Game Boy
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43 free Game Boy trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The Game Boy should not have won. It launched in 1989 with a green-tinted monochrome screen against colour rivals from Atari, Sega and NEC, and Nintendo's own president cancelled it once because he could not read the display. But Gunpei Yokoi's philosophy of cheap, mature technology meant it ran for thirty hours on four AA batteries, and a last-minute decision to bundle Tetris instead of Super Mario Land put it in the hands of people who had never bought a video game. These 43 questions trace the whole line: the Dot Matrix Game codename that became DMG-01, the screen contract Citizen lost to Sharp in a single afternoon, the Link Cable that later made Pokémon trades possible, the four Japanese launch titles, the Play It Loud colours, the Pocket, the Japan-only backlit Light, the Color with its Berry-Grape-Kiwi logo, and the landscape Advance that ended the name. There are questions on the chip inside, the Camera and Printer, the 118.69 million sales figure and the Toy Hall of Fame induction. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and carries a one-line explanation. Play it solo, or print it for a retro gaming night alongside our Nintendo and Pokémon quizzes.
30 of 43 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which war saw a medic's Game Boy scorched in a barracks bombing, yet it still played Tetris?
The Gulf War
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.
Q 02Which 1989 colour rival to the Game Boy cost about $100 more?
Lynx
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.
Q 03Which Russian folk song became Game Boy Tetris's famous 'Type A' music?
Korobeiniki
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.
Q 04Which villain made his debut as the final boss of the Game Boy's Super Mario Land 2?
Wario
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.
Q 05Which older handheld line did the Game Boy succeed?
Game & Watch
Game & Watch is said to have begun when Gunpei Yokoi saw a bored businessman on a train idly pressing buttons on a calculator.
Q 06Which Sega handheld, launched in 1990, set out to rival Nintendo's monochrome handheld?
Game Gear
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.
Q 07What design philosophy did Yokoi champion at Nintendo R&D1?
Lateral thinking with withered technology
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.
Q 08What did the Game Boy's codename, DMG, stand for?
Dot Matrix Game
Dot Matrix Game referred to its pixel screen, which could draw whatever a cartridge asked for, so one handheld could run many games.
Q 09Which Nintendo hero made his debut on the Game Boy?
Kirby
Kirby's Dream Land was kept simple and breezy, and Kirby soon moved on to console games and sequels.
Q 10Which arcade classic's Game Boy remake was the first game designed for the Super Game Boy?
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong opens with the arcade's four stages, then keeps going into many new puzzle levels where Mario can handstand and backflip.
Q 11Which Game Freak founder imagined Pokémon as a game of collecting and trading with friends?
Satoshi Tajiri
Satoshi Tajiri's idea got a boost from Shigeru Miyamoto, who suggested separate versions so fans had to trade to complete their collections.
Q 12What type of display did the finished Game Boy use?
Super-twisted nematic
The Game Boy's Super-twisted nematic screen blurred fast motion, one reason slow, block-stacking Tetris suited it so well.
Q 13Which Soviet state agency sold Nintendo the handheld rights to Tetris?
Elorg
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.
Q 21Who persuaded Nintendo of America to change the pack-in game away from Mario?
Henk Rogers
Henk Rogers's pitch was blunt: Mario would sell the Game Boy to little boys, but Tetris would sell it to everyone.
Q 22Which princess made her debut in the Game Boy launch game Super Mario Land?
Daisy
Daisy became a sports regular after Mario Tennis, whose developers welcomed her because human-shaped Mario characters were rare.
Q 23Which accessory let Game Boy players trade Pokémon between cartridges?
Game Link Cable
The Game Link Cable also let two Tetris players battle, with each big clear pushing rows of junk blocks onto the opponent's screen.
Q 14Which Game Boy Zelda is set on Koholint Island?
Link's Awakening
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.
Q 15Which Pokémon was secretly slipped into the first Pokémon games as a prank?
Mew
Mew was tucked into spare space on the cartridge for the staff alone, but fans found out and it became a huge talking point.
Q 16Which Metroid ends with a hatchling adopting Samus?
Metroid II
Metroid II's hatchling returns in Super Metroid, where Ridley steals the larva from the space colony Samus leaves it at.
Q 17How many Game Boys sold in the US in 1989?
1 million
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.
Q 18Which Atari Games subsidiary had to pull its NES Tetris after Nintendo won the console rights?
Tengen
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.
Q 19Which Nintendo of America president put Tetris in the Game Boy box instead of Mario?
Minoru Arakawa
Minoru Arakawa's call paid off: Tetris sold about 35 million copies on the Game Boy.
Q 20Alleyway, a Game Boy launch game, was a clone of which arcade classic?
Breakout
Breakout's board was assigned to Atari's Steve Jobs, but Steve Wozniak did the design, before the pair went on to found Apple.
Q 24What was the Game Boy's range of coloured cases called in the West?
Play It Loud!
Play It Loud! refreshed the ageing Game Boy with bright cases, one of several updates Nintendo made instead of rushing out a successor.
Q 25Which 1998 model added a backlight and was sold only in Japan?
Game Boy Light
Its electroluminescent glow was blue-green, like a digital wristwatch of the era.
Q 26Roughly how many Game Boy and Game Boy Color units were sold combined?
About 120 million
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.
Q 27By 2025, which three consoles had passed the Game Boy line's lifetime sales?
Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and Switch
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.
Q 28Which Pokémon games were the Game Boy's top-selling franchise entries?
Red, Blue and Yellow
Red, Blue and Yellow revived the ageing Game Boy in the late 1990s, sending its hardware sales up again years after launch.
Q 29What did Nintendo call the Game Boy's game cartridges?
Game Pak
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.
Q 30What chip inside cartridges let Game Boy games exceed 32 KB of ROM?
Memory Bank Controller
Memory Bank Controller chips also brought in extra memory on the cartridge, which a battery kept powered so games could save progress.