES-like role-playing video games , and games ported from various 8-bit and 16-bit systems of
1072-561: A USB cable from a PC. The GP32 was redesigned in 2003. A front-lit screen was added and the new version was called GP32 FLU (Front Light Unit). In summer 2004, another redesign, the GP32 BLU, was made, and added a backlit screen. This version of the handheld was planned for release outside South Korea; in Europe, and it was released for example in Spain (VirginPlay was the distributor). While not
1206-602: A backlit screen was released in some regions around the same time. Along with the GameCube , the GBA also introduced the concept of "connectivity": using a handheld system as a console controller. A handful of games use this feature, most notably Animal Crossing , Pac-Man Vs. , Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles , The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures , The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker , Metroid Prime , and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle . As of December 31, 2007,
1340-578: A budget-friendly alternative. The last units were reportedly sold by March 2003. The Game Boy Color uses a custom system on a chip (SoC), integrating the CPU and other major components into a single package, named the CPU ;CGB by Nintendo and manufactured by the Sharp Corporation . While the CPU CGB was a new design for the Game Boy Color, the technology inside was largely an evolution of
1474-598: A calculator, using LED (light-emitting diode) technology." The result was the 1976 release of Auto Race . Followed by Football later in 1977, the two games were so successful that according to Katz, "these simple electronic handheld games turned into a '$ 400 million category.'" Mattel would later win the honor of being recognized by the industry for innovation in handheld game device displays. Soon, other manufacturers including Coleco , Parker Brothers , Milton Bradley , Entex , and Bandai began following up with their own tabletop and handheld electronic games. In 1979
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#17327650192161608-421: A color Game Boy only when technology addressed the limitations of existing color handhelds. Internally, however, a team led by Satoru Okada , who played a key role in the original Game Boy's design, was already experimenting with color displays. Their early-1990s prototype, codenamed "Project Atlantis," featured a color screen and a powerful 32-bit processor designed by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM). The team
1742-531: A color screen and a powerful 32-bit processor from Sharp. However, the team was not satisfied with the outcome and shelved further development. Despite the lack of color, consumer interest in the Game Boy remained strong. In 1996, Nintendo released the slimmer Game Boy Pocket and the launch of the Pokémon series that same year further boosted sales. But developers were losing interest in creating new games for
1876-590: A commercial success on a level with mainstream handhelds (only 30,000 units were sold), it ended up being used mainly as a platform for user-made applications and emulators of other systems, being popular with developers and more technically adept users. Nokia released the N-Gage in 2003. It was designed as a combination MP3 player, cellphone, PDA, radio, and gaming device. The system received much criticism alleging defects in its physical design and layout, including its vertically oriented screen and requirement of removing
2010-497: A cost-cutting move rather than hard plastic cases that Japanese and European releases were shipped in may have also hurt US sales. The WonderSwan Color is a handheld game console designed by Bandai . It was released on December 9, 2000, in Japan, Although the WonderSwan Color was slightly larger and heavier (7 mm and 2 g) compared to the original WonderSwan, the color version featured 512 KB of RAM and
2144-471: A dearth of compelling games, and Nintendo's aggressive marketing campaign, and despite a redesign in 1991, the Lynx became a commercial failure . Despite this, companies like Telegames helped to keep the system alive long past its commercial relevance, and when new owner Hasbro released the rights to develop for the public domain, independent developers like Songbird have managed to release new commercial games for
2278-655: A flight simulator, included a "head-to-head" dogfight mode that can only be accessed via TurboLink. However, very few TG-16 games offered co-op play modes especially designed with the TurboExpress in mind. The Bitcorp Gamate is one of the first handheld game systems created in response to the Nintendo Game Boy. It was released in Asia in 1990 and distributed worldwide by 1991. Like the Sega Game Gear, it
2412-516: A handheld device. Like all processors using the ARM architecture , the ARM7TDMI uses a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) design with sixteen 32-bit registers . Although the console was marketed as a 32-bit system, to reduce costs, Nintendo mixed 16-bit and 32-bit buses between the different modules within the CPU AGB. As a result, the majority of the console's memory is only accessible through
2546-463: A laptop computer), as well as a frontlit color display and rechargeable battery. Despite the smaller form factor, the screen remained the same size as that of the original. In 2005, the Game Boy Micro was released. This revision sacrifices screen size and backwards compatibility with previous Game Boys for a dramatic reduction in total size and a brighter backlit screen. A new SP model with
2680-475: A larger color LCD screen. In addition, the WonderSwan Color is compatible with the original WonderSwan library of games. Prior to WonderSwan's release, Nintendo had virtually a monopoly in the Japanese video game handheld market. After the release of the WonderSwan Color, Bandai took approximately 8% of the market share in Japan partly due to its low price of 6800 yen (approximately US$ 65). Another reason for
2814-468: A limited color palette (often dark green) using four to ten colors to enhance games originally intended to be presented in four shades of gray. Many games were programmed to call for a default color palette. For games without a default, users can choose from 12 different palettes using button combinations. A dedicated palette option replicates the original Game Boy's grayscale experience. Color enhanced Game Boy Game Pak (Black Case): These cartridges can use
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#17327650192162948-473: A lot of CPU resources. For sound, the Game Boy Advance features two PCM sample player channels, which work in combination with the Audio Processing Unit (APU), a programmable sound generator first used by the legacy Game Boy. The APU has four channels: a pulse wave generation channel with frequency and volume variation, a second pulse wave generation channel with only volume variation,
3082-490: A lot of power, they were not battery-friendly like the non-backlit original Game Boy whose monochrome graphics allowed longer battery life. By this point, rechargeable battery technology had not yet matured and so the more advanced game consoles of the time such as the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx did not have nearly as much success as the Game Boy. Even though third-party rechargeable batteries were available for
3216-432: A lower budget." ROM hacks , fan games, and Homebrew games are developed for the GBA. Nintendo hoped to sell 1.1 million Game Boy Advance units by the end of March with the system's Japanese debut, and anticipated sales of 24 million units before the end of 2001; many marketing analysts believed this to be a realistic goal due to the company's lack of major competition in the handheld video game market. Within
3350-444: A major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors. As of March 31, 2005, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined to sell 118.69 million units worldwide. The console is capable of displaying up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768, and can add basic four-color shading to games that had been developed for
3484-570: A major leap in innovation, particularly in the second half with the release of the DS and PSP . In 2001, Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance (GBA or AGB), which added two shoulder buttons, a larger screen, and more computing power than the Game Boy Color. The design was revised two years later when the Game Boy Advance SP (GBA SP), a more compact version, was released. The SP features a " clamshell " design (folding open and closed, like
3618-600: A million units were sold in the US. As of March 31, 2005, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined to sell over 118 million units worldwide. In 1987, Epyx created the Handy Game; a device that would become the Atari Lynx in 1989. It is the first color handheld console ever made, as well as the first with a backlit screen. It also features networking support with up to 17 other players, and advanced hardware that allows
3752-490: A much higher resolution, and can display 64 sprites at once, 16 per scanline, in 512 colors. Although the hardware can only handle 481 simultaneous colors. It has 8 kilobytes of RAM . The Turbo runs the HuC6820 CPU at 1.79 or 7.16 MHz . The optional "TurboVision" TV tuner includes RCA audio/video input, allowing users to use TurboExpress as a video monitor. The "TurboLink" allowed two-player play. Falcon ,
3886-421: A new form-factor for the handheld, known as the Game Boy Advance SP (model AGS-001). The redesigned unit features a clamshell design that resembles a pocket-size laptop computer, including a folding case approximately one-half the size of the original unit. It has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery , a significantly brighter LCD screen, and an internal front-light that can be toggled on and off. The redesign
4020-487: A quicker launch and maintain compatibility with the existing library of Game Boy games. The Game Boy Color was announced in March 1998 and released in Japan that October. It received an international rollout throughout November (amid the busy Christmas holiday shopping season), reaching North America on the 18th, Europe on the 23rd, and Australasia on the 27th. Launching at a price of US$ 79.95 (equivalent to $ 150 in 2023),
4154-563: A second redesign of the Game Boy Advance. This model, dubbed the Game Boy Micro, is similar in style to the original Game Boy Advance's horizontal orientation, but is much smaller and sleeker. The Game Boy Micro allows the user to switch between several colored faceplates to allow customization, a feature which Nintendo advertised heavily around the Game Boy Micro's launch. Nintendo also hoped that this "fashion" feature would help target audiences outside of typical video game players. Unlike
Game Boy Color - Misplaced Pages Continue
4288-430: A small number of games; the infrared port was not included on the later Game Boy Advance line. Games are stored on cartridges called Game Boy Game Paks , using read-only memory (ROM) chips. Initially, due to the limitations of the 8-bit architecture of the device, ROM size was limited to 32 KB. Nintendo overcame this limitation with a Memory Bank Controller (MBC) inside the cartridge. This chip sits between
4422-553: A stir, with investors dumping Nintendo stock, forcing a temporary halt on trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Yokoi was killed in a roadside accident in 1997 before the WonderSwan's release. Faced with mounting pressure, Okada revisited Project Atlantis. Prioritizing speed to market over processing power, he dropped the 32-bit chip for a faster version of the existing Game Boy's 8-bit processor that would allow for
4556-596: A successor to the Game Boy Color, with news of the project emerging at the Space World trade show in late August 1999. The project, codenamed the Advanced Game Boy (AGB), would bring the 32-bit processing power envisioned in Project Atlantis to market. Nintendo officially announced the Game Boy Advance on September 1, 1999, revealing details about the system's specifications and teasing that
4690-534: A touch screen and stylus. However, Tiger hoped it would also challenge Nintendo's Game Boy and gain a following among younger gamers too. Unlike other handheld game consoles, the first game.com consoles included two slots for game cartridges, which would not happen again until the Tapwave Zodiac, the DS and DS Lite, and could be connected to a 14.4 kbit/s modem. Later models had only a single cartridge slot. The Game Boy Color (also referred to as GBC or CGB)
4824-499: A variety of video displays such as LED , VFD , or LCD . In 1978, handheld electronic games were described by Popular Electronics magazine as "nonvideo electronic games" and "non-TV games" as distinct from devices that required use of a television screen. Handheld electronic games, in turn, find their origins in the synthesis of previous handheld and tabletop electro-mechanical devices such as Waco 's Electronic Tic-Tac-Toe (1972) Cragstan's Periscope-Firing Range (1951), and
4958-451: A wave channel that can reproduce any waveform recorded in RAM, and a white noise channel with volume variation. The Game Boy Advance features a D-pad (directional pad) and six action buttons labeled 'A,' 'B,' 'L,' 'R,' 'SELECT,' and 'START.' The top of the console has a link port that allows it to be connected to other Game Boy devices using a Game Link Cable or a Wireless Adapter , or
5092-519: Is 240 pixels wide by 160 pixels high in a 3:2 aspect ratio . Foreground objects are sprites with up to 128 per frame, sized from 8×8 to 64×64 pixels, and with 16 or 256 colors. Backgrounds can be rendered in one of six different modes. The first three are the "character modes," which use traditional tile map graphics: Mode 0 offers four static layers, Mode 1 has three layers with one affine transformation layer (which can be rotated and/or scaled), and Mode 2 has two affine layers. The other three are
5226-589: Is Nintendo's successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998, in Japan and in November of the same year in the United States. It features a color screen, and is slightly bigger than the Game Boy Pocket . The processor is twice as fast as a Game Boy's and has twice as much memory. It also had an infrared communications port for wireless linking which did not appear in later versions of
5360-406: Is a 2.3-inch (diagonal) thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid-crystal display (LCD), measuring 44 millimeters (1.7 in) wide by 40 millimeters (1.6 in) high. The screen aspect ratio and resolution remain identical to the original Game Boy at 160 pixels wide by 144 pixels high in a 10:9 format. Like the original Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket before it and the Game Boy Advance after it,
5494-573: Is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color . It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2001, and in mainland China as iQue Game Boy Advance on June 8, 2004. The GBA is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles . The original model
Game Boy Color - Misplaced Pages Continue
5628-401: Is a redesigned version of the original Game Boy having the same features. It was released in 1996. Notably, this variation is smaller and lighter. It comes in seven different colors; red, yellow, green, black, clear, silver, blue, and pink. It has space for two AAA batteries , which provide approximately 10 hours of game play. The screen was changed to a true black-and-white display, rather than
5762-524: Is essentially a basic GPU that renders visuals using 96 kilobyte (KB) of Video RAM located inside the CPU CGB. Inside the PPU itself is 1 KB of object attribute memory and 1 KB of palette RAM, which are optimized for fast rendering. The display itself is a 2.9-inch (diagonal) thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid-crystal display (LCD), measuring 61.2 millimeters (2.41 in) wide by 40.8 millimeters (1.61 in) high. The screen
5896-417: Is the best-selling game compatible with Game Boy Color, and Pokémon Gold and Silver are the best-selling games developed primarily for it. The best-selling Game Boy Color exclusive game is Pokémon Crystal . The last Game Boy Color game ever released is the Japanese exclusive Doraemon no Study Boy: Kanji Yomikaki Master , on July 18, 2003. The last game released in North America is Harry Potter and
6030-704: Is the final first-party-developed game for the system, released on August 3, 2006. An add-on for the GameCube , known as the Game Boy Player , was released in 2003 as the successor to the Super Game Boy peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . This add-on allows Game Boy Advance, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color games to be played on the GameCube. However, some games may have compatibility issues due to certain features requiring extra hardware; for instance, WarioWare: Twisted! would require
6164-670: The ARM7TDMI running at a clock rate of 16.78 megahertz (MHz) for Game Boy Advance games and the Sharp SM83 running at either 4.194304 MHz or 8.388608 MHz for backward compatibility with Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. As such, the console has two operating modes: GBA mode using the ARM7TDMI and the backward-compatible CGB mode using the SM83. The ARM7TDMI is a 32-bit processor developed by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) that maximizes performance under power and storage constraints, making it more suitable for use in
6298-436: The Audio Processing Unit , a programmable sound generator with four channels: a pulse wave generation channel with frequency and volume variation, a second pulse wave generation channel with only volume variation, a wave channel than can reproduce any waveform recorded in RAM, and a white noise channel with volume variation. The motherboard of the Game Boy Color contains a 32 KB "work" RAM chip, four times more than
6432-565: The Expansion Pack tier. For the first time, players are able to play multiplayer games in their emulated form, online. This application emulates the Game Boy Player , meaning that games that support GameCube controller rumble work with the vibration of the Switch controllers. Nintendo released various addons for the Game Boy Advance, which include: Other accessories for the Game Boy Advance include: In early 2003, Nintendo introduced
6566-556: The GP2X , use standard alkaline batteries . Because the mAh rating of alkaline batteries has increased since the 1990s, the power needed for handhelds like the GP2X may be supplied by relatively few batteries. Nintendo released the Game Boy on April 21, 1989 (September 1990 for the UK). The design team headed by Gunpei Yokoi had also been responsible for the Game & Watch system, as well as
6700-1284: The GameCube home console with a special GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable . The Game Boy Advance was available in numerous colors and limited editions throughout its production. It was initially available in Arctic, Black, Orange (Japan Only), Fuchsia (translucent pink), Glacier (translucent blue), and Indigo. Later in the system's lifespan, additional colors and special editions were released, including: Red, Clear Orange/Black, Platinum, White, Gold (Japan Only), Hello Kitty edition (pink with Hello Kitty and logo on bezel ), The King of Fighters edition (black with images on bezel and buttons), Chobits edition (translucent light blue, with images on bezel and buttons), Battle Network Rockman EXE 2 (light blue with images on bezel), Mario Bros. edition (Glacier with Mario and Luigi on bezel), and Yomiuri Giants edition (Glacier with images on bezel). Several Pokémon -themed limited-edition systems were made available in Pokémon Center stores in Japan. These editions include: Gold Pokémon edition (Gold with Pikachu and Pichu on bezel), Suicune edition (blue/grey with greyscale Pikachu and Pichu on bezel, and
6834-735: The Master System , which gave Sega the ability to quickly create Game Gear games from its large library of games for the Master System. While never reaching the level of success enjoyed by Nintendo, the Game Gear proved to be a fairly durable competitor, lasting longer than any other Game Boy rivals. While the Game Gear is most frequently seen in black or navy blue, it was also released in a variety of additional colors: red, light blue, yellow, clear, and violet. All of these variations were released in small quantities and frequently only in
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#17327650192166968-579: The Nintendo Entertainment System games Metroid and Kid Icarus . The Game Boy came under scrutiny by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi , saying that the monochrome screen was too small, and the processing power was inadequate. The design team had felt that low initial cost and battery economy were more important concerns, and when compared to the Microvision, the Game Boy was a huge leap forward. Yokoi recognized that
7102-526: The PlayStation 2 's previous record of 20,000 units. In 2004, the system's sales in the United Kingdom surpassed one million units. On December 1, 2006, Nintendo of America released launch-to-date information indicating that the company had sold 33.6 million units of the Game Boy Advance series in the United States. In a Kotaku article published on January 18, 2008, Nintendo revealed that
7236-552: The Wii U 's Virtual Console in April 2014. The first set of GBA games, including Advance Wars , Metroid Fusion , and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga , were released on April 3, 2014. All Virtual Console releases are single-player only, as they do not emulate multiplayer features enabled by Game Link cables. In February 2023, Nintendo added Game Boy Advance games to its Nintendo Switch Online service, exclusively to those with
7370-702: The best selling-video games of all time . Sales of the Game Boy Color were strong at launch. Nintendo of America reported a sale of one million units from launch to December 1998, and two million by July 1999. Retail chains in the United States reported unexpectedly high demand for the console, with executives of FuncoLand reporting "very pleasant and unpredicted" sales and Electronics Boutique stating "the entire Game Boy Color line just exploded, including accessories" upon release. Faced with high worldwide demand and competitive retail pricing, retailers such as CompUSA sold out of Game Boy Color stock in
7504-483: The best-selling game console of all time . In later years, its sales were surpassed by the Nintendo DS , PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Switch , making it the fourth-best-selling console the second-best-selling handheld of all time, as of 2024. Sales of the device were in part driven by the success of Pokémon Gold and Silver and Pokémon Crystal , with combined sales of 29.5 million units, making them one of
7638-481: The "bitmap modes" which allow for rendering 3D geometry : Mode 3 has a single full-sized, fully-colored (32,768 colors) frame, Mode 4 provides two full-sized frames with 256 colors each, and Mode 5 provides two half-sized (160×128 pixels), fully-colored frames. Having two bitmaps allows "page-flipping" to avoid the artifacts that can sometimes appear when re-drawing a bitmap. While the bitmap modes were considered cutting-edge, most games avoided using them because they cost
7772-414: The "pea soup" monochromatic display of the original Game Boy. Although, like its predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket has no backlight to allow play in a darkened area, it did notably improve visibility and pixel response-time (mostly eliminating ghosting ). The first model of the Game Boy Pocket did not have an LED to show battery levels, but the feature was added due to public demand. The Game Boy Pocket
7906-506: The "portrait" form factor (designed by Gunpei Yokoi ), the Game Boy Advance has a "landscape" form factor, putting the buttons to the sides of the device instead of below the screen. It was designed by the French designer Gwénaël Nicolas and his Tokyo-based design studio Curiosity Inc. Nintendo revealed the Game Boy Advance to the public on August 24, 2000, along with the Japanese and North American launch dates and 10 launch games . The GBA
8040-454: The Asian market, possibly as late as 1994. The total number of games released for the system remains unknown. Gamate games were designed for stereo sound, but the console is only equipped with a mono speaker. The Game Gear is the third color handheld console, after the Lynx and the TurboExpress; produced by Sega. Released in Japan in 1990 and in North America and Europe in 1991, it is based on
8174-399: The Asian market. Following Sega's success with the Game Gear, they began development on a successor during the early 1990s, which was intended to feature a touchscreen interface, many years before the Nintendo DS . However, such a technology was very expensive at the time, and the handheld itself was estimated to have cost around $ 289 were it to be released. Sega eventually chose to shelve
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#17327650192168308-460: The Chamber of Secrets , released on November 15, 2002. In Europe, the last game released for the system is Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! , on January 10, 2003. Beyond officially released games for the platform, there is an active online community creating new games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color through the use of tools like GB Studio. One such example is Dragonhym (originally Dragonborne) which
8442-498: The Color in several case variations. The logo for Game Boy Color spells out the word "COLOR" in the five original colors in which the unit was manufactured: Berry (C), Grape (O), Kiwi (L), Dandelion (O), and Teal (R). Another color released at the same time was "Atomic Purple", made of a translucent purple plastic. Other colors were sold as limited editions or in specific countries. Due to its backward compatibility with Game Boy games,
8576-477: The GBA, GBA SP, and the Game Boy Micro combined have sold 80.72 million units worldwide. The original GP32 was released in 2001 by the South Korean company Game Park a few months after the launch of the Game Boy Advance. It featured a 32-bit CPU, 133 MHz processor, MP3 and Divx player, and e-book reader. SmartMedia cards were used for storage, and could hold up to 128mb of anything downloaded through
8710-496: The Game Boy Advance, with options to play such games on either their standard aspect ratios or a stretched fullscreen. Game Boy Advance cartridges are compatible with Nintendo DS models that support them with a dedicated GBA cartridge slot beneath the touch screen (specifically the original model and the Nintendo DS Lite ), although they do not support multiplayer or features involving the use of GBA accessories due to
8844-556: The Game Boy Color could take full advantage of the additional memory to add more effects and display up to 56 colors simultaneously out of a selection of 32,768 colors. When an Original Game Boy Game Pak is inserted into the device, the additional memory is disabled. Certain games such as The Fish Files , The New Addams Family Series and Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare use a programming trick to display more than 2,000 colors on-screen at once. The display itself
8978-404: The Game Boy Color for making the Game Boy library of games "look better than ever – everything is crystal clear, bright and in [color]". Writing for GameSpot , Chris Johnston stated that the display was "crystal clear" and free of motion blur, stating that Tetris DX was the "killer app" of the launch titles on the platform. Milder reviews included those by Arcade , who said that while that
9112-517: The Game Boy Color had a reputation as a "legacy machine" that found success mostly due to its backward compatibility, as "few wanted to lose all the Dr. Mario and Pokémon cartridges they had amassed over the years." Quoted in Retro Gamer , Blitz Games Studios developer Bob Pape acknowledged that although "backwards compatibility more or less defined (the) Game Boy Color", the handheld "ticked all
9246-417: The Game Boy Color launched with a large playable library. The system amassed a library of 576 Game Boy Color games over a four-year period. While the majority of the games are Game Boy Color exclusive, approximately 30% of the games released are compatible with the original Game Boy. Most Game Boy Color games released after 1999 are not compatible with the original Game Boy. Tetris for the original Game Boy
9380-410: The Game Boy Color now reveals a wealth of great games that you never knew existed, especially those available on import." XGP Handheld game console A handheld game console , or simply handheld console , is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain
9514-484: The Game Boy Color ultimately outsold the WonderSwan, which went on sale in March 1999. The Game Boy Color had a relatively short lifespan, being on the market for only two and a half years before being succeeded by the Game Boy Advance in 2001. The successor finally brought the 32-bit processing power envisioned in Project Atlantis. Despite the new arrival, the Game Boy Color remained in production, serving as
9648-430: The Game Boy Color was seen as more of a transitional upgrade of the original Game Boy rather than a completely new device. It would have a relatively brief lifespan, being supplanted by the Game Boy Advance after less than three years on the market. The Game Boy Color is part of the fifth generation of video game consoles . The Game Boy and the Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide, making them
9782-412: The Game Boy needed a killer app —at least one game that would define the console, and persuade customers to buy it. In June 1988, Minoru Arakawa , then-CEO of Nintendo of America saw a demonstration of the game Tetris at a trade show. Nintendo purchased the rights for the game, and packaged it with the Game Boy system as a launch title . It was almost an immediate hit. By the end of the year more than
9916-424: The Game Boy, such as the Game Boy Advance. The Game Boy Color was a response to pressure from game developers for a new system, as they felt that the Game Boy, even in its latest incarnation, the Game Boy Pocket, was insufficient. The resulting product was backward compatible, a first for a handheld console system, and leveraged the large library of games and great installed base of the predecessor system. This became
10050-526: The LCD-based Microvision , designed by Smith Engineering and distributed by Milton-Bradley, became the first handheld game console and the first to use interchangeable game cartridges. The Microvision game Cosmic Hunter (1981) also introduced the concept of a directional pad on handheld gaming devices, and is operated by using the thumb to manipulate the on-screen character in any of four directions. In 1979, Gunpei Yokoi , traveling on
10184-539: The Neo Geo Pocket Color was dropped from both the US and European markets, purportedly due to commercial failure. The system seemed well on its way to being a success in the U.S. It was more successful than any Game Boy competitor since Sega 's Game Gear , but was hurt by several factors, such as SNK's infamous lack of communication with third-party developers, and anticipation of the Game Boy Advance. The decision to ship U.S. games in cardboard boxes in
10318-471: The WonderSwan's success in Japan was the fact that Bandai managed to get a deal with Square to port over the original Famicom Final Fantasy games with improved graphics and controls. However, with the popularity of the Game Boy Advance and the reconciliation between Square and Nintendo, the WonderSwan Color and its successor, the SwanCrystal quickly lost its competitive advantage . The 2000s saw
10452-485: The absence of the GBA's external peripheral port on the DS. They can also be used to unlock original content found in Nintendo DS games. The Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DSi XL lack a GBA cartridge slot, and therefore do not support backward compatibility with the GBA. Since the Game Boy Advance was discontinued, many of its games have been re-released via digital distribution on later Nintendo consoles, mainly in
10586-582: The aging platform. Additional market pressure for Nintendo came in October 1997 when news broke about Bandai's new handheld, the WonderSwan . The project was led by Gunpei Yokoi , the engineer who led the development of the Game & Watch series and the original Game Boy. Yokoi had left Nintendo in 1996 following the commercial failure of his final project, the Virtual Boy . His departure caused
10720-438: The backlit screen required that the user be in a well lit area. Commentary on the legacy of the Game Boy Color has been shaped by the perception that the handheld was as an incremental and transitional upgrade of the Game Boy rather than a completely new device, and had a relatively brief lifespan, being supplanted by the Game Boy Advance after two years, five months on the market. In a history of Nintendo, author Jeff Ryan noted
10854-545: The battery to change game cartridges. The most well known of these was " sidetalking ", or the act of placing the phone speaker and receiver on an edge of the device instead of one of the flat sides, causing the user to appear as if they are speaking into a taco . The N-Gage QD was later released to address the design flaws of the original. However, certain features available in the original N-Gage, including MP3 playback, FM radio reception, and USB connectivity were removed. Game Boy Advance The Game Boy Advance ( GBA )
10988-446: The battery-hungry alternatives to the Game Boy, these batteries employed a nickel-cadmium process and had to be completely discharged before being recharged to ensure maximum efficiency; lead-acid batteries could be used with automobile circuit limiters (cigarette lighter plug devices); but the batteries had mediocre portability. The later NiMH batteries, which do not share this requirement for maximum efficiency, were not released until
11122-542: The colors were "very impressive" they were "not as eyeball-popping as you might have hoped for [...] it's mostly seaweed greens, rusty browns, timid yellows and the like". They concluded that "nothing about [the Game Boy Color] is very radical" but said the device was "Game Boy as it always should have been". Reviewers pointed out other drawbacks including that the system was still using an 8-bit architecture when competitors had moved onto 16-bit handheld systems and that
11256-402: The console to be rotated manually due to its nature as a tilt sensor game. The GBA is the last Nintendo handheld system to bear the Game Boy name. Games developed for it are incompatible with older Game Boy systems, and each game's box carries a label indicating that the game is "not compatible with other Game Boy systems." Conversely, games designed for older Game Boy systems are compatible with
11390-431: The console, screen, speakers, and controls in one unit, allowing players to carry them and play them at any time or place. In 1976, Mattel introduced the first handheld electronic game with the release of Auto Race . Later, several companies—including Coleco and Milton Bradley —made their own single-game, lightweight table-top or handheld electronic game devices. The first commercial successful handheld console
11524-401: The emerging optoelectronic -display-driven calculator market of the early 1970s. This synthesis happened in 1976, when "Mattel began work on a line of calculator-sized sports games that became the world's first handheld electronic games. The project began when Michael Katz, Mattel's new product category marketing director, told the engineers in the electronics group to design a game the size of
11658-523: The first week of its North American launch in June, the Game Boy Advance sold 500,000 units, making it the fastest-selling video game console in the United States at the time. In response to strong sales, Nintendo ordered 100,000 units to ship to retail stores, hoping to ship another half million of them by the end of June. The Game Boy Advance also became the fastest-selling system in the United Kingdom, selling 81,000 units in its first week of release and beating
11792-670: The form of emulation . As part of an Ambassador Program for early adopters of the Nintendo 3DS system, ten GBA games, along with ten Nintendo Entertainment System games, were made available free for players who bought a 3DS system before the price drop on August 12, 2011. Unlike other Virtual Console games for the system, features such as the Home menu or save states are missing, since the games are running natively instead of via emulation. In January 2014, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced that Game Boy Advance games would be released on
11926-515: The fourth best-selling system of all time . Its best-selling games are Pokémon Gold and Silver , which shipped 23 million units worldwide. When the original Game Boy was first introduced in 1989, many questioned why Nintendo had chosen to develop a monochrome handheld, considering competitors like the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear boasted color screens. However, while these color displays were visually impressive, they led to criticism that
12060-462: The fourth generation of game consoles. This list does not include dedicated consoles , such as LCD games and the Tamagotchi . The origins of handheld game consoles are found in handheld and tabletop electronic game devices of the 1970s and early 1980s. These electronic devices are capable of playing only a single game, they fit in the palm of the hand or on a tabletop, and they may make use of
12194-435: The full-color capabilities of the console (56 colors simultaneously out of a palette of 32,768) while remaining compatible with the original Game Boy where they are presented in four shades of gray. This compatibility comes at the expense of not being able to utilize the handheld's increased processing speed and memory. Game Boy Color Game Pak (Clear Case): Designed specifically for the Game Boy Color, these cartridges feature
12328-467: The full-color range (56 colors simultaneously out of a palette of 32,768) and benefit from the increased processing speed and memory of the Game Boy Color. Because of this reliance on newer hardware, these games are incompatible with the older monochrome Game Boy models. Nintendo had seen success selling colored variations of the Play It Loud! Game Boy and the Game Boy Pocket, so the company released
12462-474: The game (usually for the Pokémon series; Pokémon Emerald , for example, being a clear emerald green). Others have special built-in features, including rumble features ( Drill Dozer ), tilt sensors ( WarioWare: Twisted! , Yoshi's Universal Gravitation ), and solar sensors ( Boktai ). In Japan, the final game to be released on the system was Final Fantasy VI Advance on November 30, 2006, which
12596-478: The handheld is off, real-time clock chips can keep track of time even when the device is off, and Rumble Pak cartridges add vibration feedback to enhance gameplay. The Game Boy Color has backward compatibility with all original Game Boy games. Three main Game Pak cartridge types for the handheld were released: Original Game Boy Game Pak (Gray Case): The classic Game Boy cartridges. The Game Boy Color applies
12730-446: The handheld was slightly thicker, taller and had a smaller screen than its immediate predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket , the Color was significantly smaller than the original Game Boy. As with its predecessors, the Game Boy Color has a custom 8-bit processor made by Sharp . The American English spelling of the system's name, Game Boy Color , remains consistent throughout the world. While it received positive reviews upon its release,
12864-590: The handheld would first be released in Japan in August 2000, with the North American and European launch dates slated for the end of the same year. On August 21, 2000, IGN showed images of a GBA development kit running a demonstrational port of Yoshi's Story , and on August 22, pre-production images of the GBA were revealed in Famitsu magazine in Japan. Unlike the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, which have
12998-546: The idea and instead release the Genesis Nomad , a handheld version of the Genesis , as the successor. The Watara Supervision was released in 1992 in an attempt to compete with the Nintendo Game Boy. The first model was designed very much like a Game Boy, but it is grey in color and has a slightly larger screen. The second model was made with a hinge across the center and can be bent slightly to provide greater comfort for
13132-477: The late 1990s, years after the Game Gear, Atari Lynx, and original Game Boy had been discontinued. During the time when technologically superior handhelds had strict technical limitations, batteries had a very low mAh rating since batteries with heavy power density were not yet available. Modern game systems such as the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable have rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries with proprietary shapes. Other seventh-generation consoles, such as
13266-490: The market, Yokoi designed the series of LCD-based games to include a digital time display in the corner of the screen. For later, more complicated Game & Watch games, Yokoi invented a cross shaped directional pad or "D-pad" for control of on-screen characters. Yokoi also included his directional pad on the NES controllers, and the cross-shaped thumb controller soon became standard on game console controllers and ubiquitous across
13400-457: The original Game Boy or at 8.388608 MHz when playing games designed for the Game Boy Color. The SoC also contains a 2 KB "bootstrap" ROM which is used to start up the device in CGB mode. The CPU CGB incorporates an updated version of Nintendo's venerable Picture Processing Unit (PPU), which was used in the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System . The PPU
13534-476: The original Game Boy. The Game Boy features a D-pad (directional pad), four action buttons labeled 'A,' 'B,' 'SELECT,' and 'START,' and a sliding on-off switch on the right side of the device. The volume is adjusted by a potentiometer dial on the left side of the device. The left side offers a Game Link Cable port for connecting to up to four Game Boy devices for multiplayer games or, notably in Pokémon series games, sharing files. This port can be used with
13668-596: The original Game Boy. It can also give the sprites and backgrounds separate colors, for a total of more than four colors. The Neo Geo Pocket Color (or NGPC) was released in 1999 in Japan, and later that year in the United States and Europe. It is a 16-bit color handheld game console designed by SNK , the maker of the Neo Geo home console and arcade machine. It came after SNK's original Neo Geo Pocket monochrome handheld, which debuted in 1998 in Japan. In 2000 following SNK's purchase by Japanese Pachinko manufacturer Aruze,
13802-444: The other, for an early 3D effect . In 1983, Takara Tomy 's Tomytronic 3D simulates 3D by having two LCD panels that were lit by external light through a window on top of the device, making it the first dedicated home video 3D hardware. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the beginnings of the modern-day handheld game console industry, after the demise of the Microvision. As backlit LCD game consoles with color graphics consume
13936-440: The previous Game Boy Advance models, the Game Boy Micro is unable to support Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles. The Game Boy Micro did not make much of an impact in the video game market, as it was overshadowed by the Nintendo DS , which also played Game Boy Advance games through the GBA cartridge slot. Upon its North American release, IGN praised the Game Boy Advance's graphical capabilities and battery life, but criticized
14070-560: The previous generations. This includes the Super Mario Advance series, and the system's backward compatibility with all earlier Game Boy titles. Though most GBA games primarily employ 2D graphics, developers have ambitiously designed some 3D GBA games that push the limits of the hardware, including first-person shooters like a port of Doom , racing games like V-Rally 3 , and even platformers , like Asterix & Obelix XXL . Some cartridges are colored to resemble
14204-480: The processing power out of the device when creating games exclusively for the Game Boy Color while allowing the hardware to retain backward compatibility with existing games. The CPU CGB incorporates the Picture Processing Unit , a basic GPU that renders visuals using 16 kilobytes (KB) banks of Video RAM , twice as much as the original Game Boy. Games developed exclusively for
14338-530: The processor and the ROM chips. The CPU can only access 32 KB at a time, but the MBC can switch between banks of 32 KB ROM. Using this technology, Nintendo created Game Boy Color games that use up to 8 megabytes of ROM. Game Paks can provide additional functionality to the Game Boy system. Some cartridges include up to 128 KB of RAM to increase performance, which can be battery-backed to save progress when
14472-413: The processor for certain operations related to the way the hardware was arranged. The Sharp SM83 also powered the original Game Boy, where it operates at a clock rate of 4.194304 megahertz (MHz). Games on Game Boy Color exclusive cartridges can command the processor to operate in "dual-speed mode," doubling its frequency to run twice as fast at 8.388608 MHz. This allowed developers to get double
14606-469: The right boxes with regards to size, battery life, reliability and most importantly backwards compatibility". Positive assessments of the legacy of the Game Boy Color has focused on the merits of its game library, particularly for its third-party and import titles. Travis Fahs for IGN noted whilst "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
14740-486: The rival devices had poor battery life and were bulky. The Game Boy, in contrast, offered superior portability and longevity, propelling it to immense popularity. Publicly, Nintendo pledged to develop a color Game Boy, but only when technology limitations could be addressed. Internally, a team led by Satoru Okada , who played a key role in the original Game Boy's design, was experimenting with color displays. Their early-1990s prototype, codenamed " Project Atlantis ," featured
14874-400: The screen is passively reflective, with a surface behind the screen that sends light back through the liquid crystal pixel elements to the viewer. Because there is no backlight , the device can be hard to use in dark environments. The SoC contains a 2 KB "bootstrap" ROM which is used to start up the device, 127 B of High RAM that can be accessed faster (similar to a CPU cache ), and
15008-467: The suggested price of $ 99.99 and the 15 launch games . Nintendo estimated that around 60 new games would be released by the end of 2001. The Game Boy Advance uses a custom system on a chip (SoC), integrating the CPU and other major components into a single package, named the CPU ;AGB by Nintendo and manufactured by the Sharp Corporation . The CPU AGB contains two completely different CPUs:
15142-605: The system every year until 2004's Winter Games . The TurboExpress is a portable version of the TurboGrafx, released in 1990 for $ 249.99. Its Japanese equivalent is the PC Engine GT . It is the most advanced handheld of its time and can play all the TurboGrafx-16 's games (which are on a small, credit-card sized media called HuCards ). It has a 66 mm (2.6 in.) screen, the same as the original Game Boy, but in
15276-425: The system with a 7.0 out of 10, praising its graphical performance and backward compatibility, but being considerably critical of the system's lack of a backlit screen, noting that it makes it "nearly impossible" to play in normal lighting conditions. Gladstone ultimately recommended the sleeker and backlit Game Boy Advance SP instead, despite noting that the cheaper price of the original model may "appeal to gamers on
15410-474: The system's shoulder button placement and noted the system's high price tag which "may be a tad bit too high to swallow", ultimately scoring the system with an "8.0" out of 10. They also pointed out the system's lack of a backlight which occasionally got in the way of playing games. ABC News praised the Game Boy Advance's graphics, grip, and larger screen, stating that "You've never had as much fun playing old games." Reviewing for CNET , Darren Gladstone scored
15544-444: The then ten-year-old DMG-CPU SoC used inside the original Game Boy. Within the CPU CGB, the main processor is a Sharp SM83 , a hybrid between two other 8-bit processors: the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80 . The SM83 has the seven 8-bit registers of the 8080 (lacking the alternate registers of the Z80) but uses the Z80's programming syntax and extra bit manipulation instructions, along with adding new instructions to optimize
15678-447: The user. While the system did enjoy a modest degree of success, it never impacted the sales of Nintendo or Sega. The Supervision was redesigned a final time as "The Magnum". Released in limited quantities it was roughly equivalent to the Game Boy Pocket . It was available in three colors: yellow, green and grey. Watara designed many of the games themselves, but did receive some third party support, most notably from Sachen . A TV adapter
15812-607: The video game industry since. When Yokoi began designing Nintendo's first handheld game console, he came up with a device that married the elements of his Game & Watch devices and the Famicom console, including both items' D-pad controller. The result was the Nintendo Game Boy. In 1982, the Bandai LCD Solarpower was the first solar-powered gaming device. Some of its games, such as the horror -themed game Terror House , features two LCD panels , one stacked on
15946-480: The weeks before the 1998 Christmas season. Reception of the Game Boy Color was positive, with critics praising the addition of color and improved clarity of the display. Affiliated publications such as Total Games praised the handheld for its "bright, colorful picture that can be viewed in direct light", backward compatibility features preserving the "vast catalogue of original Game Boy games", and improved technical performance. Computer and Video Games praised
16080-419: The zooming and scaling of sprites. The Lynx can also be turned upside down to accommodate left-handed players. However, all these features came at a very high price point, which drove consumers to seek cheaper alternatives. The Lynx is also very unwieldy, consumes batteries very quickly, and lacked the third-party support enjoyed by its competitors. Due to its high price, short battery life, production shortages,
16214-547: Was Merlin from 1978, which sold more than 5 million units. The first handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges is the Milton Bradley Microvision in 1979. Nintendo is credited with popularizing the handheld console concept with the release of the Game Boy in 1989 and continues to dominate the handheld console market. The first internet -enabled handheld console and the first with
16348-497: Was also the final game published by Nintendo on the system. In North America, the last game for the system was Samurai Deeper Kyo , released on February 12, 2008. In Europe, the last game for the system is The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night , released on November 2, 2007. The Japan-only Rhythm Tengoku , the first game in what would eventually become known outside Japan as the Rhythm Heaven / Rhythm Paradise series,
16482-473: Was available for release on a physical cartridge which will be playable on the Game Boy Color. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were both commercially successful, selling 118.69 million units worldwide: 32.47 million in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in all other regions. At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of all Game Boy variants made it
16616-549: Was available in both PAL and NTSC formats that could transfer the Supervision's black-and-white palette to 4 colors, similar in some regards to the Super Game Boy from Nintendo. The Hartung Game Master is an obscure handheld released at an unknown point in the early 1990s. Its graphics fidelity was much lower than most of its contemporaries, displaying just 64x64 pixels. It was available in black, white, and purple, and
16750-519: Was followed in 2003 by the Game Boy Advance SP , a redesigned model with a frontlit screen and clamshell form factor. A newer revision of the SP with a backlit screen was released in 2005. A miniaturized redesign, the Game Boy Micro , was released in September 2005. As of June 2010 , 81.51 million units of the Game Boy Advance series have been sold worldwide. Its successor, the Nintendo DS ,
16884-568: Was frequently rebranded by its distributors, such as Delplay, Videojet and Systema. The exact number of games released is not known, but is likely around 20. The system most frequently turns up in Europe and Australia. By this time, the lack of significant development in Nintendo 's product line began allowing more advanced systems such as the Neo Geo Pocket Color and the WonderSwan Color to be developed. The Nomad
17018-551: Was horizontal in orientation and like the Game Boy, required 4 AA batteries. Unlike many later Game Boy clones, its internal components were professionally assembled (no "glop-top" chips). Unfortunately the system's fatal flaw is its screen. Even by the standards of the day, its screen is rather difficult to use, suffering from similar ghosting problems that were common complaints with the first generation Game Boys. Likely because of this fact sales were quite poor, and Bitcorp closed by 1992. However, new games continued to be published for
17152-432: Was intended to address some common complaints about the original Game Boy Advance, which had been criticized for being somewhat uncomfortable to use, especially due to a dark screen. On September 19, 2005, Nintendo released a new version of the SP, model AGS-101, that features a brighter backlit display. The switch that controls the backlight now toggles between two brightness levels. In September 2005, Nintendo released
17286-484: Was not a new software platform and played the same software as the original Game Boy model. The Game.com (pronounced in TV commercials as "game com", not "game dot com", and not capitalized in marketing material) is a handheld game console released by Tiger Electronics in September 1997. It featured many new ideas for handheld consoles and was aimed at an older target audience, sporting PDA-style features and functions such as
17420-656: Was not satisfied with the outcome and shelved further development by 1997. However, Nintendo was under pressure from other companies who were introducing next-generation handhelds, including the Neo Geo Pocket and WonderSwan . To maintain consumer interest in the Game Boy, the company decided to pair the color screen they had been testing for Project Atlantis with a faster version of the existing Game Boy's 8-bit processor. The Game Boy Color launched in 1998. Still under pressure from its competitors more technically advanced handhelds, Nintendo quickly started developing
17554-660: Was released in November 2004 and is backward compatible with Game Boy Advance software. When the original Game Boy was first introduced in 1989, many people questioned why Nintendo had chosen to develop a monochrome handheld, considering competitors like the Lynx and Game Gear boasted color screens. However, Nintendo's gamble paid off. The rivals' color displays, while visually impressive, were criticized for their poor battery life and bulky size. The Game Boy, in contrast, offered superior portability and longevity, propelling it to immense popularity. Publicly, Nintendo pledged to develop
17688-510: Was released in October 1995 in North America only. The release was six years into the market span of the Genesis, with an existing library of more than 500 Genesis games. According to former Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller, the Nomad was not intended to be the Game Gear's replacement; he believed that there was little planning from Sega of Japan for the new handheld. Sega
17822-601: Was supporting five different consoles: Saturn , Genesis, Game Gear , Pico , and the Master System , as well as the Sega CD and 32X add-ons. In Japan, the Mega Drive had never been successful and the Saturn was more successful than Sony's PlayStation , so Sega Enterprises CEO Hayao Nakayama decided to focus on the Saturn. By 1999, the Nomad was being sold at less than a third of its original price. The Game Boy Pocket
17956-469: Was then featured at Space World 2000 from August 24 to 26 alongside several peripherals for the system, including the GBA Link cable , the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable , a rechargeable battery pack for the system, and an infrared communications adaptor which would allow systems to exchange data. In March 2001, Nintendo revealed details about the system's North American launch, including
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