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Nintendo Gameboy

The Nintendo Gameboy was released in by Nintendo Japan in early 1989. It was the latest brainchild from Gunpei Yokoi, the genius behind Nintendo Game & Watch games. Gunpei also had several game writing credits to his CV at the time, the most notable was co-writing Donkey Kong, and the Nintendo CEO at the time was confident Gunpei would repeat his previous successes with the Gameboy.

The game came packaged with a simple, yet addictive puzzle game called Tetris. Consisting of different shaped bricks falling down the screen, the bricks had to be manipulated and moved by the player to create rows along the bottom of the game area. Once a row was completed it would disappear, freeing up space for more bricks to fall into.

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The now 'infamous' game was designed by by Alexey Pajitnov and written by Alexy & Dmitry Pavlovsky, two Russian Computer Science Engineers. Although the game is one of the most successful selling games of all time, both authors would have seen very little of the money from the Gameboy release as they lived in the Communist Soviet Union at the time, and any royalties would have gone straight to the Government (or allegedly the KGB).

The Gameboy was an instant hit, largely due to the Tetris game, but also because Nintendo promised ports of their best selling Donkey Kong, Zelda & Metroid games onto the new system. As with the Nintendo NES, Nintendo had no shortage of software developers waiting to make games for the new console. In its first year more than 100,000 consoles were sold in Japan alone, and it has gone on to be the biggest selling console of all time, racking up an amazing 168 million units worldwide.

However, these 168 million were not all the original incarnation of the Gameboy. Over the years, the console has experienced several transformations. Firstly to the Gameboy Pocket was released in 1996. This was essentially the same as the original Gameboy and had the same hardware inside, but it was smaller, sleeker and with a slightly clearer screen.

Next came the Gameboy Colour in 1998. This was the same layout, size and shape as the previous two Gameboys', but sported a colour screen, and a palette of 32,000 colours to choose from. Original Gameboy games were compatible with the Gameboy Colour, some even featuring enhancements, but Gameboy Colour games were not compatible with the original Gameboy.

2001 saw the release of the Gameboy Advance, a completely redesigned console with much more power & better graphics & sound. The most recent Gameboy Advance SP features (finally) a back-lit screen amongst its improvements.

Indeed, it was the lack of several features such as back lighting and colour that lead Sega to believe its handheld console, the Game Gear, would become more popular than the Gameboy. While the Game Gear was technically superior, had a more ergonomically pleasing shape and a larger colour screen, it lacked the game catalogue that the Gameboy had accumulated. That and the fact that its battery life was 1/5 of the Nintendo Gameboy saw its sad demise in 1997.

Several other consoles also attempted to Steal the Gameboys' crown as king of handhelds, but all fell short. The Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx, Bandai Wonderswan and GP32 consoles have all failed to outsell the Gameboy. However, Sony have recently announced the imminent release of the PSP, which is almost as powerful as the PS2. Could this be the handheld to finally topple the Gameboy? Only time will tell.

As with any console, there are a number of add-ons you can buy. Not only did the Gameboy have link cables, magnifiers, back lighters, in car packs etc, but if you felt the need you could buy mini cameras, and tiny printers for your machine! Aside from the obvious with Tetris, notable games for me are Donkey Kong Land, Super Mario Land games, Zelda & the Pokemon games.

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Hero Shuugou Pinball Party

Box: 
yes
£10.00
Manual: 
yes
£10.00

This is a Japanese import but it will work on any Nintendo Gameboy Console.

Astro Rabby

Box: 
yes
£12.00
Manual: 
yes
£12.00

This is a Japanese import but it will work on any Nintendo Gameboy Console.

Blodia

Box: 
yes
£12.00
Manual: 
yes
£12.00

This is a Japanese import but it will work on any Nintendo Gameboy Console.

Solitaire

Box: 
yes
£14.00
Manual: 
yes
£14.00

Solitaire Fun Pack brings the challenge of this great card game to your Gameboy with a dozen variations to keep you coming back for more!

Spell Checker

Box: 
yes
£14.00
Manual: 
yes
£14.00

Now you can check the spelling of over 60,000 of the most frequently mispelled words without consoluting the dictionary! Just type in the word as you think it is spelled and the InfoGenius Spell Checker instantly shows you the correct spelling.

Ms Pacman

Box: 
yes
£12.00
Manual: 
yes
£12.00

Gobble, Gobble, Gulp! Ms. Pacman chows a power pellet and it's dinner time. Fly around those mazes at top speed while you dine on ghosts and score big points.

Lemmings 2 - Tribes

Box: 
yes
£14.00
Manual: 
yes
£14.00

Guide twelve tribes of Lemmings across Lemming Island on an incredible journey. The Lemmings are in trouble and only their ancient talisman and a huge amount of skills can save them in this long-awaited follow-up to the Lemmings saga.

Nintendo Gameboy Pocket Clear Purple Console Loose

Facebook
Box: 
no
£25.00
Manual: 
no
£25.00

The original second release of the Nintendo Gameboy. The worlds most successful console is here in clear silver. The Gameboy pocket is smaller and more compact but still plays all the games the original Gameboy plays. This console is loose and has been tested and works fine.

Mini-Yonku GB - Lets and Go

Box: 
yes
£10.00
Manual: 
yes
£10.00

This is a Japanese import but it will work on any Nintendo Gameboy Console.

WarioLand

Box: 
yes
£14.00
Manual: 
yes
£14.00

This is a Japanese import but it will work on any Nintendo Gameboy Console.

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