43 Fun Facts About Game Boy

Which war saw a medic's Game Boy scorched in a barracks bombing, yet it still played Tetris?

The Gulf War Game Boy's melted case still switched on, so Nintendo sent the medic a replacement and put the survivor on show at its New York store.

Which 1989 colour rival to the Game Boy cost about $100 more?

The Lynx had better graphics and a full-colour screen, yet the Game Boy won out, lasting more than twice as long on its batteries.

Which Russian folk song became Game Boy Tetris's famous 'Type A' music?

Korobeiniki began as Nikolay Nekrasov's 1861 poem about peddlers, and a 1992 Europop cover of the Tetris tune reached No. 6 in the UK.

Which villain made his debut as the final boss of the Game Boy's Super Mario Land 2?

Wario, designed as Mario's greedy opposite, used a spell to seize Mario's castle, then soon got a series of his own, Wario Land.

Which older handheld line did the Game Boy succeed?

Game & Watch is said to have begun when Gunpei Yokoi saw a bored businessman on a train idly pressing buttons on a calculator.

Which Sega handheld, launched in 1990, set out to rival Nintendo's monochrome handheld?

The Game Gear's backlit colour screen drained six AA batteries in a few hours, and buyers stuck with the cheaper-to-run Game Boy.

What design philosophy did Yokoi champion at Nintendo R&D1?

Lateral thinking with withered technology meant cheap, proven parts, so the Game Boy got a monochrome screen and an 8-bit chip while rivals chased colour.

What did the Game Boy's codename, DMG, stand for?

Dot Matrix Game referred to its pixel screen, which could draw whatever a cartridge asked for, so one handheld could run many games.

Which Nintendo hero made his debut on the Game Boy?

Kirby's Dream Land was kept simple and breezy, and Kirby soon moved on to console games and sequels.

Which arcade classic's Game Boy remake was the first game designed for the Super Game Boy?

Donkey Kong opens with the arcade's four stages, then keeps going into many new puzzle levels where Mario can handstand and backflip.

Which Game Freak founder imagined Pokémon as a game of collecting and trading with friends?

Satoshi Tajiri's idea got a boost from Shigeru Miyamoto, who suggested separate versions so fans had to trade to complete their collections.

What type of display did the finished Game Boy use?

The Game Boy's Super-twisted nematic screen blurred fast motion, one reason slow, block-stacking Tetris suited it so well.

Which Soviet state agency sold Nintendo the handheld rights to Tetris?

Elorg ran Soviet software exports, and Tetris's creator, Alexey Pajitnov, did not get rich from its early success because the state owned the rights.

Which Game Boy Zelda is set on Koholint Island?

Link's Awakening holds a surprise: Koholint Island is the Wind Fish's dream, and the game sold over 3.8 million copies in black and white.

Which Pokémon was secretly slipped into the first Pokémon games as a prank?

Mew was tucked into spare space on the cartridge for the staff alone, but fans found out and it became a huge talking point.

Which Metroid ends with a hatchling adopting Samus?

Metroid II's hatchling returns in Super Metroid, where Ridley steals the larva from the space colony Samus leaves it at.

How many Game Boys sold in the US in 1989?

1 million sold, partly by design: Nintendo's $20 million ad campaign aimed to push demand past supply and make it a hard-to-find toy.

Which Atari Games subsidiary had to pull its NES Tetris after Nintendo won the console rights?

Tengen's NES Tetris sold tens of thousands of copies within weeks before a court ruling forced it off shelves, leaving thousands of cartridges unsold.

Which Nintendo of America president put Tetris in the Game Boy box instead of Mario?

Minoru Arakawa's call paid off: Tetris sold about 35 million copies on the Game Boy.

Alleyway, a Game Boy launch game, was a clone of which arcade classic?

Breakout's board was assigned to Atari's Steve Jobs, but Steve Wozniak did the design, before the pair went on to found Apple.

Who persuaded Nintendo of America to change the pack-in game away from Mario?

Henk Rogers's pitch was blunt: Mario would sell the Game Boy to little boys, but Tetris would sell it to everyone.

Which princess made her debut in the Game Boy launch game Super Mario Land?

Daisy became a sports regular after Mario Tennis, whose developers welcomed her because human-shaped Mario characters were rare.

Which accessory let Game Boy players trade Pokémon between cartridges?

The Game Link Cable also let two Tetris players battle, with each big clear pushing rows of junk blocks onto the opponent's screen.

What was the Game Boy's range of coloured cases called in the West?

Play It Loud! refreshed the ageing Game Boy with bright cases, one of several updates Nintendo made instead of rushing out a successor.

Which 1998 model added a backlight and was sold only in Japan?

Its electroluminescent glow was blue-green, like a digital wristwatch of the era.

Roughly how many Game Boy and Game Boy Color units were sold combined?

About 120 million made the line the best-selling console ever when it was discontinued in 2003, until three newer systems had overtaken it by 2025.

By 2025, which three consoles had passed the Game Boy line's lifetime sales?

Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and Switch passed it, though Nintendo had first called the DS a 'third pillar' beside the Game Boy Advance, not a replacement.

Which Pokémon games were the Game Boy's top-selling franchise entries?

Red, Blue and Yellow revived the ageing Game Boy in the late 1990s, sending its hardware sales up again years after launch.

What did Nintendo call the Game Boy's game cartridges?

Game Pak cartridges were locked in place on the original Game Boy by a tab that slid over them at power-on, so they couldn't be pulled out mid-game.

What chip inside cartridges let Game Boy games exceed 32 KB of ROM?

Memory Bank Controller chips also brought in extra memory on the cartridge, which a battery kept powered so games could save progress.

Which stealth series squeezed a critically acclaimed entry onto the Game Boy Color?

Metal Gear's Game Boy Color game borrowed the Metal Gear Solid title, but reviewers found its own side story, which Japan got as Ghost Babel.

Which museum runs the National Toy Hall of Fame that took in the Game Boy?

The Strong honoured the Game Boy for popularising handheld games, a shift that transformed electronic gaming.

Which two homebrew trackers made the Game Boy a chiptune staple?

Little Sound DJ and Nanoloop kept the 1989 handheld working as an instrument, and chiptune artists were still composing on real Game Boys in 2016.

Which company made the two linked Oracle Zelda games for Game Boy Color?

Capcom's Oracle games talked to each other: finishing one gave a password that carried the story into the other, ending in a fight with Ganon.

How many colours could a Game Boy Color game show at once, from a palette of 32,768?

56 comes from eight four-colour background palettes plus eight three-colour sprite palettes, since sprites need one transparent colour.

Which Game Boy Color games were its best sellers?

Pokémon Gold and Silver kept a real-time clock in the cartridge, so the day, night and some events followed the actual time.

Which rival handheld did Gunpei Yokoi design for Bandai after leaving Nintendo?

Yokoi never saw the WonderSwan in shops: he died in a road accident in 1997, and it launched in 1999.

Which Nintendo failure preceded Yokoi's departure from the company?

The Virtual Boy's red 3D display failed to win buyers, and Nintendo pulled it from shops within about a year of launch.

The Game Boy Advance ran on which processor family?

The ARM7 ran Game Boy Advance games, while a second, 8-bit processor on the same chip took over for older Game Boy cartridges.

Which home console's graphics power did the Game Boy Advance roughly match?

Super NES-class power let the Game Boy Advance host remakes such as Super Mario Advance, a Super Mario Bros. 2 update that sold millions.

Which GameCube add-on ran handheld cartridges on a TV?

The Game Boy Player added hundreds of Game Boy games to the GameCube's library.

Under what name was the Game Boy's photo accessory sold in Japan?

Pocket Camera's lens swivelled 180 degrees, so players could point it at a scene or turn it back on themselves, and it held about 30 photos.

What did the Game Boy Printer print images onto?

Thermal paper darkens wherever the printer's hot print head touches it, but the heat-sensitive prints can fade or discolour over time.