Game Boy

Over the years, there have been many attempts to capture the thrill of console games in a smaller, handheld package, but none have been as prolific as Nintendo’s Game Boy. But how, and why, did this asymmetrical gray brick become so popular? To find out, we have to journey to Kyoto, Nintendo’s headquarters, in the year 1989. The company was riding a giant tidal wave, the already well-selling Nintendo Entertainment System being further rejuvenated in the form of Super Mario Bros 3 and Dragon Quest. They decided to look to another frontrunner which its rivals, notably NEC’S PC Engine and the Atari 7800, had hitherto untouched; that of the handheld market. Before then, there had been a few attempts at recapturing the magic of arcades and consoles in a smaller, more versatile package; including Nintendo’s very own Game and Watch in 1980, but each could only play one single game; and each could only handle at speeds so agonizing that it was futile. But Nintendo’s R&D man, Gunpei Yokoi, who was the brains behind the Game and Watch, had a plan: using older parts to prolong battery life and keep the fun in a more endearing package. The result: a black and white rendering console with a mint-ish green screen and a layout reminiscent of a calculator, known as the Game Boy. Ok, so now the handheld was ready, but what about the games? Just like how there had been Super Mario Bros as prepackaged titles for the NES, the Game Boy needed some too. The original plan was to sell this monochromatic venture with Super Mario Land, a pale, crude imitation of the console games with a desert-like theme. But Land didn’t have the perceived ‘wow!’ factor that Nintendo desired, so they were sent back to the drawing board. It was around this time that an addictive puzzler game that recently escaped from Russia, involving stacking blocks, was attracting attention. When the dust cleared, after a meeting with the game’s original creator alongside a rival delegation from Atari, Atari won the arcade rights, but Nintendo was free to use this puzzler for its new Game Boy. That game was a little thing called Tetris. And in the end, that bargain paid off. Within the first year alone, the little console raced to the top of the charts, totaling $2.5 million. And that trend continued. An upgrade–the Pocket– released a few years later, with a bigger screen, and peripherals, including but not limited to a camera, a printer, and even fishing sonar. Sales were further boosted, in the device’s latter years, with a little monster-catching game starring a yellow mouse–Pokémon. And that was all it took, with revisions, new models, and streamlined editions, totaling, in all, around $199 million by the product line’s end in 2004. So next time you boot up a Playstation 5, or play on your iPhone before a flight, remember that even the simplest things can dazzle.