The Lynx, GameGear,, Wonderswan, Neo-Geo Pocket – the GameBoy would endure and outlast all of them for over a decade until 1998 when the original design was replaced by a slightly upgraded model with a full color LCD and a slightly faster CPU called the GameBoy Color. As Nintendo would prove to the world for the first time, flashy visuals and powerful hardware were not required to turn the so-called “inferior” GameBoy hardware into a roaring success when developers solely focused on simplicity and raw fun rather than expensive hardware. In the early 90’s, everyone and their mother or father (often literally) needed to own a GameBoy.Īs grand as the initial success of the platform was though, the real legacy of the GameBoy is it’s longevity. Thanks to brilliant marketing and the importance of the pack-in game Tetris, GameBoy would prove to be a massive success almost overnight.
In 1989, Nintendo released the GameBoy Compact Portable Videogame system – a monochrome, non backlit interchangeable cartridge-based handheld with a low resolution screen and a less powerful processor than even their aging NES.
