The Game Boy (jap. ゲームボーイ, Hepburn: Gēmu Bōi)

The Game Boy is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same team that developed the Game & Watch series of handheld electronic games and several Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games: Satoru Okada, Gunpei Yokoi, and Nintendo Research & Development.

The Game Boy has four operation buttons labeled “A”, “B”, “SELECT”, and “START”, and a directional pad (d-pad). There is a volume control dial on the right side of the device and a similar dial on the left side to adjust the contrast. At the top of the Game Boy, a sliding on-off switch and the slot for the Game Boy cartridges are located. The on-off switch includes a physical lockout to prevent users from either inserting or removing a cartridge while the unit is switched on. Nintendo recommends users leave a cartridge in the slot to prevent dust and dirt from entering the system.

 

 

 

Technical specifications

Size	Approximately 90 mm (3.5 in) x 148 mm (5.8 in) x 32 mm (1.3 in) (WxHxD)
Weight	Approximately 220 g (7.8 oz)
Screen	2.6 inch reflective super-twisted nematic (STN) liquid-crystal display (LCD) Vertical blank duration: Approximately 1.1 ms
Display size	Original: 47 mm (1.9 in) by 43 mm (1.7 in)
Framerate	59.727500569606 Hz
Power	6 V, 0.7 W (4× AA batteries)
Battery life	Approximately 15 hours of gameplay
CPU	Custom 8-bit Sharp LR35902 (based on modified 8080 and Z80) at 4.19 MHz
Memory	64 KB address space including: 8 KB of built-in working RAM Up to sixteen 8 KB switchable working RAM pages (in the game cartridge) for a maximum of 128 KB of external RAM (which may be battery-backed to hold save games) 8 KB RAM for LCD display 32 KB external Game Pak ROM, of which 16 KB is switchable On-CPU-Die 256-byte bootstrap ROM; 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB, 4 MB and 8 MB cartridges
Resolution	160 (w) × 144 (h) pixels (10:9 aspect ratio)
Color support	2-bit (four shades of “gray”: light to very dark olive green)
Sound	2 pulse wave generators, 1 PCM 4-bit wave sample (64 4-bit samples played in 1×64 bank or 2×32 bank) channel, 1 noise generator, and one audio input from the cartridge. The unit has only one speaker, however the headphone port outputs stereo sound.
Input	Eight-way control pad Four action buttons (A, B, Start, Select) Volume potentiometer Contrast potentiometer Power switch Serial I/O (“Link cable”): 512 kbit/s with up to 4 connections in serial Cartridge I/O

Lifespan	1989–2003
Introductory Price	JP¥  12,500 US$  89.99 £    69.99 DM  169
Discontinued	March 23, 2003
Units sold	Worldwide: 118.69 million (including Play It Loud! edition, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light and Game Boy Color units)
Best-selling Game	Tetris (approximately 35 million units)

Cartridge

The Game Boy portable system has a library of games, which were released in plastic ROM cartridges. The Game Boy first launched in Japan on April 21, 1989, with Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball, and Yakuman. For the North American launches, Tetris and Tennis were also featured, while Yakuman was never released outside of Japan.

 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy